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How much of ASD is ASD and how much of it is 'you' and maybe institutionalization?

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How much of you is ASD and of you much of is you upbringing, possible internationalization or your own personality?

 

Consider this...

 

I knew a man in his mid thirties has got AS likes to play video games on his X-Box One.

 

All is well and good, however he spends all day in his room, doesn't tidy up after himself, hardly speaks to anyone and tries to act like a 'badass' (from one of his fave games) which sadly makes him look like a dickhead, if you pardon me saying so.

 

He also hardly washes, sees women as sex objects (as in living sex dolls, not just people who only exist to have sex with) fancy's Japanese school girls (not just the henti mind, I'm talking about photos and videos of real people)

 

At present (to the best of my knowledge) he still attends a day center (I've long since stopped attending) for those who are lower functioning, which he started going to when he was 17 or 18.

 

Please bear in mind that this is someone with more or less the same kind of AS as Bill Gates, attending a day center (granted he could have been forced to go by his mum, but he could get himself a flat with the benefits he's on)

 

Also I might add that he spends all day sitting at his X-Box in a little room (which was where the phones used to be kept) where he is separate from everyone else and has taken it over as his own 'work space'.

 

If he is traveling in a car with someone he will insist on the staff flipping a coin to see who goes in the front seat.

 

Also he was VERY spoiled as a boy as his mum saw him as 'special' due to his conditions (he has epilepsy as well as AS) and be very controlling towards his 'friends'.

 

The main question I am asking is this...

 

How much of Autism is pure Autism and how much of it due to the differences in treatment which sometimes happen when a kid get diagnosed?

 

Or indeed how much of it is due to spending much of your adult life 'cut off' from the outside world (be it in care homes and day centres)

 

I'll put out some more info about Phil (that is his name) when I get the time.

 

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I'm absolutely nothing like Phil, apart from possible/probable ASD, and my situation is totally different, but it's a question I've been pondering.

 

When I was little, there was absolutely no one in my entire extended family who was my age. My Dad was 53 when I was born, and Mum 40, and Mum was the youngest and Dad third youngest, in large families. My cousins were 10, 20 or more years older, and I didn't have any second cousins until I was about 10 (apart from one who's just a few years older, who I only met briefly a few times, at times when that was a big age difference). So pretty much all my early influences were from people in middle age, or heading towards old age. I don't remember anything relevant from this time, but this was long before playgroups, mother and toddler stuff etc., so I doubt I mixed with anyone my own age much, if at all, until I started school.

 

When I was old enough to go out on my own, I was pretty much free to go anywhere, do anything, or meet anyone I wanted (it was the 60s!!!), but it came with a warning to be careful and keep a little apart from anyone I met, as we were more decent and respectable than most people. So I was always on the edges of anything I got involved in, sort of on the outside looking in, rather than being fully part of it.

 

Then, after more than five decades of the influence of this, as it's always kept me at least a little apart from people, I discover I might have Aspergers.

 

If I have Aspergers, I'm sure I can see signs of it in other family members, so was much of this upbringing due to the influence of other Aspies, or was it non Aspergers related Victorian/Edwardian values, being imposed on someone being brought up by parents old enough to be my grandparents, when others my age were being brought up by people a generation ahead of me?

 

If I have Aspergers, maybe it's why I didn't rebel against the way I was brought up, because it's the way I'd have naturally acted anyway. I think this is partly why the wait for a diagnosis is getting to me, because I tick a lot of the ASD boxes, but it could all be learned behaviour from my childhood. Or it may be ASD, but my early history may prevent it being officially recognised, and then what do I do?

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