Whats the difference between Social Anxiety and Aspergers Syndrome?
People with social anxiety disorder, as the name would suggest, feel intense, excessive anxiety in social situations. They often worry about being evaluated or scrutinized by others. The anxiety is often accompanied by physical symptoms like blushing, racing heart, stammering, nausea, and can lead to full-blown panic attacks. It's different from normal shyness in severity. People with social anxiety disorder may go to great lengths to avoid social situations, even simple ones like walking past someone on the sidewalk. People with Asperger's have different kinds of social difficulties. They have trouble understanding social situations, which leads to difficulties making friends, holding conversations, and behaving appropriately. They also often have issues making eye contact, reading nonverbal signals, and relating to others. They don't necessarily experience anxiety in social situations. A person has to have other symptoms besides the social ones, too. Common symptoms include obsessive interests, need for routine, repetitive behaviors, poor motor coordination, and abnormal sensory processing. Social anxiety disorder is more common in people with Asperger's, but they are two distinct disorders. Just from what you wrote, it doesn't really sound like you have either. You seem within the normal range. Unless your insecurity is having a serious negative impact on your life, I don't think you have anything to worry about.
Difference between social anxiety and asperger's syndrome?
My therapist is kind of biased and wants to diagnose me with aspergers syndrome! The thing is I dont think i have aspergers! But im sure i have social anxiety. I know its possible to have both but i dont think so. All my symptoms are triggered by the anxiety. I do not have difficulty showing or interpreting facial expressions, in fact im very good at it. I was never very social, but I enjoyed playing with my friends in school a lot in kindergarten and didnt have difficulty socializing until 7th grade or so, it's gotten worse since. I do not have a routine, in fact i love doing new things. I know aspergers is not a bad thing but still I dont want to be diagnosed with something I dont have. I just dont identify myself with aspergers symptoms, besides the social difficulties, but for me theyre all triggered by anxiety. I think my social anxiety is a result of the constant humilliation I went through when I was a kid, even my family used to make fun of me because I was fat, which gave me a really low self steem. I just dont get why my therapist wants to diagnose me with aspergers so much... what do you think??
What's the difference between having Asperger and just being quirky with social anxiety?
In my humble opinion, the primary difference is that one is a diagnosable medical condition (ASD) and the other is a subjective behavior that may or may not be linked to a medical condition.I am the father of a young adult son who was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. Although some would describe his behavior as “quirky” and he has social anxiety, there are many other conditions that are linked to his ASD diagnosis. These include sensory overload, difficulty expressing emotions, literal processing, extremely strong special interests, a tendency to be easily frustrated, fidgeting, and repetitive motions such as pacing.If your question is based on concern about yourself or a loved one having Asperger’s Syndrome, I encourage you to have your concerns evaluated by a medical professional.After years of seeking an explanation for my son’s challenges, my wife and I were blessed to receive my son’s ASD diagnosis. At the time, he was struggling in school, and we were facing a very uncertain future. Thankfully, he was diagnosed, and we were guided to a physician who specialized in children with autistic spectrum disorders. His expertise and the diagnosis were key elements in resolving my son’s educational challenges and positioning my wife and I better to support him in his life journey.Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share my experiences. I pray that the feedback helps you and others with similar concerns.
What is the difference between Asperger Syndrome and Avoidant Personality Disorder?
People with aspergers are not withdrawn around others like in other forms of autism. They do approach others. They just lack the ability to interpret social ques of physical expressions. They may go into a one sided long winded conversation with someone else freely. They just do not get the ques others try to give about how they are interacting. "active but odd" Avoidant people are withdrawn. They are highly unlikely to strike up any kind of conversation with someone they are not familiar with and will feel highly uncomfortable short in response and quiet when others try to talk to them. They are beyond just aware of others social ques when they are interacting with others. They are hypervigillant. In fact they spend so much time anylizing both their own language and body language and that of others trying to figure out how they are being percieved that they may loose track of the actual conversation or become randomly silent. the aspergers person may appear aloof flat or indifferent in expression the avoidant nervous shy fearful but expressive People with aspergers are not so much introverted as prefering their narrow range of interests and subjects and having difficulty relating to others socially. People with avoidant personality are beyond introverted. They wish and long for relationships with others and have a normal range of interests in things and in people they are just terribly afraid of being rejected or demeaned by them. As far as the late bloomer sexually... I dont know much about this on either disorder. I dont have aspergers and only a vague general knowledge of it But I do have AVPD and I was no late bloomer sexually. I think it would be rather easy to distinguish between the two. If someone shows little understanding of social ques and a narrow range of interests, and will freely approach others, they are more likely to be aspergers than avoidant If someone shows excessive awareness of social ques, has a no restriction in expressing social ques average interests in things and others, and is beyond hesitant to approach anyone that they do not know well they are more likely avoidant
Is social anxiety part of Aspergers or a different condition?
I believe social anxiety disorder and aspergers are two separate conditions.Although both experience difficulty in social situations, the diagnosis criteria and symptoms are different.I looked up social anxiety disorder (SAD)’s symptoms and from what I read, anxiety is the driving force behind the difficulties that someone with SAD experiences in social and performance situations. Their ability to function is limited by their anxiety in those situations. Asperger's, on the other hand, does not require the presence of anxiety.Those with SAD are capable of forming relationships but are impaired by anxiety; on the other hand, people with Asperger's, like myself, have difficulty with the nuts and bolts of communication that make relationships possible.
Shyness and Asperger's disorder: similarities and differences?
A while back, an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal called Asperger's disorder "a pompous label for shyness". While perhaps going a bit far, I think it highlights a point: there are a number of similarities between people with (mild) Asperger's and people with shyness/social anxiety. While the standard issue answer to this question is, "Aspergers don't know how to interact, shy people do but are freaked out", one should consider that lack of social skills is widely reported in the literature on social anxiety and avoidant personality disorder. Many shy people withdraw for so many years that they lose the opportunity to develop social skills. Thus, they can't maintain a conversation, awkward silences, may be socially immature and underdeveloped, be withdrawn...just like people with Asperger's disorder. Except in extreme cases, where the person in question is literally obsessed with some archaic topic, talks at people endlessly about said topic, has sensory issues, takes everything extremely literally and can not make generalizations, I would say social phobia/AvPD is almost always the more appropriate diagnosis. My feeling is a lot of people these days in the Social Phobia/Avoidant ballpark are misdiagnosed as Asperger's because it is a "trendy" diagnosis and the outward appearance can be so similar. I am especially skeptical about those online who claim to have Asperger's yet seldom ever mention any other symptom than the usual "I'm XX years old and never had a girlfriend." To me, that's classic Avoidant Personality, not Asperger's, except if there are fairly clear-cut autistic traits accompanying it. Am I wrong here? Am I off base? I think what I'm saying is fairly reasonable, and I wish people on the internet would stop calling themselves "Aspies" because they are introverts or experience a mild and very normal level of social awkwardness that would disappear if they stepped away from the computer for a few minutes.
What are the differences between Asperger's syndrome, avoidant personality disorder, and social anxiety disorder?
The internet can be a scary place to work on overcoming shyness. You tend to spend a lot of time reading horrible advice from people who haven’t actually dealt with shyness or social anxiety at all. This means a lot of “just get over it” and having your situation compared to somebody else’s. Shyness doesn’t work that way. The “just get over it” mentality massive compounds the issue (training the lower levels of your brain that you actually SHOULD be shy) and timeframes for dealing with shyness vary pretty widely.I speak from experience here. I spent years wasting away my life watching people around me have a social and dating life. I regret how long it took me to improve things for myself but when I eventually did it was because I learned from someone who actually knew what they were talking about. I started with this: http://moldite.com/overcome-shyn.... I won’t tell you how to live your life just don’t do what I did and waste years away alone.Social anxiety disorder is markedly different than Asperger’s Disorder in that Asperger’s is a pervasive developmental disorder (also called a milder version of autism) and that people with social anxiety disorder do not display the patterns of behavior expected in definitions A and B.Asperger’s Disorder is “a milder variant” of Autistic Disorder. Both Asperger’s Disorder and Autistic Disorder are in fact subgroups of a larger diagnostic category. This larger category is called either Autistic Spectrum Disorders or Pervasive Developmental Disorders” according to Dr. R. Kaan Ozbayrak of the University of Massachusetts Medical School.Definition A also does not fit because anxiety is not the cause of these behaviors in Asperger’s as it is when it occurs in people with social anxiety disorder.(3) a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest to other people)E. There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or in the development of age-appropriate self-help skills, adaptive behavior (other than in social interaction), and curiosity about the environment in childhood.Our emphasis is on treatment of social anxiety disorder (i.e., how do you get over it?) Our CBT therapy programs allow people to overcome social anxiety. Source: https://socialanxietyinstitute.o...