Armchair Diagnosis

Unless there are extreme behavioural traits that are evident, making any sort of diagnosis for psychiatric conditions can be subjective, especially for those that don't necessarily have that piece of paper that indicates that they spent 4 years a major university and several more years in internship learning how to make said diagnoses. Hence, diagnoses of ADHD and Asperger's Syndrome are subject to criticism, given the amount of influence the pharmaceutical industry has on our spending decisions.

But still, it hasn't stopped people from speculating whether or not certain individuals exhibit certain traits associated with conditions like AS, given pages on Wikipedia talking about notable figures who may have had it themselves. However, I should note that one of the people making a speculation is Tony Atwood, notable as a well known speaker on the topic.

So, that leaves the rest of us. A mutual acquaintance of my girlfriend and mine (and yes, we are living together, thank you very much for those who have been paying attention) who goes to my martial arts class has exhibited several traits which we suspect to be that of AS. Just a quick run down of notable incidents:

• When sharing cookies made by my girlfriend with the kids of the group, I gave one to him. His response: "They aren't even that good anyway." He says this to my face.
  
• While he was watching me play guitar, he made a point of loudly identifying each chord that I played. This is while I'm attempting to concentrate.
  
• He picked up my Professor's Cube (a 5x5x5 variant of a Rubik's Cube), started playing with it, then started tossing it up and down like a ball when he can't solve it. He fumbles it and drops it, and I catch him doing it. Not even apologizing, he blurts out, "The air did it." I later call him on it, saying that you usually don't mess with other people's things, and he gives the excuse, "It didn't break." Never mind the fact that it has mass and dozens of moving parts and came into contact with a hard surface. Most people offer an apology first.
  

Some of this is just ridiculous, and considering that he's (I'm guessing) an older kid, this type of behaviour would be completely unexpected even if he was significantly younger. The other kids at the studio, even the brattier ones, are much better adjusted, polite, and respectful of their peers and their elders. There's no doubt in my mind that he's likely of above average intelligence (if not significantly above average), but his obnoxious, unapologetic demeanor triggers the internal urge to smack this kid upside the head. However, social rules and general ethics dictate that I don't.

I look back on my childhood and try to see if there's anything that I might have done that comes close to what this kid does. I'll admit that I had my fair share of lapses, like forgetting to thank people or getting careless with someone else's things. But on THAT level? And I used to get beaten up a lot for less.