Asperger Syndrome "ridiculously" blown way out of

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I don't understand. You are very wrong - Asperger's is, and I quote the homepage of WP, "described as an inability to understand how to interact socially." Look at the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria:



I'd like to point out specifically section A of that ...

Rosacoke,
You gave a very wise reply. Thanks i'll remember that. (The beauty of having a name for it is that people can learn about it and help each other)

By the way i vividly remember what inspired me. When i was 17 or 16 i think, i heard quotes when i read something about asperger syndrome and obsessive cumpulsive behaviour.

The quotes told of isaac newton, albert einstein, howard huges, steven spileberg, and that asperger syndrome can get people to have successful careers. That turned me on. From that day i always believed that anything was possible. Regardless of all the odds i had to face as a teen, esp without my parents, i pushed foward, always my mind on that goal. I really didnt see their negative traits i only saw their positive ones. I was fasinated with what drove them. I have always been like that. I think a little bit of encouragement could work wonders.

to musical lotte,

Thanks for correcting me. Maybe i may have gone overboard, but i can gaurantee i had alot of these social behaviour traits earlier and i still do but i am doing well now because of actions taken, and i have only one interest, maybe cause film-making is so vast, it occupies all my time and i never seem to get bored of it. I work and am doing well. And i had many other obsessions in the past that too long to mention. But still obsessions nonetheless. Or maybe too much information must have confused me, or maybe, everyone has a valid point and i too may not be wrong. I thought that maybe if i could do it, so can everyone else and what the heck poeple are doing it, people are doing great things, In front of my eyes here in bkk i see too many people getting what they want, even disabled peoples. Too much enthusiasm can be a problem i guess. Or maybe i meant well but i have to choose carefully what i say. It needs pondering.

Is there anyone that feels that AS has helped them overcome problems?

I don't think you went overboard as such - had your original point been correct then your argument would have been perfectly valid. And nobody's saying you don't have AS, or that you didn't have those traits - just that in your argument you missed off a large part of the criteria for having AS.

As many people pointed out you original post had alot of misinformation and the title it self can be described as "hostile" by some people....its like you are saying...."AS is not real...pull yourself up by your bootstraps and quit whinning"Since this is the message many have gotten from NT society all their lives to the detriment of self esteem for many before they "discovered' AS and had an "aahaa" moment, maybe you can understand why some may feel attacked.

I dont want to discourage you from learning social skills but I personally dont want to be NT.I feel there are alot of socially excepted,expected and incouraged social traits that are illogical and negative from my perspectiveAt forty two I have learned some social skills to cope in an NT defined reality but it takes alot of energy to suppress my words and actions that have been disparaged by NTs . I have come to except some of my limitations because to not do so caused severe depression and anxiety for me...it just isnt worth it "to fit in"."To thine own self be true"...

Before you decide that you want to be as NT as possible....consider the abuse you suffered at the hands of NTs.Is that a trait youwish to imulate?I know of many social situations you will be attacked for not going along with the crowd, even if you know what they are doing is illogical or immoral.I think in the US crowd mentallity is what got us into Iraq,makes people buy hummers that harm the ecology,be in debt and work 80 hour weeks so they can buy stuff to impress people,etc.I think the materialism in our society(never have enough money)is actually a form of mental illness that our society incourages to maintain capitilism(little of subject, but EAT THE RICH )

I'm not really saying that all riligiouse,social,wealthy people are evil(Bill Gates seems like he wants to be part of the solution however misguided I find some of his charities)But I have struggled hard to live by my own sense of morality inspite of Mass Media and group mentallity and think you could be sacrificing some positive aspie traits>Hope thats not the case And dont give up your dreams ...we sure could use some better movies!(But if you "become" NT you may do so at the cost of your creative individual voice...and those arn't the kind of movies I bother seeing)

wish to imulate?I know that in may social situations you will be attcked for not going along with things which you know to be illogical or immoral

AS is not a mental disorder, Bipolar, Depression, Generalized Anxiety, Schizophrenia and all are mental disorders. AS is neurological. Please go do some research so you at least get your facts straight. You may feel you have AS and all but you're making some serious generalized statements that are only going to lead you to a false understanding of yourself if you are an Aspie and if you're not, you're going to end up not learning anything from the experience in order to gain understanding of those on the spectrum. Just as Aspies/autistics can be as equally successful or equally unsuccessful, you'll find there are a lot of non-autistics so-called NTs that are just as equal in that. Before you make assumptions based on very few and apply it to the many, think first. If you are Aspie, would you like someone judging you and all based on one 'trait' and not looking at the rest of you which you seemed to focus on with your first post? Success to one person doesn't equate success in the eyes of another. My success in life are my two sons, one is autistic (moderate and high functioning) and the second is possibly AS/OCD. Through them and myself, we'll have an opportunity to dismiss generalizations that were present in your posts that show a lack of education that you seem so wanting to obtain but seem at the same time close yourself off to due to generalizing things. Not everyone on this forum has had an easy life, the internet and this website gives us even the more severely-affected of us a connection to others like ourselves. It's ignorant to imply we are 'losers' or wasting our time on here and all. For many of us, this is the only way we'll have friends or learn more about how to help ourselves as often even in the US and Canada there is very little help offered especially to adults on the spectrum. So please stop your assumptions, they do more harm than good in the long run. Read the forums, read more on Aspergers on the internet, read books based on Aspergers individual's lifes... it'll open your eyes to learn more about AS without the generalized assumptions... put them aside and learn if that is what you desire but if you keep them, you'll not see the 'spectrum' of individuals on the autism spectrum with any respect or understanding as long as you keep them.

Shane,

I apologize for my harsh post to you. I re-read your post several times (unless something is written with almost perfect grammar, I have great difficulty parsing it), and I think I see better where you are coming from. It could, and was, miscontrued to mean "AS is fake, quit being a bunch of whiners and do something", and the fact that it contained misinformation immediately set off alarm bells that an "outsider" was coming in and attacking our community. Just as a bit of advice to you, I would recommend choosing your words more carefully in the future, and also doing a bit more research. Otherwise, I do agree with what you have said in later posts.

However, keep in mind that just because you were able to do it doesn't mean everyone will be able to. A lot of my symptoms are fairly severe, some not so bad, but I also had a horrible childhood, etc etc etc. There are so many factors to take into account, try not to forget that in the future.

I wasn't trying to construe that you don't have AS, I was saying that based on what you had told me I didn't believe you have it. You seemed to concentrate solely on the narrow, intense interests part of it and ignore all of the other, generally more serious traits, which lead me to believe you simply did not know what you were talking about. When you listed your traits in a later post (assuming of course the light bulbs didn't turn on and you didn't list them quickly because of that ) it is much more believable.

Cheers, and again I apologize.

As an example of different pasts that can affect our futures, I will use myself as an example. I exhibited every trait of AS as a child, but the school failed to pick up on the problem. They still helped me develop social skills though. At grade 5, my mom had a nervous break down, my dad began snorting coke, and I was sent to live with my grandparents, on a farm. In the 4 years I lived with them, I was allowed to hang out with friends 3 times....less than once a year. Instead, I was expected to sit and home and do nothing. I was beaten up and picked on at school, at home my brother beat the crap out of me, my dad made fun of my AS traits, my Grandma got mad whenever I wasn't normal. By Grade 6, I thought about killing myself every night, as I literally had nothing to look forward to.

Any hope I ever had of developing proper social skills, having close friendships, etc went right down the drain. I think I'm worse off than before now. Other people have had it worse than me, many others have had it even better. But I do know for sure that my past is going to make it even MORE difficult for me to succeed than many other aspies, so to lump us all into the same category and say because you are doing well, so will we, well optimistic, is simply untrue. Now that I know WHY you said it though, I'm not angry anymore, as before I thought it was a "Quit being a bunch of babies" kind of thing.

Yo Shane, i think i get what you mean, cool post

But please get the research right first before you post because like others point out, some of the stuff in there is not right like
"AS is a milder form of mental disorder"... whatafuck? "AS is obsessed with things"... not just that.
Believe me if i say that all of us HERE researched 1000000 times all the knowledge and all over the f*****g world, and piece the puzzle from the f*****g day we are born into this f*****g world of NTs, to really come to a conclusion.
We are excellent detectives

And also i'm glad you can come out stronger and you're positive, i'm not just glad, i'm f*****g happy, cos we need to do that.

But before you post maybe you must understand all of us have different backgrounds and most of us take alot of s**t and pain
to be even standing here and posting this.

Asperger's is not just about special interests. In fact, that's only one of the things that defines it. There is like two primary criteria, and the other has to do with the social skills. I think the social skills aspect is far more of a problem than narrow interests for a lot of us, especially if we really are trying to communicate and find ourselves in a tough situation.

I do think there is a tendency to try to diagnose a lot of students as having it who don't have it, quite similar to the ADHD fiasco of the 1980s. I don't think that it is technically a condition unless it causes trouble in social skills, given that you fit all the criteria that is outlined in the DSM-IV. Also, many of us have co-morbid conditions with it caused by dealing with AS, and some of these can be more troublesome than the AS itself, such as severe depression or whatever.

As far as the pharmaceutical industry, there are no meds to treat AS. Maybe that's why it took so long to become recognized here in the United States. ADHD students were much more accepted, simply because they could more easily be placed on meds. I think that schools around here like meds to control hyperactive and disobedient children, and that doesn't get to the bottom of many of the problems. Many students are visual learners, for example, and don't readily learn according to traditional school standards. A lot of them have been wrongly diagnosed as ADHD or having some sort of behavioral disturbance. The same can be said of those with non-verbal learning disabilities, which can sometimes show up as having asperger's traits.

- Ray M -

For myself personally, I would say that the Narrow Interests perhaps cause an equal amount, if not more problems for me, simply because my interests in computers caused me to drop out of High School, and then not do well in correspondance afterwards. They also walk hand-in-hand (sometimes I launch into lengthy dialogues about my interests, and it annoys people, which is a combination of both my poor social skills and my narrow interests).

Mishluvher2boys, trapped, aeturnus, krex, wolverrinex,

yes life is a balance, some good/bad, fat/thin, good/evil, successful/unsuccessful, thanks for reminding me. And I was not making generalizations, it was strictly my point of view, from a person that could and may have asperger syndrome. Everybody has their own pov, and making generalizations is up to god not me or anybody else. All this just shows more complex diversities in personalities of people with/without AS that each human has, and just shows how much I and many others can and/or could be oblivious to it. I did my research, and i was very well aware of the more severe cases, but like everyone else i just saw things in a different way thats all.

I just assumed that those people would have been so obsessed with that thing or that narrow range of interest that internet itself would hold no interest to them. So I assumed that people with the real extreme severe cases of asperger would not come online. Ofcourse I guess I was wrong, but you know, to speak the truth I learned some valuable stuff and some key words from here that I tend to overlook someplace else. If i have been blunt and careless, I apoligize but personally I feel its healthy cause I learnt not to be so naïve and ignorant, and I am prone to being one. I just assumed that people willing to post on forums and come online are flexible enough, you get what I mean? I always search for key words, like narrow range of interest, social problems, spectrumite, neurological/mental disorders, equally successful or equally unsuccessful, choosing words more carefully and more research. These are aspects of me that I change, but others i refuse to change no matter what people say like film-making. And how much can one explore over the internet, I tried my best and eventually I got bored, then I just wanted to share my thoughts and insights which changes every time.

I wanted to say a lot more, but I fear it would have been too long. Plus I just started dwelling more deeper into this asperger syndrome. I had the basic concept years ago that AS and OCB means obsessiveness and having social problems but I didn’t get into sooooo much details like narrow interest, spectrum and etc etc, I just got the basics and went straight to inspirations and seeing what I could do about it. Then the struggle to make a difference began. I only go to details and extreme details about the things I like. Philosophy, people and entertainment seems to be something that interests me. And one has only so many hours to learn and explore.

schools should pay more attention. And I think Bangkok has a long way to go for that. It especially becomes more difficult when its cross cultural and esp when ones language skills are terrible, it’s a nightmare for them. I have a genius friend here who now likes to smoke a lot of pot, he said his reason for smoking pot was his parents and the schools inability to see his genius and do anything about it. This is just one example.

I think its sad that people think of money as limited. There is a term for that, i read it once I just don’t remember the name by this one guy saying that resources are limited philosophy in the 1800s which drives people to store and be as greedy and unhelpful as possible and be more materialistic. Obviously the new age has proved everything wrong with the invention of cyber space as a resource and wealth being created in an instant. Everything is unlimited, creativity and resources and everything is cycling around so fast, so yeah things are improving. But I also hear people criticize schools for promoting competition among students which later leads to being unhelpful. A lot of my high school friends don’t help each other with any useful information. Indians are very competitive and all they want to know and hear is how you are doing and if you are doing bad, then they feel better, if you’re doing good, then they feel insecured. Ofcourse I am not generalizing, its my point of view. There are some very nice Indians out there, but from what I have seen here in my town the majority of them, and you can see it straight from their minds, don’t like it if you are doing well. And plus there are many more things good and bad about where I live. These so-called Nts are a weird bunch themselves i feel.

In the end rosacoke summarizes it best “(The beauty of having a name for it is that people can learn about it and help each other)” I feel I have learnt and have been helped. Cheers.

I can see why you think that.

However, I want to let you know that having AS is not all sadness and disability. It just means that you have social difficulties.

It doesn't mean that you are a bad person, you are blessed. That is why we are looking at it from a positive viewpoint.

shane, in the short many of your posts have annoyed me.

shane, in the long i think you should most definitly do some more research.

I am willing to think maybe your posts on here and you very extreme reaction could infact be proof of AS, but i anot an expert.

At the same time, there are many people on this forum who didnt have parents untill the age of 16, and there is at least one person on the forum who i know for a fact lives in fostercare and moves every few months.

He dose not solly blame AS on evrything in his life, he is trying to learn to accept it as part of him, by the time he was 16 he had achived many things peiople never achive in thier whole live because of his intrests and his will power.

Please do not say not to nice things about people who have hard pasts or people with AS

i hope this make sense if it does not then feel free to PM me or e-mail. Have you thought about coming onto the chat?

^licks^

jammie

Film-making requires multi-tasking and also social skills in my opinion. These are the weak points for many AS-people. I guess some of them can overcome these difficulties in right environments, what ever it means.

And as for special interests, right now mine happens to be to find out as much as possible about AS, and I must say it has already helped me quite a lot. Throuhout my life I have always gathered lot of information and knowledge about the things that interest me mosta at the time, it could definately be prescribed as obsession even. These interests have sometimes brought me some small jobs etc., but due to my tiredness in social situations etc I have never been able to keep a long-term job, only part-time and never for more than half a year at the time. haven´t totally lost my hope about that, however.
Don´t know yet, if I´ll ever be able to live "normal", which I actually don´t even want to. I am doing my best very best however to create the right environment for myself, where I could make proper living myself and be happy. That should be enough for anyone. And yes, i will need some help with that.

wow that just pisses me off. he basically says that asperger's syndrome is just being obsessed with a hobby or interest.

there is so much more to AS than that. it is a developmental disorder.