What do you plan to do with overcoming your ASD?
ASPartOfMe
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Age: 66
Gender: Male
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Location: Long Island, New York
Overcoming ASD at this point in time is an unrealistic goal. I was born autistic and most likely will die autistic. All I can do is work with the good parts and around the bad parts.
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Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman
I don't think it's possible to overcome ASD. But you can learn how to live in a more pleasant and fulfilling way using what you have.
Maybe we can't expect to have the same life that NTs have. Maybe we have to lower or adapt our expectations. Expect less but more deep friendship, relationships, etc.
A simple life in a more quite place and surrounded by few but important people could be better to us than being in loud places with lots of people, which is what most NTs want, but not us necessarily.
Last edited by TheWarrior on 14 Jun 2017, 11:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I plan to surpass from the autistic flaws (like being more sensory sensitive with less filters, but also have a wider range of comfort zones and no sensory overload), not overcome.
My goal isn't to be closer to NT, but to surpass NT standards as an autistic.
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My perspective is fairly similar to those above.
"Overcoming" holds connotations of conquering, subduing, repressing. I've learned there is no point doing this with autism. It ends up causing a complete breakdown which was what happened to me.
Instead I try to work with the autism, not against it. Doesn't mean I don't try to better myself - just that I don't approach that by trying to "overcome" that which is fundamental.
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Alexithymia - 147 points.
Low-Verbal.
The only way I can "overcome" my challenges is to use my interests to form friendships and social networks. Events may threaten or wipe this out completely. I will never have what normal people have, because I started too late and recent events have put me backward again. I'm afraid that I may go away completely this time.
I already overcame it, in clinical terminology. Made it disappear, so much that if you didn't know EXACTLY what to look for and look very closely, you wouldn't find it.
I've had the breakdown, or series of breakdowns, that you never fully recover from.
I don't enjoy life any more. I don't take pleasure in my hobbies or feel a sense of accomplishment in my work. I don't enjoy my children; when I spend time with my few remaining friends, I worry about displaying correctness of behavior to keep things from blowing up.
I like to sleep. I plan to overcome this situation by finding oblivion.
I don't recommend trying to overcome your autism.
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"Alas, our dried voices when we whisper together are quiet and meaningless, as wind in dry grass, or rats' feet over broken glass in our dry cellar." --TS Eliot, "The Hollow Men"
ASPartOfMe
Veteran
Joined: 25 Aug 2013
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,245
Location: Long Island, New York
I've had the breakdown, or series of breakdowns, that you never fully recover from.
I don't enjoy life any more. I don't take pleasure in my hobbies or feel a sense of accomplishment in my work. I don't enjoy my children; when I spend time with my few remaining friends, I worry about displaying correctness of behavior to keep things from blowing up.
I like to sleep. I plan to overcome this situation by finding oblivion.
I don't recommend trying to overcome your autism.
I am sorry that has happened to you. I hope in time you find and let some of the inner autistic BuyerBeware out that you were forced to bury so deeply.
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Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman
I hate conforming to a consensus, but the one being drawn here is essentially correct. You can't "overcome" autism. It's an alternate wiring schematic in the brain, and you can't simply vaporize it by sheer effort of will.
A lot of NT parents here on WP have a really hard time coming to grips with that reality, that their child is never going to be "normal" no matter what meds you give them, or what therapies you put them through, but anyone over the age of 40, who's lived with autism for decades can tell you, it's a fact, jack. To paraphrase Edie Brickell, "What we be, be what we is, you what you am, say what?"
Trying to deny that reality will only make you miserable, and as the congregation testifies, drive you to suicidal depression and emotional breakdown. Oh, you can improve your social skills to some degree, that's true, just don't expect miracles. Even on your best, most functional days, you'll still feel awkward and alienated, but that doesn't mean you can't have fun in spite of it - and if you've got the right mixture of whimsy and cynicism, you can have fun by actually exploiting your own weirdness and making others uncomfortable just for grins and giggles.
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"I don't mean to sound bitter, cynical or cruel - but I am, so that's how it comes out." - Bill Hicks
My plan is to manage my problematic autistic traits in a natural autistic way and embrace my enjoyable autistic traits.
My Accepting Autism 10 Commandments
1. I will use my sensory toolkit whenever I need it.
2. I will stim whenever, wherever, and however I need to (as long as I am not being disruptive or harmful).
3. I will leave a situation whenever I need to to avoid overload, meltdown, or shutdown.
4. I will enjoy myself openly stimming in my free time.
5. I will enjoy my special interests in my free time.
6. I will follow my rituals and routines whenever I can.
7. I will use visual schedules and choice boards as needed.
8. I will use augmentative communication systems whenever I need to.
9. I will only communicate or socialize when I feel able.
10. I will freely and proudly use my Autism Service Dog.
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31st of July, 2013
Diagnosed: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Auditory-Verbal Processing Speed Disorder, and Visual-Motor Processing Speed Disorder.
Weak Emerging Social Communicator (The Social Thinking-Social Communication Profile by Michelle Garcia Winner, Pamela Crooke and Stephanie Madrigal)
"I am silently correcting your grammar."
I've been think about it the last two days and I think that the main thing I want to get rid of are the anxiety issues.
Yeah I know, they're not exactly part of the ASD, but we're more prone to have it since we're in a world that wasn't made for us. So over the years I developed some strongly rooted cognitive distortions and defense mechanisms that leads me to get anxious to do certain things I'd really like to do without feeling anxious and most times avoidant about them.
So yeah, just like many people have depression because of their hard life as an aspie, and I strongly encourage those to fight it, some others like me were victims of anxiety, and well that we surely can beat. And that's what I'm trying to figure out now since I don't wanna relly on meds (many people who used them reported getting even worse after stopping, and that the effects get weaker the more they use, so yeah that's not really good).
So my words are: you can't overcome ASD, but there are certain things that often come with it that you surely can beat them.
plan is to carve out a niche where being quite different is perceived at least forgivable.
having gone to a semi-traditional martial art studio last year for some months, even though it wasn’t the right art, it became clear that being respectful, quiet, composed, reserved, dedicated and unreadable were seen as desirable traits to strive toward obtaining as a practitioner of traditional martial arts. to teach would be one ideal profession.
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七転び八起き
Even though I will never be cured of autism, I have concluded that I DO need other people to lead a rich and meaningful life.
My ex's new relationship was somewhat of a painful epiphany for me. I may not be able to form and maintain relationships with others, but I shouldn't allow autism to try and stop me.
To put it simply, I am now trying to reduce the amount of time I spend alone by breaking out of my comfortable zone at every available opportunity.
Having spent the past decade in an isolated state of mind, I have slowly come to realise that a change in outlook is long overdue. I have deluded myself into thinking that my interests would sustain me in my trogolyte lifestyle. I couldn't have been more wrong.
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"Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. " - Special Agent Dale Cooper, Twin Peaks
Yeah I know, they're not exactly part of the ASD, but we're more prone to have it since we're in a world that wasn't made for us. So over the years I developed some strongly rooted cognitive distortions and defense mechanisms that leads me to get anxious to do certain things I'd really like to do without feeling anxious and most times avoidant about them.
So yeah, just like many people have depression because of their hard life as an aspie, and I strongly encourage those to fight it, some others like me were victims of anxiety, and well that we surely can beat. And that's what I'm trying to figure out now since I don't wanna relly on meds (many people who used them reported getting even worse after stopping, and that the effects get weaker the more they use, so yeah that's not really good).
So my words are: you can't overcome ASD, but there are certain things that often come with it that you surely can beat them.
This was one of my first goals after 'wasting' 'resting' for two years of refusing to leave home, of stopping school, of giving up on people.
I could always say that it's a tricky thing to figure.
I think... The sooner the long term anxiety hits, the sooner one has to figure it out how to stop it. Mine lasted total of 7 years or less in span of my late childhood until my mid to late teens.
Except at the meds part. I never knew what it was like to take any psych meds.
My household can't afford it, and I flat out refused when I was offered some.
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I've had the breakdown, or series of breakdowns, that you never fully recover from.
That sounds familiar , if you don't mind could you explain a little more about your breakdowns ( I've had many myself and lose a piece of myself after each one )
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