Re-introducing myself

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Hi all
This is my re-introduction to the WP as I?ve been a member for quite a while but haven?t been posting recently.
In the meantime I have been going through my Asperger?s diagnosis ?in the UK is still in use- and I have now been confirmed as a true aspie by an NHS clinician specialised in women?s AS. I scored 175 on the RAADS-R, and 39 on the Baron-Cohen AQ test.
The strange and sometimes frustrating thing about the above is that to most people I don?t ?look? aspie in the slightest. In fact, before being deferred to the ASD clinic I had previously been seen by a psychiatrist and a psychologist, both of whom were convinced that there was ?nothing wrong with me? (sic).
I grew up knowing there is something significantly different about me, something which leads me to misunderstand and being misunderstood, and to go against the grain so very often. I remember my granddad saying when I was a teenager that I was ?a bit sick in the head?, and so I grew up frightened that I was mentally ill and that one day I would get locked up in a padded cell ?it sounds funny now, but looking back it wasn?t.
So I hope you can understand how getting an official diagnosis was such a huge relief.
Anyway, I?d better not overstay my welcome

As long as you're not a mushroom who destroys computers, you're welcome. You could even pontificate--we, as Aspies, would understand!

Re-welcome then, to WP.

I am continually amazed by how many medical professionals still are so slow to recognize ASD. You would think the shrinks would at least be vaguely aware of the exsistence of a spectrum by now.

Since you like the mushrooms and such here's a strange thing called Indian Pipe or Corpse Plant that grows in the shady leaf litter under pines around my house. Its not actually a mushroom or fungi but looks a bit like them and grows in same kind of places. It has no chlorophyll and so much put its roots in fungi roots and steal nutrients.

Welcome to WrongPlanet

But why would your granddad say such a thing? I hope he was just teasing/joking.

Welcome {back} to Wrong Planet!

Pontification! back at my parents that used to be a mealtime sport



No, he wasn't joking and he didn't say it directly to me either. He was talking with my auntie, and because he was quite deaf he said it out loud and I was within earshot. My auntie, herself an Ed Psych from the Freudian psychoanalysis era, retorted that my general immaturity and meltdowns were all my dad's fault. My dad's probably an aspie himself. Anyway, it was a long time ago in a land far, far away. My family are an eccentric bunch to say the least.



Well, in fact the psychologist was present at the first interview I had with the clinician from the ASD team. The clinician later told me that when they discussed their findings she noticed the psychologist had been using a children's ASD scale to evaluate the way I presented. So, I guess she was probably expecting me to look at the lights and spin around, which I don't do.

Wow Toy_Soldier, you've got an interesting array of trophic levels in your garden!

Do you happen to know what kind of fungi that thing parasites?

Well I read about it but its too technical for me! Something about it being an Extoplasmic Rhombzoid or something. Here's a link to the wiki though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotropa_uniflora

But I did pick up it actually parasites only fungi that are parasites of trees and so is actually parasiting the tree. In our yard pines, especially spruce and oaks dominate, a few birch and maple and many of a smaller type - thin and straggley - which I haven't identified.

This is pic of a section of the yard. The creek nearby seems to elevate the dampness and also keeps a few things alive, like ferns in certain protected spots, all year round. Even though we are at some elevation (1000 feet) half way up a high plateau range.



What are tropic levels? Btw, there is quite a range of fungi and mushroom looking things in the yard and I have no idea really what any of them are. I would guess at least 10-15 types perhaps more.