I thought I was the only resident of this "planet"

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First... Hello World

(one of the first things a person learning basic programming language learns to make a VIC-20 say on the screen)

Ah, so esoteric, i guess that makes me one of you doesn't it?

Ok, I'm at work writing this instead of working, so I'll be brief for now, and a more detailed and unexhaustive life story later...

My main question is... Since I live in the San Francisco East Bay, where can I find therapists for dealing with Asperger's and get an "official" diagnosis of it, so I can tell people for sure that I really do suffer from this higher autism mental disorder, instead of saying "oh, I 'think' that i have aspergers, but of course, im not officially diagnosed so i cannot really say that i am, can i?"

It's idiotic I need a real diagnosis, does a person with a cold have to go to the doctor to know that he has a cold? No of course not. He knows the signs and can tell for himself he's sick.

I've read the descriptions of what aspergers is and what it causes a person to behave like, and its me in a nutshell. In fact, it was my father who told me he thinks i have Aspergers.

Oh, by the way im 34 years old, never married, virgin, never had a relationship with a woman. I think the fact that I'm just now introducing myself should speak volumes, shouldn't it?

This format of self introduction was of course, not scripted or planned out, but just exactly how it came out of my brain and onto the page. I also am aware that this is one of the signs of a person with aspergers.

Anyways, before i go into that life story thing, i need to be getting back to work now. Thanks in advance for your warm welcome and helpful replies. Read and talk to you later.

Last edited by Lobber on 10 Apr 2007, 2:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Second....Hello Lobber

I hope you find lots of help and fun here on WP.

Welcome! Nice avatar

It is hard as hell to find psychologists anywhere who have any experience dealing with high funcitioning adults - I'm tri-diagnosed with bipolar, AS, and disassociation (which I actually think may account for being able to deal with the bipolar and AS) - and psychologists shure believe the bipolar and dissassociation, but I've had two otherwise competent people tell me that I can't have AS becuase I can talk and that if I would just get a partner and join a book club I'd be fine . . . so good luck with that . . . I'm starting to think I'm going to have to go move to Australlia to see Dr. Attwood . . .

So how do you get a confirmed diagnosis of AS?

Hi, Lob.

Welcome, guy.

To get a confirmed diagnosis, I'm not sure, but I think you'd either have to press your doctor to do so and/or get a second opinion that confirms the Dx -- and then press your first doctor.

DD

Hey. Apparently I am as well... or suspected at least.


Live in Fear.

Go to OASIS site where they have a list of autism specialists by state, then get your doc to refer you to the closest one. That's what I did and it worked (here in the US, anyway).

But keep reading here and you may decide it's not so important to get a diagnosis.

sup radiation hazard, i read your thread today on my lunch break. Sounds like you had a fun childhood like me. For me though, nothing quite beats a nice divorse when your only 5 years old, then living with an abusive mother and even worse abusive daughters of babysitters who like to look at young boys penises while the babysitting parents are negletting me. Or the babysitters who didnt pay any attention to me while I hugged the back legs of a horse when I was three, getting kicked and breaking both femurs and being laid up in the hospital for over a year only to have to learn to walk all over again. yea, fun times.

anyways, enough vitrolence, thanks for saying hi. I feel your pain.

I'm lucky I didn't have it that sh***y. I didn't suffer a divorce until 18, and being the sensitive unwordly fellow I am, I was still just as badly damaged.

My problem was that it seems that my parents didn't quite have parenting down right. My father, by nature, was a wanderer and a gambler, but despite being the move annoying thing to walk the earth, I'd rather have him that some other schmuck.


And now i feel guilty about bitching because there was someone else who had it worse than me leaving me with absolutely no right to complain. Of course I can't just suck the information out of your brain now, can I.

I am extremely lucky ... we live about 1 hour drive from Dr.Attwood's clinic.

In Australia you need a paediatrician, psychiatrist, or developmental psychologist to diagnose.

We initially saw paediatrician who diagnosed our 7 year old son. However her advice was crap.

So we went to Tony Attwood's clinic (didn't see him though but one of his extremely knowledgable staff) and got fantastic advice and help!!

Tony Attwood's clinic (called Hearts and Minds) also has lots of classes for every age group known eg social skills for 8-9 year old girls; adult social skills classes etc. His clinic is so busy and there is a bit of a wait to get into it.

Maybe there's a clinic like that someone near you?

We also have an asperger's/autism specialist bookstore about 1 hour drive from us run by a family of Aspies with 1 NT.

They are great for giving you the right book + advice!

I would find someone who specialises in ASD's to diagnose you and give you therapy. If you do as much reading as possible before hand you'll be able to tell if they're any good or not.

Because of all the reading I'd done I knew the first paediatrician was rubbish, so quickly went to someone else.

Good luck!

Smelena

Where I come from, being unworldly is a good thing, since the world is run by evil.

No reason to feel guilty, everyone has a right to b***h. Its all relative, because everyone's hell is as bad as it is for them as everyone else who had some form of hell, regardless of absolutes.

One thing you will need to learn is to not beat yourself up so much. I get in that mood sometimes. In fact, i swing from self depreciation to self boasting. It's hard to find the happy medium, but balanced we must be.

As far as picking my brain, I will be posting a life story soon enough.

I agree, kiddo. (I live just south of San Francisco.)

Could you elaborate on that "disassociation" thing. I never heard a descriptuon of it, but it sounds like a good word to describe a mental defense that I have.

I sometimes separate my logical self from my emotional self. It a way it is like my logical self is a spectator watching my emotional self and not having to go through the feelings that my emotional self is struggling with. It is an excellent way to get through depressing experiences, (I said it was a defense).

When I need to, my emotional self can negotiate communication with the rest of the population. It gives me the appearance of somehow wierdly having gone emotionally flat (Kinda like the Spock character on Star Treck). It is not like what is depicted for multiple personality however because there is no separate identity and all components are integrated in a sense. When the emotional self is just not able to deal rationally, I just keep the logical functions in the drivers seat so to speak but the emotional stuff is going on and I am fully aware of it. And I don't do the "spectatoring" (my term for it) thing unless there is a need. It is a coping skill that I regard as a gift that I sometimes need to ride out an emotional storm.

P.S. if there is a standard name for this skill / gift / quirk, I would like to know what it is.

Hi Outlander

You are describing EXACTLY what I experience - and that is why I don't call it multiple personalities - until I found out I had AS it was a great mystery to me because I knew it wasn't normal but I also knew it wasn't MPD - Donna Williams describes something very similar in her first 2 books and then Jen Birch talks about it also - I've also read some people describing Temple Grandin as if she had two specific personalities . . .

It seems like the division occurs in two different ways - sometimes there is the logical/emotional division and sometimes there is a third division (which is what happens with me) that is logical/emotional/childlike . . .

I think it is a little more advanced for me in the sence that I really pretty much always see things in the third person unless it is really intense (like when I went diving with great whites recently that I remember in 1st person, though I was taking LOTS of sea sickness medicine and I blame it for that sudden strange experience) - if I remember things in first person I don't remember them as happening to me - but like I'm watching a movie that happens to be centered in my body . . . very odd . . .

Welcome,