No post-diagnostic help.

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I was diagnosed at 15 and it seemed like the children's clinic i was attending felt that should be enough. No one really gave me any information or help regarding the subject, I was meant to come to battle on. Now I am 20 and don't have any support from any party because I don't have any learning difficulties or a severe and enduring mental health problem such as Schizophrenia. I feel forced to pretend to be normal and make allowances for Nuero-Typical people but it seems like Nuero-Typical people feel it is the job of the individual with Asperger's to do all the work, as if I am somehow in the 'wrong'.

Hi I’m new here too. I'm 19 and I’ am waiting for diagnosis/help.

You are never in the wrong. All brains are wired differently... All my life I’ve been accommodating for the norm. There are many good forum posts here on Wrongplanet about things like the “social rule book” http://www.wrongplanet.net/postxf131296-0-30.html (really good help for me in the few days I’ve been on this site)

Since it’s often impossibly difficult to communicate how you feel to neuro-typical people and they could be ignorant, I kind of “meet them halfway” in “their world” and hope for the best.

Welcome to the Wong Planet!

That's absolutely right and don't expect it to get any better. People will always treat you as if there's nothing wrong with you and you're just a whiny excuse maker. You'll run into a lot of people who don't even believe that AS actually exists. They will tell you that everybody experiences the things you complain about and to get over it.

They have never been incapacitated by anxiety, and unable to think or process information under pressure so anyone who is, is overreacting.

They have never been so overwhelmed by sensory stimulation, such as background noise that they cannot follow a conversation, so we're just not paying attention.

They have never been unable to communicate or even speak due to problems processing social interaction, so we're 'just shy' and need to outgrow it.

They haven't been repeatedly bullied by people who take advantage of the fact that they can't process fast enough to respond to verbal abuse, so we're just wimps who aren't assertive enough.

The truth is, they're too stupid and insensitive to wrap their heads around the fact that not everybody is just like they are. If its easy for them, and you don't appear visibly ret*d, then you're just worthless and weak, whining about nothing. Sorry to be the one to break it to you, but you will face that attitude every day of your life.

Not ALL NT's are like this.
I accept the majority are, but please don't think they all are.

I never said they all were. I didn't even use the term NT. I only said this is an attitude so common you will encounter it somewhere virtually every day.

I like that! Combined with measured disclosure such as

'Oh, I am a nerd' Or

'I have an artist type personality.'


And, Welcome to WrongPlanet!

In some places in the United States, supported employment with job coaches is available. Most universities now have disABILITIES services. Now, the quality is real hit and miss. Some disABILITY service people may be hip to Asperger's and just excellent, others not so much.

Now, you may be high enough functioning that you don't need either one of these, and if so, more power to you. And you can be extremely valuable to us here at WP as a 'bridge person' as it were. That is, you can help teach us social skills and life effectiveness skills.

I also advocate political and social activism, of the type of the Civil Rights Movement and Gay Rights Movement. That is, it is okay for me as a human being to be different. It is okay for you as a human being to be different.

And we cannot primarily rely on "professionals." This is something we will have to primarily do for ourselves. (And by the way, I think psychologists and other mental health professionals often write better than they practice.) And we should also stay open to helping our lower functioning brothers and sisters. Not as an obligation, that's dry and a dead end. But just as an open possibility and something that potentially can add richness to our lives.

I was diagnosed a couple of weeks ago, it was my therapist who first spotted it, after seeing mental health professionals all these years.. when i went to the doctor to get my perscriptions.. he pretty much told me that there wasn't a whole lot he could do for me.. he could treat my anxiety, and he could give me a cocktail of other meds for my other more bothersome traits but that they really wouldn't help much.. I needed to realize I was going to be like this for the rest of my life.. He sucked the wind out of my sails.. and right now I'm trying to wear the happy mask for my family and friends.. but it's not sticking well..

Please don't insult me by suggesting I somehow have failed to notice that people often don't know what Asperger's is when I tell them I have it, this is why raising awareness is important. My personal problem is that people who are supposedly professionals and do know what it is (as best they can without having it) say I'm 'articulate' and 'well presented' and then say I don't really need any help because I don't have learning difficulties etc. Yes, I should accept this and most days I do but I know that I do need a psychiatrist because of the mental damage I am left with from years of physical and mental abuse at school.

And one possible healing avenue is to engage in some political and social activism, entirely on your own terms. This is not a 'should' or some self-imposed obligation. It's just one avenue among many.

I've read with depression that people respond differently and sometimes the first medicine doesn't work the best, so you need a doctor with the patience to tinker with it, and a doctor who is a halfway good communicator (anything more is expecting too much!). And presumably the same is true for anxiety. And reducing social anxiety by, say, two-thirds, that is considerable.

In addition, you now know there are other people who have similar life experiences to your own and we can ping pong stuff back and forth in dialogue and perhaps learn some things from each other.

You misunderstood what I said, I meant that I have to accept that I will encounter ignorance, that's just a fact. I didn't mean that I won't fight against it, I wouldn't worry about that if I were you.

Personally I am trying to get behavioural therapy. Even if the psychological powers that be .say "blah blah blah - we don’t know what you have. here kid take a pill" I might get some meaningful treatment with this kind of therapy.

Have you tried to switch the specialists /pschologists you've seen? Some can be pretty bad at their job to be honest.

sorry I cant suggest services really - its differnt for most countries. and this is all new to me.

I have been offered 'behavioral therapy' but I don't really trust people because of the way I was penalized verbally by people at school for the 'crime' of being physically a very late developer, among other things and also being physically abused. I don't see how any of the pain those memories bring back could be changed by 'behavioral therapy', I think the people who did that to me probably need 'behavioral therapy more than I do.

just a quick point, generally speaking for things like emotional pain from 'old' abuse, ie not an immediate threat, the advised course of action is normally psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. might be worth asking for, but i don't know if that's what you want.
i hated psychotherapy, my therapist just sat there staring at me mostly, then 'assaulted' me after the final session, now in my medical notes it says psychotherapy 'helped me', helped me never go to meet anyone in the mental health service alone again.. anyway, i'm sure they're not all like that.
good luck, fudo