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Mamabird
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14 Feb 2014, 7:05 pm

I am in my 40s, mom to two diagnosed w/ AS (one officially also ADHD, the other is no duh).
I am diagnosed ADHD (predominantly inattentive).

Lately I wonder if I have AS. There is such a giant overlap, and I come from a traumatic childhood with enough crap going on that it is awfully hard to tell what is what. Clearly PTSD after witnessing a traumatic injury at a young age, but that was unrecognized at the time.

stuff that I wonder about as being AS not "just" ADHD

-intensity. ADHD can involve intense emotion, but there is something about the flavor I wonder about. I can care about a friend to the bone, where it is platonic but I care so much it aches.
-friendships. I know it got better after I got on ADHD meds and started to notice more, but I still feel like a total alien. For example, if I am into a geeky show or something, I realize I had friends in college who are into the same, but I never *bonded* over it or with them. Always felt on the outskirts, drifting between social groups, never *my* group.
-um, I was a geeky girl. idolized certain then-famous scientists. Immersed myself in science fiction from 3rd grade. Never knew how to articulate or even TO articulate how it all touched me. Then again some of this could be the invisibility I made a habit of because of my upbringing.
-bullied for being weird. shunned.
-I was weird. Not just blabbing at the wrong times or spacey (which seem ADHD)- I am wondering about the depth of my having absolutely NO clue how to navigate social life. Got along with older kids better (which may go w/ gifted), with boys better than groups of girls. Always felt so loyal but didn't know how to be friends, how to do it. To this day I see people from my school years on facebook and remember being friends, but have no idea why/how we weren't still friends, or what became of it.
-I get stuck in my own world. don't know if that is here/there/etc. my own world is intense I think.

that's some of it. I'm trying to understand it, make sense of it.
diagnosed ADHD plus some of the same social weirdness as me.



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14 Feb 2014, 7:31 pm

You might have it. I would definitely share these issues with a mental health professional.

Your case kinda reminds me of Rie Sasamori (nee Henmi), a Japanese woman with Asperger syndrome and ADHD, 2 out of whose 3 sons are also on the spectrum (and 2 of the 3 sons, one of whom isn't on the spectrum, with ADHD). Because her ASD wasn't recognized, Sasamori had a difficult time growing up, but is now active in the Japanese autistic community.


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Mamabird
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14 Feb 2014, 7:34 pm

Is this someone whose writing about it is around?
Also curious what you think a professional's help would do- just curious. I have my own thoughts, not entirely clear.



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14 Feb 2014, 7:39 pm

Mamabird wrote:
Is this someone whose writing about it is around?
Also curious what you think a professional's help would do- just curious. I have my own thoughts, not entirely clear.


They can perhaps help settle the question in your mind.

As for Sasamori, there's not much in English, but she does do peer counseling for people with developmental disorders, as shown below (in Japanse):

http://stat.ameba.jp/user_images/201306 ... 411591.jpg


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14 Feb 2014, 8:51 pm

If you did, then what? What would change for you?

One of the things that bothered me for a long time was thinking I caused a problem for my child. And I still sometimes think that way, but I've also given my kids good things. And they do have two parents. I don't know whether this is something that bothers you, but it is another facet that can have an impact.