Social Skills Training for Adults

Post Reply New Topic

Although I am quoting out of context but our social age is that of a new born! We do not employ the mechanisms that NTs apply to understand social interaction. In that respect we really are newborns.

No, we are not.

I've explained why at great length.

I'll just add that someone with the "social age of a newborn" couldn't learn social skills.

I very much doubt the drug had anything to do with the effects you describe. SSRI's just don't work that quickly. I have experience with Citalopram (celexa by another name). In my opinion it should be removed from the market immediately. The side effects and withdrawal symptoms are dreadful.

Oh HA HA. You Aspies are so funny thinking that because something happened one way for you that every single person in the world must then also have that same experience.

You are not reading or following carefully.... It isn't about wasting or not wasting time. This mission is about me meeting them part way and also about me understanding them better. They get emotional connection from this which also means it is important to them. IOW the 10 minutes is well spent. Remember my Doctor explaining how he will go to the gas station with the friendlier people even if it costs more. Your Math may not be adding up with your black/white view of small talk. To us it is just dopamine (not emotion) and make no sense. To them it has far greater reaches... To my team at work it can mean better synergy and better product. To the kid at the store it can mean more business. This small talk thing has many reaches because they are neurologically different than us and they need these emotional charges. That is not a bad thing either. It is just a different thing...

I look at it this way. I now know that I am autistic and have learned that I have communication weaknesses with the majority of the world (AKA NT people). I have nothing to prove in this world and nobody to prove it to. I have already surpassed most NT's in most aspects of life. So I can continue to live the way I am or I can continue to learn and grow. I chose learning. I've no doubt that you have failed to do small talk in the past as have I. It requires very serious mind bending (open mind, half cup etc...) You haven't got any of that with respect to this subject from your posts. That's fine and not required at all. For me, I want to wade in the waters and see what I am missing before I close my mind again to this completely.

I have MANY NT friends and this is already giving me great insight...

So you are an expert now huh? SSRI's do not work that quickly. It takes 2-8 weeks to notice any effect. You are seeing a connection that isn't there. Sorry to burst your bubble.

I am not gonna jump in the semantics between newborn and 5 year old. Suffice it to say that when I am in the sessions, I am embarrassed at how socially broken I am. The concepts are so rudimentary and I feel so stupid to have to have them broken down in such simple format. I have not yet had a session where I did not think to myself that I need to quit. Then I leave them and I start implementing the concepts and they work and I have these big, "AH HAH" moments and it all seems worthwhile. I suppose that will go away one day but for now it is worthwhile.

I know enough to know that your anecdotal story is not 100% fact in 100% of the people. You may think whatever you want to think but there are many stories and studies that suggest that for everything we think we know about science there is much more that we do not know. And that autistic people often act VERY differently than NTs when it comes to medicine management and reaction.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8304782.stm

I have always had freakishly fast and severe reactions to medicines. Always outside of the recommended times and dosages. In light of the fact that is it my body and my life and that I have my eye on the science of this matter... I think I will go with what I think is going on. If it is only a placebo all the better as I will then not have to experience all the crap you did.

Sorry, it's not the semantics between newborn and 5 year old. I get what you are saying, I just find daspie's explanation overly reductive and inaccurate.

I always feel a bit ridiculous when someone tells me something that seems like it should have been obvious to me. Like the way I ask people for clarification apparently comes across like I am setting a trap to attack them when they say the "wrong" thing, whatever that is. Sometimes I wonder if it's just people reading way too much into things and really more about their issues than my problems.

This is really short sighted. You're complaining about £15 of company money but you are so fixated on the surface costs you can't see how that 10 minutes of time creates a positive work environment which leads to increased productivity and lower employee turnover. People (even aspies) don't like hostile, negative environments. Positive work environments have to be cultivated, they don't just happen automatically.

I would not suggest for one moment that all people are going to suffer all the side effects that I did all of the time. I'm not quite sure why you read it that way.

The fact that there is much about science that we don't know does not give you cart blanche to invent anything you fancy as a matter of convenience, nor lend any credibility to your claims.

Funny that you have your "eye on the science" when the general scientific consensus (as well as all the anecdotal evidence) suggests a delay in efficacy well in excess of what you describe.

Most of the studies that are in the lay press have been done on SSRIs are 1. on depression and results and 2. with non-autistic people. In fact a very thorough search of pubmed shows only 3 randomized controlled trials and 10 open-label trials or retrospective chart reviews on the use of SSRIs in autism and autism spectrum disorders. Many of these studies suggest that autistic people respond differently to SSRIs suggesting different dosages as well as reactions. If your "general scientific consensus" actually consists of a studies about SSRIs and the autistic postulation that I do not know about please reference them so that I can learn.

Second. Both my MD and my PhD (shrink) did not bat an eye at my report of these symptoms and suggested that I back off to 1/4 a normal "effective" dose. My shrink said he has seen it before. So this is hardly a case of me taking "carte Blanche" liberties or inventing anything. I am being guided by much expertise. And while I hate appeals to authority in general, I think that selecting a good expert and then using them in this case makes good sense.

So... if you don't mind. I will listen to the people I pay to advise me on this and to my own studies as opposed to someone from the Internet that I do not know. Seriously... I am well informed of what the current data says. I actually ploughed through PubMed as well as the lay press data that exists on the topic and I emphasize with your point. I simply do not agree with it and feel like I am making a better informed choice for me.

Just an FYI: There is NO SSRI that is proving to be "better" than any other for autistic people/anxiety in the current studies. Celexa is holding up about equally with the others in effectiveness and sides... And finally I chose celexa because someone genetically close to me fared well on it which is about the best way to pick one to start with IMHO.

Last edited by kfisherx on 23 Apr 2011, 7:01 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I have no opinion either way on whether SSRI's affect autistic people differently or not, but the fact is that they work by altering brain chemistry. This takes time. It does not work directly on brain cell receptors, such as stimulants, LSD, opiates etc do.



If you pay them then they will tell you whatever you want to hear.



If it works for you then all well and good. I'm just doubting that it can possibly done anything for you so far other than give you a little nausea (the first noticable effect).

I'm just warning you that I truly rue the day a started taking Citalopram. I'm being quite clear about my agenda here. It is not fun to suffer sexual dysfunction, apathy, nightmares, panic attacks and extreme fatigue. And that's just for starters.

Last edited by nemorosa on 23 Apr 2011, 7:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Me too, but I find I often have this view of Daspie's posts so am not gonna try to "fix" it with my own opinion. I think I get his point and it is very valid. We are very regressed in this area and we do not come to this game with the same set of tools or approaches.

And? Your point? Neither statement is inconsistent. There are enough horror stories out there surrounding this drug. Perhaps you think Thalidomide should not have been banned because it only affected some people?