Why does everyone keep finding Aspies everywhere?

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RedMage
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25 Apr 2007, 4:49 am

No one in Murray Bridge knows what AS is! They know about Autism, just not AS.

SteveK
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25 Apr 2007, 5:33 am

At my current job, I think I AM working with someone that is HFA, and someone else that is AS. The AS guy is someone I have worked with a few times, but I haven't worked with the other before. Outside of them, I don't know if I knew anybody else like that. They AREN'T all over. I wish they were.

Steve

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25 Apr 2007, 8:05 am

dontwanttoknow wrote:

No, people don't know about it much yet, but they will. I haven't even heard anyone I know speak the words "Asperger's Syndrome" aloud unless I mentioned it first. I imagie I'd get this chill like I would if I heard horrible news. Just hearing the words, not because anyone said them about me, because the times I've heard "autism" since I first heard about AS, I've got that same chill. I have problems even hearing the words "autism" and "Aspeger's" on TV or radio unless I know that I'm going to hear them. I dont' listen to a particular baseball team's games online, for instance, because one of the announcer's kids is autistic and whenver someone hits a home run or makes a certain type of play, the team donates to his foundation for autism, and he mentions it and it freaks me out every time.

wow,
I am sorry for your reaction. It must be very uncomfortable to be so fearful of a natural condition. Like being afraid of redheads or spiders or something. Well, maybe you are not one of us, after all. Just afraid you are and that feeds your need to hang out with us? Gee, thanks for reminding me how horrible it is to be me, I feel all warm and fuzzy now. :roll:

Merle

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25 Apr 2007, 10:25 am

having As/Autism or not having AS/Autism is not going to change all the things you have to do or make them any easier.

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FunnyFairytale
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25 Apr 2007, 10:33 am

dontwanttoknow wrote:

I'm probably going to get kicked out of here for this, but why does everyone keep coming up with Aspies everywhere? It's like finding Commies in the 1950's or something, only it's supposed to be good. I'm getting so sick of having to think this one or that one is AS--I can't just watch a movie or TV shsow or read a book anymore because someone might be Aspie and I have to recognize it. I'm so sick o f this and wish I'd never heard of AS. It's ruined my life. I had to quit the job I had before bcause all I did was worry about if someone misunderstood me it meant I have AS. I ran out of money and had to take a job where the owner of the company is hard to get along with and I'm afraid of him and can't do my job properly, plus they keep shoving me into a backup receptionist job I can't handle. If I hadn't thought I had AS and no one would hire me I wouldn't have takne the first job that was offered to me--I was so shocked that anyone would hire me if I have no social skills.

I can't get diagnosed with AS and I still keep wanting to go to doctors to find out if I have it or not because I don't really want to beleive I have it because if I do have it I have only the bad traits, not the good ones. Now I can't even relax with a book or movie for fear there will be na Aspie in it that I never realized before, and if I don't think they are i'm in denial. Plus I'm probably in denial about being an Aspie myself even though doctors won't diagnose me. But if I go to a GP about a physical problem and I'm anxious or uncommunicative, that person will probably tell me I'm AS and in denial.

I'm so sick of AS and possible denial. What if someone is AS and doesn't want to admit it? Does that make them a bad person?

I feel like it's a witch hunt for Aspies or something. I know most people in here think AS is good, but believe me, not everyone thinks it's a good thing and maybe these actors or whatever wouldn't like to be classifed as having an autistic spectrum condition, ever think of that????????

Oh lord,thats alot at once there.
Dont take this the wrong way,but I think u worry too much.
Toss in a few ounces of paranoia and you just might get it right.
By the way,I dont know if paranoia is an Aspie thing or not..
And Im not being mean now,I get a little paranoid every now and then too ;-)

I hope u figure it out.
Have u studied anything else,besides AS?
Maybe its something else.

SeriousGirl
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25 Apr 2007, 10:45 am

dontwanttoknow wrote:

There were these awful boards then for spouses of Aspies and they were extremely negative and I thought I must have every negative trait they diescribed, even though probably at least some of the traits described weren't even AS traits (I suspect some of them were grabbing at AS as an explanation of why their spouse was a jerk; probably it was something else in many of these cases. But if he (most of the spouses were men, and even though I'm a woman I thought I must be like tnem) didn't have too many friends and couldn't communicate with his wife, he must be AS. It was the worst introduction anyone could have to AS and for some reason, I've never been able to get over it or think completely positively about AS ever since..

Some of those Cassandra wives have been married to those guys for 20 to 30 years! What does that say about them? Do you think they are sane? Make yourself unhappy for most of your adult life, then go to a net group to whine about it and get validated. It is the stupidest thing I've encountered in my AS journeys.

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SeriousGirl
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25 Apr 2007, 10:55 am

dontwanttoknow wrote:

I've been to 8 or 9 doctors about this. 4 were supposedly experts on AS/Autism: a neurologist, a neuropsychologist, a psychiatrist and a psychologist. They all said I don't have AS. But I don't believe them because I think because I'm a woman and don't have a big "special interest" that I must be presenting differently then male Aspies do so they're not catching it somehow. They do say I have social anxiety and avoidant personality disorder.

You probably don't then. Neuropsychologists are pretty good at dx'ing AS. No offense, but you don't seem to have the aspie logical thinking. Being afraid of the words "Asperger" and "autism" is not rational. The time period in your life when people noticed your differences is a big factor in dx'ing an ASD.

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25 Apr 2007, 11:09 am

dontwanttoknow, remember that whether you have AS or not, you're still the same person. It's not like a diagnosis would change you, though if you are AS and get diagnosed, maybe that could lead to getting help for issues you might have?

I'm confused by your description of why they thought you had OCD. Here's a link to the Wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsessive_ ... xplanation

Does that sound like you? Have you seen the show Monk? I think he's a good portrayal of someone with OCD (though maybe it varies wildly).

Are you doing repetitive stuff...like maybe washing your hands a lot to get "clean", or touching something a certain number of times, or going back through a doorway until you get it "right"?

Is the obsession the person focused in on in you an OCD obsession where it's popping into your head uncontrollably? Or is it like an AS "obsession", where it's an intense interest you have right now. (Someone correct me if I got either of those descriptions wrong, but I think "obsession" means something very different between OCD and AS.)

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25 Apr 2007, 11:14 am

Whoops! I forgot to mention...

The reason *I* want to find out about people with AS, is because I want to identify with someone! I've lived my whole life feeling like I don't fit in anywhere, that I'm wired totally weird, that I'm a freak. I want to feel like I'm "normal". Like there's an explanation for why I am the way I am.

So to me it's very exciting when I find out about people with AS. Unfortunately, I know of very few "celebrity" type people who have come out about it. Dan Ackroid and the guy who does the Pokemon and Drill Dozer games are the only two I know of that I knew of prior to knowing about AS.

That's also why I'm excited when I hear about fictional characters who might be portraying it-like House, Chloe on 24, the Dr. from Bones, etc. (those are ones I've heard mentioned). I like feeling like "I'm not a freak, those people are like me too!"

natty
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25 Apr 2007, 1:45 pm

Dontwanttoknow
It sounds to me like your obsessing , i couldnt say if thats an OCD obsession or not but you could be suffering from Health anxiety , basically its a disorder where you worry and convince yourself that you have some medical problem , you obsess over it so much that you can actually develop symptons that mimic those you would have if you actually did have that illness . ( before everyone shouts , i know Aspergers isnt considered an illness but i think in this context it could be ) . People with health anxiety often have repeated visits to doctors and many tests , but despite all evidence showing that they dont have the problem they think they have ,nothing in the world can reasure them that they are wrong and the Doctors are right.

bb natty

BazzaMcKenzie
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25 Apr 2007, 9:17 pm

dontwanttoknow wrote:

I'm probably going to get kicked out of here for this, but why does everyone keep coming up with Aspies everywhere?

**kick**
**kick**
**kick**

Have you met more than a couple of hundred people in your whole life? Statistically, you would have come across aspies.

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TheMachine1
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25 Apr 2007, 10:46 pm

It was 1981 when Lorna_Wing wrote the first English paper* on aspergers and coined name . Hans Asperger gave it another name "Autistischen Psychopathen" or Autisic Pyschopathy. So unless some ex-nazi war criminal who read his paper between Oct 1943 and 1981 then no one in an English speaking country heard of it.

*http://www.mugsy.org/wing2.htm

The next major milestone I guess in it being know was in Jan 1992 with the publishing of
Autism and Asperger Syndrome by Uta Frith who provide a complete translation of Hans
Aspergers paper.

Which means you had about zero chance before 1981 in an English speaking country to
be diagnosed with aspergers. Slightly better than no chance between 1981 and 1992.

So if you were already 22 in 1992 like I was you likely were toold to make the connection. For the record I consider myself social phobic before 1992 and avoidant
personality after words.

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