Can AS get worse?

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the most important thing is to know who you are.

I'm sorry if I have offended you SotiCoto. I am just thinking purely from a medical, and what I thought was a logical view. I work with children on the spectrum and professionals I have worked with have talked about it in that way so I thought that was the correct way to describe it. You obviously disagree, and of course you have the right to your opinion.

That's the problem, right now I don't know who I am.

Semantically speaking, I think use of the word "worse" in this thread by the original poster means an increase in anxiety, stress, panic.... "feeling" worse. That's fair use of the word for someone who doesn't know much about the AS community.

"Worse" as used by other people means "less valid", "less right to exist", in the political sense. Yes, the poster shouldn't get to feeling like that, so fair enough to be corrected. But at the same time, perhaps everyone can give each other a break. We are trying to help each other, right?

Jesus, writing that just drained the hell out of me. I'm logging out for a while.

I don't get offended; I get bemused.
And even if I were getting offended, the fault would be mine and not your own. You're not a mind-reader, and I don't ascribe to the absurd neurotypical tendency to place the blame on those without the choice rather than those with it.

There is no "correct" way to describe it. There is simply the pro-neurotypical way, and the pro-autistic way, and I ascribe to the latter... primarily in defiance of the overly prevalent former. Academically and logically speaking, I know that "value" is a delusion and neither end is any better or worse... but I do have my personal bias to take into account, and the necessity of opposition for the status quo.



No matter how much they may assume they know.... most medical "specialists" on the subject will tend to be neurotypicals, and thus have the natural neurotypical bias against all that is not perfectly normal and average. Yes, they will promote that view, so no... I cannot really blame you for mimicing them. Consider this extra data to contribute to your own particular viewpoint that they might have denied you.

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Last edited by SotiCoto on 29 May 2008, 5:30 am, edited 1 time in total.

i'm glad i stuck around for that one.

nice one.

Firstly , thank you RobinHood for sticking up for me, I was beginning to wish I hadn't even sent the original post. I just wanted some support, but seemed to provoke mostly negative reactions.

And SotiCoto I am now understanding what you are saying. I am grateful that you have opened my eyes to this alternative point of view. I suppose I shouldn't rely on professional's points of view so much, they are often wrong. Especially with AS as I am becoming to realise!

and we all lived happily ever after

wow, that was so heavy i had to go away and calm down.

soticoto's explanation rocks. but when you're new in town, fresh out of NT land, it's hard to factor that stuff in straight away. persevere. i'm sensing it's like the initiation rites or something. every culture has them, right. i think sometimes the new younger kids get fried out by it from what i've seen, which is a shame. be nice, guys. but once you've got the explanation though, it really helps a lot of things.

i tell you, all this empathy is killing me. computing emotions and motives and then responding with empathy entirely through a self-devised and complex system of subtle mathematical logic has got to be a mindblower at the best of times. even at this distance. not to mention that half the time it doesn't work! i'll need the rest of the day off.

good luck on wrongplanet - this one here, and that one out there! you'll be grand.

i think it would be useful to discuss things face-2-face with others

have you tried looking on "meet up" thread ? http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt41284.html

i see your near London (me too) - there are some people who meet up fortnightly on that thread in the area, would like to myself but hanging back for time being since i just dont do social things much

When I discovered I had AS (and I'm 40, so I have considerably time and experience spent in covering with it) I was relieved as I finally felt like I knew why I was like I am.

I realized that I wasn't a freak, and finally started to accept my differences and not get so down on myself.

At that point I noticed that some things got worse. Because I stopped covering, and pretending and acting, it seemed that my symptoms (behaviours) worsened. In addition, things that I hadn't done since I was a child started happening again. I even started to hand-flap again. My stims increased, and I forgot how to make emotions with my face.

But it wasn't that they were worse at all. I just stopped covering it all up. They were always there...I just stopped them, or acted differently so I wouldn't be considered wierd.

Don't worry, it will even out. I'm back now...I suppress some things just to get along in a majority NT world. It will take a while, but just relax and find your center. It was very disturbing for me during that time, as I began to wonder, as you, if it could get worse. But I've come around.

The difference is that now, I allow myself to engage in certain behaviours that would seem odd to people, because I know that's just how I am. I have accepted myself. I don't care if people don't like it...if I feel like it, I'll explain, otherwise, I don't. Take it or leave it...you know?

Maybe telling your family would help you.

I usually don't bother.
It isn't worth the effort.... and besides, showing the harsher "real" side of yourself really sorts the wheat from the chaff.

.

Can it get worse? Depends. If life gets more pressured, or if we have more to cope with, we are less able to disguise the problems, so it might seem like it's got worse. In reality, we've just got worse at disguising stuff?

In my case, I think have improved by what people have said. Anyway, it really depends on the person in the end.

edit

Last edited by Sorenna on 31 May 2008, 10:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

I'm going through the same thing, but I'm not sure either (been told I was bipolar or shizophrenic... though I don't have some of the major symptoms of those disorders.) But anyway, I catch myself stimming in public, spinning things, I realize when I'm in the car with others I say little if they don't say anything else first except about unusual license plates... I can auto count large numbers (I made a thread on that one) I know for a fact more than one person thought I was AS before I knew what it was, actually thats a bit different, I came to accept who I was and didn't think I was seen as "different" when I really was. As an adult I mean, I was considered ADHD/ED/shizo as a child and put in special ed for my outbursts. I mean, I used to love saying I was the biggest girl nerd I knew, but reciently when someone called me a nerd I just wondered if I was getting worse.

Oh and I learned the dangers of smalltalk from my former roommate, I highly suspect she was spectrum too, but she disliked labels in general, and now I see why.

Oh and another thing (second edit) I do notice the AS traits more when I'm really stressed, and I've had a past of haveing meltdown-like episodes at stressful jobs. So if it bothers you, try to relax

Last edited by Angnix on 29 May 2008, 3:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Has no one here had a stress-related regression?... This is pretty obvious: When a human being is stressed, their functioning level drops. When an Aspie is stressed, it drops more because we're more sensitive. A stressed Aspie is less able to use Aspie strengths just as a stressed NT becomes worse at socializing.