AS-D The view to "Disorder"

Post Reply New Topic

What do you mean, it hasn't gotten you anywhere? What exactly were you trying to accomplish? Not only have you not been diagnosed with Asperger's, you don't even seem to understand what it is. Why do you think that autism is essentially the diagnosis that new/expecting parents fear most? Tell a mother her child has Asperger's and watch the emotional devastation play out. Do you think this is a coincidence? Imagine then saying to that mother, "Why are you upset? Asperger's isn't bad, it's just different. It's not like your child is disabled or anything." I would hope that mother would slug you in the eye.

To be honest, I think this need to classify everyone into a role/box is itself the problem - effective groups recognize each others strengths and weaknesses individually and work with what they have. I have been in plenty of groups which worked well despite missing some of the roles (tanks are particularly expendable, they just don't realize it). And the person quietly making money and crafting in the background is often just as important, but generally is ignored as part of the team because they don't fit one of the "roles" that someone came up with.

Actually, I'm beginning to notice a couple of more parents who seem to sort of want the label for their their children with broader autism phenotype. Very few, but more than last years and the year before as a result of that awareness of the existence of something called AS grows.

I heard people saying things like "he or she has other disorders like dyslexia and ADD, but now we know he or she is special!" and descriptions of supposed symptoms that went like "he or she likes to do it, but they don't need to do if it's inappropriate, who would?" and "he or she says they don't like being told to change seats in class, but they can do it as well as the other children can".

It leaves me speechless, but yeah.

Well, it all started after watching an interview of John Elder Robinson on TV. The way he described himself as being able to absorb knowledge like a sponge is very similar to my own experiences. Other than that, it really didn't sink in and hit me until I thought about it later.

I got curious and Google'd AS. I found my way here and I could really relate to many things. Then my whole life finally started to make sense. This is why I have no friends at school. This is why I haven't been successful in making friends since elementary school. This is why it's uncomfortable to look people in the eyes. This is why I hate small talk. This is why I would throw fits as a kid when I had to sit in a different seat. This is why I've always been obsessed with specific topics.

I could just about go on forever. As you said, before this, I never would have thought anything was wrong. I knew my brain worked differently, but I always downplayed it because I really thought it was all in my head (no pun intended). This website is the very proof that I was right this whole time, and that I'm not actually crazy.

Could I qualify for a diagnosis? Oh, absolutely. But I wouldn't necessarily consider it a disability. It just doesn't seem like it to me. I can do everything I both need and want to do. It's just that what I want to do is totally different from what a NT would want to do. It does impact my life greatly, but that doesn't mean I need support. The greatest problems with AS seem to be the co-morbid anxiety, depression, ADHD, etc., but luckily, I don't have any of that. All of my issues are specifically AS related, that I know of. Now, like I said, I could be wrong, but that's just the way I see it right now.

But, I know what you're going to say. I can't get a diagnosis of AS without impairment. Well, you're exactly right. I have impairment, but you have to ask yourself, impairment in what? I often don't say "hi" to people as they walk by. That count's as impairment in social interactions. But seriously, what kind of support do I need for that? Maybe I should have someone follow me around, like a bodyguard, to let people know that I don't mean to be rude.

And, Poke, if you don't have anything nice to say, you probably shouldn't say anything at all. You're the one acting like a fool here after I already stated that I was done arguing. My mother actually did not get all emotional when she discovered AS. Her reaction was that of guilt, because she always thought I was just being stubborn, and she was proved wrong. She was actually very accepting of it.

That's it; I'm not saying any more. I don't believe that AS itself is all that impairing, and if you can't respect my belief without questioning my intelligence, that's your problem. Autism is a spectrum, and affects everyone differently. Some people here cannot function without support, and if that's the case for you, I'm sorry. Maybe I should go make a donation to Autism squeaks so that you guys can be cured from your suffering.

It comes down to this:

You can not believe your AS is all that impairing. You don't have major issues with it, and this is good.

But saying that AS is never that impairing will offend us. Because it is that impairing for some of us, even itself, not co-morbids.

Making statements about yourself is reasonable. Making statements about others, and saying that we don't have problems which we do have because you don't have them is not reasonable.

It's a spectrum. You don't have major problems. I do. We both can fall into the area considered to be AS. We both are autistic. But we have different problems because its a spectrum. I can't assume that you have to avoid grocery stores because of scents, and you can't assume that I don't have to at times.

Great. I'm glad we could come to an agreement.

Wow what a topic that growed into!

Well, being an Aspie is being blind to subtext meaning between what people are saying, reading bodylangage needs me to concentrate and I lack emphathy. So my wife feels what she expects when someone got hurt or even when someone is sedated for an operation or alike and part of the medical operation can be watched, she flinsh and feels as if she would be the one on TV getting that and like she could feel all what gets done. I can't! Even when I got m knee operated in the clinic, I prefered a spinal sedation, so I could not feel only the lower part of my body and was able to watch every thing of the operation - I was only curios but never got any bad feelings. I was anxious about what comes after the OP, but nothing about the OP itself. When I see someone gets hurt, starts bleeding and such, I do not feel the pain, I will just start to think about how I can help practialy and not emotionaly. First aid comes first. Allways! And next helping socialy .... that's the more diffecult part of it all and I have my problems with that.

Talking and thinking different was all my life an issue socializing. I faced being avoided because of it, often bullied because of that. I do not need to tell more about that and what effect that had to me. You all know about that out of your own experiences...

There is no help or support for AS people in northern Germany. How can I get psychological help for the effects of the bullying of my childhood in school with being a Aspie as a starting point, having had psychology as a Special Interest for some years and know my ground there, being able to speak with psychologists on eye level? I cannot open up myself to unknown people, no matter if they have a degree in being psychologists or whatever. Only my wife and maby some closest friends are allowed to know me realy close. I trust them because I know and love them. I cannot do that with any others unknown to me. How can I get a treatment with this basis?

I even fear that psy-drugs medicine will do me things I cannot calculate. Do they will cange me? Do they will delete my free will? Do they change my way I feel and act on a way not good to me? Will it fall away when discontinue taking them?