My project on Autism and Asperger's

Post Reply New Topic

hi, i am doing a project on Asperger's and Autism and would like to have some quotes to put into my writing. i do not know many aspies or autists so i am hoping people here are ok with me using their words in my work.

i would like to be able to write about the effect of eye contact, sensory issues and what happens in a overload, why routines are important, how the world seems to them, why a particular stim feels good, anything you can think of that i might be able to use.

people's experiences would be great to have in the project and variation would be great to show people that not autists and aspies are the same.

if you choose to do this then please state whether you are officially diagnosed and if so please state the diagnosis any anything else that you have been diagnosed with.

i am writing about what autism and asperger's are, whether asperger's is a type of ASD or not as i heard there is debate here, brain anatomy, fMRI's if i can find suitable ones, mirror neuron deficits.

if there is anything else you think i should write about please say so i can include it if i agree.

also if you know anything interesting about the origins of ASD then please say as well.

Thank you.

Cellardoor

Hi
Reading this post has made really realize how little I actually know about Asperger's, so you definitely shouldn't quote me at all. There are probably others here that will want to help you, but I'd say your best bet is to get a book.
What sort of 'project' is it that you need information for for?
Tom

I think a paper on the differences of Classic Autism and Asperger's and such would be great because Autism for most people (non Aspies etc.) brings up cognitive impairment etc. So the differences between the two sounds good. Also what makes us different compared to NT's special interest,meltdowns etc. are topics that can be discussed. Example lets say something at work gave you a meltdown well question your worker who's NT how would THEY have handled it compared to you an Aspie (quote them on that for the part on meltdowns.) Also describe the varieness of AS and how we all don't have the same traits. (Look around on WP or something here for traits differences.) Alot of ideas for a paper (HEY when I get back in College I should do a research paper on Asperger's LOL!)

the project is what i choose it to be. it is called an EPQ which stands for extended project qualification, i get to write about what interests me in an essay, that is 5000 words minimum. i am bad at writing essays but i want to do this project.

you dont have to know much about this topic to be helpful, personal experience is great. then i can write about real events, not just textbook facts. sinse i am not officially diagnosed i can't use my own experiences, also this would not show enough variation and would be bias so i wouldnt be able to do this anyway.

if someone does chose to let me quote them in my work, then please state whether they would like to stay anonymous in my work or have their name written down, i am ok with both.

does this help?

I am officially Dx, but just recently so I am still learning about what my version of AS is. I am very high functioning, probably just barely AS, but enough that it's definitely affected my life and choices.

I've had difficulty making and maintaining friendships my whole life. Though I've had lovers and partners, the relationships have been troubled, partly by my anger, my need for 'space' and not being able to meet the emotional needs of my partner.

I have worked, but the longest I held a job was 3 years. Before that it'd been maybe 1 year before I got fired. I haven't worked in 10 years and I'm not sure I could anymore.

I don't particularly feel anxious in social situations, I'd describe it as more feeling awkward. I'm known for my blunt honesty, for unwittingly saying what everybody is thinking (but knows better than to say), and for my unusual perspective.

I have voice inflection, a sense of prosody, but knowing when it's OK to interrupt is often challenging, as I was raised to not interrupt though I often do. I'm just trying to figure out how to do it without angering or diminishing the other person.

I would have said I don't really have rigid routines, but I've noticed this week that when a friend of mine who usually responds to my emails within a couple days hasn't, my anxiety has rocketed up. I check several times a day to see if she's written. The routine exchange has been disrupted and it's quite disturbing.

Other than that, I would say I have some very strong preferences, but generally not doing what I usually do doesn't result in meltdown. This is an area that is still becoming clear to me, as I think it's more subtle than the average AS/HFA.

I do line up my shoes and pens and vitamins. But my housekeeping leaves a lot to be desired, as I follow more the clutter style of organization... this is my tax pile, this is my catalog pile, these are my reading pile (lots of those), this is my clothes pile.

I am more prone to shut downs, withdrawals, than meltdowns these days. It's a real sense of inertia, overload of the intellect. The agility of my thinking goes way down, my whole experience just sort of numbs out, shuts out more stimulus. Things that are usually perceived as sharp and clear become dulled, distant, blunt. It is hard to move. Once I am able to move, I start with the mindless things... sweeping the kitchen floor, making the bed, straightening my piles. Eventually the intellect begins to rev up again. A shutdown can last from hours to days.

When I do have a meltdown, it's zero to 60 in the blink of an eye. No warm up, no gradually increasing anger... nothing and then POW! I'm furious. And it can be over just as quickly, like all the air leaving a balloon. Pfffft.

I have 3 special interests... Buddhism, gardening, and western US history. Though at this point in my life, my memory isn't as good as it used to be, and I was never good at dates, and am more a generalist than a minutiae sort of person. For example, I don't know the scientific names of the things I grow, but I know what they like, where they like to be planted, what bugs like to eat them and how to deal with those bugs (whose scientific name I also don't know).

All you want to know about ASDs are sumarized here:
http://www.rdos.net/eng/aspeval (includes a list of about 1,400 possible ASD-traits, their relevance and relation to other traits).
http://www.rdos.net/eng/asperger.htm is also useful for theoritizing about the origin.

Thankyou Donkeybuster and rdos, thats very useful.

Donkeybuster, am i allowed to use what you said in my work? it's ok if im not, i would just like to know what my boundaries are.
if i am then would you like me to not write your name on my work or would you like to be named, again i am ok with both.

rdos those websites are very useful, thankyou very much.

Yes, you can quote me and use my tag DonkeyBuster. I'd also be happy to answer any specific questions you have about my experience.

I realize I didn't mention sensory issues... I have very acute hearing, so I've never liked loud anything, preferring acoustic music, quiet restaurants, libraries working with animals and living in the country. The buzz of flourescent lights makes it hard to concentrate and will eventually give me a headache.

I can't hold a conversation with a TV picture playing in the room, even with the sound off, the movement is too distracting and my eyes do the 'lock on phasers' thing. So visually I am strongly drawn to movement, a plus when driving as any aberration in the flow of the other cars immediately gets my attention.

I wear soft, loose clothing and usually the same thing day after day... jeans, T-shirts, flannel shirt. I don't like the feel of air on my skin, so I always wear long sleeves.

I have one-to-one functional friendships involving my special interests. I do relate better to things and ideas than people, though that's improved as I've worked on it over the years.

DonkeyBuster, you are so helpful!! thank you very much, now at least parts of my work will make sense haha.

can i ask if you are a boy or girl, again if you would rather not say that is fine, i only ask because i am writing a bit on the boy:girl ratio as Tony Attwood has written an interesting article on girls being underdiagnosed.

Thanks again.

I'm happy to help out.

I am a 51-year old woman. The Dx didn't even exist when I was younger, though I probably wouldn't have been Dx'd as my mother was averse to counseling, considering it a sign of moral failure or something. I did well-enough in school, though I was a bit of a discipline problem... some of the rules just didn't make sense, like why girls had to wear skirts when it was freaking cold outside. LOL

My brother is a Kanner's autist, in his 40's now and living in a supervised group home with another Kanner's autist. He doesn't communicate except to say he's hungry, which he uses the sign language for.

I'm sorry others aren't responding to your request with their own experiences... you stated it very clearly. It's a mystery to me.

*how u feel when u make eye contact?i dont have many eye contact issues but lets just image a situation where someone would be angry and tell em to look em at the eye maybe i could look but my mind would be plank i would just stare him i feel like threatened

*describe sensory issues? me i love pressure gentle touch is intolerable

*what happens when in overload?i usually go in meltdown mode and bang my head if source of overload aint quiting

*why u like routines?everyone likes that at some degree now easiest way to explain this =if u just love some tv show in level where u HAVE TO look it every time ...well thats how it feels like to like routines also they bring someting stable to day

*how the world seems to them?

*why a particular stim feels good? for me its way to cope it gives me that small moment off my own time in busy world also if u smoke after long time again u know how good it feels ...i feel sameway when i stim

Hiya I have just competed a Post Grad Cert in Autism at Uni distance learning (was doing an MEd but no funding for the second year! Uggg) and have a full bibliography of very many current peer reviewed papers that investigate the neuroscience of autism, the physiology and the science behind it...together with the interventions, policies and differences in spectrum conditions. What works, what doesn't and why.....anything I can do just yell! And YES I am diagnosed and have created many new interventions for children on the spectrum wherever they are placed!

www.jelibean.com/

wow thats very impressive jelibean, thankyou very much as i am interested in both. Which ASD are you diagnosed with?

Followthereaper90, thankyou for your experiences, i am much the same as you with my experiences except i dont like to look at peoples eyes. i wish i was diagnosed so i could write my own experiences, oh well. Thankyou for clarifying my questions, i would have been confused about what to write if i saw that too, i didnt think about that at all which was stupid of me, so thanks.

hehe Donkeybuster i was kind of hoping you would be a girl just so i could include you in my ratio section. there seem to be a different AS for boys and girls and because there are more boys than girls being reffered to psychiatrist then a steryotype is formed into which many of the girls dont fit.
my mother is similar to yous in that sense, for some reason the possibility of AS means shes failed or something, silly.


This is all very helpful, thankyou. of course, feel free to keep posting, i will use as much as i can in my work!