are delusions or paranoia in anyway related to AS?

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as a kid I had these really odd "delusions", I guess you would call them. I remember never being able to sleep at night because I was positive aliens were in my room/house. Once I was in bed and I needed to get up for something, I thought if I didn't run as fast as I could in a certain time limit and got out of the room in that time limit they would blow me up with a push of the button on a remote they kept.

I have been through periods where I swore people could read my thoughts, so I would try to block out my thoughts. Also I've gone through periods where I've thought nothing was real and life was just simply a game all set up just for me.

I don't really have this problem anymore as bad anyway. I still get extremely paranoid and I have to check behind everything in my room etc upon entering it. I sometimes think someone who is out to murder me is following me in my house, lurking in the shadows.

Is that all just me being a kid and being paranoid or are those delusions or am I totally wrong? Is that related to AS?

Thanks.

Last edited by buryuntime on 31 Dec 2008, 1:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

I don't know that it's really related to AS. In kids, though, that kind of magical thinking is normal enough. In an adult, it's not entirely impossible, but it can go too far and become a problem.

You have a lot of insight--you know that despite how real it feels, it's your paranoia playing with you. That makes me think it's not really too serious--especially since it doesn't seem to be really interfering with your life.

If there were a lot of this kind of thing, and if it were getting in the way, you might want to be evaluated for something like schizotypal personality disorder... Or you could skip the evaluation and just ask for some training in handling things when you feel like people are reading your thoughts, or dealing with feelings of unreality...

How do you handle it now? Does it cause a problem, or can you acknowledge the feelings, understand that they're not real, and go on with your day?

Yeah, I don't think it's really related to AS. But I used to find reality pretty unconvincing too. That is, I was never sure if reality was real. Now I've decided that there's no way to actually answer that question, so I just act as if it's real if/when I feel like it. What you're experiencing sounds more like paranoia than delusions though. If you were absolutely convinced that others could hear your thoughts and did not believe that your perception was wrong or unusual, perhaps that would be called a delusion. But as Callista said, you are able to look at your behaviour and beliefs and say that they are not logical. If you were truly deluded then the odd behaviours would seem perfectly logical to you.

I hope I've made sense there.

As a kid I was obsessed with the idea that I was the subject of an alien experiment, being fed sensory information so my reactions could be studied, kind of like a Matrix for one. Outside of the experiment, I was really an alien, and my body was made more of energy than matter.

Other autistic friends of mine have had similar obsessive thoughts of unreality, but I don't know if it's any more common for us overall. The experiences that you mention could have their basis in typical AS problems though. The concept of aliens could be an exaggeration of feeling different than everyone else. Hey, look at our mascot here The idea that other people could read your thoughts isn't that far off from the experiences that we report here of what eye contact feels like.

While I can relate to some of your experiences and perceptions for me they were part of youth. I don't have much paranoia, I'm too naive to be paranoid. The 'unreality' or dream like quality of life is a characteristic of AS, I believe a lot of us feel that way about life. Like callista (I think) said, you might want to investigate schizotypal PD, it'd be worth a look, but maybe you're just a more paranoid aspie.

About people reading your thoughts, in AS I think that's more like 'how do they know what I think?', like a TOM thing, an inability to see that people gossip and make good guesses as to one's mental state as a normal part of socialising and figuring out social strategies. It can seem like mindreading and I think even textbooks use that word, but really it's just how they process body language and make educated guesses about people's thoughts and to us, that process is mystifying because we are largely unable to do it. To the average NT, aspies can be very obvious, as in easily read, that's what makes us vulnerable.

Can't quite relate to the alien aspect but had similar hang-ups about, for example, getting from one place to another in a certain time, number of steps & such.
Hypermorphic's statement about eye contact strikes a chord with me too, tho. Never tried to explain it before but it's kinda like (for myself) scary, sorta like what we nowdays refer to as "crossing one's boundries", only worse than getting into my mind but perhaps into my soul.
On a more physical level it's rather like a challenge (especially with guys) and I don't like confrontation.

I have an additional diagnoses of Breif Psychotic Disorder. My psychiatrist said that some people with Asperger's Syndrome can get it.
I used to believe the same thing as you about the aliens. I think a lot of it stemed from when I was obsesssed with the planets (that was my special interest) and it developed onto being interested in aliens and then that was it.... I became scared as hell that aliens were after me. I remember seeing a scene in a film where a man was being abducted by aliens and he went onto the ship and it was bright yellow... and I always remember being afraid of going to sleep thiking I would wake up in this bright yellow room.

I remember sometimes after I had a meltdown I'd realise how little I relate to people and I would think that it's because I'm not a human myelf and I'm actually a reincarntion of a spirit working for the archangels to find out more about humans and to observe.

Then I went through an episode not that long ago actually where I became obsessed with Heath Ledger and for a couple of days I thought he was haunting me then it got to the point where I was thinking that I may have killed him. Very confusing.

Then I thought that I caused the earthquake in England back in Feb this year... becuase that night I asked spirits to make something move/shake and a few hours later the earthquake happens.

I also hear voices sometimes too. But it's mainly my mind misinterpreting another sound although sometimes I'll hear a TV on and it sounds like a news chanel or a chatshow but there's no TV on... really sureal... strangly enough though, my mum gets that too.

anyway, so I don't think paranoia/delusions etc are really a big part of AS but I think it is possible that they can comorbid since my shrink said they can and I have breif psychotic disorder.

Charlie

i don't think its AS maybe its psychosis or mild schizophrenia

I don't think it's mild schizophrenia because it's really a bebilitating condition and from my experience it's not intense.. not like it would be for someone with schizophrenia.
also mild schizophrenia is in essence schizoid and schizotypal personality disorders which I have already been tested for before arriving at the correct diagnoses of AS.

Like I said, AS can comorbid with Brief Psycotic Disorder.

Is it possible to have both?

I stim, can't make eye contact, and other things that point to AS not schizo which is why I was wondering if paranoia and such were in anyway related to AS.

Oh, and thanks for the replies everyone.

I think high stress levels can tip you over the edge into some type of delusional or psychotic state, but that's the same for 'normal' people too.

I think my autism caused my so called delusions, therefore causing my schizoaffective disorder. I don't believe I have delusions but to the outsider it definitely looks like delusions because they sound weird but it is real to me. The government has told me throught thought insertion that they put a bomb in my neck and I feel the pressure and hear it occasionally, that I am the cause of the current economic crisis, that there is a brain chip in me implanted by aliens and the government because they are fighting for control over my body and lose control of my arms and legs sometimes because of them, that there is a spy satellite that is armed with lasers and it might shoot me if I make the wrong move (especially outside and in the car), there are nanobots inside of me and I feel them crawling from within (I just love the gov), the aliens think I have a special purpose for them but I don't know what, there are cloaked FBI/CIA agents in my house (sometimes I hear their footsteps), that I will become a robot from the future, the bomb is very powerful (more powerful than a nuke). I don't believe that I am psychotic in any way shape or form because there is evidence that all this is taking place. They tell me it is happening and I feel it, see it, hear it, and sometimes smell it. Soon I must cut out that bomb because I want to succeed in life and save the world! I don't want to die.

It's entirely possible to have both. My nephew has severe Aspergers and about 8 other mental and developmental disorders. Having AS and schizo is just as possible as being NT and Schizo.

And just because you believed in aliens as a child does not make you schizo. Schizo is a very severe and complicated disorder. Believing in alien experimentation as a youngster is more a product of growing up in the modern world surrounded by fantasy tv and video games and all day 24 hours of UFO show marathons on the History channel. It is no reflection of you; its a reflection of our culture.

As far as paranoia go there is a slight correlation but ONLY because Aspies sometimes get bullied and abused so severely they eventually develop PTSD which then causes paranoia. Though PTSD is not the only way to be paranoid.

My younger sister has delusional disorder. Especially episodic delusions and grandiose delusions and even some persecutory delusions . She can be highly sociable and enjoys being a really party animal but she in the end seems to have made a lot more enemies than friends over the years. She can quickly turn and make an enemy of a friend if they question her delusions or attempt to prove to her accounts of stories she tells are false and patently untrue.

I have had disordered and delusional thinking. For many years I thought I must have some kind of soft schizophrenia. The way I saw the world was discombobulated and strange. Having read WP for a few years it does seem that people with AS certainly can have a degree of delusional thinking. I've seen and written posts like this here many times before.

My delusional thinking has decreased with age... if that is any comfort. Though during times of stress it re-emerges.

i do not think AS is an area where delusions can flourish.

delusional people do not reality test in a sufficient way, and i know i am almost always in the process of reality testing.

(i was going to write ---"delusional people do not reality test in a sufficient way, and i know AS people are almost always in the process of reality testing." but i do not want to talk on anyone else's behalf)

delusional people are "convinced" by scant and erroneous data.
i am never convinced even with professorial tutelage.

i am never at risk of being deluded. i am blind and basal, and i have no false beliefs.

paranoia is kind of funny to me. i know it is nothing to be laughed at, but i think it is entertaining to read case histories of paranoid people.

like they may think there are small cracks in their walls and there are people spying on their every move through those cracks.

or they think that they saw some crack in the footpath that spelled their name.

that is the height of distrust....

they can not relax and be themselves because they are frightened that they are not what the universe is happy with. then they get paranoid and feel "apart" from the universe.

they feel scrutinised by the "gods" of their beliefs and they feel as if they failed to impress them.

then their mind becomes incapable of further logic and is consigned to severe inertia (like catatonia in some instances) for a while.

i do not know anything about this but this is my thoughts.