Do you think AS is severe to you?

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i dont really think about it since ive never been "normal". i just get my collecting on and worry about the outcomes later

As I look at the notes I have compiled on my life, and examine my life today---I would have to say I think (and this is only my impression), I am in the moderate---middle---area of the Asperger's part of the autism spectrum. I have taken those Simon-Baron Cohen tests and score very high on the autism test. On the brain type chart I am in the lower right hand square which is clearly in the autistic brain type. I even had my wife go through the questions for my placement on the chart, and she scored me nearly the same.

I have to work to fit in at my job and at church and at...well, you get the idea. When I am alone, I often let myself relax and I appear very autistic. I believe that if I hadn't talked on time I would be labelled on the high end of moderate in classic autism. I am fairly certain of autistic individuals in my family. On my mother's side I had a "Rain Man" type cousin who was institutionalized in the infamous Athens (Ohio) Psychiatric Hospital. And there are 7 others on that side of the family with autistic type traits. This goes along with the genetic theory. I have also seen that over 50% of AS people had complications during or before birth. I had oxygen deprivation at birth and was delivered by an emergency C-section.

My father's side of the family also has some interesting members with unusual traits. My father for one, who isn't the best at social skills (and who walked late as an infant), can multiply 3 or 4 digit numbers in his head faster than one can with a calculator. So I think I was influenced genetically on both sides of my family.

With all this said---I want everyone here to know that I love being autistic. It has given me considerable pleasure in life. I love the gifts it has given to me. And it is the only way of life I have ever known.

I'm probably in the mild-very mild range socially. But sometimes my executive dysfunction gets the better of me but I usually come out of it OK.
I know an aspie whom I'm sure will never be truly independant.

I have no idea where on the line I stand, but not by any means severe. It could be mild? It could be moderate/average? I have never met other aspies so I can't compare my self.

II have the ability to manage through life at school, but I don't have the ability to get on well with my peers. I had my first friend when I was 8, nearly 9 years old. I only have the ability to talk to 1 person at a time (I especially hate being in a group of 3!)

From what I gathered taking those with AS and classical on WP and media representation of both in mind, then those symptoms that I have are mostly moderate for AS/HFA and some severe, whereas my function-level is definitely very HF.

I have no qualms about asking for services.

It's not as if the only 'true' disability is that one which puts a person drooling on the floor in a forever-vegetable-like state.

I mean, yes, I do not look different and I do not have a intellectual deficit - and I am HF now thanks due to my individual make-up and limitless motivation and daily struggling - but why would anyone think that a person with mild MR, physical disabilities and some sort of disorder or syndrome deserves services more than me (or deserves more services than me) when I am as disabled as they are?

I can do a lot of things they cannot do - but there's a lot they can do that I can absolutely NOT do either.

The problem for many people is, I think, that for example they cannot understand why a gifted young adult cannot possibly go into supermarket when a mildly to moderately mentally ret*d person with a physical disability and heath problems might in many cases be easily be trained to go into a supermarket and buy mild in their teenager years already.

Truth is, I for one can work in certain jobs, but I can't go to the nearby supermarket to buy milk.

Routines, repetitive behaviours, social deficits, dysfunctional verbal and non-verbal communication, deficits in self-help skills and adaptive behaviour - a lot of this a person with a plain intellectual deficit does not have. I do. That is my disorder.

It's as much a real, hard and severe disorder as that of someone who has other issues such as an inability to solve maths beyond 100 due to their MR.

I have every right to get expensive therapies and lots of support for being disabled and having a pervasive development disability.

Giftedness and an insightful personality doesn't somehow cure my severe disability and cure my inability to do many things and neither does it dissolve my need for HELP.

People think a person with normal intellectual or giftedness and a thoughtful character cannot be truly disabled. They rather think that they 'struggle' and 'have problem' but could do everything if they tried hard enough or long enough.

That's so dumb.

And that's why so many people with real non-intellectual, non-physical disabilities ask themselves if maybe 'they don't deserve it as much as those with MR and physical issues'.

I think it also leads to that many think that 'maybe I could do everything, people must be right that I probably just don't want to/want to do others things'. Because most of the world still thinks so, the disabled people themselves have issues recognising and admitting to their severe impairments and possible disability.

Thank god plain AS gets you a disability level of 80-100% and classical autism generally 100%.

At least government has moved on and learnt a bit.

You could also use that in a different context. Instead of that example being about the AS spectrum, you could use it as an example of Classic Autism vs. Asperger's. The difficulty opening the door could be Classic Autism, and the difficulty with the doorman could be Asperger's.

I think I'm very mild but what I saw in my school reports and medical records about me, I sounded pretty handicapped and slow. I would say I have always been mild but I was more of a low functioning aspie because I didn't get jokes or sarcasm and I was very very naive and gullible. I think the first time I ever did sarcasm was 1995 when I got mad at a little kid and I said "Thanks a lot Bobby" and my mother barked at me saying "Hey, he isn't even in Kindergarten yet, he didn't know." Then the second sarcasm I was doing was "Oh great" because I was picking up language from my peers in situations and copying them.

I was introduced to jokes when I was 8 but didn't understand them or find them funny because I was so literal.


I would still say I was mild but I was just slow. I came off as normal but came off as a brat who didn't care about others but myself and I was very bossy. I was just inflexible was all and everything my way was the right way and get upset when kids wouldn't listen to me or didn't want to play my way. I had to learn to loosen up to get kids to play with me.

Who knows where I would be if I never got the AS diagnoses. Would I still be here? I dunno. I know I probably would have come across AS anyway at age 15 when I was fixated on conditions and I was clicking on labels I have never heard. Hey what's Gulf War syndrome, what's Treacher Collin syndrome, what's Cornelia de lang (sp) syndrome etc. So I probably would have clicked on AS wondering "mm what's that?" and think "sounds like me" but still wouldn't be sure because I know I wouldn't have bothered keeping on reading about it because I didn't with other conditions. It's most likely I would have thought I don't have it because I be seeing the stereotypes and think "nah I don't have it because I am not good with math. I am not into sci fi, I am not much into computers or know how to create software and know how to fix them" so that would be ruled out for what it wrong with me.

That's true. I've grown up with the disabilities resulting from AS, yet still have doubts about myself and wonder whether I truly deserve services; this is in spite of not being able to live independently and so on. It doesn't help that local authorities deny these services and I have to keep writing to explain why I require them. My doctor also wrote to them saying there isn't sufficient expertise locally to help me and that he wants them to reconsider their decision about not funding me out of area because I remain "significantly disabled and distressed." Yet, deep down, I still feel some guilt for requiring services.

QFT - well said!


M.

Anything that is in the minority is considered a condition or a disability. If you have a different learning style, you are considered learning disabled. If you have a problem the majority doesn't have, it is considered a disability. If your hearing is in the lower range than the majority of where they have their hearing range at, you are considered to have hard of hearing. If your hearing is way above the majority where their hearing level is at, that is also considered a disability, hearing sensitivity.

i have no idea where i am or how i would be classified.
i have just gone back on a pension again. I have been on disability virtually my entire adult life, save for the past 5 years. and here i am again. whoopee.
i sell my paintings for good money when i sell them. But i am not selling a lot in this climate.

the prospect of work beyond sole practitioner work on my own as a painter/artist is not even on the agenda.
eg. i had to go to brisbane the other day for a radio interview. I did the hour long interview - was driven up there and was driven back by a friend as i cannot drive in the city, and the next three days i stayed in bed with sensory overload, migraine and vomiting. that is what happens to me out of routine, with too much contact with others and with random life throw at me. overload.

I always thought, prior to my dx, that because i duxed my final years at school - straight A - and because i duxed subjects at uni BEFORE dropping out (i dropped out three times 82, 83 and 1995) i was high achieving and high functioning.
I'm not. i'm a kind of disabled emotional and social cripple with an ok brain who no-one knows is a cripple so people expect even more from me than i can deliver and so i feel like even more of a dud as i get older. The dreams and hopes are fraying and tattered like a fading flag in the wind.

at least i am headed for the worms and the grave - that is if i do not get cremated - no longer in denial and at least partially accepting of what the f**k has been completely amiss and out of synch in me all these years.
hip hip hooray for small, small mercies.

anyone for a jig?

fhtbg, I'm not sure where I stand on this but, here is my thoughts on such from my own un-biased presentation.Yes, I've had a great difficulty in regards to doing well on a social level as often, making friendships and maintaining them is not very easy.In fact, I have very few offline friends to speak of but, neverless I do sincerely try though therefore, one can't say I'm hermitic or an anti-social individual whatsoever.. From an occupational standpoint, over the years I've done much in the way of what many would consider menial jobs as such, Janitor,File Clerk, Stock clerk etc but, do I feel ashamed as such? I shant lie unto you or others here for yes, I've felt like a mentally ret*d person however, realising everybody learns in different forms along with the fact, most times one can find his or herself in forms of employment which can be degrading. This does should not be looked upon as the end of the world for, currently I'nm trying to get an occupation within the city & state government where I live with much positive thoughts.. Personally, along with having AS there is the case of diabetes which, unpleasantly caused me to suffer moderate memory loss several years ago along with a deterioration of my executive functions yet, I'll do my best regardless..

ProfessorX

You just described me, too. People expect way more from me than I am able to give. And when you don't deliver, they act surprised and a bit let down. Teachers often said I wasn't working to my potential. They never spent enough time with me, how would they know? humph.



It has been good for me to accept that I have AS. So much is no longer a mystery now.