My First Post <take two>

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Ok, had a little brower accident. I hate losing stuff.

First off I'd like to say, you're all a bit lucky, this post was initally much longer. However, due to some Technical Difficulties, much has been lost <I assure you, those responsible will be sacked> but don't be sad, It'll come back eventually

more firstly I'd like to introduce myself, my name is Andy, i'm 33 years old, and live in suburb of chicago <GO CUBS>

second, I have been recently diagonosed with mild to moderate AS with heavy primarly innatentaive type ADD.

I feel like this a place where I am comfortable, the very first time I clicked I this site, I just Knew. Like Night and Day.

I've also known I've thought differently then most others, and for many years, I was only diagnosed with ADD and while that fits alot of memory and concentration problems, it never quite nailed down this.

I'm not on any medication at the moment....I took ritalin for about oh I don't know, about 3 months, and couldn't deal with the side effects.

I've been seeing social workers, speech therapists <once in grade school>, etc etc my whole life and the dots never connected till now.

My strengths lie in my Vocabarly and ability to analaze words to their roots and beyond. and everyones allowed to groan with me, I'm a Proud Member of Geekdom for life.
Some of my many interests, I've been a doctor who fan since I was about 13 years old. Sci-fi and fantasy are my two favorite reading genres, I'm a pretty big fan of dean koontz mind thrillers <although a bit burned out atm>. I can go on, but I'll leave it at that for now

While my Vocabulary is on the exceptional range, my social and emotional skills are lower. I have a terribly working memory, yet my mind races a billion miles an hour sometimes and its near impossible to shut off. I won my 4th grade spelling bee by one day, I've been called a human dictionary before. I was bullied my whole life, I have some pretty deep scars from it, but its something im working on I have been in alot of romantic relationships, more then I care to list, they've always crashed and burned...you can't go back in time, but at least I know now I figure if I get lucky I'll find someone, at least I can finally learn to look for the type of person I need.

its always been hard for me to remember conversations, faces? forget about it. When People talk to me and when I speak, I don't see pictures, I see words. quite literally.

Anywho, I'll save some steam for some other posts, I hope to get to know as many of you as I can in time, and i'll try to speak up when I can

Cheers Good People,

Andy

Welcome to WP!

Nice to meet you, Andy.

Welcome to WrongPlanet Andy.

To WrongPlanet!! !

Parts of your story sound like mine.

Hey Andy,

Welcome to WP.

Don't worry about the technical glitches, that's the browsers way of telling you that you've written too much.

Cool Dr Who.. I've been a fan since I was 4, but then, I was in one of the countries where it showed right back in the sixties. It came to the US a bit late.

I'm an aspie and my son is too - but my son also has the ADD commorbid. He's currently on Ritalin and is 7.

I've got a post on my blog at the moment about Ritalin - I did a test myself.

What does Ritalin really feel like - A personal experience

I'd be really keen to hear what side-effects you had.

Also, I'm quite interested in your inability to recall conversations. Is that conversations in general or just recent ones? One Aspie trait is the ability to recall conversations and events verbatim years later. I'm wondering if the ADD comorbid is interfering with this ability. If so, it could be affecting my son too.

Anyway... Welcome ! !

Welcome!
I'm new here too. But you get familiar with this place fast.

Well, I'll try to explain the side-effects of ritalin I had as best as I can. Well, it did improve my concentration, and ability to hold and recall immediate conversations, but I couldn't shut it off AT ALL, I always have trouble with flow of conversation, but the medicine amplified it unbearably, I literally couldn't stop talking. and it made me VERY Jittery.

Yes, I believe it does, for example I can recall being 5 years old, this one day with crystal clarity. <insert fade scene> I'm so excited I remember saying to myself, my parents are letting me stay up past 10pm!! ! to watch the presidential election this is so cool!, I had no idea who the 2 guys were on the screen or the silly looking elephant and donkey.
Honestly most of the Events I can recall with clarity, are of the abuse and torture I got when I was in school, from the kids and the adults. I could tell you exactly what the conversations were.

The doctor I saw, read me three stories, each story was 25 words or so, after each story he asked me to repeat it, I was able to get maybe 4 to 6 words of the three stories. I think the curve is highest around 12. Let me try to explain it, best I can....its like he'd read the first sentence, I'd put that sentance in my head, he'd go on to the second sentance and I'd be trying to listen to that while holding on to the first sentance...ok at this point thats like maybe 10 words, they literally start to disappear from my minds eye, so I'd have to concetrate even harder to hold on to them, so while i'm busy trying to hold those words in, i've already lost the next sentance or so, maybe a word popped in, buy the time I had to repeat the stories, I was lucky to get 6 words.

well if this made completely no sense, feel free to ask for a clarification, best way I can explain to what happens to me in conversations.

ps. thanks everyone for saying hi, and to those said hi but didn't type it, and to those that said hi but couldn't say hi back.

Wow, you sound a lot like me, too!

I was told I had ADD and put on ritalin for awhile when I was younger. Didn't pan out cause I guess it made me act like a zombie.

I am a 45 yr old woman whose now 18 yr old son was diagnosed last year with Asperger's, ADD and Anxiety Disorder. In addition, he and I have Osler-Weber-Rendu. I was never diagnosed, but I'm pretty sure I've had Asperger's, ADD and Anxiety my whole life. You would think after having a nervous breakdown in my 30's that I might have gotten the Anxiety diagnosis! I have very little faith in doctors.

Anyway, my son is a senior in high school and is always failing 2 subjects at a time. The school is offering no help. He seems depressed at times, and other times, like he is always right. I read somewhere that bi-polar is often seen with Asperger's. Has anyone found this to be true? My brother-in-law is bi-polar.

My son was accepted at the local university, but I'm not even sure he'll make it through high school. Will college be easier for him? For those who have gone through this, care to offer advice??

Linda in PA

gbollard: about ritalin:
I wanted to know what it was doing to my daughter who who weighs more than I do, so when we ended up with an extra month's worth of the medication (I had stored ahead for Y2K) I took it for a month. It did absolutely nothing for or to me except my mind went fuzzy tired two hours later in the day than usual. I did not get addicted. I wonder what all the fuss is about. Reading other people's experiences is fascinating.

WELCOME!

I'm trying not to turn this into a ritalin discussion but I have a couple more points;

Ritalin doesn't work against aspergers, only against the ADD comorbids. (ie: if you have ADD/ADHD and Aspergers, it will only treat the effects of ADD/ADHD).

lelia: Ritalin apparently has "some" effects on people without ADD/ADHD but it's usually not noticible.

Funny, that's a side-effect that I noticed too but I wasn't sure if it was the ritalin or not. Now I'm sure - thanks.

Also Badandy: Your short and long term memory experiences really fit the profile of aspergers.

Finally: Darkmother: Bipolar is a comorbid of aspergers (ie: often seen with - or as part of). College won't be easier as often the default number of subjects given to students is often excessive. He might find that part-time study is more effective.

I want to add a few things, i've learned today., this also relates to the ritalin...but its not about it. I just started taking Vyvanse, it is a new deliviary system for the drug lisadexamfetamine dimesylate, it is the add drug that was created/found? in 1937.

I have only been taking it one day, and in the 12 hours it was active it improved my concentration, sentance flow, and memory amazingly well, I have yet to feel ANY bad side effects, I'll keep you updated. <one day isn't much info > I still did motor mouth but thats just the aspergers not a side effect. so much I lost my voice but it wasn't uncomfortable , but cheering at the cubs game aggrivated it a bit. No Jitteriness, like I had with the ritalin, its simply not there. I feel VERY comfortable with this medicine so far, at least at first, we'll see I want to make a post while im on the medication tomorrow.

I've had an extrememly LONG day, Me and my one and single friend, I've known him for 15 years, he's one of the real diamonds out there. A rare gem indeed.

Oh right story, well we drove from chicago to cincinatti, about 5:30 hours each way, and we Went to the Great American Ballpack for the Cubs Vs. Reds Game. CUBS WIN! 3-0!, we sat in the second row on the on the third base line, It was cool, a very beautifull ballpark, and as Terrifying it is being around so many people, i managed myself fairly well.

The Drunk loud obnoxious fan <6 INNINGS EVERY PITCH> was about a 2 on my anxiety scale out of 10, what jumped my anxiety to 5 was the fact he was upsetting the mother and her 2 youngish daughters sitting besides myself enough so that they had to leave , that seriously pissed me off, but I just went back to baseball and tryed not to think about it too much, had a WONDERFUL time. I had a bit of anxiety on the trip, he likes to drive a bit too close to other cars for my comfort zone. But that barely lasted maybe 30 mins of the whole drive.

But since my diagonosis, other then the 6 or so meltdowns in the last four days. to learn how explain those anxieties to myself, at least I know what to anlalyze and that gives me the abilty to put words to my aspergers...for the first time in 33 years, I've acheived some freedom from the unknown, some of the scars of bullying don't hurt as much. I'm starting to be able to form a picture of WHO I am for the first time a piece that was missing from my puzzle , and for me thats making it a bit easier and slowly a few of the unknowns about myself are becoming the knowns to me now.

well so much for the i'm going to type one sentance when I get home and go to bed idea

<yawns sleepily>

your friend,

Andy

p.s. at some random point in the wibbly wobbly timey wimey possibly near, close and/or far future, I'm going to copy all of my posts and start my journal. Never felt comfortable using a blog before I found this place, so I may need a just a Wittle Wit of extra time.

expanding on the view of myself abit, I have always been an analyst with excellent vocubarly, but I never knew how to speak. How can one possibly explain others when you cant explain yourself? people would tell me somethin along the lines of "theres something wrong with you", the analyst in me heard that and I thought Ok, while I didn't think something is wrong with me, I knew I was different. Now that Im learning my weakness, I can analyze them, and nothing escape my analyasis. I feel alive for the first time in my life, I'm learning how to explain myself to others in a way they can understand because now Im beginning to understand myself, and i feel like im finally free. The aspergers will always be there, I am comfortable wth that now I can explain and analyze it. I am 5 days old in society, but Im a quick learner when I know what the problem is, if I know what the problem is, I can analyaze a way to fix it.

Another thing, my whole life I've had a terrible confusion over what empathy and emotions are, I had them reversed, I analyzed it and its been corrected. Now I can learn how to analyze people correctly because I know who I am I finally found my toolbelt.

good things to come, the anger is slowly fading

your friend in time,

Andy