Hi There - I'm completely new to the community and really to the topic of Aspergers. The reason I'm researching Aspergers is because I have a 6-year old daughter who is currently having troubles in school and who is being evaluated for ADHD. In the course of my research on ADHD, I've come to realize she has some qualities that are common to both ADHD and Aspergers. In particular, she has problems with two-way conversations, obsessive behaviours, empathizing with others. I may mention this when I see her pediatrician in February for the ADHD evaluation. I personally wonder if she's always had issues and if we've missed them through her first 6 years of life. You see, she always had speech delays and different issues. She also had heart surgery when she was a baby, however, so she's always been the kid who was a "little behind" with development and we always had that excuse as to why. She was almost a year when she learned to crawl for example.
Part #2 of my introduction has to do with me. It's interesting that I've discovered while I've been researching my daughter's condition that there are hereditary links with Aspergers. I've come to realize that I actually have a lot of the symptoms of Aspergers myself - Some really peculiar things I've never been able to explain and have always been a little embarassed about : I am extremely easily startled, have a hard time with facial expressions and eye contact. Actually one of the big things with me is that i have a hard time remembering people's faces at all. I have to be introduced to people 4-5 times before I'll remember their name out of context. I've always been told I avoid eye contact when communicating, although I have a lazy eye so it's hard to notice that. There are a lot of things. Maybe one of the biggest things with myself is that I've always felt "not quite right" but have always had a hard time explaining why I don't feel "quite right" which makes it really hard to talk to my doctor about it.
In short, I'm coming to some interesting realizations and I'm really searching for people who have similar experiences and advice that they can offer to someone who is trying to pinpoint whether or not they could be affected by Aspergers.
Yours truly
QC
21 Dec 2012, 9:37 am
