Starting community college tues. do I disclose being AS?

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Well I had a nice long post typed but lost it by excessive tinkering (tried to underline something and lost it all). So I am starting a full 12 credit program that helps adults re enter school and finish a 2yr college, I wouldn't even be considering this without the program. I met with the director and explained my concerns with school and how my aspergers and dyspraxia will affect me she was understanding and happy to indulge my wanting to see the classroom before starting she even pointed out landmarks and a quiet place to go . I cant believe I am voluntarily going to a room full of people 2 days a week , the anxiety is mounting I need to keep from melting down ,I cant blow this. When I am in class I will seem ok for a week or two my deadpan expression doesnt help at all, it starts becoming apparent I am different quite quickly and people avoid me or try to joke with me to break the ice this only makes it worse. On a good day , the first 30 min of a conversation go well then I say something wrong or get stuck dispensing info and cant stop its like a trainwreck logically I know people dont want to know these things but I just cant stop my disortation on breeds of chicken ect. once I get rolling. As I go through the quarter I will anger and alienate people because they dont know I process info differently but if I share info such as greenturtles awesome cartoon will this help others understand me or will they just not get it ?

Maybe... this could be the beginning of a long and meaningful journey, something that can't be fixed in one act, like telling people a descriptive name for your differentness. Does the class provide any opportunity to present information about what Asperger's is? I think if you just tell people, they could have any weird reaction because they don't know what it is. But, if instead, you just find a way to give people more information about Asperger's, then little by little the people in your life will be more understanding, not because you'll get "better," but because you'll attract that kind of person who is opened minded. In other words, I don't think there's a one shot cure. I think you need to accept their reactions for now and take them in stride and little by little work on your in-person socializing. How about keeping a record somehow, maybe videos of your experiences, as you do trial and error and see where you are at the end of school? Or, start an Asperger's group...bet there's someone else who has Asperger's there. Or invite Alex to give a talk....... Just brainstorming.

I have been on this long and meaningful journey for three years , informing my friends and family and actually getting them to understand or at least try has been a process, my kids dad is just now willing to read about it. I will consider your advice maybe I can just focus on the dyspraxia as a learning disability and work my way up to disclosing the aspergers . I am just concerned that people misinterpret my lack of general expression and eye contact as meaning I am angry , they often do, I have pretty intense energy it makes people uncomfortable.

I've been to four year and community college. I'm here to tell you that you should go to the disabilities office and fill out one of those forms and hand the letter to the professor. I have been appointed by the rest of the group to tell you that this is the best way to go. I've done it with and without the letter and accomodations, I know what I'm talking about. Once you get that done, the next thing you need to work on is your confidence. If you can do that, you will be just fine.

I have found as long as you allow people to feel comfortable and good about them selves they feel good about you, too. I have also found that the less time I am around people, the more time they have feeling good about me rather than me causing social havoc by overstaying my staying power. They are good for a quart of socialization, and I am good for about a cup. I give more than I got, I am out of (social) gas, and I fall back into my rambling narrations that start the fish eyes and the later the distant waves and finally falling back into anonymity and I am left wondering what happened.

I have learned the hard way to limit my time with other people, to enter into the first contact of the day on a friendly and upbeat way hoping they are having a good day, making a solid connection but making it short. I have learned that people find me good company if I keep my contact with them shorter rather than longer. Having a conversation with 'them' for 30 minutes is about 20 minutes too long. I have learned to verbally edit myself. I have learned to judge how much energy I have at the time, I judge the time involvement and how long is the social norm to present my part of the conversation . If I am asked to clarify myself by others, I take that as I might have strayed from the topic, and even though I could probably explain myself, usually the time involvement would be my clue to just cool it and say it is something we could talk about it later and know it was time to remember a previous appointment

I have been to TAFE and done an Advanced Diploma of Legal Practice (part time since I have full time work). TAFE is a techinical school.

contacting the student services at the college would be a good idea and telling them about your condition. They are there to help all students.
Once you have done that, just work on the confidence and all will be good.

When I went to TAFE I didn't tell them about my AS (Dad told them for me at the open day, saying that I work through it that I don't accept it anyway after that they explained about student services and how they have services available to provide extra assistance if needed)

My AS didn't get in the way of the TAFE education, my epilepsy did a little, I was diagnosed with it in my 3rd year of the 4 years i was there.
I had a seizure in class, and I fainted (i think these were seizures as well) a couple of times when i was taking exams (which I resat later on) But once I was on medication all was good.

Tbh, I think it depends what course you're doing whether you should disclose your AS. I study music tech (which is also my special interest) and I didn't disclose it. It's difficult to know whether I should have done because I have encountered a few problems as a result of my AS.

I find that day to day classes aren't really a problem because it's a tech course so the teachers are totally cool with us writing notes on our laptops and recording the classes so if I don't understand the class first time around I can listen to it again. Also loads of people record the classes and use laptops in class so it's no big deal. Generally the classes aren't noisy and I'm pretty intelligent anyway so I don't find them problematic.

However, I do find the social side of things difficult but have a number of strategies that I employ to get around this!

Firstly, I never arrive to class early because this would inevitably mean having to wait outside and make awkward small-talk with other students.

Secondly, I always make an excuse to go to the shop outside uni at breaktime to avoid the stress of having to make awkward small-talk.

We do have to do some group work which I have found extremely stressful but have somehow coped with.

The thing that tends to cause me the worst meltdowns is presentations. I don't know if this is true for everyone with AS but I really struggle to make eye-contact, think and speak at the same time. So during one presentation I had what was like a meltdown and anxiety attack rolled into one. I must have come across as being a bit aggressive to my teachers but because I was so ill with a cold on the day in question, the teachers put it down to my illness. I had to try to start the presentation again after a cup of coffee but I still couldn't do it. It was really hard because the teachers were asking questions about my project and because the way I think is a bit different the answers that I came out with weren't at all the answers that they were expecting. That was really horrible.

Also it's worth bearing in mind that a lot of teachers don't know what AS is so even if you disclose it they still won't understand.

I would say that if you have to do group work or presentations as part of your course you should warn them. Also if you have problems controlling your emotions it's probably worth warning them.

I told my employer on my first day in my new job, and she looked quite shocked when I told her I had AS and then said 'What's that?' so I explained a bit and said that it had caused problems in previous jobs although the older I get I can cope with it better. She said that it was better to tell her and said to let her know if I have any problems...

My psychologist would probably say to prepare a SHORT paragraph in writing to show your course leader! (I don't normally do short)!

Sam x

This judgement is what is so difficult for me I get so overwhelmed sometimes I dont think to gauge , this is something I am actively working on, planning is a skill I am getting a crash course in. As for the short upbeat small talk I can see where this would help I just have to figure out how to do this , the thirty min is my max on a good day it can be 0-5 min on a worse day , I actually start ticking and getting dizzy/disoriented after that so perhaps getting the upperhand by saying hi ect then putting my nose in a book may help thank you .

to captain kirk, tweety fan and marisan:
I was contemplating going to the office and putting my disabilities on record in case I have problems with a teacher so that is good advice as I will be going to the school beyond this program and be in regular classes. Part of what concerns me is this class is pretty intensive they work on self esteem , life problems , goals so I will be doing all this personal reflection with a large group , there will be lots of small group work and personal interaction so this is why my AS will become very apparent . The program director already offered a meeting with the teachers to discuss my needs but has anyone here had experience with telling peers about there AS, I guess at this point I need to figure this part out how to do it ?
I do not live in a progressive area this is meth central of oregon and 4 hrs from any large metropolitan area so please take into account that people here will react differently than in the city where they have more experience with different people.

Personally I favour Tony Attwood's definition of Aspeger's Syndrome>>>

http://www.tonyattwood.com.au/index.php ... Itemid=176

It might be worth actually printing that page off his website and taking it along with ya cus it's got the official definition and Tony's explanation.

I cribbed from it when I spoke to my manager.

It was quite difficult and I just said 'is it ok if i tell you something?' and then blurted out that my psychologist said I should let her know that I have AS. It was pretty embarrassing but it was a relief to get it over with and it does relieve the worry that the AS itself is a ticking time bomb waiting to get me sacked!

The other thing I should say at this stage is that I have serious problems talking about myself in front of other people and I don't know whether I would be able to speak about my problems in front of a group of people. I struggle to say things out loud even to my psychologist and psychiatrist and had to write everything down for my psychologist in the end because when I try to speak I get a lot of flashbacks in my head and the pain of speaking about it is just too much to handle.

Are you sure that you'll be able to handle it?

Thank you for that link I value your advise as you have actually done this. Oddly enough I don't have trouble speaking in front of crowds, I was on a homeless youth panel as a teen and used to do science demonstrations in front of up to 300 people, this was possible because I was either on a stage or sitting at the front of a class . However this is very different in that I will be dealing with these people daily and not on a lit stage with them in the dark so I can make the crowd magically disappear in my head. I will come to class armed with this article from tony attwood and greenturtles cartoon if I can figure out how to get it printed with pictures.

Tbh, it depends upon the people in the group because you might find that you're not the only one! I'm not the only person with AS in my classes at uni! I just think Tony Attwood's definition is a bit more human than DSM-4. Trying to sum up AS in a few words will never be easy! Good luck.