AS = "psychiatric" ?
Neither!! !!
Freud was probably the last observational Physcholgist... doctors usually luagh at physchologists --they are the types that DONT understand the world, that's why they become pshychologists.
The AS part of you is just the struggle in your brain to decide wether or not you should do 'calculations' or 'instructions' - intructions are things like picking up a cup - because you have learnt how to do that, stored the procedure, and can repeat it at will,,, calutations on the other hand are trying to come to a conclusion upon observations - thinking.
The depression is part of the chemical system in the brain which keeps the electrical system stable -- if you are thinking too much, the effect is too provide a defence against too much thought is to make you slower. The side effect of this (Which is the reasoning behond the chemical signal) is to make you think more.... but at a slower pace,,, with the presumption that you are to think about your state.... but if you pertain to being in this state then you end up thinking too much, again reycling the state that you are -- can you see the never ending loop..... so to avert depression all you have to do is stop thinking,,, methods to avert thinking are to do house chores, gardening, working, etc etc .
Watch the movie The Whole Ten Yards -everyone in the movie is an Autistic. -inclluding the Aryn Blonde., she and the Hungarians though are the only ones that have learnt to -stop thinking.... and just use Instructions. -the piont being that the Hungarians, though they are happy, cannot come up with brilliant ideas, but the blonde on the other hand (which is a direct play on the Movie Species) is advanced enough to be able to see the thinkers, and use them to her advantage -her AS frinds.
The pervasive developmental disorders, including Asperger's syndrome, are listed in Chapter V of the ICD-10 along with the rest of the psychiatric (or mental and behavioral health) disorders. Asperger's is also listed in the DSM-IV-TR, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders. Other conditions with known or theorized neurological causes are also listed as psychiatric disorders: Tourette syndrome, ADHD, and the various learning disorders. Asperger's syndrome is diagnosed by meeting a set of behavioral criteria rather than through neurological testing.
Many of the more widely regarded psychiatric disorders also have known neurological differences: People with obsessive-compulsive disorder and many other anxiety disorders have an overactive amygdala. People with schizophrenia have various neurological structural and neurochemical differences. Essentially, the dichotomy between neurology and psychiatry is misleading. Epileptic seizures—now considered neurological—were once thought to be one of the main types of mental illness. Once more is known about a psychiatric disorder, the more its effects/differences in the brain become known instead of just the outward behavior and reported ways of thinking.
Wow, you must be a mathematician! I ran into you in that infinity thread, yes?
I don't really recognize myself in what you say. Freud would say that means it's true. Jung would suggest that I sleep on it, maybe a dream.
I'll watch that movie you mention, sounds good. Thanks.
Psychiatry basically equals practicing witch doctors. There's nothing objective or scientific about it at all. It's some people who call themselves "doctors" but merely practice subjective observations, then either try to talk you better or drug you better. The whole area ought to be thrown in the trash. They just keep Autism and the rest to get the money for so-called "research" and drug funding. They have to hang onto whatever they can to justify their existence. Their entire time in "practice" has been spent coming up with therapies and drugs that ten years later are called into question. That's about the time they realize they were treating symptoms and didn't know anything about the cause at all. It seems to be an ongoing problem with that field.
Obviously, if you feel they have helped you with problems, you should ignore my stand on them and do what works for you.
Obviously, if you feel they have helped you with problems, you should ignore my stand on them and do what works for you.
eggsackly.
I agree. The profession should be junked. Ack. Even as I type that I think of Dr Judith Herman - but then, she complains about her own profession. Maybe the profession will be remade by its younger members.
Where I live, psychiatrists are the *only* docs who can sign for disability in the areas under DSM-IV. There's no escaping them and their nefarious drugs.
I had a dx of BPD for over four years. I recently requested to be assessed for an ASD as I did not feel I really was BPD. It was only an intermediate assessment by the generic community psychiatric team but they concluded that I had 'no mental health problems' which I guess means I no longer fit the BPD criteria. Which is good but they did not address the ASD issue at all, even though they had a 'core traits' assessment form to fill in during the assessment. I guess, being the NHS, they decided public money could not justifiably be spent following up someone who's not depressed or dangerous or anything. Oh well, maybe one day I'll move to a country where the 'professionals' know what's what.......
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*it's been lovely but I have to scream now*
Unfortunately Scrulie, if you are just ASD without co-morbid conditions they can't treat you so they make no money. They can't have that, so many of them look for co-morbid symptoms. In other words, your startle effect or over sensitivity to touch becomes sexual abuse as a youngster. Your frustration becomes depression. Your ability to jump to startling realizations and fix on them becomes ADHD. Your staring into space as you think becomes non-convulsive seizures. And so on. I don't even think some of it is deliberate because they have been trained to read things a certain way and that's what they do even when they know about ASD. Those are things they can treat. They want to be able to "fix" you.
Of course that is not to say Claradoon or anyone else on here doesn't actually have depression. Of course people have all of these things and they are legitimate, but I think Psychiatry doesn't want to leave it at just a brain disorder because they can't treat that.
The Community Mental Health Team people are under massive resourcing pressure all over the country. You have to be really psychotic or a heroin/crack addict to get any help from them now. 5-10 years ago you would have had support from them. In other words, it's not that you're not worth it, it's that the government thinks that you're not. Two vastly different things...
Of course that is not to say Claradoon or anyone else on here doesn't actually have depression. Of course people have all of these things and they are legitimate, but I think Psychiatry doesn't want to leave it at just a brain disorder because they can't treat that.
You and I think precisely alike on these things ZM. Health and social services all over the world are facing a huge upsurge in ASD-related calls for support. No money at all to be made from it as far as the psychs are concerned so they either dismiss you or relabel you with an approximation of what they see as the issue. Given erroneous dx/s, the support services are left floundering around providing services (if you're lucky) that don't actually touch the difficulties.
Unless your symptoms are so severe as to be beyond any hope of rehabilitation (like that poor fellow some months back who apparently couldn't even feed himself properly), I think it is far more productive to consider it as a set of cognitive and behavioral tendencies than as a hopeless illness.
Yes, you'll probably always be considered somewhat eccentric. This still does not mean that you cannot learn enough about the world to function in it. Go down to any subway platform in New York city. I guarantee you'll see a great many people there who are far more bizarre than you, but who have friends, a romantic partner, a job, etc. and are still capable of functioning in life.
Yes, it can be difficult to broaden one's interests enough to successfully complete some of the "general ed" requirements in a college curriculum. This does not mean it is impossible... it merely means that it will require more determination and self-discipline than it otherwise would.
Yes, you have little instinct for "social skills" and tend to make an absolute botch of any social encounter you participate in. Then again, when one considers your near complete lack of experience and exposure in the social world, is there any wonder? Hiding from people all the time isn't exactly going to give you any opportunity to observe those skills in action and and practice them, either.
If you're like a lot of people here, your parents micromanaged you to the point where you never really had to learn to do anything for yourself, and they stupidly considered this to be helpful. It is said that a prisoner first hates the walls of his prison, then gets to where he can tolerate them, and then finally grows to love the walls and fears their loss. Break out! Why should you be doomed to a miserably circumscribed existence of ineffectual passivity because of their errors? Break out!
Yes, you tend to prefer organization and routine... it helps you focus your efforts and get everything done. A lot of people are like that.... hell, a lot of highly successful people are like that. How many doctors, attorneys, brokers, etc. out there would be absolutely lost without their pda's and schedules? Think about it.
Yes, you like to wind on and on about your particular intense interest, and eventually everyone around you either tunes you out, starts picking on you, or starts making transparent excuses to leave. Is it really such an insurmountable task, to change the topic to something your audience would be even vaguely interested in... or lacking that, to shut up? Hardly. All it takes is enough experience with people to recognize the common signs of boredom, and enough willpower to control your own mouth.
Yes, life can seem meaningless... when you've not bothered to make the meaning. So the next time you catch yourself in a spate of angsty, existential whining, ask yourself... Whose fault is this, that I am so alienated and my life is so unappealing? Stop blaming God, society, life itself, a diagnosis etc. for your own inability to construct a fulfilling, meaningful life. Grow up and take responsibility for making your life better.
Change can be scary... it invariably involves an element of risk. You risk the loss of the comfortable old patterns you've settled into, for an uncertain future. You risk failure. But really, what kind of life is it... bitter, lonely, self-obsessed, and hiding in your home like a rat in a hole as you wait for God? That's not life.... that's a living death.