Do your comormids cause you more difficulty then autism?
This week, a psychologist that I have been seeing for a few months said that I fit all the criteria for generalized anxiety disorder.
My symptoms of AS have faded to the point where I would likely not qualify for a diagnosis any longer...but my anxiety often gets so bad that I isolate myself, go into periods of depression, and make impulsive decisions. It has affected my jobs, social life and schooling. So yes, my co-morbid diagnosis definitely causes me more difficulty.
_________________
Given a “tentative” diagnosis as a child as I needed services at school for what was later correctly discovered to be a major anxiety disorder.
This misdiagnosis caused me significant stress, which lessened upon finding out the truth about myself from my current and past long-term therapists - that I am an anxious and highly sensitive person but do not have an autism spectrum disorder.
My diagnoses - social anxiety disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
I’m no longer involved with the ASD world.
I have high functioning autism (not Asperger's), GAD (severe) and schizoaffective disorder. Yes, the autism is the least of my concerns (I was a lot more severe as a child and very high functioning autism now) and the severe anxiety and the schizoaffective is the worst. Sometimes the anxiety is the worst but most times its the schizoaffective that is the worst. Each episode gets worse and more so called "bizarre" according to outsiders. This time around I had a serious problem with auditory hallucinations when in previous episodes it was extremely rare just limited to conversations and my name being yelled all the time. This time I heard constant whispering, people yelling kill and I will kill you and general talking in other rooms. It was low level voices. It wasn't loud all the time mainly soft whispering. But my thoughts and I kind of realize this is weird to outsiders. I have insight sometimes but not other times. I won't get into the thoughts here in fear that people will laugh because they are bizarre. Just because something is bizarre doesn't make it untrue. Weird and crazy things happen each day in our lives. Things are connected beyond your comprehension and mind. It is simply impossible to think of how much the universe is connected and how amazing it is. A unusual thing took place today but won't get into it. I was in the mental hospital this month for a week due to the episode. I have a weird presentation of psychosis by the way it acts during the day. Typical psychosis lasts 24/7 but mine had some times during the day that were worse than others. 3-7 pm is absolute hell. It does start slowly after I get up and gradually gets worse until those times and then after 7 it dies down. Its almost like daily psychotic micro episodes. But its daily around the same time each day. I even lose the ability to speak coherently during the bad times. Just gibberish. I am far better right now than a week ago. I am able to enjoy some of my interests including drawing and video games. Before I wasn't able to concentrate for more than a few minutes at most. It still happens a little bit and my blood pressure is affected and my pulse rate spikes. I am talking about sometimes reaching 145 bpm. There is proof that I am experiencing scary thoughts and a scary world around me. Yes, this is far more disabling than the autism by itself. Sometimes the autism gets in the way needing schedules and routine.
same here. that and social anxiety + hormone induced hulk-rages = big ****ing mess is what my life is.
I don't know if my depression and mood swings are totally independent from my autism. I can kind of link the two together as my most prominent "autistic" symptoms are in the "obsessive/rigid/perseverative" category as opposed to the "socially inappropriate" category. There's also some overlap in terms of introversion / social disinterest. Not all autistics are introverted, but it seems most depressive people are highly introverted. I guess I don't know if it's just coincidental overlap or that the symptoms that are common to both autism and depression tend to have a multiplicative interaction. Thus either one by itself is not as severe as the combination of the two. At least that's how it seems to me.
I thought that too at first until I actually really "watched" myself. Its much more of a situational depression. As for the rages, My testosterone production is way too high which the last psych I had explained that it could be the cause of it. But yeah these rages are more or less the classic berserker/hulk smash type of rage, which can be brought on mostly via sh** going totally wrong, but of course due to genetics and hormones I am an overtly tense person to begin with. I physically can't relax because of how my body is, same goes for mentally. So far the only way I can really put myself into a completely relaxed state is if I have a beer or two.
I'm much the same. My general tension and anger seems to be born out of being too sensitive rather than not sensitive enough. I know as an infant I had severe sensitivity to loud noise to the point where I even dreaded stuff like background elevator music in stores or restaurants. Just existing with such a delicate nervous system may be traumatic over the long term, enough to affect my whole personality and the way I cope with the world. Even today I still notice that general tension but I respond with irritability instead of tears. I also notice that rage has a strong anesthetic quality. I've gotten so angry to the point where I literally don't feel physical pain. It applies emotionally as well as I'd rather feel anger than the pain of severe dysphoria and depression.
And yeah, what you wrote sounds pretty ADHD to me.
Despite being accurate (supported by research), this never made sense to me. How can one have the ability to hyper-focus (typical in ASD) and yet have ADHD. I kinda feel I have some ADD symptoms in that I don't pay attention to stuff that doesn't interest me and this causes me problems at work because I fail to learn stuff I need to learn to do my job properly but how can one be ADHD and still be capable on intense focus? It's the "hyperactivity" issue that kind confuses me. How can one be hyperactive and also have the ability to hyperfocus? Maybe I'm misunderstanding or confusing something?
People who have ADHD by itself can hyperfocus. ADHD is not an inability to pay attention. It is an inability to direct attention at will at all times and an inability to ignore distracting stimuli. It's more "attention surplus disorder," in my opinion.
Hyperactivity as it is classically understood is primarily (and typically only) present in childhood. As we age, activity/energy levels go down, so while at 6 you might be bouncing on the furniture and climbing the walls, as you get older the hyperactive symptoms internalize and become things like restlessness, fidgeting, racing thoughts, boredom, procrastination.
I can relate to that. As a child I always had the ability to become hyper-focused with ritualistic play that other children would never enjoy, but at the same time there were a lot of times I felt almost tortured by boredom and yet refused any activity offered and other times couldn't for the life-of-me get started with certain dreaded activities. I think even the early issues with motivation and changing focus sort of foreshadowed the later development of the full-blown existential-crisis type of depression that hit me with full force in my mid-teens.
Similar Topics | |
---|---|
Autism & Talking |
02 Feb 2025, 6:39 pm |
Autism and Arrogance |
23 Feb 2025, 12:47 pm |
Autism challenges |
12 Jan 2025, 1:29 pm |
How can autism be monetized? |
30 Jan 2025, 10:37 am |