You're crazy. You don't have AS!

Post Reply New Topic

Describe what is the difference in your coping skills
before and after becoming dependent on Prescription
meds? I am not trying to seem rude, but I smell
co-morbiding $$$$ making folk prescribing these
as if you weren't AS, but a chemically imbalanced
guinea pig! Hmmmmmm? Sorry If I seem rude,
But AS is a social, not chemical problem!

...as are Paxil, Serzone, Zoloft, etc., etc., etc. Been there, done that - and NOT doing it anymore.

Hello Ghosthunter.

Yes, rocking/stimming is a definite sign of autism/AS. My son had a lot of symptoms, and she discounted most of them. She insisted that he needed speech therpay even though I told her he speaks perfectly well when he wants to: he just doesn't want to a lot of the time. To put it another way, thsi child doesn't seem to have a *need* to talk the way that other children do. He was a late talker, and basically, after mama and dada, he was silent for a long time and then burst out with a complete sentence out of the blue! (then didn't talk again for a logn time, and did the same thing again). He does talk, he just would not speak to that lady Dr.

I think she was wrong about saying that autistic children are not cuddly...I have seen other autie kids who are (and they were more classically autistic than Daniel is). This one doesn't make much eye contact...is obsessed with cars and trains, gets mad if other kids disrupt his play, etc. I don't mind if he is or not...but I'm pretty sure that he is. He acts the same way I did as a child, except more pronounced in some ways and better behaved in general.

I think that the reason for the denial is two pronged:

* They do not want to have to accomodate us and our weirdness and different needs, therefore they deny that we are any different from them.

* The experts do not want to admit that some of us are very high functioning autistic and not all that disabled as they would think of it. They would like the world to believe that we are all violent or profound and need ABA therapy in order to live a quality life. So when they see an aspie who has a job or a family and is actually doing pretty well, depsite not being diagnosed until adulthood and not havign any of their 'therapy', their only possible recourse is to insist that we aren't really autistic, we're only imagining things.

Selective communication!



Hmmmmm? I believe we are talking about the HFA one?
If so, I am the same way. I talk in colors and pictures
that can even confuse you AS folk! I am me! He is him!
and the communication is what it is! Too bad it is not
as refined as in NT-full communication, or AS-partial
communication in the talking to others category!



some people give off a "beware of this person aura",
and children are more aware of this than the censoring
of their envirement adult! Very Astute children can be!





I have had to work on the eye contact for NT-world
reasons. I probly was as eye shy as your HFA son.

I was obsessed with WWII plane and cars(hotwheels)
when I was young. I guess that is a kids obsession thing?

I hate being interupted in a train of creative, or
focused flow! That is probly why he does it!



Hmmmm? How is he more pronounced?
Hmmmm? How is he less pronounced?





Hmmmm? I don't watch TV! ABA therapy?



Hmmmm! I agree, those pharmacudical $$$$$'s have to
come from somewhere! Blah to pharmacudical $$$$$ makers!

Sincerely,
Ghosthunter

P.S....If you like me to visit you and your kids, I will be in
that area within the next 2 weeks, so PM me travel details!
Cool!

That was my story also, more or less. My mother said I learned "mom", "dad", "hi", "bye" and "mine" much earlier than normal. I then stopped talking completely until I was 2 years old, at which time I burst forth with complete sentences and a large vocabulary. They figure I "came out of my shell" because my younger brother was starting to babble and was getting all the attention. Whatever it was that inspired me to stop talking is still a factor in my life, however. Although small talk doesn't scare me, I still don't tend to talk much except when someone gets me going on one of my obsessive topics, in which case I get verbal diarrhea.


What do they have to gain by saying that we don't have AS? Are they worried that parents will decide not to bother with medical services and just hope the kids will turn out to be only mildly affected? Given that ABA is expensive even for wealthy people, it's not like the docs can scare parents into spending money they don't have for unneccessary services.

By the way, I was most definitely *NOT* cuddly as a child. I would squirm and cry until I was put down again. As a result I was bottle-fed right from the day I came home from the hospital (which was slightly delayed because I was born a month early, weighed less than 6 pounds and needed corrective surgery).

It often seemed the way to me that it was the psychotherapeutic framework that was the most resistant to using a 'label' such as AS/ASD in the way they viewed people.

I have said it before, but I'll say it again. The more I read on here and the more research I do on the Internet generally, the more I actually (with some embarrassment), remember some of my fixations and obsessions, the more convinced I become that there is a high chance that I may have these traits myself.

Somebody mentions difficulty with eye-contact. My mind goes back to countless instances well into adulthood, in which people challenged me on it. Being told that my diction was 'over-precise' and overly verbose, even - at one time - saying all my words backwards, so that the preceding sentence after the last hyphen would read as gniyas lla ym sdrow sdrawkcab. Strange, but true. I remember a time on my first computer course, we had to write a short assembly language program fragment (6502 on the Apple IIe), which when taking phrase or a sentence, reversed all the letters and printed it out. I was typing in sentences backwards, so that the computer would print them the right way round. The times when I was rocking all the time (getting called a schizophrenic in a pub by an obviously highly educated bar manager, who subsequently rested on his laurels by 'downshifting' and becoming a chauffeur, which is rather like an 'up-market' taxi driver), other little physical 'habits' that I undertook repetitively. To my mind, this all points to some evidence of AS/ASD.

Then I think about the incredulity and disbelief I would be met with by my two siblings in spite of all the evidence before their eyes and in spite of the things they themselves say about me forces me to try to rationalise it away as 'self-delusion', misguided thinking or more colloquially, clutching at straws. I think about the counsellors at the place I was at between 15 and 19 and their scepticism and I wonder whether or not it is possible to contain my stress and frustration with it.

Yeah, it's a wonder I can even sit at a computer

As someone who's just starting to learn about AS and am not 110% sure I have it (more like 80%), my own two cents:

when I phoned my parents to talk to them about how I thought I might have it, just to get their opinions/ideas on the matter, my mom was almost immediately like "I don't think you have autism", which upset me a litttle at the time because I was sure she'd be a little more... open-minded about it I guess. we talked about it a bit more and then I told her I'd e-mail her the Wikipedia article on AS (which is where I first heard about it) Later that day she called back and said that the article was really good and had given her a more nuanced understanding of it, telling me to go on looking into it if I thought I was getting something out of it (I'd also mentioned that, even if it wasn't quite what I had I was still getting some insights into myself from reading the articles). AFter that my dad got on the line and he was much more supportive about the whole thing saying 'knowledge is power' and only good could come from reading more into it. This was really surprising to me, since I'd assumed they'd be playing opposite roles.

Anyway, I guess the lesson there is to EDUCATE!! if people misunderstand

The other week, I told my therapist about my suspicions that I had Asperger's Syndrom. She hadn't even heard of it and had to do research on the Oasis website. Although she said I can see a specialist to make a formal diagnosis, there my not be enough evidence to make a correct dx since some of the symptoms have decreased upon adulthood and I am managing others with anti-depressants and anti-anxiety drugs.

From what I've heard from some of y'all, I don't think I'd want to confirm whether I have an ASD. Besides, no matter the outcome, I would still be the same person I was beforehand.

Hmmmmm...when I was 14 I went to this doctor,and we talked for a while.Then she asked me questions and did this wierd IQ thing.She called my other doctor and said that I didn't have Asperger Syndrome but some kind of mood disorder.

And I'm sure there was another time too but I can't remember it.

My mother.

She didn't want me labeling myself. I wanted to because then I could find other people who are similar and get to know what they go and how they cope.

Just for clarification to an earlier question: I posted this thread because I was 1) curious for my own self, and 2) thought this might be helpful for IronSails who is just beginning his journey wherever it may lead.

Ghosthunter, AS cannot be treated via medications. Only its comorbid disorders like depression, anxiety, OCD, Bipolar, ADHD, etc. seem to improve with meds. Plus, I think more ASers, with or without diagnoses, who see psychiatrists receive meds because that is basically the only arsonal the pdoc has. So they use it a LOT.

I have been misdiagnosed in the past with Schizophrenia, Psychotic-NOS, OCD, Narcissitic Personality Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, and an incomplete diagnosis of Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

I have taken too many meds to mention, including antipsychotics, antidepressants, and antianxieties and other benzodiazepines.

I asked one of my shrinks about AS, and she told me that she was pretty sure I didn't have it.

Then I told her my symptoms of "disconnect" and I was diagnosed with Depersonalization Disorder. There isn't the slightest bit of doubt in me that I might not have it, because I'm a textbook description and I have one of the most severe cases ever.

But I still believe that I have AS. It just makes way too much sense to not be true.

I wasn't diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome until December 2002. Before then I was thought to have a many different things. In 1991 I was referred to the Special School District because of trouble learning to read well; they simply diagnosed me with a learning disability. My reading problems disappeared after a few years, and I was also in the gifted program for a year. When I was in third grade, I received the diagnoses of neurologically-based specific learning disability impacting on written language (i.e., spelling, punctuation, and capitalization), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder - combined type, and overanxious disorder of childhood. I later received the diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder, and around puberty I was hospitalized and suspected of having bipolar disorder or conduct disorder. My Psychological and Developmental History has more details.

*grins* I had everything under the sun before AND after I was diagnosed with AS!

Hmm. This made me think. Don't all people practice selectiev communication? I would hope so!! I know that I always have...and still do.



I am not sure if he is aspie or HFA. To me, it doesn't matter. I suppose it's even possible that he's an extremely shy and introverted, obsessive NT...but I sort of doubt that. He gestures a lot and points more than he speaks. To be honest though, we don't have the need for a lot of words. There is some sort of an unspoken communication between us and we hardly talk at all a lot of the time, just look, smile, point, do the same thing, observe, etc... It is very peaceful to spend time with him.



Yes. I have been known to shun people simply because they smelled threatening to me. And as a child, I was leery of many people.



He makes decent eye contact with me,...but I never, ever force eye contact with anyone, and especially not with him. The thing about this kid...whether he makes eye contact or not, he has this sort of "inward gaze", a preoccupied look, about him. I have that same epxression in photos as a child (and as an adult...:blush:).

He loves to draw, and he will fill 20 sheets of paper, both sides, with close to identical drawings of cars or trains in a single day's time or less! I did that too.

I don't think he much likes other kids interfering in his play...he knows what he wants to do and they get in his way and change what he wanted.



He is less sociable than I was, and more prone to reacting with violence (hitting, pushing) when his play is disrupted. He talks less than I did, and he was a later talker than I was...donm't think I was delayed at all in speech. He's also even more passive than I was...and I was a very passive child.... But...he also doesn't have the tendency which I did, to speak exactly what I thought about things: "Grandpa, don't wear those swimming shorts! They show your privates!! !" in front of everyone present!, and he doesn't seem to have the drive to try to make people see things his way as I did. I used to think that they were all wrong and the world would be better if I enlightened them all.....

ABA is a therapy founded on the work of a Doctor Lovass, a very abusive man. Autistic children have died in ABA programs!! But it is still hailed as *the* ray of hope for autistics!! !! !



OK. I am discussing this with Mutant. He is aspie too.