Are Asperger problems worse in the city or in the country?

Post Reply New Topic

Interesting.

Something I've wondered, and I don't know if anyone is actually bothering to research this, is whether the sensory sensitivities can act like a trip wire towards ASD. While I do believe ASD is genetic, I also see that for many of us it is far more profound in the most recent generations than in previous ones. Most experts seem to feel there is some sort of environmental trigger - what if that is in the sensory areas? Could it funciton similar to allergies, where an overexposure trips an exaggerated response and, now, you are allergic to something you weren't allergic to a month ago. The propensity was always there, but without the trigger, you might never have known.

So imagine a child with a sensitivity to sound. Perhaps that child as an infant is exposed to all sorts of stimulation - theme parks, TV, even "educational" videos. But the infant is sensitive to all that. For a while, the infant copes. But eventually, the infant overloads and withdraws back into itself. Overall, our children are born into a far more noisy, smelly, and visually complex world than even 50 years ago.

I have actually observed my son doing some of that, defensively, and he has admitted to intentionally trying to turn off certain senses and emotions because he found them too overpowering.

Anyway, it's just an idea. Not well articulated here - I don't have time to be precise in my descriptions right now - but I'm throwing it out there, since I think it fits in with the discussion.

I think AS can be difficult to diagnose in someone older. By now you've done so much coping and adapting that you probably don't even remember the roads taken to get there. When my son was diagnosed, I decided I had some AS traits but not enough to "be" AS; my husband decided he was probably AS (and I've decided he is probably right about that). But with both of us grown and in careers it's really just an small insight into ourselves, and we don't have any reason to pursue it. Sometimes I wonder if I may "be" AS, but it's rather an exercise in futility; I don't think I can ever know, there is so much water under the bridge. Even the on-line tests are completely unhelpful. By now, I am mostly who I wanted to be and hopefully that is who I was born to be, as well, but all paths are a mix of destiny, choice, and development. I'm comfortable in my own skin for the most part; occasionally wistful about the skills I would have liked to have that I don't, but generally comfortable that I've done well by what I was given, and that I am on a positive journey, even if I can't keep a household organized and clean for the life of me

I've lived in all three of the categories: the city, the subarbs, and out in the middle of nowhere. And this is what I have to say for each of them:

In Houston, we were out in the subarbs, in a town called Tomball (although we were literally just across the street from Houston) so that's where we were the most. I got all the help I needed as a small child, which I have greatly benefited from.

We later on moved up to Indiana and lived in the city (not downtown itself but a very city-ish part of town). It was definitely a rough experience, but it is one I'm glad I got to experience. Because of it, I'm very street wise (which my mom doesn't really think is a good thing LOL) and I can hold my own. I also continued getting everything I needed since we once again had all the resources.

After that, we lived in a small town. IT WAS PURE HELL. I got none of the help I needed, the people were extremely cliquey no matter what their ages were, I couldn't relate to anyone, I was alienated, and it literally drove me insane. We moved as soon as we could.

We now live in the subarbs, right between the city and the country, so everything is once again serene. We've got everything right at our fingertips we need, and it's not rough like how it was when we first moved up to Indiana. I'm very content with my enviroment. I'm in an upper-middle class part of town that is growing rapidly. Everyone out here is very nice, educated, and just plain friendly. Everyone helps each other out with all the little things, but it's not to the point where it's cliquey. The students at my high school here were also extremely nice and welcoming, and definitely not prejudice like that small town was.

I was shocked by how many people voted rural on the poll. RURAL IS THE WORST PLACE ANYONE WITH AS OR NLD CAN NEVER LIVE. So whenever my mom and I hear that a certain club or organization has "that small town feel", it automatically turns us off. We couldn't get out of that town soon enough. The rough city was better than that place was!

Having lived in all 3, although I spent most of my young adult life in big cities, which was OK at the time, I prefer rural now. Cities are good for anonymity, high ratio of misfits. I used to be able to make friends quite easily in cities, simply because there are more misfits who are tolerant (but odd) people.

However, there is also much more unpleasant behaviour in the cities (statistically higher crime rate etc). And the countryside is just a much better quality environment to be in. By rural, I don't mean 'small town', I found that very unpleasant. I mean a few houses on the side of a hill, with maybe a post office or pub, maybe not even that! Having said that, I'm glad I'm within short driving distance of a city as I need it for work etc.

There are the cliques (especially the 'in crowd' of mothers at the school gates), but there are also a lot of very down-to-earth, essentially sound people who are tolerant enough to accept a level of non-comformity.

I've found small towns and suburbs the worse. It's easier to avoid attention either in a busy city, or the middle-of-nowhere. In the middle seems the worst of both worlds to me.

This is my definition of rural too. And I am in a similar situation with regard to a city within short driving distance.

The place I was before I moved to where I am now was rural without the good-sized city within reasonable driving distance, and that was a little too much like being the last person left alive on the planet.

Sounds exactly like my familiy's experience! My daughter was dx-ed and it released a flood of memories - and the lightbulb went on.

Only I think I'm more along the spectrum than my husband.

It was only by luck, faith (in myself - not the man upstairs), and a positive attitude that I didn't end up dead, homeless, or dying and homeless.

I would say the countryside as they don't have the right type of services where as the city will have the right services and have better transport links to get to those services.

From the responses, it seems a lot would depend on how much one desires to be isolated. Which is many people's preference, therefore they prefer rural (not small town) areas. However I'm not someone who wants to be isolated, as much as I find the social manner of so many people overwhelming.

Urban.

Where I am now in coastal New England is perfect.

I've always wanted to move to Edinburgh - simply because of its urban planning history! From what I understand, its one of the first cities to use multi-story buildings/apartments to house a large and growing population. I also love that its a walking city and I'd imagine you'd never run out of new things to see. That's what I like about Paris, too. Every little lamp-post, doorway, manhole cover, street sign - is a work of art, let alone the bridges and building facades.

I suppose if art and architecture are your thing - the city is perfect. I notice when I travel, the photos I take are almost always of buildings or cars or bridges or train stations - not so much people. I like landscapes and nature photography - but I really get off on man-made thingies.

Thank you very much for replying to my question. I too thought that, ( it would "explain all my..." ), for quite a while, except that I also believed, and still do, that diet, food and/or chemical-intolerances/sensitivities play a very big role too.

But even though sensitivities/Sensory Processing Differences/disorders are, ( acccording to Danielismyname ), now being/soon to be included in the criteria for AS/Autism diagnosis, ( and may explain a great deal, rather than merely "describe" ), AS is still not about the whole person, ( although it is often seen that way on WP), at least no more than being female, gay, black, diabetic, or poor, is.

I can't believe you have a "low IQ" at least not in any useful/meaningful sense of the term; your writing is simply too articulate etc and your self-awareness too evident for this to be the case. There are many threads on WP about how unrepresentative IQ tests are, especially for AS/Autism, because of particular problems with time-limits, comprehension of instructions, and so on.

Also like I said on the last page, ( in an edit which might just have crossed with your first reply to me ), "being" a "social savant", ( having a consuming special interest in social interaction/success ), can take up a lot of memory and processing capacity, ( when it doesn't come "naturally" as it supposedly does to "NT"s ), to the point that in my experience it seriously compromised my ability to use my brain well, ( actively, as opposed to jumping through hoops at uni etc ), for almost everything else, for years.

( Tho' it sounds as if you have actually been using yours for other things too, so maybe your "social savantism" isn't taking up that much capacity ).

When radical feminism exploded my reverence for/faith in/devotion to "social-success", and my "special interest" was like a collection of glassware lovingly accumulated over years lying shattered on the floor, ( like Catwoman rips her fluffy toys to bits, and sprays black paint all over her pretty pastel walls, in "Batman Returns" ), I discovered that my brain was quite impressive!


I totally agree. I think that the modern environment, ( which extends to the 300 square meters of our gut, in the form of food ), is one of the two most important factors, ( social structure/organisation, especially school, being the other ), in the increasing disability, and consequent visibility, of people now being diagnosed with AS/Autism.

.

I'm sorry if my post sounded as if I was saying this. Your expression "social savant" so resonated with me that I didn't think how my own experience, expressed in that context might suggest that.

There is no question that females with AS are subjected to different pressures than AS males. The gender roles expected of us force many AS women to work harder at acquiring social skills, and this can take up so much of our mental energy/capacity that our intellectual gifts get lost to some extent along the way.

It is clear that most people do "submit" to the gender-structure imposed by society, ( it is a fundamental aspect of our environment ), and so "social savantism" in female AS would not be surprising, the female equivalent of men's "special interests" in technology/computing etc.

I was not strong enough to resist that pressure, and I found satisfaction/rewards in it, as so many AS men do with their technology/computing skills. But it stopped me from acquiring/developing other skills, which may also be the case for some AS men with computing/tech skills, who do not develop social skills.

Some AS problems may in fact be directly related to the social construct which is gender. With a tendency to give our "attention" to fewer things but more deeply, than "NT"s, some of us might have a tendency to concentrate on a very few, ( the apparently most important ), aspects of what our "gender-role" is supposed to be, to the detriment of other things.
.

Last edited by ouinon on 26 Mar 2009, 7:02 am, edited 1 time in total.

It is another way in which the modern environment, ( daily/extensive exposure to TV, film, internet, school, even books, etc, with their stereotyped images of men and women ), may be contributing to increasing problems for AS.

Previously, pre-1850-1900, most/many children saw only the few dozen individuals comprising their close community, in which situation differences would not so easily become stereotypes, would not seem so much like a "law".

I wonder whether AS born and brought up in relatively isolated places, with little or no exposure to TV and other media, develop differently in this respect.

.

This response gets quite near the mark for me. I have experience living in a range of different types of areas, and sizes of place. And I didn't answer fully the question about tolerance of the ASD community in your area. So it's time to give my opinion.

From what I gather, two main things are important to Aspies. Peace and quiet (whether from sensory stimuli, or from people). And tolerance/diversity in a place. Which are things that can be found in opposite types of places (rural for former, urban in latter).

There are suburban areas. It is in a suburban part of Edinburgh that I live. I feel there could be more tolerant places to live. I pretty much agree with the things others have said about suburban living. Probably, you stand out more than in a central city area. And unlike in the countryside, there are plenty of people around you to stand out amongst. I have had some very hard times living in neighbourhoods, in the suburbs. I think I have made a mistake choosing this sort of environment to live in (I realise it after years of doing so). I'm close to the community because of my involvement in church life around here. There is an intolerance towards Asperger's in my church. That much I know from feedback from a friend there (who understands AS and whose son has autism) from conversations people have had with her about me. And that's in a church, never mind the rest of the community.

There are medium sized towns. I went to high school in such a town. I guess it was quite an intolerant place to live. Certainly it was hard for me because of that. Like the suburbs, it scored low on both tolerance/diversity, and peace and quiet from people in the community.

There are small towns/villages. My parents moved to a village, which had a population little over 1000, when I went to university, so I stayed there when not in university term time. It was even worse for tolerance and anonymity. Whereas my biological mother/grandmother, probably Aspies, lived in such places and apparently were always persecuted by neighbours.

There are central city areas. As a student, that is where I lived. A lot of people, and maybe people are not necessarily more tolerant but at least there's more diversity and anonymity. It's just harder for me to comment because at the time I was a student, that's when I withdrew from society.

There are rural areas. Maybe people are not necessarily more tolerant but at least there's the peace and quiet.