Getting well from Aspergers syndrome? therefore no services.

Page 1 of 2 [ 24 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next

toto
Butterfly
Butterfly

User avatar

Joined: 20 Sep 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 15

17 Oct 2009, 2:37 pm

Getting well from Aspergers syndrome? therefore no services.

Getting well from Aspergers syndrome - growing up - to be sufficiently normal for the label aspergers not to apply. i.e. decreased social deficits.

Can I lose this Asperger syndrome label? Deny it.. ask for a second opinion doctor-- people can get well from Asperger syndrome!
Because without it … I have no current additional labels like psychosis (gone for good).
And the mental health service would have no justification for involvement at all. Because Aspergers syndrome with associated needs did not apply.
I do not have a personality disorder.
I do not have a learning disability.
I am not psychotic. What have they got apart from the handle aspergers.

I'm just 'odd'. And they can't section you for being 'odd and eccentric' alone.

Hiding under this Asperger label isn't necessary outside of hospital.



toto
Butterfly
Butterfly

User avatar

Joined: 20 Sep 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 15

17 Oct 2009, 2:40 pm

they cant section people for miscellaneous behavioural issues and needs.. they'd have to find another label--which doesn't exist… Aspergers is no defence in the services… if you take it away from them...
thick mental health people like boxes. group everyone together call it aspergers. then they can target them.
I am normal.



sinsboldly
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Nov 2006
Gender: Female
Posts: 13,488
Location: Bandon-by-the-Sea, Oregon

17 Oct 2009, 2:40 pm

you can't 'get well' when you are not sick.
most anyone can learn. give an autistic years of practice. . decades of practice and you can overcome a lot of difficulties, but that doesn't mean you still aren't who you are.


_________________
Alis volat propriis
State Motto of Oregon


NateSean
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

User avatar

Joined: 21 Feb 2006
Age: 42
Gender: Male
Posts: 157
Location: Salem, Massachusetts

17 Oct 2009, 2:48 pm

According to the shrink that burned the label into my skull as a child, the diagnosis of Asperger's is for life. Once you have it you can't get rid of it.

If you have the documentation all you need to do is explain what level you feel it effects you at and you should be fine.



Callista
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 3 Feb 2006
Age: 42
Gender: Female
Posts: 10,775
Location: Ohio, USA

17 Oct 2009, 2:50 pm

It is possible for someone to lose an Asperger's diagnosis; it usually happens before adulthood but can happen later. What happens in these cases is that the child has AS symptoms, but as he grows older, he learns to compensate for them. Because as a teenager or an adult there is no longer any impairment, there cannot be any diagnosis. In general, kids this happens to tend to have very mild AS or atypical autism.

The result is someone who has an autistic brain, but who, because he does not have "significant impairment" from his autistic traits, cannot be diagnosed with autism.

If you are an adult and still autistic, I'm willing to bet that you probably will not lose your diagnosis, though if it's your goal to get the mental health service off your back, I'm pretty sure it's possible to do that. What country are you in? Your profile doesn't say, and things are different from place to place, naturally.

However, it may not be the Asperger's that's keeping them involved; they may simply be following you because you used to have psychosis. There is an idea that if you have ever had this, then you are very vulnerable to getting it again.


_________________
Reports from a Resident Alien:
http://chaoticidealism.livejournal.com

Autism Memorial:
http://autism-memorial.livejournal.com


ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 18 Jun 2008
Gender: Female
Posts: 12,265

17 Oct 2009, 2:59 pm

Some people seem to grow completely out of their AS while others do not. The AS criteria in the DSM is written for children, not adults. The question is what happens to the adults? Some appear to grow out of AS and don't want the label, while others (like me) do not outgrow it. Why doesn't the DSM say anything about ASDs in adults? (if it does already, I haven't read it).



toto
Butterfly
Butterfly

User avatar

Joined: 20 Sep 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 15

17 Oct 2009, 3:04 pm

I never had psychosis. they said I did....co-morbid with aspergers.
I just perceived the world differently and was a bit too switched on, going a bit too fast.

Psychosis should. be hearing voices.. whatnot... not being a bit over analytical about your environment,
and having a very rigid belief system.


I have learn't coping strategies for the things that bother me real or not, to challenge my beliefs...
and to re-evaluate the information coming in to my head and interpret it differently. Hence I don't get ill.


Nice to see an engineering student. I did that for a while.



ad2009
Blue Jay
Blue Jay

User avatar

Joined: 28 Dec 2008
Age: 35
Gender: Male
Posts: 78

17 Oct 2009, 3:15 pm

Like someone already said, once you have a psychological disorder, you will have it forever. Even if the symptoms are not there anymore, you still have it (it is just considered to be in remission).



toto
Butterfly
Butterfly

User avatar

Joined: 20 Sep 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 15

17 Oct 2009, 3:33 pm

I don't know... I feel a lot better.

I might just deny I have it …let them try and find another label.. good luck. see my point.



Callista
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 3 Feb 2006
Age: 42
Gender: Female
Posts: 10,775
Location: Ohio, USA

17 Oct 2009, 3:56 pm

Some psychological diagnoses, once you have them, if they are correctly diagnosed, you should always have them on your record. Among these are depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and other recurrent disorders. For example, I am prone to depression and my last episode was three years ago; so I am listed in my records as "Major depression, recurrent, in remission." In Remission is what they say when it has been a while since you had an episode of a recurrent disorder. Up until a year ago, the diagnosis was, "Major depression, recurrent, in partial remission," because it had only been a year at that point since I had needed medication and two years since I fit full criteria for the diagnosis.

Were you diagnosed with bipolar disorder? It's odd to me, because what you describe sounds either like sensory hypersensitivity (which is normal for autistic people) or bipolar hypomania (which doesn't involve strong psychotic symptoms; full-blown mania does). The difference between them, obviously, is that hypomania is a state of being very energetic, full of ideas, usually with an elevated mood for no real reason. I've never experienced it but I'm told that people in this state are generally quite hyperactive. Whereas, the sensory hypersensitivity common to Asperger's would be present at all times; noticing everything is a trait common to people with AS, as is being easily overloaded by unpleasant sensations (noise, smell, touch, etc.)

What you describe does not sound like any sort of psychosis to me, though, not unless there are things that happened that you aren't saying.

Autism, in any case, doesn't cause any kind of psychotic symptoms. If someone with autism has psychotic symptoms, it means he's got something other than just autism.

The important thing to remember about autism is that it isn't a "psychological disorder" the way we tend to think of them; that is, it doesn't deal with emotions and mental states. Autism is a cognitive, neurological condition--that is, it changes the way you think and learn and process information; and it is something that starts when you are very little, almost surely before you are born, and stays with you your whole life in a more-or-less constant fashion.

Autism is more like a learning disability than like a mood disorder--for example, if you have met someone with dyslexia, you know they have a very hard time learning how to read, but can usually learn if they take a little more time and get good lessons; and can often work things so they don't have to read, like listening to books on tape. Autism is a little like that, except that it isn't just one thing; it's a lot of things all together, like socializing with other people, using language, planning things, etc. Autistic people have traits that typical people don't have, such as being really, really fascinated with a topic; and of course there are the sensory traits I already described.

I don't think you should be worrying about trying to "get well" somehow, because that cannot be done; not really; as you can't change your brain. What you can do is work on learning things that help you to be independent, like the person with dyslexia can learn how to read.


_________________
Reports from a Resident Alien:
http://chaoticidealism.livejournal.com

Autism Memorial:
http://autism-memorial.livejournal.com


17 Oct 2009, 5:53 pm

ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo wrote:
Some people seem to grow completely out of their AS while others do not. The AS criteria in the DSM is written for children, not adults. The question is what happens to the adults? Some appear to grow out of AS and don't want the label, while others (like me) do not outgrow it. Why doesn't the DSM say anything about ASDs in adults? (if it does already, I haven't read it).



I read at wiki that 20 percent of aspies no longer meet the criteria by the time they are adults. They call it a prognosis.



AMD
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

User avatar

Joined: 18 Sep 2009
Age: 50
Gender: Female
Posts: 221

17 Oct 2009, 6:33 pm

My son's psychologist said he was so mild (very mild ASD, not AS as they only referred to him having ASD on the record, but AS off the record) that he thought he would pull through the dx. He would probably lose the label when he got a little older. I seem to think differently about that. He will still think differently. Feel differently than NTs. He will mask himself. He will be able to cope well, but i think still he will have a little bit harder time adjusting to many things than an NT. And i think that will be there for life.



Callista
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 3 Feb 2006
Age: 42
Gender: Female
Posts: 10,775
Location: Ohio, USA

17 Oct 2009, 9:00 pm

Yes. Losing the label doesn't mean losing the brain structure, or the inherent difference. I think a lot of the older people here at WP are probably in that category, and they don't strike me as NTs. Just non-disabled.


_________________
Reports from a Resident Alien:
http://chaoticidealism.livejournal.com

Autism Memorial:
http://autism-memorial.livejournal.com


JohnnyD017
Raven
Raven

User avatar

Joined: 5 Oct 2009
Age: 40
Gender: Male
Posts: 120

17 Oct 2009, 9:08 pm

The psychologist I spoke to last week seemed to think that I could do something about my AS label. Maybe remove it or have my medical record amended to say that I no longer fit the criteria, I dont remember exactly. He said other adults he'd met with it still had severe problems with certain areas and just by talking to me he could see that I didn't have some of those. eg. Eye contact, fluctuating voice, non verbals. He told me about the 'theory of mind' tests that they had difficulty with and I tried and passed all of those.

Yes, some people say that you're stuck with ALL of it for life but I say not all. Speaking for myself... I was very manipulative when I was younger, now not so much. Well, maybe in a more roundabout way. I used to have eye contact issues but now I just don't see a problem with doing it. It FEELS normal. I used to think logically more often but now it just doesnt come quite as naturally as it used to, but I still can if I want to. My motor skills have improved, I never had problems with fine motor skills but my gross ones weren't as great, but now there's ok even with new things. In fact I'm picking up tennis and getting the hang of it very quickly, quicker than many so called 'NTs'. Reading people is something I dont think about and I never have. I just assumed I always could. People may have had trouble when they were teenagers but teens are harder to read anyway cos of their quick mood changes. ie. You can be totally right about reading the mood of a teen but they can snap between moods at the drop of a hat. Social anxiety is worse when you're younger because of the teen unpredictability thing, when you grow up, people aren't like that anymore and you feel A LOT calmer about new things. In fact saying I had trouble reading teens and felt anxious around them may have helped catapult me into the AS boat.

I'm not sure how changes can happen to a person. Some of it may be due to attitude or experience or studying the social norms. Although the social norms wouldn't be inbuilt into someone's mind since they change all the time- so everyone has to study them to some degree. A person with AS may just have a problem with *understanding* them. But look at stand up comedians. They always comment on social rules and how stupid they are, so you're not alone there! And who knows, maybe the brain itself can compensate by physically developing certain areas that are needed more. And dare I say it, mis-diagnosis IS still possible!

Obviously not everyone 'grows out' of it but I for one think its possible to.

And remember, even if we still think slightly differently, if it doesn't impair the way we interact with the world then it's not a disability and it needs no label! :)



melissa17b
Velociraptor
Velociraptor

User avatar

Joined: 19 Oct 2008
Age: 65
Gender: Female
Posts: 420
Location: A long way from home, wherever home is

17 Oct 2009, 10:17 pm

Callista wrote:
Autism, in any case, doesn't cause any kind of psychotic symptoms. If someone with autism has psychotic symptoms, it means he's got something other than just autism.


This is not entirely true. Autism does not cause actual psychosis, but does often cause symptoms indistinguishable from the most common psychosis, schizophrenia. Autism frequently presents resembling negative symptoms of schizophrenia, such as flat affect, and sometimes the positive symptoms of disorganised-type schizophrenia. While autism and schizophrenia are distinct conditions, both are diagnosed by observing symptoms, and the symptoms have significant overlap. This is why the diagnostic criteria define a hierarchy - schizophrenia in general is not diagnosed in an autistic person unless there are hallucinations or delusions, as these psychotic symptoms are not caused by autism. A marked increase in the presence of other positive symptoms also may indicate schizophrenia within autism, as schizophrenia left untreated is progressively degenerative while autism tends to be stable.



cyberscan
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 16 Apr 2008
Age: 57
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,296
Location: Near Panama, City Florida

17 Oct 2009, 10:27 pm

I want to lose my label. Life would be much easier for me.


_________________
I am AUTISTIC - Always Unique, Totally Interesting, Straight Talking, Intelligently Conversational.
I am also the author of "Tech Tactics Money Saving Secrets" and "Tech Tactics Publishing and Production Secrets."