Does learning about mental conditions/disorders help you...

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...with perspective taking?

I mean, there are many diagnoses we've discussed here on WP that autistics may have besides ASD as co-morbid or may cause similar symptoms than ASDs. Don't you feel that discussion and learning actually helped you to understand people around you better?

I don't mean everywhere I turn I stumble upon diagnosable people, but they either seem to have some resemblance or stand out more NT-ish than before. This way I could move from always assuming people think more or less like me to actually being able to make a wild guess about what the other person's typical thinking pattern might be. It certainly has an advantage in practice.

Can you relate to this?

Yes. I have also learned about myself too and I don't have to be as hard on myself.

Hmm, not many responses... Examples needed, I suppose. I discovered the moment I've first came across AS that my father has strong traits of it too, so I immediately stopped expecting from him the same as form other people. Sometimes I need to talk about my life/stuff to get some understanding, advice, encouraging, or simply sharing some information with them. My father is not a good choice to begin with, to say the least. I had to forgive him for not being able to provide me the same level of help as, for example, my mother can. In addition, I discovered he has a rather sensitive personality and a bit of narcissism in the sense that he tries to protect himself by saying inappropriate/hurtful things deliberately sometimes. I'm not exaggerating that my father cried after I put up some inquisitive questions probing him, I had to resort to excessive complimenting to solve this issue. I knew only this could help. It was a shocking experience to me. I never did it again. Now I understand my sister and my ex gf better, too.

Last weekend I met people at a place where I helped them with mixing concrete. There were 2 people I already knew and 4 new. We had lunch together after the work. I used the technique of identifying them according to brain / thinking type, using the knowledge which has been mainly distilled form my readings in mental disorders. I was quite satisfied with the result, I could connect to the conversation quite acceptably, saying pertinent things.

Last edited by OJani on 05 Sep 2011, 3:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

Yes, this is one of the most important advantages of having an exceptional knowledge about them.

Anybody?

Yes. Very much so.

Until I started reading up on autism and then finally recognized myself as having Asperger's, I thought I was merely a one-off, someone so different from others (and probably my fault for being so) that I never had a chance to be treated as a real person, or to be a real person.

Learning that I fit well into a recognized syndrome of behavior, that there are a great many others like me, and that some others have figured out ways of coping with Asperger's that I might be able to learn from has been a great help to me.

I've also realized that my talents probably come from the same source as my weaknesses, which makes the weaknesses easier to bear.

I like myself a lot more, and am more comfortable in my skin.

I have learnt a great deal about neurology this last year.

What helps me understand, makes me more knowledgeable and pushes me further

out of this world. Makes me less NT!




No matter how useful a garment, it is not for eating.

Learning about mental conditions/disorders helped me with taking perspectives, but not in a way I expected.

My earliest interest in psychology was Skinnerian Behaviourism, and in using Behaviourism in learning. My most specialized university studies in psychology were with psychological measurements and testing, particularly with the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). I was interested in using the MMPI as a valid and objective measurement tool, but academic/internships at mental health clinics were frustrating because it seemed homeless street people were used to keep the facilities at maximum utilization, and unless extremely contrary evidence was undeniable or impossible to ignore, most everyone was diagnosed as having paranoid schizophrenia and medicated with haloperidol for it neuroleptic effects. The MMPI results were generally brushed aside when they were contrary to this practice, and when easily apparent cases of grand mal seizures of epilepsy were recorded as signs of paranoid schizophrenia, I decided to get another degree in a different field, especially since my social psychology professor had opined that a partial seizure I had in class was probably from temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE).

The Geschwind Syndrome from TLE, the high co-morbidity of autism and epilepsy, and the MMPI "characteristic shift" of scales from TLE and high-functioning adults with autism spectrum disorders versus Asperger's Syndrome and TLE, all have a wide, cloudy, overlap.

Tadzio

http://asm.sagepub.com/content/12/1/86
The Neuropsychiatry of Epilepsy By Michael R. Trimble, Bettina Schmitz (2011), pages 33, 92.
Neuropsychiatry By Randolph B. Schiffer, Stephen M. Rao, Barry S. Fogel (2003), pages 516, 1106.
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt154233.html

People tell me it just makes me a hypocondriac. I was researching dissociative identity disorder for a story I'm writing and I have to wonder if I was in the early stages of it as a kid. I think if I didn't have obsessions to focus on when things got bad, I would have developed it by now.

I find that when I see a person walking down the street mumbling to themselves and having odd body language, I don't assume they're schizophrenic. They could be autistic or have Tourette Syndrome or whatever. And I think even if they were schizophrenic, that's no reason to be scared of them.

I tend to react more kindly in general when I think 'for all I know this person could have X condition'. I'm even more sympathetic to criminals because of knowing about psychopathy, because psychopaths really can't help being psychopaths and don't get why what they're doing is wrong.

Exactly, this is what I discovered, too....just recently and it changed a lot. I do understand him much better now and know that I don't have to be so hard on him. I'm already sure this lessened the potential for constant conflicts which is something that needed to be done some time.

Other than that, if I find something/one you could consider out of the ordinary, I can see this much clearer and, frankly, I can't act accordingly well but I feel a better understanding of some people's actions. I've started to read about psychology (and disorders) early and thus always analysed me as well as others to understand human interaction and society on a micro level. It can be helpful if you know how to use it or if you really do understand what you're actually reading and/or learning.

Labeling can be bad. People tend to get carried away with diagnostic labels when in reality, everyone can find things about themselves that fit with certain mental disorders. A professor once called it "Psych student syndrome" becasue psychology students, after hearing all the different disorders in the DSM, would start self-diagnosing like crazy. I think sometimes we, myself included, get to hung up on labels. If I see someone behaving erratically, I might be quick to label them "bipolar" and then I've just made a whole lot of assumptions about that person that I don't know. Nevermind the fact that this person (for example) just lost their job, or got in a car accident, etc. I think in these cases, these titles can be dangerous.

That is one of the reasons I don't go around telling others that I have Aspergers. I'm afraid that people will start making assumptions about my personality and capabilities. I could lose a chance on a job because someone might be quick to think that an Aspie couldn't handle it even though they know nothing about me. I think the diagnosing should be left to the doctors.

This image from a Led Zeppelin album cover represents the accumulation of knowledge being like gathering sticks to burn......causing the back to be bent from the strain of accumulation

This sure doesn't surprise me.

And they call themselves "professionals"?


I think you have a point here.


I guess we could say that cognitive empathy can be developed to a degree by learning about mental conditions / disorders. But one thing is to know how others are / sympathize with them and another to know how to relate to them / deal with them. Being kind with people is always a good starting point, though.


It's good to know I'm not the only one.


I don't think it could be that dangerous as far as we don't take it too seriously. Have fun with it and avoid overthinking / overreacting.

yea it really does.. i got to know myself so much during the proces of finding out that i am an aspie since i hadn't even hear about asperger's or introvertion.. a whole new world opened to me where i could accept myself and don't feel alone anymore.