Possible aspergers combined with other mental illnesses.

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hello

im new here .
My current diagnosi's are anxiety and depression , both which i suffer from greatly . The main problem however is that i cannot cope with life . I can talk at great length about something i am deeply interested in and yet other things hold no interest for me at all , But that interesting thing can change like the wind , except one constant thing that ive always loved .

I suffer really badly from paranoia about people , i cant tell what they are thinking properly , i cant determine if they are genuinely interested or just being polite and waiting for an opurtunity to escape from me . I dont have any freinds anymore because even when i have made them in the past after a short time i worry that they are just being polite .

The slightest insult or problem really upsets me and sends me into a depression or panic attack . I am so bad around people that i am agrophobic now . I dont know what i like or who i am ,i can be really keen on something one minute and totally ignore it the next . i have no willpower or determination.

My psychiatrist asked me to answer an AQ questionaire i really struggled with it , i found i didnt quite understand the questions so i was constantly questioning the psychiatrist on the question so i could understand exactly what was being asked .

I have an extremly poor memory now but in the past i was able to study and learn things but not to a high level like university. I am hopeless at maths and seem to lack the obsessional drive that i think would be responsable for the obsessive interest and great success in one thing that is commonly associated with aspergers people .

I got a score of 32 on the aspergers questionaire so it appears i do have some things in common with an aspergers person , although i appear to have missed out on the high level of concentration and great memory skills . i have a short attention span and no memory.

My question is : Is it possible for someone to be aspergers and get to adulthood and not know that they are and yet to suffer greatly as a result of it ?
and has anybody heard of AS people also haveing bipolar or borderline personality disorder ?
How exactly does an adult like me get diagnosed with aspergers syndrome?

apologies for spelling , punctuation and grammatical errors .

thank you for your time
bb natty

well i know if im under alot of stress i hear voices and get mild paranoia to. so you could have it

I didn't find out I had Asperger's until I was 24, and suffer from many of the same things that you have. Asperger's could be a good diagnosis.

That sounds a lot like me - I know I was diagnosed with all sorts of things - anxiety, OCD, etc . . . and if you add them all together you get my current main diagnosis of AS with sub diagnoses of bipolar and dissassociation . . . I have never had the hearing voices experience, but I'm fairly paranoid (and, honestly, have not experienced any behavior from people that makes me think I should be any less paranoid)

Depression, social phobia, agrophobia and OCD are common co-morbids of AS.
Not being able to read people well combined with compulsive tendencies ( thoughts getting 'stuck in a loop') can result in the paranoia. Also, halucinations (auditory & visual) can be caused stress and depression.
So it's easy to see why AS can be confused with some mental disorders.

I see no reason why you cannot have both AS and bipolar. I am sure there are other members who may be able to comment.
I was in my 30s before diagnosis. It's a relatively new 'condition' so of course it is possible that you can get to adulthood without it being diagnosed. I was diagnosed with OCD and depression years before AS was widely known about. (If it wasnt for the depression i would have never have seen the doctor.)

As for getting a diagnosis. It depends where you live.
The obvious advice is to talk to your shrink or doctor about it.

i hate when people confuse aspergers with schizophrenia

I was diagnosed with BPD a few years ago. They no longer think I have it but as I'm not depressed they won't offer me further assessment for an ASD. I'm in Britain so it's the NHS we're talking about - i'm not depressed so I'm not a priority as far as funding goes.

You sound somewhat like me. It is definitely possible to have both AS and Attention Deficit Disorder. I have been diagnosed with ADD but didn’t learn about AS until a couple of months ago. I do believe I have both AS and ADD.

My concentration level is in the toilet, and always has been. Thankfully my good short-term memory saved me in school. As long as I skimmed my notes before a test, I could do pretty well. This didn’t work as well in university though, as they tend to test functional knowledge more so than just memorized facts. I’ve always found it next to impossible to study any subject in great detail unless I was extremely interested in it.

I don’t have single obsessions either, but rather I have them in spurts. I can’t make a career out of any obsession because my interest in them never lasts. I can be completely, utterly, totally obsessed with something for a few weeks (or even just days), and then I don’t even want to look at it anymore, and I’m on to something else. I might come back to that particular obsession in a few months or years, maybe not. My only exception is cross-stitch, but I think that is more of a stimming thing than an actual obsession.

I used to have severe social anxiety, probably as a result of my never knowing what to do in social situations. I don’t get the anxiety so much anymore, but I still dislike being in social situations.

I used to think I had a mood disorder, but now I wonder if my ups and downs just have more to do with my passing obsessions – when I have an obsession, I feel good. But when it inevitably fades, my mood sort of goes with it. I’m starting to recognize it now and hopefully that’ll help me deal with it.

Poor memory and paranoia around people also describes me.

But I think that the way to help it is just to see myself from a different perspective.

Recently, I wrote a little script for a role-playing game so maybe I could present myself as attempting at the ability of a creative writer but it depends on the situation.

This thing that has to do with people getting to know each other sometimes looks like it involves much effort.

Think of casual things but what would that be? Think small-talk but what really does that mean as well?

An example of casual is if I am doing something but I don't know if anyone wants to know about it then I will just say that I have been busy working on something lately but isn't that the broad veiw of what aspergers is anyway?

This is just how I view these concepts so anyway.

It seems we have a lot in common. It’s definitely possible to have mental illness alongside an AS disorder.

I got my diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum disorder after I was hospitalized for depression, for the second time. I was lucky enough to have a learning disabilities specialist as my consultant at the second hospital. Until I met him, and was tested, I was written off as having “unresolved childhood issues” and that I “wasn’t engaging in therapy”, which is an elaborate way of saying that psychodynamic therapy was doing nothing positive, and they didn’t have a clue what else could be “wrong” with me.

To answer your questions, the learning difficulties specialist said that, in his professional opinion, almost every single case of “anxiety and depression” that he sees, is caused by disorders such as Asperger's, ADD, dyspraxia [etc]. Depression and anxiety are the results of living in a world that simply isn’t equipt to cater for people with these particular needs.

Personally, I don’t believe in “personality disorders”, for a variety of reasons. I think those sorts of labels are dangerous and misguided.
I believe that since Autistic Spectrum disorders are exactly that, a spectrum, it isn’t quite as black and white as some people having “the disorder” and other people not. Many people experience traits of these disorders, and those who experience problems because of such traits are more likely to get a diagnosis. Therefore, I don’t think it’s quite as simple as whether or not an Autistic Spectrum individual can also have mental illness, I believe that people with diagnosed Autism can become mentally ill like anyone else, I also believe that those who are mentally ill may have had unrecognized AS traits, and vice versa.

How you should go about getting a diagnosis would seem to depend on where you are in the world. I can offer a little advice if you are in England, though it seems that most people here are in America/Australia?

Hello

Thank you everyone for your informative replies . Maybe i do have lots in common with Aspergers people after all , I dont know how i didnt notice it before .
It was my psychiatrist that brought up the question of AS by testing me for it , at the time i was thinking no way but this test will rule it out and then he will move onto looking at something else ,but haveing got a score of 32 and then reading that 80% of people with AS get scores of 32 or above i wonder what will happen next . Do you think a score of 32 will give me a diagnosis of AS ? or are there other tests that need to be done as well to confirm it?

Is AS a disability or an illness or just being different ?
I never considered AS as an explanation for my problems , partly due to the fact as i see AS people as extremly competant in there filed of specialism and i have often been jealous of those people who have the drive ,concentration , desire and will power to do great things in there field . I seem to lack all that , im not confident or acomplished in anything .
I struggle every day to stay alive because the slightest little upset seems to make my world fall apart and i feel pathetic and pointless . Do some aspies feel like this ? or is this down to another part of me .
What do you do with a diagnosis of aspergers syndrome ? i always considered it a non treatable thing , where you just rely on others being understanding of your nature .
I need to get better from whatever it is that makes me feel how i feel , i need a job i need to feel im here for a reason and i need to accomplish something in life .
bb natty

Hi Natty,

I'm in a similar situation to you. I've been treated for depression for about a decade, and more recently OCD, but only recently been diagnosed with Aspergers.

I think there's a couple of scenarios that could happen with the combination of mental illness and AS:

1. Mistaken identity. Depending on how an individual case of Aspergers manifests itself, it could look like borderline personality disorder, or schizophrenia, or goodness knows what else.

2. Co-incidence. I guess there's no reason someone with AS couldn't also have any other medical problem, from bipolar to cerebral palsy, depending on their genetics and environment.

3. One thing causing another thing. My depression was caused by having major social trouble... which is caused by AS!

I think 'not engaging in therapy' is a common Apsie trait - it's not that we're not trying, it's just that therapy developed for the general population doesn't neccessarily work for our special thinking patterns and interaction style.

For me, just getting a sensible diagnosis made life a lot easier, even though there hasn't been any follow-througth treatment yet. I find myself less prone to anger and depression borne of frustration, because I now know the reason why I have trouble with certain things.

Take care.

Firstly, I'm new here, so if any of my advice here seems misguided, please correct me. =]

That obviously depends on what test it was. It was probably some sort of common symptom checklist? The important thing, in my opinion, is to get thoroughly tested by a specialist in the field, even if this will have to be done privately. It may also be helpful to buy books about the subject, so that you are able to look for relevant information yourself. The most useful book for me personally, so far, has been Sensory Perceptual Issues in Autism and Asperger Syndrome by Olga Bogdashina. :]


AS disorders can become a disability, in the sense that modern life isn’t very well adjusted to people with certain characteristics. It is not an illness, though it can lead to mental ill health, like depression and anxiety, possibly through the frustration that comes with living in a world that doesn’t always cater terribly well for people with these sorts of “problems”/differences. Autistic Spectrum disorders are, as the title suggests, part of a huge spectrum. A lot of NT people do have experiences that are more common to AS people, and AS people can also lead functional, “normal” lives. It is very unique to the individual.



Again, everyone’s experience of themselves and the world around them is unique. Personally, I find change/spontaneity incredibly stressful/frightening, so like you “the slightest little upset seems to make my world fall apart”. Unlike you, I don’t allow this to make me feel pathetic or pointless. Life is about taking on board our strengths and weaknesses, accepting the bits we cannot change and working on adapting and developing the bits we can.
There is really no such thing as "the slightest little upset". The fact that someone else doesn't experience something as a problem, doesn't mean it isn't one for you. The size of a problem is relative.



This ties in nicely with what I was just saying. A thorough, in depth diagnosis of your unique differences, will enable to you adapt yourself, and your environment, in a way that best enables you to achieve the things you want to in life. The diagnosis itself may really help you to feel empowered, as with a good understanding of difficulties comes a certain degree of control. It is not about relying on others to be understanding, it is about assertively making your own needs clear, taking the measures you need to [depending on your age, and needs, this could be anything from getting a statement of special educational needs, to making the decision to work at home, to realising that you find certain types of lighting more comfortable to work in, etc.] so that you can bridge the gap between your own needs, what you are doing about them, and what the world can also do to enable you to function within society.
An AS specialist [who was advising me on how to go about getting the support I needed in school] once said to me “it should be 50% you trying to be functioning in the world, and 50% the world adapting to your needs”.

Hope that helps a little bit. =]

Asperger's is not a mental illness.
It's totally possible for someone to have AS as well as any kind of mental illness, though.

Not everyone with AS is brilliant in one field of study. I think that is a bit of a stereotype for us – AS is a spectrum disorder, which means that not everyone will have the exact same symptoms or traits. The only trait that seems almost universal is problems with socializing, and this is accompanied by varying degrees of other symptoms. I don’t think any person with autism or asperger’s has every single symptom.

Hi there!
I think I was in quite a similar situation to you recently.

I have only been diagnosed about 3 months and I am 17, so believe me it is quite possible to live quite a length of time without noticing anything! People said I was just shy, but I always knew there was something different about me, like I saw the world differently from other people. And it wasn't until I went to see psychiatrist about being depressed that I eventually was sent to a psychologist (or three) and a diagnosis.

So I know what you are going through.
I think AS is something that is very easy to diagnose, and also very easy to mis-diagnose. I think the best thing you could do is visit a psychologist and at the very least, take an intelligence test and have it analysed. Aspies have a very specific learning spectrum - certain areas of intelligence that show certain patterns. That will give you a very good idea of what is going on. And you may find it turns out to be something else and not AS at all!

I wish you the very best of luck!
I have been in the same situation and believe me it DOES get better!
Just from talking to psychologists and shrinks I am seeing a slight improvement in myself already!
Good luck!