Receptive Aphasia and sensory problems in Possible Aspergers

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harriet
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

Joined: 11 Jan 2016
Posts: 50
Location: Portugal

01 Mar 2016, 6:59 am

Hi there,

Not really sure how to phrase this question, if its a question.

I haven't been diagnosed with Aspergers by my doctor (who has met me 3 times) as he says I seem 'normal' for the 5 minutes he speaks with me. Nonetheless, I think I have it, and am basically trying to do deal with the systems rather than pursuing a diagnosis.

I was just reading randomly about Receptive aphasia in stroke victims and couldn't help but notice that it very much described some of the language problems often mentioned for people with Aspergers, such as speaking non-stop and not recognising cues from others to stop, listen or adjust the subject. It seems to describe something else I've often noticed in myself, namely, speaking, only to find that instead of the words i mean to say coming out, other similar sounding or even at times totally random words come out. For example, I deliberately have not corrected the fact that in my first paragraph, instead of symptoms, I wrote systems, as it's a good example of something I do very frequently, but rarely the words are totally random.

I am, ironically, an English teacher living in Portugal, and very often find that when students ask me a word in English, i can't remember what it is! I also often feel like I'm struggling to speak in conversations and have to think very hard, or face gaps in sentences where I can't think what word should be used to complete the sentence. I've put it down to living in Portugal for 3 years, being sleep deprived for many years too and generally not socialising much because of spending so much time in the library reading. But now I'm wondering if it's part of this receptive aphasia thing, which apparently can be improved through exercises to promote neuro-plasticity?

I am more or less learning to cope with issues like limited interests, needing routines, just ignoring OCD, nervous tic, clumsiness etc, but I would like to know if this speech thing can be improved. I think personally my biggest difficulty is coping with noise. Despite spending almost my entire life in earplugs and not-enough silent libraries, I think it's the pain of noise that generates most of my stress and contributes a lot to not wanting to go out and socialise with people. Is there anything that can be done to overcome sensory issues? I have been on a gluten-free diet for maybe 6 weeks now to see if that helps but unfortunately I do not notice any difference :(

Thank you!