the best cure

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Upon my discovery of "probably" having an autism spectrum disorder one observation I've made is the power of laughter. In my weakest moments when i'm feeling hopeless and depressed(for good reason, none of us asked to be this way) I find if I can gather up the ability to find ANYTHING to laugh about, even if it is to myself, it makes all the difference and if for a short time the weight of the world comes off my shoulders. The reason I made this post is because I noticed alot of people with these disorders are prone to inflicting pain on oneself and even suicide. Everyone needs to be able to look at life in a different perspective from time to time, most people get it from friendship and family members. Well obviously thats not always possible and if anyone needs to look at something from a different perspective or if nothing else, a pair of ears to listen feel free to pm me and we could exchange emails. For those of you(like me) who feel a spark of hope maybe we can help each other out.

edit: I just realized the subject title was a bit misleading. I'm not claiming laughter to be the best cure to aspergers. However there is a link to to us aspies and taking things a bit seriously(at least in my experience anyway).

Last edited by Mindovermatter on 14 Sep 2008, 8:35 am, edited 1 time in total.

I think that that is one of the reasons why I so much liked marijuana once upon a time; it would get me laughing so much, and "with" other people ( also stoned) , and I would feel wonderful.

And comedy films like Naked Gun, Clockwise, A Fish Called Wanda, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, a lot of The Pink Panther series, and Blind Date, among others, though sadly they "wear out" over time and repeated viewings.

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Well, yeah, I do normally try to see the funny side in every situation. It helps me and alienates me from others when I share my perceptions. One more thing, that does it, maybe soon there are so many things that an integer overflow will occur

you lost me

Sorry, geeky reference and attempt at a joke. if a variable is increased over the highest value for its type, it overflows and becomes the lowest value.

they say that laughter is the best medicine

indeed it is, I think laughter is a skill to some degree. For instance, you put someone in a situation and they cant handle it so they get uncomfortable, fearful,sad. you put an entirley different person in a situation and they make light of it. Is there a difference between the two? possibly,but I think everyone has the capability for a strong sense of humor. I sound like im going nowhere with this, but its not true. Everyone has hardtimes, sorrow, pain ect. So people like being around people with a sense of humor. Could be a step towards forming relationships.

for instance, you have one person with the same level of autism as another. one person gets nervous around others, start becoming self-doubting, insecure ect. while the other person with the same form of disability laughs at himself to others and jokes about things of himself that other people might find weird, people will warm up to that person and be able to talk to you like anyone else. I hope I'm making sense I suck at expressing my thoughts sometimes( I know you guys would understand)

One way to beat depression is to try to get out and have fun everyday. Try doing things or going places you normally wouldn't go or want to go but you're to shy to go. It's a uphill battle but the depression will slowly fade away. Try to block ANY NEGATIVE THOUGHTS out of your mind and replace it with POSITIVE THOUGHTS.

I think that it is a mistake to try and avoid "negative" thoughts. Simply thinking that some of your thoughts are "negative" is likely to make you feel miserable.

Instead consider the possibility that , for you, they are real/true, important expressions of your experience; stop thinking that they are awful, twisted, signs of your low state of mind.

For instance when I managed to see my prevailing belief at one time of "Life is s**t" as a pretty accurate view of things, really see, and accept, my view of the world as a terrible place, rather than trying to impose other people's rosy/"positive" view on myself, I felt so much better.

I realised that i had been buying someone else's/other people's opinions about life, or professed opinions anyway, and had been feeling permanently under pressure to cheer up, get positive, as if life was a bowl of roses if I would just stop being so stupid about it.

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Yes, I get annoyed at that too. People will ask you to "think positive" in a way that makes it obvious that this is just another word for denial. I would rather face the world with realistic ideas of what's in it, and start figuring out how to solve the problems I've got, rather than pretending they're all funny and easy to deal with and I don't really have any problems at all.

I agree with Mindovermatter. I noticed that a lot of people here admit that they avoid socialising because of their past experiences with being too literal, considered rude, misunderstood etc we've all been there. from my personal experience I can tell you that it really isn't that hard to neutralise such social mistakes with a bit of humour.

I went to college. It beats school and reality at the same time. The people on my old IT course f*****g loved me for some strange reason. We'd go on random adventures all the time and because of that I really, quote, livened up, unquote. When I'm by myself I'm still recluse but when I'm with my friends I kind of open up. Not a lot, but a lot for a guy with AS. The music course I'm on now is okay. Some of the people are alright but there are waaay too many pretentious pricks for my liking. There are people who are so obviously into shred and metal yet blag they are really "musically open-minded" for listening to a bit of Jazz and no longer listening to anything faster than 120bpm just to impress the lecturers (who see right thtough it I may add).

Humour is also the way forward. Satirical panel shows like Mock the Week, Never Mind The Buzzcocks and Have I Got News For You are very good. Also, Lee Evans, The Mighty Boosh, Family Guy, The Simpsons and anything with Jim Carey in it. Random Obscure Internet references are also good.