Getting to know each other, Dino-style

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What is your first name? Jon

Age: 43

Location: Western Washington

Current perseverations: WP (of course), GTA III, downloading audiobooks to listen to while I drive to work

When did you discover AS? In 2001, when Newsweek published their article on "Geek Syndrome". My elder sister read the story, put the magazine down, looked at my mother, and said, "So THAT'S what's wrong with Jon."

Do you have other psych diagnoses? An AF psych called me BPD, but I think now he may have intended to say schizotypal. Either way, he was wrong, as he based the opinion primarily on my flatness of affect and stereotyped vocabulary.

Do you have a degree? Most days, I've got almost 99 of 'em! Nothing on paper, though...

Kids? No, I'm an adult. Did father a couple of 'em, though.

Favorite music, other than NIN: The only NIN I really care for is "Closer", As for other music, check out Rush, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Queensryche, the Beatles (obviously), Steely Dan (equally obviously), Type O Negative (not obviously at all), Chopin, Weird Al Yankovic, the Rugburns - the list goes on, but those are the highlights.

Job? Yes, I've always identified with Job. Oh, you mean employment! Yeah, I work for a contractor, handling customer service for - er - a major VoIP provider.

Relationship with significant other, past or present? Quite good, I think. We're both a little worried about our husband, of course, since he's in Iraq right now.

Plans for the future? Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so. Therefore, making plans about the future is an illusion, especially lunch plans.

Last edited by DeaconBlues on 03 May 2007, 11:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Crap! Did I miss another year?

November 2006

What is your first name? Kate

Age: 31...32 on Sunday

Location: South Uk

Current perseverations: WP, my music, art, Aspergers/Autism, my lover.

When did you discover AS?: Last year when I thought someone else might have it as they resembled my ex who told me he had been diagnosed with AS when young...it was when reading a book about loving Mr Spock that I got an Aha! moment.

Do you have other psych diagnoses? Misdiagnosis of bpd. I admit, I have bpd traits due to my bad past, but I believe AS is the primary dx...being Dx'd soon actually. Also OCD and panic disorder, and probably bi polar. (was diagnosed just depression at 13)

Do you have a degree? I did almost all of a degree in English but lost my motivation in the latter half of my final year, so have to retake it when I feel more able to cope. I feel ashamed I did not complete it.

Kids? No. I am a vegetarian.

Favorite music, other than NIN: Clannad, Enya, Nightwish, Within Temptation(I love!), Beatles, Queen, James Blunt, Keane, Epica, Sonata Arctica, Art Garfunkel, Show songs...music is my lifelong obsession.

Job? Sitting on my backside, procrastinating.

Relationship with significant other, past or present? Was with aspie ex for 5 and a half years. Had a brief fling with some half Turkish/half native american local...and now in a net relationship with a Wp member.

Plans for the future? Que Sera, Sera.

As soon as I get my mod powers active here this is getting a sticky.

Age: 40

Location: Pa

Current perseverations:

gardening, computers, crochet, cooking, antiques and vintage collectibles...too many to list.

When did you discover AS?

2000...was told I had asperger's at an evaluation for problems with social aniexty, recommended for further evaluation...I told the "evaluator" he was basically "full of it"...lived in denial for a few years...

Do you have other psych diagnoses? no

Do you have a degree? no

Kids? one son, he's 8

Favorite music, other than NIN Laughing

mostly rock

Job?

raising my son...resale, antiques, collectibles

Relationship with significant other, past or present?

divorced

Plans for the future?

survival...I've found plans have a way of not working out

Am I the only person on the planet that doesn't know what "NIN" is?

A band called Nine Inch Nails.

I do know who they are! My hubby listens to them. I'm not that old after all.

NIN was very popular amongst the Aspergian Elder Council.

Hamster has an awesome MySpace that plays a kick-ass NIN song, and she is the goddess in my eyes.

It was a bit of an inside joke on my part.

Age: 46

Location: Western Washington, U.S.

Current perseverations: Patrick O'Brian books, The Age Of Sail, the Goldern Age of Movies, history, sciences, jewelry design, poetry, the weird little circus and sideshow in my head.

When did you discover AS? Last autumn, and I was dx Feb. 2007 officially.

Do you have other psych diagnoses? Yes-chronic depression, PTSD--I was originally dx with Borderline Personality Disorder based on the meltdowns, and the desperate search for help. My last two therapists thought that was a BS dx, but was at a loss as to what it could be. My current therapist was considering Avoidant Personality Disorder, until I related my "synesthesia incident." Then he went aha, and asked me some specific questions.

Do you have a degree? Yes, in..get this..Communications (concentration in broadcasting and graphics)

Kids? No, never able to.

Favorite music: Old jazz, swing, Joan Osborne, Iz, The Holmes Brothers, Laura Love, punk, The Who, Dave Matthews Band, oh, heck, lots.

Job? Not working, on disability, but I've gone back to university. I'm working toward a Phd in English Composition and Literature, with hopefully attaining a position with lots of research opp's.

Relationship with significant other, past or present? No. Not able to keep one going past a week or two.

plans for the future? Get my phd, and a teaching position somewhere in the world, travel, publish my poetry and novels, write editorial rants, and watch my nieces and nephew grow up. Oh, yeah, continue with my art and jewelry design.


_________________

Last edited by Rjaye on 05 May 2007, 4:36 am, edited 3 times in total.

I'm astonished that a therapist would pick up on a kinesthesia incident to begin with, and then relate it to AS. Wow - she/he must be pretty good. We don't hear much about kinesthesia as one of the hypersensitivities that are commonly experienced (I've had problems with it myself though) and if you wouldn't mind, could you explain what your incident entailed?

Well, now that I got over the brain booger, and realized I wrote the wrong thing (kinesthesia? Where did that come from? Weird tv again?), I will relate the SYNESTHESIA thingy, though I'm not sure that's what you want now, Aylissa.

I read a dictionary definition of synesthesia somewhere, and thought,'Oh, that's nice, so that's what it's called...lalalala,' and swerved off on a mental tangent, as I am wont to do.

Last fall, meeting with friends on a Saturday, as we do every week, we had sat down, and I was focussing on my coffee, trying to ignore the racket in the place, when my friend JP was almost have a seizure in her seat.

She proceeded to tell us about this cool Canadian documentary she'd seen on this weird sensory thing called...dadum, dadum--SYNESTHESIA.

I focused in like a laser. Weird? It was weird?

She said that there are people who experience words as colors or taste and music as textures, and, and, and...

Then I was twitching around. I said I had it. They didn't have it? I thought everyone had it. ANd we spent an hour talking about how I saw words and sounds as colors, and some sounds had an overpowering taste, like oranges, or cotton candy, or cinnamon. Sometimes I'll smell different smells that I realized no-one else could smell, like crayons or roses, when neither item was in the room, yet it seemed to be related to a memory, but this isn't really synesthesia--just a strong sensory response to a recollection.

I told my therapist about the incident, and HE nearly leaped out of his chair. He started to ask very specific questions--like: did I think about my friends when they aren't around, and did I have problem with certain kinds of touch, which he already knew. There were other questions, but he didn't mention Aspergers, until I mentioned it a month or so later, when I had found the term on a website for people with Avoidant Personality Disorder (which he had later told me was a dx he considered, yet it was quite right). Then he started noting when I was stimming, and asking me what I was thinking about when I was staring off into space, and hadn't even realized I was doing it.

That was when the therapy changed, and though it was helping before, it was frustrating for him to ask what I was feeling when I had no idea. I felt like an empty shell, and any feeling was some vague whisp, but I knew something was wrong. There was a dissatisfaction, a sense there was some secret everyone had but me, and I kept searching for it. How did people get together, and have relationships? How did people know what other people seem to be thinking? And why were people constantly attributing feelings and thoughts to me that were NOT my feelings and thoughts?

And now I know. There is a secret. And I will never get it. But there are people like me, who know what I'm going through, and it's a big freaking relief to know I'm not going mad. And it breaks my heart to see these younger people going through it, because now I'm old enough to know people have different feelings and experiences, and I now have a library of experiences to rely on when I relate to people, and it kills me to see these young people in pain. I know what it is. I hate that part. And I hate that there's nothing I can do for them.

Oh, well. That's my story, and I hope we were thinking along the same lines even though I had a brain goober.

Metta, Rjaye.

Rjaye left off the part about "anything else you feel is pertinent?"

She's funny as hell and she's a sweety.

From one goddess to another.

I have since changed the song and now have "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane on my MySpace. I also have Bea Arthur as my profile pic now...Not sure if I'm digging the whole feel, though.

Chuck--

Heheheh! I digress.



(thanks)