do you get overwhelmed easily

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Thank you for responding. I will take the tests and see what happens. I'm hesitant to say or think I have Aspie traits because I'm afraid of incorrectly diagnosing myself or assuming something which has not been confirmed by professional diagnosis. But whatever the results of any quiz, there's enough of a pattern throughout my life to suggest there's something that has never felt right. I'm tired of feeling that it's just a personal or psychological issue. I am a bit tired of blaming myself for something for which I may not have complete control.

I was very lucky in the fact that my psychologist told me to take the test and, even though he didn't know a lot about aspergers since he's an adult psychologist, he was very willing to educate himself through books, seminars and talking to other docs about it. Ask your doctor what he or she thinks. It's worth the investigation. Knowing why I am the way I am has helped me immensely. Although, there are times when I get really depressed knowing there is no cure since It's how our brain is wired.

Just as a side note:
I also have a nephew who is 14 and is on the low end of the autistic spectrum. He's nonverbal but he display's traits that I can relate to. I had another nephew who died last year (he had other medical problems) who also was autistic (he had all the traits like walking on his tip toes and hand flapping and being totally withdrawn). He was never formally diagnosed with autism since he had so many other things wrong with him and he was born in 1976 when the medical establishment knew almost nothing about it. Anyway, this lends a lot of support for it possibly being inherited. I think my mom had Asperger's too. I also found out that I had a great-uncle that no one knew anything about until my Aunt started doing genealogy. He died in 1912 in the Oregon State Insane Asylum. His dad swore everyone in the family to secrecy. I was able to obtain his medical records and am very suspicous he had Aspergers. I'm going to have my doctor look at them to see what he thinks. Back then, they labeled a lot of people who weren't insane as insane. I am so glad I live in this time because I'm sure they would have put me there.

I take lamotrigine along with buproprion. The lamotrigine (lamictal) helps my anxiety which causes my depression. It allows me to leave my house and have a somewhat normal life. There are also other drugs that can enhance the antidepressant. Talk with a psychiatrist about it. They, of course, know more than any other kind of doc.
Hope this helps.

So glad to know I'm not the only one who gets overwhelmed. I have not been formally DX'd because my HMO doesn't recognize Aspergers, especially in my age group...too old (as if it never existed prior to the early 90s).

I work full time in customer service. I am required to wear a headset (it makes a high pitched beeping when my phone rings-issue number one). Issue number 2, it's noisy. Number 3, I am constantly interrupted, which makes staying on task really difficult. Issue 4, I am in the throes of menopause with bad hot flashes that are preceded by intense anxiety. As if those things weren't enough, I have a daughter who calls me at work because she forgets I have a job & needs to talk. I'm pretty sure she's on the spectrum somewhere, but lower functioning than I am. Throw into the mix the busy season, & meltdowns are eminent. My boss just doesn't understand how difficult my job is for me. I hear that no one has ever performed it as well as I do, but even so it's affecting my health. And I get yelled at if I make mistakes. I know I'm not perfect, & I know my limitations....I just wish I could get others to understand too.

I'm going to have to get some of that Rescue Remedy. Maybe it might help...it's certainly worth a try. As it is, my doctor only wants to put me on anti-depressants, instead of treating my actual health issues. I've tried several & they don't help my symptoms, & that just leads to more stress. Sometimes I feel like a volcano on the verge of exploding.

Does your HMO doc think you're going to grow out of it? Get a new doc if you can. My doc wouldn't consider my diagnosis until I basically had a breakdown. Then he had me see a psychologist that he said knows about Aspergers which he didn't but he was willing to look into it. He had me take the Asperger Quotient test and listened to what my life has been like. So, he told my phychiatrist (who you need to see because they know what drugs are out there) I had Aspergers and that they needed to go to the root of my depression which is social anxiety (among other things). Anyway, that is why I am on Lamotrigine. It really helps. Believe me, I felt like a volcano and I did explode to the point where I had to be hospitalized for a short time. That's actually when they started trying other drugs along with the antidepressant. They put me on Zyprexa first, which worked well but I gained 20 pounds. I researched it and found out it causes massive weight gain. So, I switched to the lamotrigine, I lost the weight and I feel a lot better.

I haven't tried the Rescue Remedy but if it works, that's great.

Hi ITW,

I wish it were that simple I have Kaiser. The only mood disorders they recognize are depression & bi-polar. Anything beyond that doesn't exist. I've been trying for at least 3 years to get them to listen. I might as well talk to a wall for all the good it does. Btw, Kaiser no longer treats menopause either. Their preferred drug to treat symptoms is Prozac. Nice huh? I know what my problems are....done enough research to understand it. Probably have more life knowledge of Aspergers than any of the shrinks I've seen to date, including the psychiatrist. Soooo, I'm stuck being on the spectrum & flying under the radar.

Yes, I get overwhelmed pretty easy. It seems that the pace of my wife and I's life has pickedup over the years. Weekends where there are at least a couple of social events with big crowds I feel zoned by the end of the weekend. Sometimes if I go into a situation with people milling around alot, noises seem to reverberate around in my head. I've found non-aspies don't understand this sound sensitivity, but it wears me down.

I have emotional overloads a lot. When things don't go according to plan I can't adjust. If I'm talking to my boyfriend and he says something that upsets me, I can't just move on like a normal person. The stress of it propels me into a mild meltdown and I have to get out of the conversation right then (usually by hanging up on him since we live far away) whichh of course makes things even worse. If I stay in the situation, I become like a broken record, my mind cannot move past the poblem, it's like tryingg to open a locked door when you don't have the key.

Yep, I can get really overwhelmed. Especially when there is too much noise, I don't know what it does but it makes me want to run as far away as I can. I find when I'm in a supermarket or riding my motorcycle, listening to music cuts out outside auditory distractions allowing me to remain calm and focus. Sometimes at home I have to cover my ears when my siblings are being loud, as it hurts. I've always had extremely sensitive hearing.

Also too much social interaction makes me go into isolation, recently I got out of an isolation period which lasted 3 months. That meant me not leaving the house except for maybe once a week to pick up groceries.

As for melt downs, they tend to happen when I'm having trouble trying processing emotional information.

I'm having a wierd sensation today that I wonder if anyone else has experienced.

What would usually overwhelm me is trying to do things that I'd rather avoid, but I'm trying to stick it through like a good little fake NT.

Today, I was doing creative brainstorming with another eccentric friend of mine for a few hours. It was really fun and our convo gave me tons of ideas for some new artwork. The trouble is, now I am so wound up (EIGHT HOURS LATER) that I can't sleep. I'm used to having insomnia because I'm fretting over work or the kids.

This is fun stuff that's got me all agitated. I don't get it!

Yes for me absolutely! I can't handle several things at once so I usually spread out tasks and chores as much as possible. Like laundry one day and shopping on another which makes it much easier to handle.

what everyone else said: me too

the biggest problem for me is that i see the world as a system

as in "systems" as in "networks" and in "a system of doing things/process"

i'm a computer guy by profession, but all systems interest me: e.g. politics, the human body (and subsystems e.g. endocrine system), ecology, factories and workflow, blah, blah, blah

because i see the world and its interconnectedness, any problem that i am trying to solve, no matter how small has a massive number of cascading effects

if too many problems get tossed my way at once, or i don't keep my attention to a narrow topic/focus the immense number of variables and potential outcomes freezes me because i can't calculate through and model all of the possible outcomes from that many potentialities

i am also very concerned about other peoples feelings and wants and needs - ad those to the above described "systems" world-view and...

i freeze and am overwhelmed constantly

I get overwhelmed very easily, it would be nice if I didn't because then maybe less people would wonder why I can't deal with the same amount of crap most people my age can.

Yup. My life is pretty dull-- also doing the SAHM thing but my kids are littler and thankfully not dragging a lot of friends home yet-- but it seems I almost always feel as if I am treading water.

Yup. That feeling that I imagine neurotypical people get from imbibing alcohol in a noisy dance club or spending lots of money in a casino??? That spinny excited impaired-judgment feeling that would probably be pleasant to someone who has not learned to fear it??? Yeah-- I get that going to the friggin' FARMER'S MARKET.

Knowing what it is helps some. "OK, girl, it's not really so bad. Your brain is f*****g with you."

Yeah. That's why I smoke half a pack a day. And have to-do lists everywhere just so it's only on the verge of all getting away from me all the time. That's why I tell my 66-year-old father-in-law with the slightly impaired cognitive skills and short-term memory that he's my brain-- and I'm only about 15% flattering him.

My executive functioning sucks. S-U-C-K-S. If ONLY I could find a therapist that could help me fix just that thing. Once I finish getting out of the self-esteem hole that asking for help with that and assertiveness got me into. I want a book: The Complete Aspie's Guide to Executive Functioning.

Be careful with the risperidone. It might or might not help with the sensory overload aspect. It didn't help me a lick. It did, however, take my struggling executive functioning abilities all the way down to "nonexistent." Like, plant life. Below plant life. Damn near catatonic.

It works for some people. For others it's dangerous. Try it, but be leery.

Short answer, Not really but at times I get hit by something that just takes me down for some reason.

I have terrible stress problems, exacerbated by poor stress management. I frequently suffer from analysis paralysis. I find working with my hands to be therapeutic, but find the much of the Internet and media news aggravating. At times, just learning about negative world events can trigger a depressive episode. I'm disconnecting my Internet this month in hopes that it helps.

Noisy rooms can also be disorienting for me, though that may be related to my hearing not being what it once was. My olfactory system is ridiculously sensitive to some smells too.