em_tsuj wrote:
Waterfalls wrote:
It's just infuriating to read that as an educated pharmacist you are being told there is no point diagnosing you because there is no proven treatment for an adult with Aspergers. That to me is like if antibiotics were not approved for use in children, saying to parents of a child with pneumonia that there is no point diagnosing, as there is no proven treatment for a child with pneumonia. I probably have the analogy a bit off, but I'm not a pharmacist.
It's true that it's hard to find a speech therapist to work with adults, except in a few areas, to help with conversational and pragmatic language skills that can reduce isolation and increase comfortable interactions with others.
I don't know how you'd feel about this, but if you are in a larger city,there may be some type of autism society that has adult groups. You might not fit in, but it may be worth exploring, sometimes a university might, in speech therapy, occupational therapy, or special ed departments. And online you might find quite a bit of support.
Some people get nothing from a diagnosis, it's just a label. Some people seem too feel more normal with it. I do think a therapist who is aware of you as a whole person, whether ASD or not, can offer you much more than someone who just looks at a few pieces. It might not matter that much what the psychiatrist says, though. Because after my first (over?)reaction, I realize he or she might mean there is no pharmacologic treatment for adults with autism that is proven effective. And it's certainly true that pharmacologic treatments do not improve communication deficits, even subtle ones with good spoken language, so a diagnosis of ASD might not matter much to him or her.
Question is whether diagnosis would offer anything to you,
There isn't anything a psychiatrist can do about Asperger's. In other words there is no pill to fix it. A psychiatrist can only manage some of the co-morbid symptoms (like chronic depression and anxiety). There are proven psychological methods that help adults with Asperger's.
Psychologists deal with the internal (the underlying issues that lead to symptoms). Psychiatrists tend to focus more on the external (the presenting symptoms and what pill has been proven to alleviate those symptoms).
THIS.
I don't know what kind of luck you will have finding someone to actually DO social skills therapies with you...
...but you CAN find a therapist that will help you navigate the emotional minefield of learning to socialize, and you CAN teach yourself, with the support of a qualified rent-a-friend (therapist), by the bootstrap method.
Been there, done that, glad I did. The worst thing that happened was that I ended up addicted to nicotine teaching myself to socialize on the street in a college town.
What are you interested in?? Find a club or society that "does" that, and join it. Attend regularly.
Are you even passingly religious?? Find a church, synagogue, coven, circle, mosque, grove (whatever) that doesn't offend you too deeply and go there (personally I'm three-quarters Christian and one-quarter Pagan, with the Pagan part being mostly in control of the situation-- I don't have any Unitarian Universalists or United Church of Christ type places around here, so I'm thinking of giving the Methodists a shot).
What do you like to eat?? Find a restaurant that serves it, and go there. My dad met his wife by walking into a run-down redneck bar and asking for a cold beer and a glass (she was the bartender).
Always wanted to study something?? Take college classes. Hell, get a second degree-- one or two classes at a time. While you're there, and this is the whole point, TALK TO PEOPLE. Old people, young people, foreign people, purple people, people pushing brooms, people with PhD's, people in burkas, people with pink hair-- every sort and shape of people you can find.
Can't afford classes?? In your free time, go to your friendly local college campus. Carry a backpack-- put whatever you want it in, it's just there so you blend in. TALK TO PEOPLE.
Don't quit looking just because it doesn't work right away (or within what anyone would consider a reasonable time frame). Get the therapist first, because you are going to have bad experiences. Most of them will be meaningless, especially at first-- and that's the rest of what the therapist is for-- helping you decipher the meaning in the situation.
It's not perfect-- I'd still love to have pragmatic language therapy-- it takes me forever to say what I want to say and there are all kinds of misunderstandings. But it DOES work. You WILL learn more about interacting with people, and after a several months to a few years of turning over rocks, you will find a few friends.
A few is enough.
_________________
"Alas, our dried voices when we whisper together are quiet and meaningless, as wind in dry grass, or rats' feet over broken glass in our dry cellar." --TS Eliot, "The Hollow Men"
11 Dec 2013, 2:09 am
