Does anyone have anything besides AS? Share your story

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Feel free to share your perspective on what you have besides AS. Not only do I have AS, I also have Learning Disabilities, both Non-Verbal and Verbal, ADD, and I would used to have seizures and panic attacks when I was a little kid. I was the kid who you would call "ret*d" or "Fag" or "Idiot" or "Dumbass" or "Freak" on the playground. I would used to hit myself a lot as a little kid and almost literally injure myself sometimes. But this does not prevent me to want to succeed in life. So far, this year, I have finally started to really push myself in school and I am trying to become more prepared and dedicated for the next semester. By the next year or 2, i hope to start becoming a 4.0 GPA student, even though I have struggled with my first 2 years of college. Also, having to go through all these things, I can get along with all my peers, I enjoy being with my friends and family, I know how to drive, I can go all sorts of places, plus many things. Even though starting to really get my life together can be a pain in the butt sometimes, I enjoy challenges as well as making lots of mistakes nowadays. But the difference is, I do a very clear assessment of what I am doing wrong and I remind myself on how to avoid that situation and this helps me to make myself even want to learn even more.

I am currently struggling in university. If the question you're asking includes non-mental issues, I also have G6PD (glucose 6 phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency), VSD (heart murmur) and PVS (Pulmonary Valvula Stenosis).

Those conditions don't affect my everyday life though (I just can't eat broad beans and is allergic to a random list of chemicals many of them not common unless you are taking medication I guess).

I'm sure most people here have at least one comorbid i.e. depression, anxiety, seizures, sensory integration...

Unless you're talking physical handicaps.

Scolosis, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, possible dyslexia, possible bipolar and I've had panic attacks since childhood. I also have PTSD.

Last edited by PunkyKat on 25 May 2010, 7:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I have (or used to have) a ton of medical conditions, including Ectodermal Dysplasia (a skin condition - I have only 7 teeth, brittle nails and hair, dry skin and eyes, and ear problems), cleft lip and palate, a congenital dermoid cyst (a tumor sort of thing) on my brain that caused seizures, hypothyroidism, structural problems with my digestive system, and a condition that leads me to periodically lose blood sometimes to the point of severe anemia. I've had 16 surgeries, and I am going to have another one in about a week and a half, to fix that last problem about nearly bleeding to death. Many of them were necessary, but some of them were not and I would have wanted to avoid them if I had been given the choice.

I have no other mental conditions, as far as I know, though I've been diagnosed with plenty - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was the most likely, but I also got labeled with ADD/ADHD, OCD, depression and bipolar disorder - none of which had any reasonable basis. I was medicated for a number of years because my childhood psychiatrist couldn't imagine any way besides drugs to treat mental illness and I became if anything worse than I was before while on them, but eventually I flushed my pills. Since then, I've learned that most if not all of the diagnoses I got as a child might as well have been pulled out of a hat for all their relevance to my actual situation. I only learned that I was possibly on the spectrum, and that this was suspected by some since I was pretty young, a few years ago.

Needless to say, I'm a bit jaded about the medical establishment.

Also, as a high school student, I once even thought about contemplating suicide because school at that time was too stressful for me to handle and I just hated life back then. I didn't care at all at that time and I really just wanted to die and sometimes when things got too emotionally hard for me to handle, I just wanted to lie to my parents and fake being sick at times. I think many of the difficulties I dealt with has been so extreme, I guess I have found a new perspective on life when I hit college age.
By Senior Year Of High School, I have changed my personailty and started to mature as a person emotionally. By my third year of college, which is just recently, I have really just wanted to start to succeed in college, and this is my first semester I have tried. If things don't go out the way I expected it, then I will closely evaluate what I did wrong and see how I can achieve my goals next fall. I guess after struggling so much painfully and excruciatingly in your earlier years, you just want to excel in all aspects in life.

I was diagned with OCD about one year after I was diagnosed with Asper's Syndrome. I also suspect that I have Social Anxiety, though my social problems seemed to.have improved a lot recently.

uhm, clinical depression and social anxiety.

Mentally: Depression and Social Anxiety

Physically: Hypothyroidism, Fibromyalgia/CFS, Migraines, TMJ, GERD, Costochondritis, Raynaud's Disease, Asthma, IBS.

My physical problems have given me more problems than being an Aspie has

They say I also have Generalized Anxiety Disorder. They weren't very formal about the diagnosis, just kinda said I have it. I think I could have OCPD, but haven't talked to a professional about it.

Physically...I have a chiari malformation, and possibly adrenal insufficiency. I also have chronic headaches. My physical problems give me way more problems than being AS, too.

woah I've never known anyone besides my mom with the chiari malformation

I have slight hand tremors with no known source, so if you think being an aspie gives you bad handwriting consider I got a point off on an assignment today because my teacher couldn't read my handwriting.

I'm on the high-end of the low vision scale because of myopia, strabismus (cross-eyed), and nystagmus (my eyes jump) so if you find eye contact hard imagine not even knowing you're not making eye contact because your brain shows a correct image to you so I never realize when one eye is not aligned. Main difficulties are I have to sit way in the front in class and will never drive. I'm also at increased risk for dettached retina, which can lead to blindness.

I would be surprised if I don't have social anxiety. I used to be fine but knowing my interactions are full of fail yet being unable to fix them makes me very fearful of doing something embarrassing.

mental - clinical depression, social anxiety, possible OCD, ADD

physical - mild anemia, stomach/digestive problems, and really bad circulation issues

Social Anxiety Disorder, which gives rise to a learning disability. At least in my case it does.
And I'm possibly schizotypal.

I've been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. It hit me really hard when I was 23 but is under control at the moment. Physically, I'm allergic to a few medications.

I've had five neuropsychological evaluations and i've been diagnosed with the following on one or more:


-LD-NOS
-Mathematics Disorder
-Major Depression
-Dysthymic Disorder
-Schizotypal Personality Disorder
-Borderline Personality Disorder

More specifically...I fit the general NVLD profile, but officially received the
LD-NOS/Mathematics disorder DX-es since NVLD isn't a formally recognized
mental disorder.

My IQ/neuropsych results are no different than those of millions of
people with NVLD/AS.

But....I believe there are some very profound things wrong with my brain
which most people with NVLD/AS don't share.

Things which all the neuropsych evals/IQ tests have failed to pick up
on. For one thing....I believe I have some very severe long-term memory
impairments. There is reason to believe that long-term memory problems
can be overlooked by the conventional neuropsychological memory tests
and this article makes a pretty good case for that IMO:

http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/con ... /123/3/472

Anyway...my situation is extremely complicated and though some here
may disagree with me, equally unique. I have described it before countless
times on WP to the best of my abilities. That said....I really don't feel like
saying much more about it now.


I'm glad you have found some success in school and elsewhere OP.


I'm 40 y/o and i've never been fully financially independent of my family.

In forty years....I haven't managed to aquire one skill related to academics,
vocations, or anything involving hobbies, talents, (which are nonexistent....
don't let anyone feed you that sentimental crap about "everyone being
good at something". I'm living proof that some people suck at EVERYTHING)
or special interests.

All this and I scored 143 on the most recent professionally-administered IQ
I had.

Something is very, very wrong with this picture indeed and what's worse
is that I have no clear idea what it is. All I have are a million theories and
no conclusions.



So let's just say success of anykind has eluded me my entire life. Some
may blame my attitude or something else unrelated any actual neurological
impairments. After forty years of self-observation, i'd have to beg to differ
with these people as much as I WANT to believe they're right.

After all....."attitude" seems alot easier to change than profound hard-wired
neurological impairments which occured sometime during my development.


So this is "what I have aside from AS" OP (though I was never formally Dx-ed
with AS, many professionals believe NVLD and AS are one and the same
disorder. Even if they're not....the two disorders are similar enough.)

I have roughly three pounds of an enigmatic, undefined, hell inside
my skull. Hell "Not otherwise specified".

well i'm self diagnose with autism trying to get diagnosed. when i was younger they diagnosed me with mild m.r i guess that was easy due to both my mom and dad have it, but that didn't explain way i never made friends harldly at all in school and why i stim. and many other factors.
and a lot of teachers told it was odd i had m.r only cause i learned quickly in regular ed with no existence. i use to be kinda ashame of the whole m.r thing now i accept it, i have well when i was a kid they diagnosed me with nf, neurofibromatosis very mild, on the cafe ulite spots. and of course with these diagnoses i had ( macrophaly, precious puberty,) and they wrote somewhere on a doctor paper i got feature of people with mccune albright syndrome i got to look into that
and when i was 14 i was diagnosed with emotional disturbance by a school pycy. but happy everything mild i guess