Aspies and Psychology

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Joined: 25 Dec 2010
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Location: New Zealand

03 Oct 2013, 6:59 pm

I haven't posted for quite a long time but something has been on my mind.

Do aspies have "psychology"?

I ask this because I've never seen anything in writing about it, as if aspies are all neurology and don't have feelings, ideas,
phobias, attachments, neuroses. It's as if once you are labelled aspie, there are no further questions for you or anyone else to
ask. But I "work through issues" all the time, and I believe everyone here does too.

When I realised I could be aspie, I nearly threw out all my pop-psychology books, feeling they were no longer relevant. I'm
glad I kept them, now. But I am confused. My old therapist knew me pretty well and never said a word about aspergers; he
said I was extremely neurotic. A professional I spoke to much later said that it was probably because when he was
in training, aspergers wasn't a thing. But the guy really did help me.

Do only NTs have "psychology"?

Do you think this is going to be a new field?

_________________
"Aspie: 65/200
NT: 155/200
You are very likely neurotypical"
Changed score with attention to health. Still have AS traits and also some difficulties.

InThisTogether
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03 Oct 2013, 7:15 pm

Chickenbird wrote:

Do only NTs have "psychology"?

Of course not. Having a neurological condition does not preclude the possibility of having a psychological one. Though sometimes people may mislabel/misattribute things.

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neobluex
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03 Oct 2013, 7:27 pm

Psychology has a neurological basis. Psychology is about how the mind works (uses abstract theories to describe it). Neurology is about why and how mind works that way (uses anatomy, physiology, chemist, etc, to explain it). Neuroscience is more tangible and stable.
Everything is in the brain, from memories to feelings to ideas.

I think psychology is important and useful to treat mild forms of mental disturbances: You don't have to fix the hardware if you can fix the software.
Also, traditional psychotherapy does not work on the autistic population.

Don't miss your books of pop-psychology. They are about what people think about how the mind works. Read scientistic psychology!
If you are interested in autism, google terms like "theory of mind", "weak central coherance" or "executive function".

Chickenbird
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03 Oct 2013, 8:21 pm

neobluex wrote:

Also, traditional psychotherapy does not work on the autistic population.

.

This is what I was getting at, could you expand on this comment please? Do you think there will ever be
a psychotherapy for people on the spectrum?

_________________
"Aspie: 65/200
NT: 155/200
You are very likely neurotypical"
Changed score with attention to health. Still have AS traits and also some difficulties.

syndragon
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Joined: 6 May 2013
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03 Oct 2013, 9:07 pm

Chickenbird wrote:

neobluex wrote:

Also, traditional psychotherapy does not work on the autistic population.

.

This is what I was getting at, could you expand on this comment please? Do you think there will ever be
a psychotherapy for people on the spectrum?

Once a psychiatrist told me that Psychiatry = software, Neurology = Hardware, in hard terms. That said, in my understanding psychology works on the relationship between Hardware x Software.

Therefore I don´t think so. At least with what we know at the moment. I think its because we are have something physically different from NTS in our brains.
When its physical condition, psychology can´t have an influence on that.

Traditional psychology works on NTs because their brain(neurologically speaking) are all the same, and psychology works changing the "software" or the relationship between the software and the hardware . Their computers are all the same. But our computer differs from NT's.

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Chickenbird
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03 Oct 2013, 9:10 pm

syndragon wrote:

Chickenbird wrote:

neobluex wrote:

Also, traditional psychotherapy does not work on the autistic population.

.

This is what I was getting at, could you expand on this comment please? Do you think there will ever be
a psychotherapy for people on the spectrum?

What if the therapist was also an aspie? We benefit from talking to each other, don't we?

_________________
"Aspie: 65/200
NT: 155/200
You are very likely neurotypical"
Changed score with attention to health. Still have AS traits and also some difficulties.

Delphiki
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03 Oct 2013, 9:12 pm

syndragon wrote:

Traditional psychology works on NTs because their brain(neurologically speaking) are all the same, and psychology works changing the "software" or the relationship between the software and the hardware . Their computers are all the same. But our computer differs from NT's.

This doesn't make sense to me. Are NT's non-autistic? Or are NT's not adhd, bipolar, depressed, anxiety, autistic, dyslexic, etc?

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syndragon
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03 Oct 2013, 9:18 pm

Delphiki wrote:

syndragon wrote:

This doesn't make sense to me. Are NT's non-autistic? Or are NT's not adhd, bipolar, depressed, anxiety, autistic, dyslexic, etc?

First thing we have to ask ourselves is, what is the purpose of a psychological treatment? To fix someones mind to a "normal" or balanced state?
NTs can also have issues with bipolarity/depression/anxiety. But they can be reversed using traditional psychological treatments, and I don´t believe they work on an aspergers minds, due to much deeper differences.

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Chickenbird
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03 Oct 2013, 9:24 pm

syndragon wrote:

Delphiki wrote:

syndragon wrote:

This doesn't make sense to me. Are NT's non-autistic? Or are NT's not adhd, bipolar, depressed, anxiety, autistic, dyslexic, etc?

What do you believe works/helps?

_________________
"Aspie: 65/200
NT: 155/200
You are very likely neurotypical"
Changed score with attention to health. Still have AS traits and also some difficulties.

Delphiki
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03 Oct 2013, 9:29 pm

syndragon wrote:

Delphiki wrote:

syndragon wrote:

This doesn't make sense to me. Are NT's non-autistic? Or are NT's not adhd, bipolar, depressed, anxiety, autistic, dyslexic, etc?

So the ones I stated do not have a neurological basis?

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Well you can go with that if you want.

Chickenbird
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03 Oct 2013, 9:32 pm

Chickenbird wrote:

syndragon wrote:

Delphiki wrote:

syndragon wrote:

This doesn't make sense to me. Are NT's non-autistic? Or are NT's not adhd, bipolar, depressed, anxiety, autistic, dyslexic, etc?

What do you believe works/helps?

Another question, if my therapist helped me, does that mean that he helped the part of me that isn't aspie? So if I am 30% aspie, he was
able to help me 30%?

_________________
"Aspie: 65/200
NT: 155/200
You are very likely neurotypical"
Changed score with attention to health. Still have AS traits and also some difficulties.

GregCav
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03 Oct 2013, 10:22 pm

I'm not convinced traditional psychology doesn't work for us. My therapist has helped me a great deal.

She also didn't pick up my Asperger’s. But I'm high functioning and not obvious. When I got my diagnosis through another psychologist, she did tell me that she had heard of Asperger’s, but had never read up on it.

She must have done some homework as she's quit knowledgeable on the subject now (12 months later).

It's only been an official diagnosable condition since 1990. And I suppose the exposure within the general population wasn't strong to begin with. As more people are being diagnosed, it is gaining exposure, therefor more people are learning about it and what it is.

Chickenbird
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03 Oct 2013, 10:28 pm

GregCav wrote:

Yeah that sounds like me. I understand that if the therapist doesn't know you are an aspie, he/she will be mystified and frustrated when
you can't do certain things - eg process conversations at a normal speed, interpret body language efficiently - but if they do know you are an aspie, and they are well educated, that's got to make a difference.

_________________
"Aspie: 65/200
NT: 155/200
You are very likely neurotypical"
Changed score with attention to health. Still have AS traits and also some difficulties.

syndragon
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04 Oct 2013, 9:37 am

Chickenbird wrote:

syndragon wrote:

Delphiki wrote:

syndragon wrote:

This doesn't make sense to me. Are NT's non-autistic? Or are NT's not adhd, bipolar, depressed, anxiety, autistic, dyslexic, etc?

What do you believe works/helps?

I believe that the current treatments can only relief our symptoms. On NTs depression/anxiety and other symptoms are always acute. But in an aspergers minds their more like chronic.

I believe that your therapist acted only like a pill, but they cant fix the source of our symptoms simply because we just dont know much still about our brain, in both hardware and psychological terms.

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Delphiki
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04 Oct 2013, 9:58 am

syndragon wrote:

Chickenbird wrote:

syndragon wrote:

Delphiki wrote:

syndragon wrote:

This doesn't make sense to me. Are NT's non-autistic? Or are NT's not adhd, bipolar, depressed, anxiety, autistic, dyslexic, etc?

What do you believe works/helps?

Some times that is all that is needed.

You realize you didn't exactly answer how aspergers was seperate from all other mental disorders. Yes you said that it had a neurological basis, but you also tried to say that Nt's mental disorders did not. That is very wrong and well known that that is an ignorant view.

The difference that Nt's have with depression does not make any since because autistic brains are just pretty much just as different as other people with mental disorders.

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neobluex
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04 Oct 2013, 9:59 am

Chickenbird wrote:

This is what I was getting at, could you expand on this comment please? Do you think there will ever be
a psychotherapy for people on the spectrum?

Quoting Attwood:

Tony Attwood wrote:

...
In my opinion [Attwood's], traditional psychoanalytical psychotherapy has very little to offer a child or adult with asperger’s syndrome, an opinion shared by some psychotherapists. However there are published case studies that have used traditional and modified psychoanalytical psychotherapy. The detailed psychoanalysis of the mother and infant relationship can be irrelevant to understanding the mind of a child with asperger’s syndrome, and lead to the mother developing considerable guilt and the child being very confused. Asperger’s syndrome is not caused by an inability of a child’s mother to love and relate to her son or daughter.
...
The methods of analysis used in traditional psychoanalytical therapy are based on a conceptualization of the development of typical children, but children with asperger’s syndrome perceive and relate to a very different world. In psychoanalytical therapies, the pretend play of the child is analysed to explore his or her inner thoughts. The natural pretend play of young children with asperger’s syndrome is often an accurate reenactment or ‘echo’ of a scene from the child’s favourite story, and is not necessarily a metaphor for his or her life or to be attributed with projected meanings. Fihen using projective testing, the child with asperger’s syndrome is more likely to provide factual information than projections of the self. The child is simply describing what he or she sees.
...
The Rorschach profile of children with Asperger’s syndrome is consistent with the diagnostic criteria. There is an under-reporting of human content, human movement and cooperative movement, and indications of ‘impoverished or unrewarding social relationships’ and ‘social ineptness’.
...

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy has showed beneficts to aspies, but I don't know what it is about and whether it uses psychtherapy or it doesn't.

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