Hello, the title says it all. I have asperger syndrome. I'm probably not the only one of this forum however. I imagine as a left handed, asperger french I must be a rare pokemon, far to be unique however.
After making a burn out during my studies. I had the luck to be in the public universities so I wasn't in debt and could focus only on my health. It was a long way to recover from severe depression and anxiety, it was very hard to find skilled psychotherapist, and both personnal readings and advice from two skilled therapits helped me to go to a public diagnosis center. Ironically, when I was diagnosed, I successfully hide most of the effects of the asperger syndrome, the people who diagnosed me took a supplementary session to diagnose me. All their tools made me appear as autist, but they didn't had the feeling. Today, the biggest effect of autism is that I have still anxiety problems at a high level and sociability tire me quickly. For instance, I had a lot of sociability situations those two last weeks and I got a heavy cold and became voiceless for one day.
I sympathise, I think I'm a little that way inclined, but maybe not too much. Unsociable is OK, you can get stuff done instead of spending all the time talking! Do you manage to make a reasonable living in spite of your condition?
No for the moment I depend of socialcare. I hope to find first a job with a handicapped status but I hope one day to have a "normal" job. My easiness in highschool didn't made me learn to work tough, and I had to learn socialization during my studies. Both created a huge effort who drained all my energy.
Good luck! Can you go back to finish your degree? I'm sure they will take you if you flash your diagnosis as the reason for your drop-out...
I got a diploma, however after the burn out, I lost a lot of my stamina. I tried to start back studies that year, but I'm not able anymore to endure as much tireness than before my burnout. It's not a problem, I'm lucky, their is a lot of tools in France for handicapped people to find jobs, I will find a job, probably not requiring as much skills I wished, but it still would be a job.
Aspies and high functioning Autists are an evolutionary step, according to some. I tend to agree. Larger brains, or at least more powerful brains, limited by both cranial capacity and the comprehension of the times. I imagine all creatures which have manifested evolutionary change were considered oddball by their fellows. That first ape who walked upright was probably shunned.
I have very specific abilities. When I tested my IQ, the psychologist said me that I didn't had a real IQ because some categories were very high (around 160) and some abilities really low (around 80, for a quick remember, people considered retarded from a medical point of view are lower than 70). The biggest problem is that I'm anxious that some of my abilities are developped, which is very hard to use my abilities because of that, if I want to domesticate my abilities, I have to domesticate my anxiety first.
Do you have extreme difficulty in making small talk, say in a chance meeting with someone? And could you stand up in a room and speak to an audience? I suffer both of these, and I've often felt that I might be borderline Asperger's. Do you think I might be?
I'm sociable enough when I have to be, like when I meet a neighbour in the park parking area for example (although as I just mentioned above, I never know what to say or talk about), but I'm not gregarious by any stretch of the imagination. I'm a loner in other words.
Honnestly, I can't say without meeting you. I had extreme difficulties to small talk but I can rather easily stand up in a room and speak to an audience. Small talk however tire me a lot. The advantage with asperger is that you can counterbalance a lot your lack of social skills by learning them. For instance, I had a lot of difficulties to do small talk, understand some social situations and looking at people in the eyes. I learned all of them and now can look like someone who have easiness in social situations. However, I get really quickly tired by those situations and when I'm exhausted, I have again difficutlies to look at people in the eyes. But each asperger have their own difficulties and abilities. For instance, I have very low ability to coordinate my movement and organize my self, and my huge assets is that I have a very high verbal smartness (it's categories in the IQ test), because of that, I have a huge memory but it's extremly hard for me to resolve a puzzle quickly or even worse playing tennis or badmington. I know other aspergers who have no problems playing tennis. If you have doubt, I encourage you to find skilled psychologist or diagnosis center that could help you. The big advantage when you know you're asperger, you can identify the situations where you're in difficulties. For instance, because my biggest problem is my tiredness, I now planify my weeks and tend to manage my energy. For instance, if I have 4 appointements in 2 days, I usually don't point any appointement in the next or sometimes two days.
Thank you VA, it's obviously a very complex condition. I won't be seeking out any brain doctors though, for one thing they're charlatans, and the other is that I find my condition frustrating but not important to my life style. Although I'm a company director, one of the others is a legal advocate, she she does the speaking and I do the writing. I'm an awesome writer.
Many of us are. It could be an evolutionary trend amongst men, whose main function was hunting, where chatting would not be useful. Women of course were stuck in the cave all day long. (Someone's going to yell sexism....)
I had to see many brain doctors, I think that some of them are charlatans but some of them can be brillant. The best way to find a therapist is to find someone who help you to improve effectively your life, even if you have to let a delay of 3 month. After three month, if your life is not going to be improved, even if it's just a little, you can change. Therapists are like pair of shoes, you have to try many before finding the good one. It's hard to know because we can't find archeological evidences of who did what. For instance, when we found paintings, objects or stone knives, we don't know who did that, men or women. The only possibility is to compare the prehistorical societies with societies living in similar conditions, and it's maybe hazardous. But I personnaly say that I'm sexist but I think that women and men are equal. I do believe that in a general way, even if I admit that their is exceptions, women and men tend to be different, different doesn't mean unequal, and muscanility and feminity are both essentials. I'm so opposed to that view to consider that men and women are the same thing with just different bodies. But in a general way, I think we should let people do whatever they want aslong they doesn't bother other people.
I don't wish to argue with you but from my observations - derived from visits to a firefighter friend who was admitted into a mental health unit owing to PTSD because of some of the ghastly stuff he had to deal with in his job - convince me that they keep trying all kinds of medications until they hit on one which has a positive effect; this can take a long time, or they can get lucky and choose the right one straight away.
Feel very grateful you live in an internet age where social and communication disorders are not nearly as inhibiting, with a larger and larger slice of our interactive lives involve an indifferent screen.