verte76
Blue Crack Addict
I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon with this one. I have a form of autism called Asperger's Syndrome. Ask me anything about this condition, I'll answer from experience.
yolland said:How old were you when you were diagnosed, and had there been misdiagnoses prior to that?
What are some of the major disadvantages that having Asperger's creates for you personally? And some of the advantages?
Greenlight said:One of my friends has an 8 year old boy with Aspergers. She's worried about his social skills, (or rather lack of them) as he finds it difficult to interact properly with other kids and communicate with them. Have you had these problems and if so how have you dealt with them? Has your condition changed or improved at all over the years?
I'm Ready said:is your condition similar to the boy in the book, "Curious Incident of the Dog and the Nighttime"?
I was afraid something like that might be the case...that seems to happen so often, and people your age especially, who grew up before widespread awareness of autism, often have such awful stories of inappropriate "treatments" in childhood. The school in the town I grew up in was too small and poor to have any Special Education programs, and the few unlucky kids I knew who needed them got bussed to a larger school a few towns away, where they were all lumped together in one classroom--autistics, kids with Down's Syndrome, kids with panic disorder, kids with sociopathic disorders, anything and everything basically--which couldn't possibly have been helpful for most of them. My own next-oldest brother has Tourette's, which wasn't diagnosed until adulthood either--fortunately, he had very patient teachers in our hometown school who recognized that he was very bright and were willing to be patient with his disruptiveness and distractedness, but both he and my parents went through a lot of grief hauling him to various counselors, who varyingly proclaimed him "psychotic", "emotionally disturbed", and various other diagnoses which did him no good at all. Today he works with disabled adults himself and is quite successful, but he still has anger management problems and needs medication and counseling.verte76 said:I went for years with the wrong diagnosis. My child psychiatrist told me I was schizophrenic, then the doctors told me I had a personality disorder, and finally, when I was 46 years old, they told me I had Asperger's. It slowed me down in accomplishments in life.
phillyfan26 said:What is the difference between your type of autism and those of others?
My cousin has a form (not sure which) that's probably a little more intense than that of yours, for he cannot attain a high school degree. He does have an excellent memory of certain things (going along with the obsessive thing - he knows a lot about all of us cousins even though he lives in the south and we see him rarely, and I think he know a load of info on NASCAR), and socially his only noticeable problem is that he stares at the floor as opposed to making eye contact.
verte76 said:Quite honestly, my pre-college school life was a nightmare. I didn't have access to special education when I went to the local elementary and junior high schools, and I really struggled. Having an absolutely psychotic teacher in sixth grade, who got committed shortly afterwards, certainly didn't help. I finally graduated from an experimental private school that let me work at my own pace and was non-directive. That was a good experience.
randhail said:Do you think ABA therapy would've benefited you when you were younger?
Do you believe there is relationship between vaccines and the increase in autism? or do you think it's a matter of better diagnosing? I'm just curious to see what you think about this, given the attention that this issue has gotten.
yolland said:
Do you find that being able to communicate with people in a more abstract context like the Internet helps transcend some of your social difficulties? I was wondering about that because it seems like then you wouldn't have to worry so much about things like reading body language, bothersome environmental distractions, etc.
Also--and this is kind of a delicate question, so no need to answer it if you don't want to--do you ever find it difficult to get other people to work with you socially in ways that help you interact more productively? I'm thinking for example of a couple students with Asperger's I've had who told me "Please just tell me flat-out if I'm not 'getting' something, or not interacting with other students appropriately," and I do my best to comply, but at the same time I'm often hesitant to be "flat-out" about such things for fear of hurting their feelings.
redhotswami said:you said it took you awhile to graduate college. do you think that is because of the condition or because of the lack of services and accomodations available to you?
sorry, i work in student affairs and services for students with disabilities is really important to me. i wanna know what other accomodations we can do to help support everyone.
verte76 said:
It was my condition. That's always gotten in my way. I did have therapy in high school, so it's not like I didn't have any support.
verte76 said:
I've had some really bad experiences with petty jerks who didn't care how much they hurt me, they screwed me.
redhotswami said:
Can you elaborate more on the non-directive and setting your own pace? What were some of the guidlines you had to follow? Also, were there sorts of technologies, software, equipment, or other resources in particular you felt best accomodated you?
verte76 said:
I'm not familiar with ABA therapy. As for the increase in autism, I think it's a matter of better diagnosing. There used to be this horrible theory of the cause of autism that was called "the refrigerator mother" theory. That was a mistaken notion that autism was caused by a cold mother. My own mother is proof positive that that theory is garbage. The first diagnostic stuff on Asperger's didn't come out until 1994. Since then they've gotten alot better with diagnostic stuff. About the vaccines, that's controversial. Some people think there's a connection, but I don't know, it's not how I got it. Autism is generally considered something you were born with, not aquired, but I'm not sure anyone knows for sure.
randhail said:Do you believe there is relationship between vaccines and the increase in autism? or do you think it's a matter of better diagnosing? I'm just curious to see what you think about this, given the attention that this issue has gotten.
Utoo said:
If anyone is interested, I can email an article that reviews 77 prior studies about autism and vaccines.
randhail said:
I wouldn't mind taking a look at the article. I'm taking a biostats course as a first year med student right now so I know all about the wonderful world of null hypotheses
Off topic, but are you doing peds on it's own or are you going to subspecialize?
verte76 said:I sometimes wish I were a student now, I'd be better off getting this stuff at an earlier age.