As you may be aware I have Aspergers, or at least that is my preliminary diagnosis. There is a lot written about Aspergers and I am not about to rehash it here. But there is something that is often overlooked.
This is mostly about adults with Aspergers, particularly those who were not diagnosed as children, a situation that often comes with depression as a comorbidity .
Half of us, this grouping, will struggle with suicidal thoughts.
Nearly a third will attempt suicide.
A third.
That is ten times the rate in Neurotypical adults. To put it in perspective that is the same kill rate as the Black Death.
Why?
You cannot come up with a single answer that fits everyone. But I suspect it is the normal Aspie tension. We cannot tolerate social interaction but we are desperately lonely. It's like being a drug addict allergic to drugs.
I have no answer as to what to do. I have had a week where my PSW and I parted company as we both agreed he could not help me, and my psychiatrist said much the same. I just have to live with it, apparently. It is up to others to adjust to me, apparently.
Yep. That works.
RantingScienceZebra The rantings of a bitter, twisted, sometimes crippled and rather mad scientist
Wednesday 14 October 2015
It may be time we talked about this
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PSW? So what are they doing? Nothing and discharge you to sink or swim? Where's our grumpy ex-CPN when you need them to advise? NB I will not be suggesting mindfulness! C xxx
ReplyDeleteGrumpy ex-whatever isn't sure he has anything to add to what he has said already and is still baffled as to why our horsey host has not been referred to the relevant adult ASD service in his area. Why the buggery bollocks has this not happened?
ReplyDeleteAs I have said numerous times, a diagnosis/label is of little use by itself (unless you subscribe to name magic), it becomes useful if/when it gets you access to appropriate services/treatment/whatever.
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ReplyDeleteAaah, OK. I could not recall any mention of referral to relevant service.
DeleteThere are ways and means of helping Aspies learn about socialising,but my knowledge of this area is limited to bairns with whom there is a greater chance of success...
I am not up to date with such work with adults.
Dim here, but why do you have to wait months for a diagnosis? Is there some super special ASD wrangling bod you have to be assessed by? Like Murmur says, a label is only of value if it is a gateway to the right treatment & support - how long a wait for that? Some of my bipolar friends go down the private route (if they can afford it) and I can see why when services are so threadbare. C x
ReplyDeleteScientific American "Mind" is just now publishing on autism spectrum problems.
ReplyDeleteA drama therapy pioneered by participants from the Royal Shakespeare with others is sketched: " the idea behind it is compelling: core abilities involved in drama match up strikingly well with what is often described as the main triad of impairments in ASD: problems with social interaction, communication and imagination. In short, the actors are gifted in the very things that are deficient in the young participants and able to reach powerfully across the divide of disability."
Robert has shown his engagement with powerful lyrics more than once, quoting very fine hymns.
Preview of the article in "Mind":
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-really-causes-autism/?WT.mc_id=SA_MND_20151015_Art_SAAct
Edited to remove name....call me Inky. Tablet signed me in with wrong account.
ReplyDeleteI have looked at the article.
I am editing for swearing here.
Firstly the article refers to children, which as murmur says are better treatment prospects. Also I think it is aimed t the deeper end of ASD because anyone who thinks people with Aspergers are imagination imagination impaired has never been to a Doctor Who convention.
But here's the thing. This is using acting techniques. I am an excellent lecturer. That is a performing art, and one at which I am breathlessly proficient. And then I come off stage.
The person on stage is not me. If the students understood the cold calculation behind the jokes, the interactions with techniques hehe audience, the verbal slips they would be horrified. I once described myself as a high functioning sociopath and there is much common ground there with Aspergers. Goal oriented, logical, cold.
What I am complaining of is not that I cannot act social, but that it is just that, an act. People are exhausting as they require me to do am one man show for the whole interaction, never to be myself.
Now you think about that. Nobody, not friends or partners, or children, can ever see you unless you have the motley on and are playing arrlequino. Ask a performer how tired they are after an hour on stage. Now do it for 46 years.
The penalty for getting it wrong, for relaxing, is your entire life collapsing as people flee from you in offended disgust at your alien nature. Adults with Aspergers who were not treated as children...They all know this, they all have coping strategies to enable Pierrot to go on stage. And they are all exhausted.
As for lyrics....
How dare you assume that Aspies do not feel, and that engagement with emotion is a sign of neurotypicallity. Aspies feel, love, with a passion you norms cannot comprehend. When you have n attention span measured in days, and take in details so strongly a flower can be almost painful to look at, how do you think the face of your lover or child looks? (Private theory follows) when your only source of oxytocin, of neuro chemical bonding to a group, something denied you by your brain, is orgasm, how strongly do you love your partner? How deep an addiction to them do you develop
pah noises.
Many pah noises
About the acting techniques. Did you have a learning phase, where occasionally the scripts went wrong? Unexpected reactions from the person(s), who did not stick to the script you had in mind, threw you off? I am not talking about lectures, but social interactions. I find it difficult to explain to even close people that it is possible for me to appear at ease socially and appear chatty, using learned scripts and conversation algorithms.
DeleteAbout the acting techniques. Did you have a learning phase, where occasionally the scripts went wrong? Unexpected reactions from the person(s), who did not stick to the script you had in mind, threw you off? I am not talking about lectures, but social interactions. I find it difficult to explain to even close people that it is possible for me to appear at ease socially and appear chatty, using learned scripts and conversation algorithms.
DeleteOh yes indeed. I know people learn foreign languages one phrase at a time. Well I learnt social one interaction at a time. Slowly and painfully.
Delete