Aspergers have I, anyone else on the autistic spectrum ?

[JasonPalmer]

A few years ago I was diagnosed with aspergers which explains why I get obsessions and can not read unwritten social rules and cues.... anyone else out there diagnosed with a neurodivergant order ?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

There are forum members who have revealed that they have Asperger’s. For some, it is something they clearly want to share, but for others it’s a private matter. We respect those choices.

[JasonPalmer]

There are forum members who have revealed that they have Asperger’s. For some, it is something they clearly want to share, but for others it’s a private matter. We respect those choices.

Birds of a feather....

[Serial_Apologist]

A few years ago I was diagnosed with aspergers which explains why I get obsessions and can not read unwritten social rules and cues.... anyone else out there diagnosed with a neurodivergant order ?

Thanks Jason for starting this thread. Coming out to people I've known for much of my life has proved a genuinely liberating experience in my case.

I first became aware that I was probably of this personality type a few years ago - ironically while watching a TV documentary about the occurrence of Autism in girls, since I immediately recognised issues I had in common with them. Up to that point I had assumed autism to be solely a male problem or condition, which I wrongly associated exclusively with the stereotyped nerdy sense of humour bypassed obsessive type. On contacting friends of many years standing, they all assured me that they had quickly been aware I was "on the autistic spectrum", which would make some sense given cases allegedly inherited genetically: I first became aware of Aspergers from an article in Sunday Times, which I showed to my father's housekeeper asking her "Who does this remind you of?", pointing backwards over my shoulder. While it did not occur to me at the time that I might also be considered in the autistic category, remembering the very odd child I was has now come to make complete sense to me, and I can now look back on that strange little boy with his eccentric interests and obsessions with full acceptance and a fond affection I had not previously felt, more a sense of shame and embarrassment.

I hasten to add that I have not received any official or professional diagnosis of autism of any kind; this might be for the best, and I am not at all sure that had I been thus classified it would have stood me in good stead in employment or promotion terms: obviously I have been retired now for many years. Character traits associated with autism are far more varied than I had realised, though I could on the other hand of course be mistaken in assuming my ability to accurately interpret body language and judge moods in other people. My general philosophy remains one of trusting in my instincts and intuitions. For me the most positive outcome has been a feeling of being able to be and act fully as my authentic self.

[smittims]

Thanks, Jason, and particularly S-A whose post encouraged me to come forward.

I think 'spectrum' is a useful term as it suggests a wide variety of experiences and symptoms, which may explain why some people take years to realise what their make-up or condition is. Also, Asperger Syndrome and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder have only recently been recognised. My parents simply called me 'truculent' or my father was irritated by my failing to share his sense of humour. I don't know which of the two conditions I have and I don't want to approach the medical profession who I believe are far too busy to bother with me .

And I rub along OK most of the time. I don't 'read' subtle hints people throw out, wheree I'm 'expected to know' what they mean without their telling me. I don't think their jokes are funny; I've no interest in 'small-talk' .I love being on my own , though I love my family too. So I say I have a 'mild form' of whatever it is.

Has anyone had experience of volunteer groups who aim to help those who may have more trouble than they do themselves? Are they frowned on as 'amateurs' by the professionals? It did occur to me that that's one thing I might do in my spare time.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Many great and famous people have had, or are speculated to have had Asperger’s Syndrome. Some composers thought to be included are Bartok, Beethoven, Bruckner, Mahler, Mozart and R. Strauss.

[richardfinegold]

A few years ago I had a patient tell me that he had just been diagnosed with “Ass Burners” syndrome

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

A few years ago I had a patient tell me that he had just been diagnosed with “Ass Burners” syndrome

Over here, that would be interpreted as cruelty to donkeys.

[Serial_Apologist]

Over here, that would be interpreted as cruelty to donkeys.

Or advice as to taking care not to overdo it on curries!

Smittims, in his message above, supports the view which is now being put forward that autism comprises a wide range of "symptoms", experiences and character traits, often at odds with stereotypes, which may be explained by a relative lack until recent years of discussions, articles and so on in the general media. Certain traits seem to act in mutually contradictory ways - my own almost pedantic obsessiveness about maintaining regular routines, and by having to suppress momentary rages when these are circumvented by unnanounced interruptions, as if automatically expecting everyone to know that I take my meals at certain times while within my own domain and that this expectation should be applied to everyone - contrasted with an embarrassing level of unpracticality and disorganisedness on my own part. The latter I have put down to an over-anxious, over-protecting mother, who was overlooked in her own mean-minded upbringing for being a bit of a rebel, as compared with her goody-goody but far less naturally gifted older sister, and only acknowledged by her family when her evident pianistic abilities, which gained her the LRAM in her 20s, was then used as a pretext for showcasing her family's "respectability". The resultant emotional deprivation was no small factor in precipitating her relatively late in life into the arms of my father, a disabled and emotionally barren man, to sacrifice her gifts in order to administer to his physical needs and then over-invest emotionally in me, undermining my own sense of self-agency.

As in the cases of schizoid personality elucidated by R.D.Laing in the 60s, into which I now think he may have mis-categorised a good number of autistics, a character trait was handed on unchecked through the multiple vicissitudes of familial machinations. This might exemplify a tendency for inborn traits of the kind we are considering here to undergo identifiable modifications leading to individual outcomes which find themselves at odds with the conventionalised model as publicised. While this what one might call conditioning factor is of course by no means peculiar to families of autistic people, it might explain why many such individuals make do with what are in some important ways unfulfilled lives - repeated failed close relationships in my own case for instance - while failing to locate any sense of their own ineluctable agency in the making thereof.

Due to the autism's broad range of verifiable manifestations making for a very complex interweaving of circumstantial inputs and personality outputs to unravel and then draw into a usable diagnostic and pretext for finding answers, there probably remains a huge amount of research and treatment possibilities to be uncovered. In the meantime we deal with mixed feelings and the clumsiness and sometime tactlessness of autistics, knowing that chance can have a hand in bringing out the best in them and somehow been of benefit through their art or skewed take on life and little questioned so-called "normalities" in how we go about it.

[JasonPalmer]

I have read books on Aspergers so try stop myself doing those annoying things I used to do, that along with masking and avoiding people seems to help.

[richardfinegold]

I have read books on Aspergers so try stop myself doing those annoying things I used to do, that along with masking and avoiding people seems to help.

Useful skills during the pandemic

[smittims]

I found your 1500 yesterday rewarding, S-A.

The person you describe in the middle of your first paragraph could be George V.

[Serial_Apologist]

Useful skills during the pandemic

I read Jason's use of the word "masking" as meaning something other than literally putting on a face mask, though I could be wrong.

[JasonPalmer]

"Masking" is when people on the autistic spectrum try appear normal.

[oddoneout]

I read Jason's use of the word "masking" as meaning something other than literally putting on a face mask, though I could be wrong.

A small (recently topical) yolk from richardfg? Masking and avoiding people being anticovid measures.