Asperger's, anyone? (Not me)

[defghi]

It's not really social bullying if you don't realize what's going on though, right? Been there. Ah ignorance, so blissful.

often they can hear things like electricity.

interesting, I have this happen fairly frequently, but I never figured out a way to describe it. "hearing electricity", so simple, thanks.

 

[BloodCountess88]

My first therapist thought I might be on the spectrum based on my apparent inability to identify my emotions. I believe I've gotten much better at it with age, but then there are competing explanations for such things, but perhaps not mutually exclusive, such as being INTP.

LOL so true, so true... Although I don't have issues understanding emotions, I often know what to do/how to respond to them. However, I don't understand them . If someone is having a hard time and they brought it upon themselves, my instinctual answers are usually "Well you should have thought that through". Which then gets me labeled as a heartless bitch. It boils down to, I choose to not do such commentary nor engage in social situations because emotions make me feel often very uncomfortable.

I found this conclusion especially interesting:

"we conclude that the autistic brain needs to be calmed down, learning needs to be slowed, and cognitive functions need to be diminished in order to re-instate proper functionality."

I've noticed that when I'm on valium my cognitive functioning increases. My thinking is more fluid, my understanding of new concepts is swifter, etc. Moreover, when I have a chance and the appropriate materials to learn on my own, which is often the case in college, I often outperform my peers. However, when I'm expected to learn as many of them do, which is apparently through verbal learning primarily, I fail or do poorly. There's usually too much going on in the classroom to effectively process the information being presented.

Often you find that children with autism visual detection skills (finding a toy in a room, puzzles, memory) are extremely heightened. I did testing on my children in a experimental classroom where they would ask them to find bunny, or match X in cards and find things in classrooms and while they wouldn't comply, they videotaped them and noticed that they would look RIGHT AT the what it was being asked seconds after the question. Using the tapes and such scores, their memory skills were far beyond any child their age. So that's one of the reason why I strongly believe in the newer research being presented, I almost think brain processing skills don't match physical possessing skills and that's what really causes the lack of communication. What's really interesting is what I hear from people in the profession (20+ years) that often "the more Occupational/physical/sensory therapy they get, the higher functioning they'll be" and I think we can certainly apply it when it comes with cognitive levels.

I often have mini meltdowns when I go to the library as well. People talking, people walking around, attractive girls, my skin bugging me, the fact that, psycho-socially speaking, I'm behind. Just being around people is infinitely annoying because fluid conversation is difficult because, well, I'm not quite sure. ADHD, anxiety short-circuiting my brain, my being the autism spectrum -- in any case, people often find me quite amusing and I've found myself the the object of much social bullying that often escaped me because I didn't know what was going on.

ADD/ADHD is in the spectrum. What the neurologist I've talked to (3, plus my cousin) tell me is that ADD/ADHD is given when there is no sign of autism (as in developmental/cognitive delays and behavioral issues) however along with other symptoms, ADD/ADHD is explain through the ASD spectrum.

My kids are hyperactive in their diagnosis, but they don't have an ADHD diagnosis for example.

Now, SPD/SID actually shows itself like ADHD. If your environmental data processing is not being organized correctly, you are unable to focus.


Another thing to consider is that because we are verbal, our non verbal cues are A LOT more subtle. If you ask someone who's deaf, they often tell you that people's faces aren't actually expressive. If your brain is going 10000+ miles a second, such subtleties are hard to process and organize. One of the benefits of teaching sign language to children is that they are able to "mimic" and show more emotion through visual expression which usually (even echolalic) precede vocalization. Now, often you hear that people who have really animated faces (not voices, voice needs to be even and emotionless because of SPD) are often captivating to people on the ASD spectrum. Now, there is ONE study done where babies can discriminate facial expression (usually exagerated) but otherwise, this is my personal theory and I wish there was some study done on it. My children do sign language, and often prefer to be around deaf and hard of hearing people because they quite often can "read" them as they use their face to communicate. Often the ABA therapists and teachers are trained to control their facial expressions to the point where they have 2 : severely happy, and blank/serious. This goes with the whole positive reinforcement.

My point is, next time you are in a social situation, pay extra attention at the facial expression rather than the words and pitch. It might help you in recognizing emotions, specially if there is someone who's really loud and obnoxious.

It's not really social bullying if you don't realize what's going on though, right? Been there. Ah ignorance, so blissful.



interesting, I have this happen fairly frequently, but I never figured out a way to describe it. "hearing electricity", so simple, thanks.

No, it is because you can understand that they have negative feelings towards you and how malicious they are being yet you cannot understand why. It gets frustrating I think, at least with direct bullying you know why they are making fun of you and when.


There is actually audio therapy you can do. I know they have it in the Ipad and Iphone because I have it through them, the app is called EASe lite and you can buy songs. it's specifically for noise SPD/SID, for those who can't stand loud noises and have issues coping.

Basically, the more you expose and use your senses, the more you develop coping skills and are able to function through it. Some people learn to block the background noises out completely through therapy. The younger you start the better it is, but I think it helps.

Again this kind of therapy is behavioral and occupational and is completely different than what, you know, you get at the psychologist.

 

[defghi]

No, it is because you can understand that they have negative feelings towards you and how malicious they are being yet you cannot understand why. It gets frustrating I think, at least with direct bullying you know why they are making fun of you and when.


There is actually audio therapy you can do. I know they have it in the Ipad and Iphone because I have it through them, the app is called EASe lite and you can buy songs. it's specifically for noise SPD/SID, for those who can't stand loud noises and have issues coping.

Basically, the more you expose and use your senses, the more you develop coping skills and are able to function through it. Some people learn to block the background noises out completely through therapy. The younger you start the better it is, but I think it helps.

Again this kind of therapy is behavioral and occupational and is completely different than what, you know, you get at the psychologist.

Of course you are absolutely right, what I meant to imply is that the best way I've found to deal with social situations that I don't understand, bullying or otherwise, is to accept your lack of understanding, and be open and honest about it, rather than letting it embarrass or upset you. Much easier said than done, to be sure.

I probably have some level of noise SPD, but the only way I can think of that it really effects me is that I can't listen to music while doing.. pretty much anything, it makes it impossible to focus. I don't think it's worthwhile for me to do any sort of therapy for it, but this is very enlightening, I've never considered this before.

 

[kvothe27]

LOL so true, so true... Although I don't have issues understanding emotions, I often know what to do/how to respond to them. However, I don't understand them . If someone is having a hard time and they brought it upon themselves, my instinctual answers are usually "Well you should have thought that through". Which then gets me labeled as a heartless bitch. It boils down to, I choose to not do such commentary nor engage in social situations because emotions make me feel often very uncomfortable.



Often you find that children with autism visual detection skills (finding a toy in a room, puzzles, memory) are extremely heightened. I did testing on my children in a experimental classroom where they would ask them to find bunny, or match X in cards and find things in classrooms and while they wouldn't comply, they videotaped them and noticed that they would look RIGHT AT the what it was being asked seconds after the question. Using the tapes and such scores, their memory skills were far beyond any child their age. So that's one of the reason why I strongly believe in the newer research being presented, I almost think brain processing skills don't match physical possessing skills and that's what really causes the lack of communication. What's really interesting is what I hear from people in the profession (20+ years) that often "the more Occupational/physical/sensory therapy they get, the higher functioning they'll be" and I think we can certainly apply it when it comes with cognitive levels.




ADD/ADHD is in the spectrum. What the neurologist I've talked to (3, plus my cousin) tell me is that ADD/ADHD is given when there is no sign of autism (as in developmental/cognitive delays and behavioral issues) however along with other symptoms, ADD/ADHD is explain through the ASD spectrum.

My kids are hyperactive in their diagnosis, but they don't have an ADHD diagnosis for example.

Now, SPD/SID actually shows itself like ADHD. If your environmental data processing is not being organized correctly, you are unable to focus.


Another thing to consider is that because we are verbal, our non verbal cues are A LOT more subtle. If you ask someone who's deaf, they often tell you that people's faces aren't actually expressive. If your brain is going 10000+ miles a second, such subtleties are hard to process and organize. One of the benefits of teaching sign language to children is that they are able to "mimic" and show more emotion through visual expression which usually (even echolalic) precede vocalization. Now, often you hear that people who have really animated faces (not voices, voice needs to be even and emotionless because of SPD) are often captivating to people on the ASD spectrum. Now, there is ONE study done where babies can discriminate facial expression (usually exagerated) but otherwise, this is my personal theory and I wish there was some study done on it. My children do sign language, and often prefer to be around deaf and hard of hearing people because they quite often can "read" them as they use their face to communicate. Often the ABA therapists and teachers are trained to control their facial expressions to the point where they have 2 : severely happy, and blank/serious. This goes with the whole positive reinforcement.

My point is, next time you are in a social situation, pay extra attention at the facial expression rather than the words and pitch. It might help you in recognizing emotions, specially if there is someone who's really loud and obnoxious.




No, it is because you can understand that they have negative feelings towards you and how malicious they are being yet you cannot understand why. It gets frustrating I think, at least with direct bullying you know why they are making fun of you and when.


There is actually audio therapy you can do. I know they have it in the Ipad and Iphone because I have it through them, the app is called EASe lite and you can buy songs. it's specifically for noise SPD/SID, for those who can't stand loud noises and have issues coping.

Basically, the more you expose and use your senses, the more you develop coping skills and are able to function through it. Some people learn to block the background noises out completely through therapy. The younger you start the better it is, but I think it helps.

Again this kind of therapy is behavioral and occupational and is completely different than what, you know, you get at the psychologist.

Yes, I was told that my being on the spectrum better accounted for my avoidance, adhd, and general social problems than any one of them specificially. For the longest time I just thought I was stupid, but I've done so well in college academically by outperforming most of my peers. The contrast between how I come across in school and how I come across in social environments has been extremely confusing for the longest time.

I've actually studied facial expressions and body language via books. I've been practicing in identifying facial expressions and body language. It may seem somewhat amusing that I actually help myself identify my own emotions by paying attention to my own body language. What's confusing is that, while I do well on the facial expression tests online whereby I'm tested via my intuition, I seem to somehow misinterpret them in untested situations. This leads me believe I'm more avoidant than autistic, and that my misinterpretations are the result of my own projections rather than actual real-time misinterpretation. In any case, my study of body language and facial expressions has greatly helped me dispel much of my own confusion regarding other people and their motives. If anything, it helps me to be a bit more objective in my analysis.

My cognition appears to be highly unusual. My psychiatrist told me he's met very few people like me in the 10+ years he's been in practice. Of course, despite all his experience, he could simply be incompetent, but the apparent agreement among the therapists and psychiatrist with whom I spoke leads me to believe I could very well be on the spectrum, albeit on the milder side.


Emotions are also extremely uncomfortable for me as well. I often do not know how to handle them in other people and myself.

As for the audio therapy, I really do not have a problem with loud noises.

Again, thank you for the information. Your study regarding your children is really interesting in what it could mean for unlocked potential.