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Post by nightangel1282 on Nov 23, 2011 22:43:29 GMT -5
My sister was watching Rain Man the other night, and she said that parts of it definitely made her think of me, so she started doing research into Autism, and after looking at the symptoms of it...
Yeah, I have a shittonne of the symptoms, so NOW I'm thinking I'm a high-functioning autistic. It would explain a lot.
I was bullied horrifically in school because the other kids couldn't understand me and some of my habits or interests.
To this day, I love doing things over and over and over again. I could sit and watch episodes of shows that I've seen hundreds of times, and I remember when I was a kid, my parents and siblings were ready to murder me if I watched Batteries Not Included one more time. When I'm doing something I'm deeply into, I get REALLY irritated when someone interrupts me or tells me to stop.
I have a limited diet... I eat the same things over and over, only rarely deviating from my usual food choices.
When I get really upset or frustrated, I'll do things to hurt myself... mostly hitting myself in the head, but I'll occasionally rake my fingernails along my arms until it sometimes breaks the skin.
I have a hard time making (or keeping) friends, although I have no problems with approaching people. When I start talking about something, I don't know how to tell if people are actually interested or not, and I hear things like "are you finished yet?" or people just get irritated and leave without giving me a reason why.
When I was a kid, my parents would have to keep a close watch on me when we went out in public because I would approach ANYONE and just start chatting. (My parents once even found me in another woman's shopping cart in a grocery store)
I was prone to having severe temper tantrums when I was a child.
I honestly cannot see myself ever being fully independent.
I am very prone to anxiety attacks.
Yeah, those are just the symptoms that I can remember off of the top of my head. I believe I read that the condition is commonly known as Aspergers, although they are going to change that in the psychologists handbook thing in 2013 and just make Aspergers synonymous with high-functioning autism.
So... yeah. That's what I found out. Now I'm just trying to figure out how to DEAL with it...
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Post by MaybeNever on Nov 23, 2011 23:03:14 GMT -5
Don't. Don't try to self-diagnose as autistic. The thing about autism is that EVERYBODY exhibits some of the symptoms, and introverts and individuals with high intelligence usually show more of the symptoms than the average person. This is the nature of the beast, it being a spectrum disorder.
If you think it sounds like you then go talk to your doctor, I suppose, but leave the diagnosis in his or her hands.
Incidentally, it isn't that Asperger's is going to become synonymous with HFA in the DSM-V - it's already pretty much synonymous with a distinction in the age of diagnosis - but that all the flavors of autism are going to be collapsed into "Autism Spectrum Disorders".
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Post by lexikon on Nov 23, 2011 23:07:01 GMT -5
Wow, you and I sound a lot alike. Notably paragraphs 3, 4,5, 7, 8, and 10. One of my therapists told me that I wasn't autistic because I got good grades in school  . I'm currently diagnosed with ADD. I often shake my body when I'm sitting for a long time, and get up and walk in circles. What is the difference between aspergers and HF autism? and what were you previously diagnosed with. |
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Post by Dragon Zachski on Nov 23, 2011 23:18:26 GMT -5
What is the difference between aspergers and HF autism? and what were you previously diagnosed with. The name. |
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Post by nightangel1282 on Nov 23, 2011 23:19:37 GMT -5
I'm not trying to self diagnose myself. I said I have the symptoms of it. My mother and father were both shocked when I read them the symptoms today, and my mother believes that she may also be an undiagnosed autistic. I have to find a doctor or psychologist and talk to them about it, of course.
And I was diagnosed with a combination of disorders... Avoidant Personality Disorder, Chronic Depression, Anxiety, Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome, and I had one doctor suggest to me that I might have Disassociative Personality Disorder (aka: multiple personalities)
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Post by Haseen on Nov 24, 2011 4:25:15 GMT -5
I don't see any problem with self-diagnosis in and of itself (I consider myself to have a slight amount of Asperger's), as long as you aren't just saying it to get special treatment. I use it more as a way to set things up for myself that play to my strengths, if that makes any sense. I wouldn't sweat it over how exactly your psychological traits are labeled, either. There are a lot of things that I share a few similarities with, like ADHD, a little OCD, but that's true for everybody, some more than others. The only important question is whether it messes up your life enough to make treatment worth it.
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Post by nightangel1282 on Nov 24, 2011 12:18:51 GMT -5
Any form of change in my daily routine makes my anxiety shoot through the roof. I have been searching for a job for over six weeks now, and I've sent out resume after resume after resume after resume. Every time I don't get a call (which I haven't even gotten a single one back yet) my mind just starts thinking, I failed, I failed, I failed, I failed, etc. It's getting to the point where I'm dreading just the THOUGHT of actually going out there to get a job. My anxiety attacks are getting worse, and several times these past few weeks, the symptoms have resembled heart attacks, I'm starting to find myself tremble... my hands just start shaking out of the blue... so... I'm thinking I should at LEAST get my anxiety treated (though I'm dreading the thought of pills since I've had bad experiences with medications before).
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Post by Runa on Nov 24, 2011 17:48:54 GMT -5
*comfies*
Definitely get yourself officially diagnosed if you're autistic and then go for as much help as you can get.
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Post by The_L on Nov 26, 2011 8:56:57 GMT -5
I've been suspected of Asperger's myself, but I don't want to find out if it's true. I already beat myself up over any perceived flaw, the last thing I need is another Thing That Is Wrong With Me hanging over my head.
I sympathize with anyone else in the "suspects autism-spectrum disorder but not officially diagnosed" category.
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Post by nightangel1282 on Nov 26, 2011 14:28:36 GMT -5
Well, I'm DEFINITELY finding a mental health professional now. Fucking welfare won't re-open my file if I don't, so I'll go in on Monday and get that taken care of. So, knowing the Canadian system, I think I'll get an actual APPOINTMENT set up for sometime in the next few months.
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Post by Wykked Wytch on Nov 26, 2011 15:38:59 GMT -5
I think that there's a lot of people who aren't officially diagnosed even though they have autism or some other problem. When I was younger I couldn't get any accommodations for me and my ADD because my IQ scores were too high. Seriously, that was the explanation they gave. "You're too smart! You can't possibly have a disability!" On the other hand, my mom thought for years I had Asperger's and tended to coddle me because of this, despite my psychologist's protests to the contrary that I was just a very smart introvert (which doesn't need to be fixed) with a mild case of social anxiety disorder (which can be fixed). Personally, I think that when I was younger I exhibited some signs of Asperger's, but I slowly grew out of them as I got older. But my personal advice is that you can't really know for sure until you've seen a psychologist. They're trained to do this stuff for a reason. The problem with self-diagnosis is that it's very easy to read a list of traits and think they apply to you, especially when it comes to something that almost everyone shares a few traits of. But yeah, good luck with your psychologist!  |
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Post by Vene on Nov 26, 2011 16:21:16 GMT -5
I think that there's a lot of people who aren't officially diagnosed even though they have autism or some other problem. When I was younger I couldn't get any accommodations for me and my ADD because my IQ scores were too high. Seriously, that was the explanation they gave. "You're too smart! You can't possibly have a disability!" That's actually a big part of why Aspergers is being reclassified as autism, so that people with it can take advantage of the help available to autistics. |
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Post by MaybeNever on Nov 27, 2011 21:46:38 GMT -5
I think that there's a lot of people who aren't officially diagnosed even though they have autism or some other problem. When I was younger I couldn't get any accommodations for me and my ADD because my IQ scores were too high. Seriously, that was the explanation they gave. "You're too smart! You can't possibly have a disability!" That's actually a big part of why Aspergers is being reclassified as autism, so that people with it can take advantage of the help available to autistics. To my knowledge, Asperger's is being reclassified in the DSM because it is autism, and the reclassification extending treatment is merely a side effect (albeit a good one). That said, I'm not immediately familiar with cases where treatment for Asperger's was refused on such grounds, although I've only worked in states that are pretty progressive about mental health treatment. I wouldn't be surprised to hear about it happening. |
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Post by Vene on Nov 29, 2011 11:27:22 GMT -5
That's actually a big part of why Aspergers is being reclassified as autism, so that people with it can take advantage of the help available to autistics. To my knowledge, Asperger's is being reclassified in the DSM because it is autism, and the reclassification extending treatment is merely a side effect (albeit a good one). That said, I'm not immediately familiar with cases where treatment for Asperger's was refused on such grounds, although I've only worked in states that are pretty progressive about mental health treatment. I wouldn't be surprised to hear about it happening. I might have misspoke with "big," but I have read about it being a significant contributing factor. |
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. I'm currently diagnosed with ADD.
