Asperger's syndrome

[Provost Harrison]

Mmmm, prozac nation...sounds like my kind of nation

[Ecthy]

asperger's implies loner geek, not the other way round.

[Provost Harrison]

Other bizarre traits and fixations of his too...

[Ecthy]

In PH you find all disturbances united

[Elok]

Er, AH, I too have Asperger's and I regret to inform you that you're an ignorant twit. It exists, and furthermore it affects your life so fundamentally that the idea of it as a disease actually makes me uneasy. If I were to be "cured" of Asperger's it would basically erase my personality. I view and interpret the world differently from the normal way. Now get in the uninformed BSers' timeout cage with Fez, Thorn and PA.

AS bears only the most superficial resemblance to OCD insofar as both tend to involve highly ritualized behavior and difficulties coping with change. AS and other autism spectrum disorders have a slew of other symptoms, often including difficulty reading nonverbal forms of communication (body language, facial expression, tone of voice), a tendency to literalism and clumsiness, a rigid sense of morality or ethics, hypersensitivity to any or all of the five senses, and a peculiarly narrow focus of interest.

For example, Odin just will not shut the hell up about evolution, and my dad is fascinated by orchids and, since becoming diabetic, diabetes. Typically an aspie develops an encyclopedic knowledge of every aspect of one particular subject and learns to rattle off facts and statistics. My stats professor this past semester didn't say so but was obviously autistic to some degree, and his insane love of number-crunching and mathematical identities is a huge help to his job. I'm an odd case; probably because my AS is so mild (I can almost pass for normal, except extended socializing makes me crack up), I have no particular obsession that I or others have noticed.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Elok
Er, AH, I too have Asperger's and I regret to inform you that you're an ignorant twit. It exists, and furthermore it affects your life so fundamentally that the idea of it as a disease actually makes me uneasy. If I were to be "cured" of Asperger's it would basically erase my personality. I view and interpret the world differently from the normal way. Now get in the uninformed BSers' timeout cage with Fez, Thorn and PA.

AS bears only the most superficial resemblance to OCD insofar as both tend to involve highly ritualized behavior and difficulties coping with change. AS and other autism spectrum disorders have a slew of other symptoms, often including difficulty reading nonverbal forms of communication (body language, facial expression, tone of voice), a tendency to literalism and clumsiness, a rigid sense of morality or ethics, hypersensitivity to any or all of the five senses, and a peculiarly narrow focus of interest.

For example, Odin just will not shut the hell up about evolution, and my dad is fascinated by orchids and, since becoming diabetic, diabetes. Typically an aspie develops an encyclopedic knowledge of every aspect of one particular subject and learns to rattle off facts and statistics. My stats professor this past semester didn't say so but was obviously autistic to some degree, and his insane love of number-crunching and mathematical identities is a huge help to his job. I'm an odd case; probably because my AS is so mild (I can almost pass for normal, except extended socializing makes me crack up), I have no particular obsession that I or others have noticed.

thank you for that eloquent post Elok.

Has anyone here read Temple Grandin's book on her life? She is also a high functioning person with Aspergers with a successful life, and a different personality. Ive read parts of the book.

[Japher]

Er, AH, I too have Asperger's and I regret to inform you that you're an ignorant twit.

WooooaaaaaaaW!

Bet you couldn't say that to his face.

[Ecthy]

No he couldn't

[Bill3000]

Aspergers is not a disease. It is a way of life. The only way that it is even a "disorder" in the remote sense is because the majority of society is more social and different from us; thus, it can have disadvantages too.

It's not a crutch, as some people such as idiots such as AH would say. It exists, period. It affects my personality up to the point where I probably think completely different than most of you.

To the "normal" people - do you read encyclopedias for fun? Do you have an obsessive thirst for knowledge in a particular subject for no real reason at all? Do you not understand what the PRH other people are talking about, or can't even begin to comprehend what they are feeling? Don't understand social skills, feel incredibly stressed in crowded or rowdy areas up to the point where you feel like you must run away? You don't? Well, that's how I think.

As a side fact, all throughout all of school, I had never had any friends. PRH, not even that. Look at how you people treated me years ago in Apolyton. It was more than merely me being immature - it was also because I didn't know how to communicate with people effectively.

It's not a matter of "BS" or anything like that because it truely exists - I truely do not understand most people, nor know how to communicate.

Yet I wouldn't trade it for the world. It has made me, me. I love learning, and have an incredible thirst for knowledge in a way that even most science majors would find unhealthy. I honestly don't know anyone my age who derives physics equations for fun.

By the way - the "crutch" argument - it's not true, even in its regular fallicious sense. Simply put, AS and other disorders arn't meant to be an excuse for the way a person is meant to be. It's meant to be a wa y of expressing how a person is. You cannot simply generalize disorders such as OCD, Aspergers, ADD, et cetera. It is meant to show how it is different from an average "norm" in society (Which in itself is artifical.) Once this comparation is shown, it is possible to improve the skills manually. Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it is real. PRH, it's discrimination, through and through, and bigotry, to deny the existance of these disorders.

[Ecthy]

No Bill. It's a disorder. It's not normal. Do you reproduce and drink beer with mates? No.

[Odin]

Originally posted by Bill3000
Aspergers is not a disease. It is a way of life. The only way that it is even a "disorder" in the remote sense is because the majority of society is more social and different from us; thus, it can have disadvantages too.

It's not a crutch, as some people such as idiots such as AH would say. It exists, period. It affects my personality up to the point where I probably think completely different than most of you.

To the "normal" people - do you read encyclopedias for fun? Do you have an obsessive thirst for knowledge in a particular subject for no real reason at all? Do you not understand what the PRH other people are talking about, or can't even begin to comprehend what they are feeling? Don't understand social skills, feel incredibly stressed in crowded or rowdy areas up to the point where you feel like you must run away? You don't? Well, that's how I think.

As a side fact, all throughout all of school, I had never had any friends. PRH, not even that. Look at how you people treated me years ago in Apolyton. It was more than merely me being immature - it was also because I didn't know how to communicate with people effectively.

It's not a matter of "BS" or anything like that because it truely exists - I truely do not understand most people, nor know how to communicate.

Yet I wouldn't trade it for the world. It has made me, me. I love learning, and have an incredible thirst for knowledge in a way that even most science majors would find unhealthy. I honestly don't know anyone my age who derives physics equations for fun.

By the way - the "crutch" argument - it's not true, even in its regular fallicious sense. Simply put, AS and other disorders arn't meant to be an excuse for the way a person is meant to be. It's meant to be a wa y of expressing how a person is. You cannot simply generalize disorders such as OCD, Aspergers, ADD, et cetera. It is meant to show how it is different from an average "norm" in society (Which in itself is artifical.) Once this comparation is shown, it is possible to improve the skills manually. Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it is real. PRH, it's discrimination, through and through, and bigotry, to deny the existance of these disorders.

[Ecthy]

I sometimes read encyclopedias for fun, rarely.

I collect knowledge in certain areas.

Nothing to do with Aspergers anyway. I am socially challeneged now and again, but only when in bad mood.

Borderline?

[Ecthy]

Why lying to myself? There are times when I feel everything's alright, with friends, girlfriend and stuff like that, At other times I feel like I'm totally wrong in this place. "Normal" depression as depicted in "Creep" or true disorder? I've often considered having some medic look at it and give a judgement so I can understand it. Put it off all the time. Having someone have a look at it will be done, eventually. But not now. There's a bird thing in the making

[Bill3000]

It's more than what I am saying, Ecth. It's rather hard to completely explain, bcause it can be quite complicated to generalize. The generalizations is part of the problem; say something like "ADD is the inability to pay attention" to people, and they'd say, "that's it?" But it's much more than that, a lot more complicated - Aspergers is same to this.

You could always try a diagnosis test, but you can't just do it for yourself like that.

No Bill. It's a disorder. It's not normal. Do you reproduce and drink beer with mates? No.

Ah, but what is normal, grasshoppa? Yes, that's why it is a disorder, but in the end, the concept of a disorder is purely a relativistic one. If society as a whole would be more akin to Aspergers, then it would be the jocks and such that would be considered a "disorder." It's merely a reference point, and in the end, it's no better than what it is without the tradeoffs. I have advantages that you don't. This surely is different from, say, a disease; I seriously doubt people would say that the flu gives an advantage to people.

Is it genetic? Most likely; my dad has autistic tendencies and there are patterns of Aspergers and other autistic traits in my family.

[Verres]

Get the medic in question to look at your liver too.

I've been thinking about that ever since you posted in my thread a few days ago (yeah, I have no life)