List something you don't understand about Autism

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Well I can answer this one. Id say because of my obsession that people see me as NT who's a little awkward. But I have a knowledge of theoretical knowledge about almost every single type of social interaction Ive encountered to the point where I could give someone detailed instructions on how to approach the situation but not so much approach the situation that smooth myself. My social progression from being mute with no friends and no clue how to talk to people to having an average social life within 5 yrs is probably faster then most aspies.

Yet the downside to my obsession is that people cant be controlled. If things don't turn out how I want it, I get frustrated. Im very socially anxious because Im so nitpicky and hyperaware of all the social interactions that I'm encountering. I obsess too much for about how awkward I am or what I did wrong in that social situation. I get worked up over the smallest things and blow my mistakes up in my head. My brain is wired very systematically so Im constantly trying too hard to categorize people and trying to assemble social interactions into algorithms whereas most NTs use intuition. My obsession caused me to go to the hospital 3 and half yrs ago because nothing was going my way.

Hello everyone who has posted on this thread and to those who read this.

I was diagnosed with aspergers on wednesday just gone and I am reading through things on these posts to build a better knowledge and understanding of how Aspergers effects people so anything I am about to say may cause offence so I apologise as I am still coming to terms with things.

I was told by my specialist that the basic cause of Aspergers is that the part of our brian that deals with social interaction and body language isn't developed in the same way as other people, and that to deal with this our brains rewire or wire themselves in different ways which can more often than not lead to benifits regarding attention to detail, above normal IQ and various other strengths, so its not surprising we are different from Aspie to Aspie as we have the same base issues but different developments.

I think personally that it makes sense that although we all have similar base problems in certain situations we have all different developments ranging from people who developed coping skills in social situations to those who struggle so much that even mantaining expressive facial expressions hard, some lash out and some of us lash inward through self harm and self neglect with bouts of depression and frustration and moments of euphoric invincibility in some cases.

I don't think its a positive to focus on the negative sides of everything I know my strengths are that in the majority of social interaction I have developed social coping skills where I can make friends but these are only a mask for me. a way of controlling conversations and situations where I can blend in, I developed these skill before I was actually diagnosed and my life surprised the doctor who assessed me as she was amazed that although I struggle in crowded areas and places with large numbers of people who are static like stadiums and supermarkets, I was able to cope with large international airports on my own as I knew that everyone there was following paths and routes to be sorted into departures and arrivals and that in a way the airport was organised and there was not need for me to fear interaction as I saw the people as rather than a blob mass but as organised snakes of people.

And my weaknesses are that I do display stress triggered body responces and I cannot deal with emotional relationships at all and leaving the house at short notice is simply just not possible without complete meltdown, I also have a extremley detailed memory whith events facts figures and I can remember a conversation I have with each person I talk too and whilst I was working I would talk and interact with 100 people plus a day in a call centre I could regonise the persons name and details from the last 3 years and recall the subject we discussed, I was able to cope in this situation as the people I had to deal with all wanted the similar things so I was able to in the first few words predict what the person wanted and deal with thier issues in a few seconds and in some cases finish the conversation for the person and then tell them what specifically it was they wanted before they told me.

strangley I dont appear to have a specific hobby skill or subject that I devote my time too but I can organise calculate and absorb vast amounts of information to my long term memory in very short spaces of time everything from conversations to 18,000 different mortgage interest rates.

I think we all need to accept a few things about how we are all different with how we adapt and understand that until we can sort of identify with each other how can we expect those in positions of diagnosis to try to get their heads around our amazing abilities to adapt to some things and struggle so much with others and still deal with different things in different ways.

and again if I have said anything that upsets anyone I apologise

How come we have difficulties on the phone, when being on the phone actually means you don't have to make eye contact or other face-to-face interaction? Plus if it's speaking to somebody you don't know, they don't know who you are what you look like. I thought it'd be simpler through the phone?

How come it says that we are prone to saying whatever's in our minds, then somewhere else on the same list of symptoms it says that we find it difficult to verbalize what's in our minds?

How come some of us can draw really good pictures of people with good facial expressions and body language, but not understand it when speaking to people? I know some of us might find it hard to subconsciously understand it when verbally speaking to people, but the knowledge of the cue must be in us then if we could draw good facial expressions etc?

The thing I don't get about Autism is why in the span of my lifetime it has went from something that was extremely rare to nearly 1% of the population.

My guess is better diagnoses and people have become aware of the whole spectrum than kids who are at the severe end. So it raised it to 1%.

Some people think it's the environment that causes kids to have autism because it changes the way their minds are wired because they kept getting sick let's say while they were still babies. So their brains take different pathways. Some think you need to have the gene inside you and something in the environment to cause it. I never really believed this but sometimes I wonder if someone is autistic because of what happened when they were babies so that would mean they aren't truly autistic but it's just a label and it's there to get them the education they need and the services.

I'm not frustrataed at you, OJani, but it's frustrating in general to read this. If other autistic people attribute by fluctuating verbal abilities to "mood fluctuations," goodness only knows what the general public thinks!

It has nothing to do with mood or "I don't feel like talking." For me, it has to do with sensory and neurological status... everything from migraines to possible seizures to auras for the above to sensory overload to synesthesia cause me to lose speech.

My verbal fluctuations certainly have nothing to do with mood. If I am verbal (and I usually am), I range from barely able to string words together to form a complete sentence to, I guess, "articulate and well-spoken" as was written on my diagnostic report. In the latter case, just about everything I said I had typed out the night before and reread on the way to the appointment, so apparently I come across really fluently when I have scripts to work from. None of this is related to mood. I was in a good and even somewhat social mood when I saw my attorney, and yet I was barely able to get anything out, except when reciting things I had written or said previously.

When I can't talk at all it has nothing to do with mood. It has everything to do with overload. At some point my speech goes, like flipping a switch.

I barely display emotions in ways that NTs expect. My diagnostic report says that I displayed nearly complete flat affect, but also said that my stimming would change when I got excited. A friend of mine who may be autistic herself (no confirmation) told me that she sees differences in how I broadcast emotions that NTs would likely miss, like how I move my eyes, my posture, etc. I don't really know.

Hi my aspie friends,

I don't get how the motor functions are related to autism. Why did I have problems with motor function as a baby? And why do I still have problems doing movings according to two rythms, e.g. crawling?

thanks,
anton

I can too lose the ability to speak, not by choice but brought on by stress. Seizures and temporary paralysis contributes to it. I don't think I've never chosen not to speak. It's either been anxiety, shutdowns, meltdowns, sensory overload and just downright mind blankness.

Maybe this is related?

I was complimented about having become more affectionate since my ASD diagnosis and therapy.

Definitely not true but I thought about it some:

I've just learnt to express more of my thoughts and feelings and because overall interaction improved, people started to interact with me more and with that also began to notice more about my person.