New to the forum, newly diagnosed

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Hey folks! I'm new to the forum. Was diagnosed ASD a year ago, but work/life stuff kept me from getting any of the support they promised, so I'm still wrapping my head around the whole thing. Any steps to take, books to recommend, or thoughts for a new what-used-to-be-called-aspie?

first off: is that a viking avatar? awesome. I am proud of my viking heritage

thanks. I've been looking around, so much great info! My speech stuff is generally okay (music is one of my special interests, and i tend to mimic well (accents, inflection, etc.)), the main thing they recommended was behavioral stuff. I am not very social... I tend to "socialize" through work or organized activities, maybe one-on-one type things (or in music groups!), but I otherwise prefer my own company. I do have trouble picking up on social cues, reading emotions quickly, that sort of thing... and I think it is my greatest weakness. I was only sent to an autism specialist after having meltdowns in crowds, etc. christmas-time at a shopping mall... a memory i would rather forget (although I don't remember much, which is probably for the best). So I also need help managing stressful situations like that. I've started using sunglasses more, sometimes earbuds (to cut down on the sensory overload), but still have days where I can't leave my place because I"m just too overwhelmed.

okay, so I have more problems than I thought. But I've been on a big kick about embracing my strengths... I realized that my research is awesome in large part because of the autism traits. but I do need to work on reading social cues/emotions and dealing with sensory overload (sound & light are really bad, and I have decided to start accommodating my sensitivities with how I dress instead of forcing myself into clothes that are uncomfortable).

Musicology. tons of fun!

Hey AhsokaLives welcome.

I couldn't help myself. I voted Run away, even if it involves kicking & screaming!

sorry slave, just saw your message! nothing in particular comes to mind, but I may not quite understand what you mean. I mostly work with western art music (what a lot of folks call "classical," although I prefer late 19th & 20th c). I have taught a class on american popular music (late 19th c to 21st), but I'm actually more comfortable with music from other cultures (especially javanese gamelan) than with what is easily heard on the radio. did a lot of jazz study in undergrad, though. Are you thinking pop, rock, rap, etc.? I can do some digging....

Best book (by far) i have come across (but it's been a couple of years and things have been moving):

Martine Delfos, A Strange World - Autism, Asperger's Syndrome and PDD-NOS, A Guide for Parents, Partners, Professional Carers, and People with ASDs (Foreword by Tony Attwood); London/Philadelphia 2005, 2006 [[is my second edition]]
ISBN-13: 978 1 84310 255 7
ISBN-10: 1 84310 255 2

In a way, it could be stated Martine Delfos 'belongs' to the extreme-male-brain camp, in a quite singular position.
Especially the first large part, not as such the practical "guide" the sub-title promises, is an excellent exposé of an immature self, underlying and unifying in a way the traditional diagnostic triad, as a result of an over-intake of testosteron (the standard extreme-male-brain view).
I have a more linguistic view of all this, but I would base that totally on her presentation.

And thanks AhsokaLives, for your comment to Inverticalibrated,
and welcome, you have found a great place.

thank you so much! i had not come across that book yet. I've learned from trial and error to read anything that Tony Attwood writes, writes a foreward to, contributes to, or endorses. of all the NT "autism experts," he seems to get it!

this really is a great place. I can't tell you how much it has improved my mood & coping, since i joined just a few days ago! prepping for another big life transition (I must have the least stable life imaginable for an aspie, and yet most of it is by choice!). these recommendations & conversations will help immensely

I'm not sure what i think of the extreme male brain theory. if nothing else, it has helped other people get me... especially since i'm female but can pretty much only get along with males. but i'm not comfortable when people push it to "women are emotional and not logical." i suppose the physiological makes more sense to me than the cultural norms we've ascribed to gender.

Martine somewhere observes how at some point it seems that female aspies tend to "lose it" more than male ones. This would be sort of logical, as the males would be sort of only pushed further into their maleness (i think High Testosteron prenatal, ok, but how about LowT post-natal to add some uncocky passiveness),-
whereas female aspies are pushed into an essentially stranger world.

I am not very certain here, all from defective memory.

All i know is that, in researching myself since say i was 24 in terms of me being a problem (much more interesting before 24 lol)(darn was i perfect and the measure of things), i have always tended to present more on the female side (atypical borderline as just one example), but this does fit with other stuff. I guess when, well, come to think... i BET going to secondary school was the exact point of switching (totally unconsciously) from the original male Little Professor type to the female Little Philosopher type; and i bet the tendency or need for ritualizing would be more apparent in the male phenotype, and remain less seen in the female type -
and that then would explain why my GOOD second opinion decided on PDD-NOS (in the old terminology, as now there i no difference) where i refuse to yield my aspiciosity, if only because i don't want to lose my fav nic, lol (hehehe).

Fascinating stuff, the psychological (and textual) approach...

Best thing about my second opinion on paper is the final paragraph, remarking that, as mr. Seepers has an ASD (ASS in dutch - sometimes, rarely but sometimes dutch feels so much better than english), NO text-based (my words) psychological approach or therapy can be considered reliable (my words again). It confirmed a life-time of skepticism. In real life there is one person calls me not cynic but Sceptic, it is my favourite nickname (and i have a few...) meh

And that then sneakily concludes my minmal task of one contribution a day.

;]]

[ADDIT] P.S.
so glad i decided i'd delivered a very poor title-description according to my education, and overcompensated by adding Tony Attwood - i do not think he is a great theorist of the subject, but he must be the most understanding of bed-side advocates...

thank you once again for your thoughts!

well, any time gender stuff gets involved, things get messy. i teach my students (as i was taught) to think of biological sex (male/female) as separate from gender (with all of its cultural messiness) as separate from sexual orientation. scientifically speaking, when you average out samples, yes: there does seem to be a difference between the male and female brain, in terms of what areas have increased "activity" (signal in an fMRI, i suppose) & relative size of regions. and I read the study that suggests that the fMRI of female ASD looks most like male NT (and male ASD is further specialization in the male-favored regions).

A few caveats:
1. neuroscience is a rapidly rapidly evolving field. brain mapping is promising, but it seems like every couple years, our knowledge of the brain, its geography, function of regions, etc. is completely redone, so it's hard to know exactly what any of it means with any degree of certainty.
2. fMRI (or so I hear) may not be as indicative of function as we've been thinking
3. there is a bias in ALL of these studies towards a certain demographic: often white, college-educated, young male (the type of person that the researchers have access to and who will take part in the experiments, often for cash while they are in college). so many of the universals that we have "discovered" in brain imaging/mapping are being called into question--in what ways has a particular culture preferenced modes of thought for a particular group, and how does that affect brain development... that sort of thing. but this is a problem across the board, i read about it most often in pharmaceutical/pharmacology research (especially where side-effects occur at higher frequencies in particular demographics)
4. how do we know what characteristics of psychology, modes of thought, etc. are from biology and which ones are cultural? nature vs nurture? there was a lot more social messiness, subtext, and exhausting conversation from my female classmates. my male ones threw/kicked balls around, looked at bugs, and hit each other with sticks. much more my speed! i also never liked princess movies (tended to root for the strong female villain, if anything), my special interests may have seemed "male". but even if i have an easier time understanding my male friends, i feel plenty feminine, in my own way (my nordic aka Viking heritage defines femininity a bit different from other cultures... lots more equality, beating the crap out of men when necessary, that sort of thing). others would call me a tomboy.
5. if someone on the spectrum thinks differently than NT norms, is it typical for them to feel different with regards to gender? how does one "feel" male or female anyway? can we ever know what the other one feels like, or if our experience of gender is the norm? this starts to sound like the classic kindergarten/college stoner questions about whether or not we all see colors the same way....

All fun things to ponder! trying to keep my brain young...

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Thanks AnonymousAnonymous!

Slave, I haven't come across anything exactly as you describe. our textbooks and other resources are constantly being updated to reflect new and emerging genres. people write papers on the topic all the time, and we have whole societies for that sort of thing. One issue is that a lot of genres have nothing to do with the artist--initially it was all about marketing. When i teach that kind of music, i end up drawing a lot of diagrams on the board, making connections between genres and showing evolutions of style, etc. but it's hardly comprehensive, and i just make it as we review for exams. not terrible helpful, sorry!