I have a cough. Is it AS related?

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Thanks. That's pretty much exactly what I would have posted if you hadn't.

The anxiety level in some of us may be the contributor. But I think enough other variables maybe involved to not say with any real certainty. It's just another possible piece to the puzzle. All I was trying to do was back track my youth. Since both parents are dead, it isn't easy to put the pieces together back that far. Is it important for me to know? Yeah it is. But I don't care to explain it any further to Mr. Diggler, I'm already lower then a snake for being a hypochondriac. Now ask me if I give a rats behind.

I think it's kind of funny he used cough as an example. I started getting one a while back, it seemed a bit odd to me. I looked up the med and sure enough it is a side effect.

Thank you! It wouldn't be so bad if people didn't so often respond with posts about how they also cough and surely that must indicate some correlation with AS.

My sister had a chronic cough... it turned out to be non-hodgkin's lymphoma. And no, she didn't have any other symptoms.

I you are saying that we sometimes get a bit carried away with looking for things that are As related I agree.

I am waiting for the day I will see a topic along the lines of:

'I have a head, two legs and two arms, does anyone else have those? Is it related to AS?'

(maybe not quite, but you get the gist I'm sure)

Digger, the inability to gate anxiety is a part of the complex phenomenon of neuro-diversity. The wide selection of threads on WP from politics to the personal can bring up conflicting feelings and emotions in us, (it does in me all the time,) however, anxiety in however way it manifests itself within the person with AS I feel warrants deep respect.
Much peace to you my friend
Chris

As I've said before, approximately 90% of this site is pure teen angst: "Why don't girls like me?", or "My parents don't understand me". Another 5% is AS related, but seems to come from folks with other problems as well: depression, bi-polar, sociopathy. The final 5% seem genuinely AS related, and that's what keeps me coming back.

You're almost right there, UncleBeer. What it really is, though, is "girls don't like me. What's wrong with them?"

I dont buy into the term 'AS' - i dont think it necessarily has any more clinical significance than most of the mental health labels. Its sad to see so much bickering (not this thread specifically, in general i mean) over what may be nothing more than a divisive social construct (reminiscent of religion politcal ideologies etc.)

Instead i see us all as having a unique set of neurological traits of ASD, and resultant psychological behaviours, although there will be likely be a significant overlapping of traits with some other posters, and its quite natural and healthy to want to identify the cross sections that overlap with yourself for moral support, sharing coping strategies etc.

Now as for the coughing, well it may interest you to know that my cat has both AS, ADHD and mild tourettes and is prone to frequent coughing. I think it may be some sort of stim or tic.

.......... or a furball

Most likely a carrot is stuck.

OK, fair enough, it can be a problem, especially because it's often so hard to figure out what your AS does and does not cause, what's normal and what isn't, so I think these are natural questions to ask. Also, as people with AS, we tend to look for patterns in everything, it's natural to try and figure out where connections may and may not be. I'm a layman, and an inexperienced one at that, but let's take a look at your examples one by one.

Well, I've already read elsewhere (no idea of the veracity of the source) that bruxism or teeth grinding can be comorbid with AS. It can also be caused by lower levels of dopamine in the brain, and lower levels of dopamine have also been suggested as a contributing factor in Autism Spectrum Disorders. This one is definitely plausible.

Hypersensitivity to fabrics and sounds is already well documented, a certain sound could well have an effect. Smell, I'm not so sure of, but if you have a heightened input from one sense, why not another? Half plausible, half uncertain, let's say?

Well, we've already covered sensitivity of the senses, but there's also collecting, obsessions, and the ability to see patterns. I could believe that you might get absorbed in light reflecting off objects. This one seems kind of silly to me, honestly, but I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand.

Blame Daniel Tannett. He's the autistic savant who experiences synesthesia and wrote about it. But at the same time, there are plenty of people who believe that synesthesia is the effect of one particularly sensitive sense stimulating a part of the brain so strongly that the effect "spills over" into other parts of the brain, activating the other senses. If those with AS have one or more overactive senses, that might well set off synesthesia. I'd definitely call this plausible.

"With a hankerchief, like everyone else. If you find rough textures difficult, I believe Puffs make a brand with lotion. Thanks for the made-up stupid example thrown in as a curve ball."

This isn't an unreasonable question to ask. We already know that many with AS only experience very extreme emotions, more minor ones simply aren't registered for a lot of people. As part of my OCD treatment, I've got to make up a hierarchical list of things which cause my anxiety, on a scale of 0 to 100. Most NTs have a continuum, the whole way up the chain. I don't. I go from 0 to 50, with nothing inbetween. I don't register the minor stuff. If you've not ever had a strong romantic attachment, the same principle might apply. Because you've not felt the low end stuff, you wonder if you'll ever experience the higher end stuff. It's not a stupid question.

See above answer.

Oh, come on. You're seriously using this one as an example of a superfluous question? With all of the autism/vaccination scare stuff coming out a decade ago?

The point is, I'm not sure if any of your examples (well, except the tissue one) are stupid or irrelevant. That they've always been obvious to you is besides the point. The vast majority have a reasonable grounding in something someone might have experienced. If you think the question's stupid, I've got an easy solution for you: hit the back button on your browser and don't answer.

How the hell is someone supposed to know if a vaccination at 6 months old caused you to be autistic?

Well, firstly I don't believe a vaccination caused anyone to be autistic - I think that the vaccination/autism link is a myth perpetuated by selfish or deluded publicity hounds who can't let go of a discredited, damaging idea. But, in the early '90s there was a scare where a paper posited a link between childhood vaccinations and autism, based IIRC on the fact that there was a high incidence of autistic children who had traces of the measles virus in their bowel after they'd received their childhood vaccinations, and whose parents had seen their social skills and need to interact plummet at about 18 months, the same time the MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) vaccination was administered in Britain (where the study originated). That study has since been completely discredited, but the vaccine link has been a persistent obsession of many people, I think because autistic symtoms first become obvious in many children at around 18 months, and a slew of vaccines is given at that time. It's natural for parents to make the connection, even though I believe it's simply a cooincidence of timing.
The idea has been surprisingly persistent, and there are still lower levels of vaccination across many western countries since the first study came out. If someone here read some of the information which has come out over the years on this, they might wonder. Their parents might also tell them they noticed a change at a certain time in their young lives after receiving a vaccination. Why is it such a ridiculous thing to wonder about?

I don't think that it is necessarily asking if anybody knows it 100% or anything. I think what the poster, if it is the post I'm thinking of, was asking if anybody THINKS it did due to all of the controversy. That's what we do, and that would have nothing to do with hypochondria. It's simply just trying to see another side of things, another opinion. The OP of the thread (the one I'm thinking of) actually says she doesn't think vaccinations cause it at all and that there really is not much of a link. Which leads me to believe it is simply an inquiry to gain more perspectives and discuss it overall.

I fail. I don't see where there is anything wrong with any of those posts. Not all of them are asking if it is AS related, necessarily, but asking if anybody else goes through it and how they deal with these things. A lot of these things are quite common among a large portion of the community here, and are noticed by those who share the same difficulties. The ones that are not overly common always have a few that share the similar problem. On any support forum you visit, you will likely find similar questions pertaining to seemingly silly things for those that do not share that in common, but very decent discussion topics and lots of advice for those that do.