What are the worst, most signifigant problems you've had?

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For me it was sound sensitivity. Because it was misunderstood and ignored, an issue that would have been fairly simple to solve spiralled way out of control and led to a number of other psych problems.

Though I'm beginning to suspect that it wasn't purely an issue of sensory overload, from reading other people's accounts of sensitivity. Certain sounds just became a convenient channel for all the frustration that was building up from other sources.

It's summer, I'm not in daily contact with people unless I actually feel like leaving the house. So I don't have many problems right now. My only current drawback of AS is that I can't be anything but a bag boy at my job because there's no way I can fake emotions well enough to become a casheir. There's just too much chit chatting, and I can't stand talking when it's not needed, just expected. In other words, minimum wage job. Bad work evaluation and comments on usual AS behavior, eye contact, talking, etc. I'd consider telling my work about AS, but that'd probably make things worse somehow.

My significant problems include: indecision, procrastination, anxiety, depression, difficulty communicating my feelings, and my favorite: executive dysfunction.

Communicating my feelings to people I care about has been very difficult in the past. At times in my life when I truly needed to let someone know how I feel, I have stalled, fumbled, and made the person I care about feel worse. In the end, this problem was partially responsible for destroying the most important relationship of my life. I am much improved in this area now, but at a terrible cost.

“Thinking on my feet” has been a huge problem. I seem to be living on a different time frame than everyone else. A normal person may arrive at a simple solution to a problem quite rapidly. I may come up with a better solution, but it will be a few hours from now, or tomorrow, or next week… in other words, far too late. Everything seems delayed for me.

I have little ability to handle stress; my mind often shuts down when performance demands outstrip my abilities.

There are too many significant problems to list here. I’d say the severe anxiety I experience has been the most significant problem, because apprehension of action drastically reduces the chance of succeeding at anything.

My biggest problems;

- Executive dysfunction: Procrastination, & lack of motivation being the worst

- Dealing with new situations: The horrible anxiety I felt last fall when I had to force myself into the dinner line at the crowded food commons in oshkosh on my first day there. It took nearly five minutes to gather up the courage to do so.

- Expressing myself in a serious manner: I can rehearse all I want in my head on what I want to say, but when the time comes for me to approach people about something, I can never get the words to come just right. More often than not, people don't take me seriously or just ignore me out right

Problems in the past that have subsided or dissapeared;

- Changes in routine: At work if some long standing thing was suddenly changed on me with out prior warning, I would get mad for it being changed. In early childhood, mom noted that I was much more in control of myself if I had a control of a situation and my day followed a schedule.

- Sensory problems: I would spend ten minutes putting on shoes, tearing tags out of my shirts, constantly readjusting clothes during the day. I had a great fear of buzzers and alarms.

- Poor social skills/affect modulation: Noted in every one of my psychologists reports. Almost thrown into special education for my wild and unpredictiable temper.

Problems:

Depression, anxiety, laziness, paranoia, mild agoraphobia

Also I hate groups of people and prefer talking one on one.

My social skills have been commented on by peers to a degree. Some of the ladies think I'm 'cute' because of my honesty, openness and I don't engage in social fencing and backstabbing at all. The guys just think I'm a geek, loser or weirdo (as do some ladies too). This ultimately gets me paranoid to such a degree I quit my job and get a new one.

I get myself worked up into such crippling anxiety over some potential future social situations that I can get stressed enough to have an epileptic seizure (either tonic-clonic or partial).

I have these same anxieties and paranoias over any kind of work routine where there is not a straight and hard set of rules to be followed which are obeyed by everyone. Breaking the rules somehow is almost a phobia of mine in that aspect, and others doing so is very irritating.

I'm also overly credible and take what other people say at face value unless they annoy me or betray me, in which case I possess a spiteful and vindictive temper the intensity of which scares me at times, even though I can generally control it without much difficulty (I've never been violent except when physically threatened, then I lose it big time).

I'm sure I'll remember more sometime as the situations arise, objective self-analysis can be difficult.

Advantages (I might as well continue):

I waste less brainpower in the herd mentality and concentrate on things that are more useful (I'm being a bit arrogant there perhaps).

I also have an excellent memory, a high IQ and an intuitive grasp of data structures and database design (my strengths in I.T.).

I also have boyish good looks even though I'm in my thirties (A matter of opinion I guess ).

I can't think of any more yet.

what is executive dysfunction?

And my advice is to not rehearse in your head, actually rehearse outloud to yourself. I talk to myself ALL the time. It really helps.

Aha! So THAT'S what it's called! At least I have a name for it now.

Being intelligent is a much mixed blessing, specially if you have the social skills of a tree.
A high IQ alone is not enough to make it through school without problems, you have to have a zillion social skills that are impossible for an Aspie.

The most difficult times of my life have always had to do with social interactions and relationships.
That is what makes me utterly unhappy today.

I'm going through much the same thing right now. And I have no idea how to stop it from happening.

1) Definitely can not tell people how I feel. Feelings were not allowed at home and I used that to reinforce why I can't talk to people. But I don't think it's the entire reason why.

2) Self-loathing and denial......but I've improved alot in the area in the past few years. Paying attention to me. Still some things I don't want to look at fully.

3) Anxiety and stress. My social life has been extreemly minimal over the past decade. And I've had a home of my very own for 5 years now. It's my sanctuary. It's allowed me to notice .....ME......and how much time and effort I put into pretending to want to be with my friends all the time and pretending I'm someone I'm not.

4) Kinda paranoid...not as bad as it use to be. Having my own space helps alot.

Communicating with my family. the interaction itself is normal, but the frequency of it is low. My interests differ so much of theirs that i'm really the 'odd one' of the family. Most of the times I don't think too much about it (It has always been like that so I got used to it, and don't mind being by myself) but sometimes I do......

My monotone voice, low-on-db's voice. Very often I have to repeat myself because someone didn't hear me correctly.

Dealing with the unwritten 'social morality code' which' value for mankind is still argueable IMO. Before I visit someone's parents or something I need to prepare myself to display 'proper behaviour'.

Changes in routine. When situations are not in my system yet, or if my routine isn't interrupted for a long time I can be flexible. But when my cousin and my aunt stayed over at my house for a half year I had a hard time, because I couldn't do my hobbies as I used to anymore. I couldn't even watch some of my favorite tv shows anymore. And when you're someone with interests that aren't shared by many you can't just go do something else.
While I like my relatives, I must admit that I was sort of relieved when they were gone.

It's not so much that I can't or refuse to change my routine; if I feel that the substition is good for me, Í can do it in the blink of an eye so to speak.

*Stammering/stuttering and having speaker's block, similar to writer's block except I can't find the right words to say when talking.

*Social Anxiety, being terrified of making a mistake that would have others thinking I'm stupid or crazy. It's funny because I can be the most careful with my interactions but still get negative reactions from people because I get "it" wrong whatever "it" is.

*It's hard to understand what people are saying. It's sometimes like hearing the adults talk in a Charlie Brown cartoon. Kind of like, "Wah, Wah, Wah Wah Wah!"

*The depression that's comorbid to AS. I've been hospitalized twice and must take lots of meds for it.

*Poor motor skills, had to go to a physical therapist when I was a baby to learn how to walk. Was so bad in sports that I was picked last for teams all the time in school.

*I'm a extreme loner and have few friends as a result. People drain me and overstimulate me to the point I get tired and irritable. They're also a pain to deal with because I can't help not being like them and they don't understand that.

*Sensitivity, fear of Loud noises, once so bad I would cry when I heard fire alarms, tornado sirens, smoke detectors or anything that had a high volumn.

*Difficulty keeping jobs due to low tolerance for stressfull situations.

*Stimming by pacing, biting my nails, talking to myself and other things.

*Difficulty learning how to drive because I can't pay attention to so many things at once and must syncronize several body movements.

my most significant problems /issues are many........so im going to make a post cuz i want help.....

Yeah, and depression.
Social situations just keep me indoors.
I get along better with internet friends, talk to them more and keep them longer than real ones.
Having no friends bothers my husband more than me.

The Expressive Aphasiac-like symptoms. Yes, those are most frustrating and impede necessary communication. Grrrr...

Hmm...my music addiction, but I don't know if that's AS related. Being mind blind isn't exactly a social cakewalk.