Asperger's is not an illness!

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Asperger's SYNDROME is not a mental illness!! ! I've been trying to tell the carers of my mental health supported housing this for a while now.

Last night I had a meltdown and I ended up kicking a cardboard box down the stairs, screaming swear words and nearly breaking my bedroom door. One of the carers happened to be visiting and he half-shouted at me and had a go at me, and then asked me if I had been taking my medication?! Yes, I have been taking my medication; I still hear voices and see things, but I have full insight and logic to overpower the delusions.

I am fed up with these so-called carers attributing my Asperger's-related meltdowns / behaviour to my psychotic illness (which is currently well stabilised). I am trying to move out of supported housing and get a flat of my own. I need a reference from the carers and they are going to write bullsh*t in the reference!

I have 4+ meltdowns a week, and I am trying to control them, but I am under a lot of stress so it is hard! I hurt my friend during one of them recently but I apologised and he is ok now.

How do I convince the carers that I am not in an acute mental health crisis?

I feel for you. It must be terrible to live in an enviroment where you can't control who is there. Are there other people living in the supported housing? Do you think the stress of living with other people is causing the meltdowns? If so, you have to explain this to the carers (if they don't listen to you, get the person who diagnosed you to explain to them). And try to get get away from that enviroment as fast as possible.

It seems like you may have to go down to zero meltdowns per week. Four per week seems pretty high. They probably think you're unpredictable and could really hurt someone or yourself.

Heidi - thanks. There is one other person and an empty vacancy right now. I hate living here and I want to move out. Yes, that is causing the meltdowns. That is why my mental health team are trying to help me move out. That is a good idea about explaining to the carers, I'll ask my care coordinator to do it. I spend 90% of my time in my bedroom, hiding away.

Redrobin - I can't switch off my meltdowns. I have hurt others and myself several times in the past during meltdowns and they know that already. But once I start having a meltdown, it's very difficult to stop because I just see red and I cannot control my arms, legs and my mouth.

Aspergers is an illness, maybe not a mental illness but we are still damaged and need some kind of help.

No, Asperger's isn't an illness, and I take great exception to your description of it as such. Yes, we receive help, but this is to help us integrate better into NT society, which, if our differences were accepted, we wouldn't have to do.

Another thing, if we are born Autistic, how can we be damaged?

Simpl we are born damged/defective from birth.

"Damage" implies that something was once "perfect", but is now less so due to some sort of event. This is not the case.

If you think you are I'll or damaged, you're entitled to that opinion, but please, speak for yourself, and stop insulting those with a more positive view of themselves.

Asperger's is not an illness/damage. It's just a neurological difference.

Precisely.

Exactly! Saying we're ill is like saying left-handed people have something wrong with them, and we got past that idea as a culture a long time ago.

I really really really really have to second this.

And third it.

Can I go for a fourth as well?

As to the OP, I find support services kind of offensive in their approach to my momentary mostly verbal meltdowns and can find their attitude towards them and their attempts to treat them can actually set them off. Therefore I avoid support services like the plague. Fortunately, most of the time I am able to do so, as other than getting a bit of support help to obtain my disability (which I need as I am presently unable to work due to a problem with chronic migraine and sleep issues on top of my social difficulties) I generally tend to be able to manage to live alone (even if it is a somewhat isolated existence due to lack of human contact).

I do enjoy living alone though as I can make my environment one in which very few meltdowns occur...until I let people into my world. They tend to insist on turning my world on its head, messing with my preference for sameness in certain ways and expecting me to change my quirks etc so they can normalise me.

I find their attempts to make me like everyone else offensive and annoying and when I cannot find those who accept me as I am I tend to avoid inviting people into my world at all most of the time. I don't barge into their world and tell them how to be...especially if what they are doing is not hurting anybody. Ie why does it bother everyone that I like to eat the same flavoured ice cream every week whilst I am enjoying my Saturday night movie for example? And so on and so forth.

I also do appreciate having the freedom to pursue and indulge my fascinations without interruption and disturbance.

You may need to find a way to reduce your meltdowns...

I know that people tend to attribute my meltdowns to depression or anxiety....I believe they are more related to my suspected ASD. My dad had them too and he was diagnosed with Autism as a child.

Actually Asperger's is a group of space aliens (which is us) that come to Earth on mission to annoy as many nerotypicals as possible. So far we been very sucessful.
I know I know "BJF please don't quit your day job to be a comedian."

I will try to find a way to reduce my meltdowns. My anxiety levels are high due to multiple changes having happened in my life recently and the fact that I will be going to have surgery under general anaesthetic in two days' time to have my wisdom teeth removed (I'm a haemophiliac with an allergy to local anaesthetics so I have to have them removed in hospital). I am not really bothered about the surgery (I've had four operations on my ears due to being born 60% deaf), but I'm more bothered about being in hospital and having a change of environment / routine. Also I'm having stress in the supported housing and University as well. I'm trying to speed up moving out but I'm not even on the waiting list for housing (I'm currently in supported council housing and need to go to a much lower level of supported living where I will get my own flat).

When I have a meltdown, I tend to "see red" and lose all control; my arms and legs move independently of my consciousness, and my mouth shouts swear words without me wanting it to. I was (mis)diagnosed with Tourette's when I was a child. I am not sure whether I have Tourette's or not (your opinion please?) but I find it pretty much impossible to control myself during a meltdown.

Left handed people can function just fine and are not defective. Asperger is a defect, same with blindness, and intellectual disability, these are all defects. To be clear this is my opinion, don't take offense.

As someone who has lived with an ASD for many decades, I have actually come to believe that yes, it is a disorder. There are things about me which are not right. Its cost me much happiness out of life I might have had, Saying its just a difference is like saying blindness is just a difference.
While I refuse to be ashamed of what I am, I will not deny it or buy into this "evolution" silliness. Asperger's is an Autism Spectrum Disorder, caused by something that altered your neural development very early in life. Or to be more accurate, its how we have adjusted to an underlying neural disorder.

Sincerely,
Matthew