Need Some Advice
All right. I have another appointment with my psychologist and we're trying to figure out what's wrong with me. For years, since I can remember I've always had memory problems. My long term memory is almost perfect, but I can barely remember what I did five minutes ago. Due to a car accident I'm already swamped with medical bills, and I'm only able to see the psychologist on few occasions. In addition to the memory problems, I'm incredibly clumsy. I think I'm clear of something and then I smack right into it. My mom calls me snauser because of how strong my sense of smell is. She picked me up from a doctor's appointment, and it was really windy outside so the car was aired out pretty well, but I sniffed the air and guessed that she had french fries from McDonald's. I have these really strange habits. Usually taking things apart, or crumbling things into a fine powder. My babysitters loved taking care of me when I was a baby because I was so quiet and never cried. The internet is probably my worst enemy. My mind will just latch onto things, and I want to learn all about them, and the internet keeps introducing me to new obssesions. I hate the fact that I have problems understanding people sometimes. I don't know if they mean it this way or in another way, because a lot of times I'm taking it too literally, and so I just assume that however I think the person wants something done, it's probably the opposite of what I'm thinking. I guess when I was younger with no responsibilities this wasn't a problem, but now, it's kind of crashing down on me. Looking up some of my problems led me to here, so I'm pretty much trying to get some input from you guys. Am I on the right track or just screwed?
Are you on the right track? Could be, although it seems your psych would have noticed Asperger's traits, but then like in everything else you have good ones and bad ones. Doesn't really matter though. Everyone has personality traits. Apparently some of yours are beginning to interfere with functioning in life. So address the problems, and who cares about the quircks.
From what you described, it seems like short term memory is the big problem right now. I have the same trouble. Once upon a time I was dx'd with ADD because I literally can't look up a phone number in the book and remember it long enough to dial it. Of course, ADD doesn't explain the social and sensory troubles but, whatever. You're going to have to find helps to assist your memory. One thing I do is if something can be taken care of right away, I do it right then. If I go to throw something away and the garbage is full, I have to take it out right then or I'll forget about it.
I also try to make things as routine as possible. In the shower, I wash in the same order every time. If I don't I may skip something.
When I leave for work, I lay out everything the night before. I load up my backpack with all the papers and anything else I'll need for work the next day and set it on the table, then I put my lunch box next to it (hopefully an open lunchbox will remind me to put my food in it), then comes all the junk I carry in my pockets:wallet, cell phone, pen, keys, keycard to punch in at work. The idea is that picking up one thing will remind me to pick up the next. I also pretty much always carry the same stuff in the same pocket so that it always feels the same. If I don't it it doesn't, I check to see what's wrong. It could just be I put my keycard in the same pocket as my wallet, but I might also have gotten distracted and forgot it.
Bumping into stuff? I have actually rendered myself unconscious getting into my car. Someday when archaeologists unearth my skull, they will hold it up as a pristine example of how violent the late 20th century era was. Obviously from all the damage to the skull this man was part of a warrior race and involved in many battles (yeah, with cabinet doors).
Good luck and Merry Christmas.
That's VERY debatable. Not many professionals know about AS well enough to recognize a grown version of it when it walks through their door.
No one thought that about me until I went to an Autism center and got an assessment and they agreed I had Aspergers. All the other "professionals" who thought they were experts but who had only read some books and met a child or two thought I was crazy for suggesting the idea-- despite that they never bothered to do a developmental history on me. The only question one psychiatrist asked me which to him proved his point was "Were you ever enrolled in Special Education?"
I said "no" of course and only just realized awhile ago when rethinking that conversation was that my school was a private school and had no such option. Any extra help a child needed, they got automatically. The school and teachers were incredibly accomodating.
But when I suspected these professionals were wrong, I knew enough to seek out a place where all they saw, day in and day out, was the vast spectrum of Autism, including high-functioning adults. And so I got my AS confirmed and am now receiving accomodations at my university, thankfully.
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