First BEST AS THERAPY I know

Post Reply New Topic

Recentlly Ive been taking acting classes. My Psych was supportive because he thought it would help me ACT normal.

Instead through some of the class exercises Ive been learning how to Listen better! How to better form emotional connections with others.

These as meant as ways to make an audience belive you and the performance are genuine, but it works in real life.

In the classes we usually dont work from a script its all improvisation. Through that Ive learned SO much about myself.

This week we acted out a family dinner get together. We had no time to "get into character" so I acted pretty much like myself. We each had another actor student watch us and afterwards critique it. I was described as acting like a jerk, which was NOT my intention. But it wasnt a personal attack as it was all in an acting situation. Later I rethought how I had acted and then thought about how the other actors who were more like what I had thought i would like to be like had acted.

Lster we had to perform our homwork. It was a speech (we could read it, didnt have to memorize) in which you are dying of a disease and talking to your mother about it.

I SUCKED. I knew I would suck, and I didnt want to be better with this particular speech. I did not want to dig up my own painful experiences to be my motivation, that told me something. Then in class I got to watch 15 other people do the same piece while I watched to see how these other people delt with it.

It is so helpful.

Another exercise which I think ESPEcially applies to AS is a listening game. we pass a ball in one direction ( to distract us) and we form a sentence in the other. The first person says a word and the next has to repeat the word then add one the next has to repeat both words then add one. So to do well at it you have to stay out of your own head and listen to others. If you get it wrong the games over and you have to start again.

Nobody knows Im in there as therapy but it is exactlly what I NEED. No book , no advice beats exercising and practicing.

Please consider this.
Please write back or PM me with your thoughts.

That's so interesting! Why don't they make this a type of group therapy for Aspies? It sounds really ideal, although people with extreme social anxiety would have to face their fears in this kind of group setting. I'd be up for it, though! LOL.

Anyway, glad the classes are working out for you. Good luck!

My husband took drama to overcome shyness and social anxiety, his own autistic traits. He was winning lead roles, scholarships, awards and speaking awards in other classes because of the effect Drama had on him.
I took Drama in school too, though I never got past my stage fright and vocal projection problem. But it did lead to some real personal connections.
Some of the parents in the Parents Forum have enrolled their kids in theatre classes and a couple members here have taken acting classes too.
So, yeah, it's an unofficial therapy.

I really liked drama classes in elementary school. We played a lot of fun games. In restrospect, I realize I learned a lot about NT behavior and how to imitate it from those classes. I learned how to apply my attention to detail to the study of human behavior and societies.

I don't think it would work for me, because I can't act.

Roger Bannister, as a student at Oxford, said he overcame shyness by acting in plays, so it worked for him. He said he enjoyed getting into the characters he was playing.

Theres plenty of people in my acting class that can't act Catmom

Depending on the type of teacher you get you don't act like anything other than yourself. Thats why my depressing "im dying mom" speech was so bad. When I get that sad I dont cry or things like that.
But we had to mime out something without using props or making sounds and I pretended to get my hand stuck in a pickle jar and it was really funny.
Anyway you dont have to go out and try to get jobs acting.
I worked yesterday as an actor for almost 12 hours as a bloody corpse being drug through an abandoned church for a horror movie.
And we havent even practiced "playing dead" in class yet!

erased.

Drinking

Wait what was the question

My 9 year old has drama class for 2 hours every week with his Special Ed teacher. In the drama class are a mix of children with Asperger's and NT children.

My son loves it.

Certainly a fun way of learning about emotions, body language, facial expressions etc

Hele

I took some acting.. I think it works to an extent.

I'd like to find a free drama class, in my area.

I suppose you're right, TrueDave. If I had a character true to my own interests, I'd probably do well. My problem is with playing someone completely different from my own personality. I wouldn't like to play a role in which I make fun of the handicapped or make animal cruelty jokes, something so many comedy routines these days seem full of. I was watching Comedy Central on Friday night and every single comedian used the word "ret*d" for everything and some made reference to animal cruelty. It was sick and unfunny.

I tried acting lessons as a chils, they were wasted on me and I hated them. I can see why they would work for some, however.
Franky, as a schoolmate used to say, there's enough acting in real life to add more on top of that.

9catmom, I showed up to help with making a film three years ago and they asked me to audition, I dont like cussing generally and simply skipped those words or put a word in that was mean but not profane. The director didnt have any problem. I just dont like the idea of me cussing being recorded forever.

In the acting class they encourage "stepping outside your box" which I guess means trying something risky.

Me trying to play the part of an evil Nazi dentist or something might be hard but fun in a campy sort of way.

I would never pretend to be a rapist, a racist, or ridicule someone whos physically or mentally handicaped. I would never do something mean spirited. That sort of humor I just don't find funny. I like the Mr Bean kind of stuff.

Plus its been a GREAT way to meet new friends. In the past month Ive made a whole new set of friends that I look forward to getting t o know better, Maybe even a couple of dating canidates as well.

And if you REALLY want to be in a movie I can guarentee you theres a bunch of college kids somewhere near wherever you live desperately in need of more people for thier zombie movie.