It is a very interesting disease. Actually, the only reason I found it interesting is because I felt that I identified with a couple of the symptoms or signs of the disorder.
Edit:
The link doesn't work, but, if you would like info, you must only search Asperger's Syndrome on wikipedia.
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You might be careful calling it a disease. I know you didn't mean anything, but some of those who have it consider it a set of personality traits and take offense at the idea that it is a disease.
(just from having known a few "Aspies" and their parents)
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quote:Originally posted by password: You might be careful calling it a disease. I know you didn't mean anything, but some of those who have it consider it a set of personality traits and take offense at the idea that it is a disease.
(just from having known a few "Aspies" and their parents)
I was just saying that because I'd seen a number of places where it was called a disease. I actually hadn't wanted to call it a disease, but I couldn't think of another word to put in there.
I ended up using disorder later. Is that alright, do you think?
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I feel like I have Asperger's traits. I'm good with eye contact and yet- I hate socializing and try to avoid it as much as I can. I like staying home and reading better than partying. I tend to obsess over certain subjects and bug the heck out of everyone talking about them, (Music, why Dir en grey is the best band ever, ect)
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Also, a character in a story of mine will have Asperger's Syndrome if I could JUST finish that other story! She also plays piano and only cares about music, so she's totally based on me except for the piano thing because 9 times out of 10 all I care about is music. I have an odd mixture of being able to read people and not being able to understand them one bit.
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No, that wasn't offense at all. It was more surprise. I'd never thought of it before. But I read through, and it is Porter to a T. Kinda scary.
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So, that was reading it and realizing that you were married to one and you just hadn't known it before? Not wanting to shoot me with a bow and arrow with poison on the tips?
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There was a kid at church in my primary class with Asperger's who also had facial blindness. (He couldn't recognize faces.) So we had to get him to look at our face when we said hello and talk to him to help him practice recognizing familiar faces.
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Bev, I was actually talking to somebody recently (hm...fiazko, maybe?) about Porter, and described him as having a very mild version of Asperger's.
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I can't be normal. It's too difficult. I can barely even lie politely. 9 times out of ten if someone asked me a direct question I'd tell the truth... But if I were, I'd be very high functioning and a lot different than this fellow in this book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. I also have trouble telling if a person is kidding and I'm interested in machinese and gears and technical stuff, I just don't have the math skills though...
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Actually, the only reason I looked this up, aside from the above mentioned reason, I've been on a mental disorder kick. I've been looking into a lot of information about that sort of thing. Schizophrenia, ADD, ADHD, and autism mostly.
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I also rock a lot to... Rocking feels good..
I did a ton of research for Asperger's for my novel. Asperger's is fascinating but a lot of people who have it and Autism go trhough quite a bit of hell. It makes me so sad.
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Working in a group home environment with people with all sorts of mental and physical "disorders", I've seen a number of clients with Aspergers. It can be really rough on them, especially in combination with other conditions (Autism, for example). Just when you start to think that it's a tough job, you remember how much more difficult it is for the residents.
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This girl with Asperger's Syndrome who plays piano and goes to Juliard and has this girl that falls in love with her who sings. Should be interesting, but very difficult.
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quote:So, that was reading it and realizing that you were married to one and you just hadn't known it before? Not wanting to shoot me with a bow and arrow with poison on the tips?
Yeah, pretty much.
Noemon, that's interesting. I think describing him that way might help people understand where he is coming from sometimes. I wasn't familiar enough with the syndrome to recognize the similarities.
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That makes me feel a whole lot better. Because I don't think it would be much fun to be impaled with a poisonous arrow.
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Does anyone know if there's a connection between Asperger's and personality type? The reason I'm asking is because there are a few similarities between Asperger's and the INTJ Keirsey personality type. (Not that they totally match up. Sarcasm, being one of the main differences.) I also noticed that the wikipedia article mentioned Dan Aykroyd as someone who has been diagnosed with it. He is also mentioned in several things I've read as an INTJ type personality. Is it possible that people that just have that sort of personality are being misdiagnosed, or conversely people that do have this syndrome are not being given proper aid and are just passed off as "difficult?"
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I've been impaled with an arrow with a suction cup on the end. But I have the idea that a real arrow would probably be a lot worse.
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Missy's doctor suspects she may have Asperger's (or something that presents similarly) but is very hesitant to make an official diagnosis.
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I probably would be, also. I'd want to make sure before I set in stone that someone had such a thing.
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Before this thread, all I knew about Asperger's was that it was some sort of "autism lite".
I just went and read that article. It was freaky how well so much of it described me. About the only parts that fit were the need for routine and tidiness.
Assuming that I do have a mild form of Aspergers:
I'm not overly thrilled that there is a clinical name for this. I've always thought of it as my particular strenghts and weaknesses. I'm better at some things than most people, and worse at other things. It's a large part of my sense of self, and I frankly don't like the idea that it's been classified into a neat little corner.
I'm also wary of people viewing me not as "Porter who is like this, this, and this", but as "someone with Aspergers, isn't that sad?".
Not that it's something I've spent a lot of time contemplating, but those are some of my initial reactions.
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Is it bad that I don't think of asperger's syndrom is something bad or sad? My problem with something like asperger's is it seems like people's reaction to people with asperger's is a bigger problem than the disorder itself in some circumstance... Some...
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Does it make you feel better to know that almost everyone I know who's been self-diagnosed with Asperger's has reacted that way, Porter, while almost all the people I know who've been professionally diagnosed with Asperger's have been relieved?
It's been frequently observed over the last few years that the Internet is an Asperger's sufferer's playground.
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quote: Is it possible that people that just have that sort of personality are being misdiagnosed...
Or, speaking here as an ENFP, it's entirely possible that all the people with that personality type are mentally deficient in some way. *ducks and runs*
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That's interesting Tom. Why do you think that is so? (Concerning the differing reactions between the self-diagnosed and professionally diagnosed.) I could make up some reasons, but I'd really just be pulling ideas out of my ear.
Also, are you really an ENFP?
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I'm not sure, but he may be saying that if you are self-diagnosed, you don't really have it, at least not very much, so the idea is bothersome, while the people who have saught professional help have suffered and are glad there is a specific reason for their suffering.
Porter, if it makes you feel any better, my sis-in-law thinks her husband (my brother) has it as well. You and he are still pretty unique in your individual ways--even if you both fit the same "syndrome."
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Yeah, that's pretty much what I would have pulled out of my own ear.
But I was asking for the thoughts of somebody who has interacted with enough people of both types to have drawn that conclusion. Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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quote:That's interesting Tom. Why do you think that is so? (Concerning the differing reactions between the self-diagnosed and professionally diagnosed.) I could make up some reasons, but I'd really just be pulling ideas out of my ear.
I'd be pulling ideas out of nowhere any more reputable, myself.
But, yeah, I'm an ENFP. More specifically, I'm overwhelmingly EP and just barely NF (usually only a point or two to either side, but typically tending NF depending on mood). I don't know if there's a personality type for that. *laugh*
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I knew a guy that had a real bad case of Asperger's syndrome. He was a ManyPoint CIT with me and a freind. His biggest thing was a terror of water. He couldn't even take a bath. Not sure if this was due to Asperger's or something else though.
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To answer your question -- part of me feels that I should be bothered by the fact that I've responded so predictably, but I just can't bring myself to care.
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Fahim and I both sound like Aspergers. The more I read about it, the more I'm convinced. And yep, me more so than Fahim - he's much better with social cues and such than me, and I'm way way more sensitive than he is.
My niece and nephew are here right now, and it's taken them and my sister visiting with us in Sri Lanka and Fahim pointing out to me how sensitive they all are for me to realize that this is true. I never would have figured it out on my own. I mean, I had decades.
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My friend was just talking about this. I couldn't figure out why someone would call it Ass-burgers until she actually wrote it down for me..
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quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson: Or, speaking here as an ENFP, it's entirely possible that all the people with that personality type are mentally deficient in some way.
I guess that's part of what I'm trying to get at. If the various types are an indicator of what disorders/syndromes a person may be susceptable to getting. For example a person may be type ABCD [using variables here], but have not developed certain skills or traits for whatever reason and so the person might not be functioning "normally" [I hate using that word]. As a result, AB becomes hyperactive and CD no longer functions on par with the other traits. This in turn can be related to 'disorder X'. Does that make any sense? Unfortunately I know little about psychology so I apologize if that came out like jibberish.
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Have you ever read the book Nobody Nowhere? I tried to read it once, and after about a chapter and a half, I was shaking so badly that I couldn't finish it. It was like that Roberta Flack song. It felt like I was reading a story someone else had written about me.
The author is a high functioning autistic woman, and who knows if she might not have been diagnosed as having Aspergers had the diagnosis existed when she was a child.
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Signal, it makes *perfect* sense to me. "Syndromes" quite often are not well understood. Look at PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome.) There are a whole bunch of traits associated with it. But a person may have only a handful of them and still be PCOS.
A "syndrome" often seems to describe a group of behaviors or traits that tend to come together in groups often enough that naming them comes in handy.
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Yeah, I have a lot of the symptoms too. However, I don't think I'm badly impaired enough socially to qualify as having Asperger's. It would be nice to have an excuse for my awkwardness, though
I remember Wired had an article a while ago on the prevalence of Asperger's among nerds, and the rising rate of autism in the Silicon Valley area.
Edit to add: I'm INTP, if that matters.
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Because it helps to understand people that have those traits when they are so different than the mainstream? If someone is familiar with the syndrome, they can understand where the person is coming from.
Just like the personality test. Posts: 7050 | Registered: Feb 2004
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Bev, that makes sense. I guess I just feel like there are some that are overdiagnosed just so people have an excuse for being a certain way. I'll throw ADD/ADHD as one that I think is a real disorder, but is overdiagnosed, and furthermore, prescribed medication to.
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It may be that the "real disorder" is simply a more severe version of the same sort of thing. I agree that ADD/ADHD in particular is overdiagnosed--meaning, many of the kids *have* those tendancies, but medicine isn't the best way to help them. It certainly shouldn't be the first course of action, IMO.
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