Asperger Syndrome evaluation

[waldenwriter]

I have an appointment on June 19th for an evaluation with a doctor near me for Asperger Syndrome, an autistic spectrum disorder that my mother and I have reason to belief I have. I haven't been diagnosed though, and this evaluation may help lead to that.

If the diagnosis is that I have it, it will be comforting to know that for certain, because then I can do something about it if I have to. It certainly makes more sense than borderline Cerebral Palsy, which is what the doctors said I had at birth (since Asperger Syndrome was only "discovered" here in the early '90's, and I was born in 1984).

I am nervous about the evaluation though. I've never undergone a psychological evaluation before. (Maybe if I had, they would've caught this syndrome sooner). And there's a slight chance I might have something totally different (one of my former managers at work, who has a daughter with ADD, thought that I had ADD and not autism), which would be a whole new can of worms.

So, I guess my request is: please pray that the evaluation goes well and that God will calm my nerves about this.

[Christian Soldier]

I'm willing to bet that a lot of folks here show signs of Asperger's, myself included. I freaked out the first time I heard of it... the news could have been talking about me. Is there really anything they can do about it?

[dizzyjam]

You know, sometimes I think these doctors are just great observers of the human condition, even more so sometimes than authors are, and all they're doing is coming up with "diseases" that actually just describe typical things among certain personality traits. That doesn't mean that there aren't people that are schizo or psychotic, but honestly, if the human race has survived this long with all of these "diseases" and so many people seem to have them, what the heck can a small placebo and counseling that really goes nowhere do for us anyway? I speak from experience having had a closed head injury when I was eight and going through all the psychological testing they could throw at me over the years along with all the "current" medicine. I'm even on Abilify now when I take it. Sometimes I notice a difference, sometimes I don't. And I mean a difference when I'm off. I usually don't notice a difference when I go on it. For those of us that truly need help we are deluged by all the pseudo help that's out there for the masses that are simply being themselves and have been tricked into thinking that there's something wrong with them.

Now this isn't to say that you don't have issues yourself, waldenwriter. Maybe you've had problems all your life on the real front and they just have never diagnosed you properly, if so, I sure hope that this helps you out. But I find that if you reduce the sugar and caffeine a child takes in they aren't near as hyper as the kids that get diagnosed for hyperactivity as if that's something a child should never be. Children are live wires from the get go and shouldn't be forced to pop pills just to appease an impatient grown-up. There's a saying I read a long time ago that "Energy is wasted on the youth, while wisdom is wasted on the elderly".

Funny thing. According to brain scans I did over a decade ago, I actually have all my brain cells now even though there most certainly was brain damage when I had my accident. I give glory to God for that because I sought Him for a healing. In fact, the brain cells show it as if there was never even any damage. I'm really wondering sometimes why I even take medication any more, especially since the local mental health clinic can't even treat me now since I don't fall under one of their government imposed restrictions.

I know I've been very open here, but this is something quite near and dear to me as you can tell, so forgive me and just realize that we are living in the last days and there's more than one way the devil will try to deceive the whole world. If they're all medicated properly, then why wouldn't they bow down to the Beast? We're all obedient puppies after all, taking our drugs followed by a chaser and going to someone else's dream and working what they want done and not being paid well for it and stifling our indignation of it by taking another pill. While working for another person's dreams we abandon our own. Didn't you ever dream while growing up about what life would be like? What changed? Would you say reality? A reality dictated to us by society and not given to us by Almighty God? At what point will we stop doing what society tells us to do and move forward with what God has put within each one of us? I'm not talking about Anarchy here, so don't go that route, I just mean that society tells us how we can't do things, yet we serve the God of the impossible being made possible. We serve a God who takes the things the world looks down on and turns them into the things the world looks up to.

Take me for example: I live in government housing and draw disability income. I have a very hard time getting a job (even before the economic downturn we're all facing) and can't get loans from the bank. For all intents and purposes I'm someone that society would give up on and wouldn't see as someone who could make it, so they would label me and just expect me to live up to that label. But I don't care what society thinks, I'm moving forward anyway. I've got a business I'm starting from scratch called Beyond the Charts - I've got a thread about it in "Bios, Blogs, and Boring Stuff" - and I don't have any financing for it, yet I'm moving forward on it. I've got an LLC that's been approved by the State Government with an EIN (Employer Identification Number) from the Federal Government. I've got a MySpace page and Twitter feed to help build a customer base before I go live with it. I've even got a domain name and website up that we're currently working on. The guy helping me build the site is doing it for free for me to pay him later once I make money off of it. There's a three unit area in a four unit building that's been available since before October of last year and it's near a high traffic area. In October or November I just prayed to God and laid claim on those units. Yes, I named it and claimed it. Or as more mocking people would say, I blabbed it and will grab it. Well, those units are still available even as I type this. All three side by side, not a one of them have been rented even just by itself in all that time. And they have had people come up and consider the units too. I know because I keep in occasional touch with the owners who occupy the fourth unit on the end with their vaccuum store. I think those units will work just fine for a shipping area and later as the first physical store for the limited chain I intend to have.

I don't care what society says I should be, I'm not listening. I'm listening to the voice of God and what He says about me. So who's voice are you listening to? And what medicine are you taking to silence that voice?

[JenLenaMom]

The son of a woman I know at church has Asperger's. And if I hadn't known that, then I would think he had ADD just from his behavior. Of course I was seeing him only in a group of kids during a free play period, not in a classroom setting. So it understandable that a person who didn't know anything about Asperger's would assume it's ADD. Most people think of the movie "Rainman" when they think of Autism, not realizing that there are a wide variety of shadings that people can have.

I pray you get an answer that will allow you to move forward with confidence.

[Christian Soldier]

ADD and Asberger's may even be linked, as in: a person who has one may have the other to some degree. It makes sense. ADD and autism are similar in how they work. Asperger's IS a subsect of Autism. So maybe they're third cousins to each other or some such.

[dizzyjam]

Upon reviewing my previous comments, I want to clarify a couple of things before anyone takes anything the wrong way. First of all, I'm not belittling your situation in any way, Waldenwriter, obviously you've been through some things in your life just as I have and if you don't have a diagnosis yet, then I feel for you. My comments as a whole were more directed to the situation of these things in general, so I want to make sure you didn't take what I said too personally (indeed, how could you not take it a little personally since I was talking about things related to what you're going through, but then it's personal that way to me too) as I can see how they may have been taken that way.

Also, I have nothing but respect for people who have different forms of autism and the families of those that do. The first houseparents at the boys' home I was at in high school have a son who at the time was three. Now he's an adult. A few years ago when I reunited with them, he was the age I was when I first arrived there. He has a form of mild autism. Although we had two totally different experiences in life, our actions and response to things were so similar that the mom said that she now saw how God was using the time with me to prepare her for her own son's experience. He's now in college and part of a music band. Still autistic.

My comments about society and not accepting life on its terms stands because we should always strive for what God wants for us and not what society dictates to us based on our perceived limitations.

I do wish you the best and hope that none of my previous comments offended you in any way. Upon re-reading what I said, I felt I needed to post this as a clarification before anything was misconstrued. Hope it helps you.

[Spokane Flyboy]

Even with all of these things, I believe God can overcome them. We've be come heavily indoctrinated that nothing but medication and science can save us, however. I've always considered them more to be personality traits one either learns to deal with, overcomes, or lets control them. Growing up — and I'm not much older than you, Waldenwriter — one would say someone had a short attention span instead of ADD, or in the case of Aspergers, that they weren't very social, they were shy, or they just were stingy with affection. Now everything that is short of the perfect ideal is somehow a disorder that must be cured by science and medicine. Not to trivialize them as some medication may be required, but in many ways we've been reduced to robots with these glitches that must, for some reason, be fixed. It's been something that's always concerned me with society.

I will be praying for you. I hope whatever you have, you can overcome by the grace of God.

[Jeff Gerke]

Lord, please help the doctors and test-givers arrive at an accurate diagnosis for our sister, waldenwriter. To finally know something would be so freeing. Let it be helpful to her and her family. Use this for Your glory. Amen.

Walden, our little boy has autism. We were concerned that getting a label would be harmful for us and him, but it has proved to be just the opposite. It's opened up all kinds of resources and help and even compassion that weren't there for us before.

I see autism spectrum "disorders" more like superpowers. You have the focus of an Olympian, a mind that sees things "normal" people can never see, and powers of memory and imagination that are rarely matched in our world. What is Superman but a normal guy in one world who got placed in another world and finds he's different? I think spectrum folks would be normal in some other world but have come here by cosmic incident to lead the fight for truth, justice, and the American way. (Well, not to be trite, but I hope that casts it anew for you.)

Jeff

[waldenwriter]

Wow, I'm amazed at all the responses! Thank you, everyone, truly. I will let you know how things go.

Jeff, you make a good point - having such disorders is like being placed in the wrong world. In fact, one of the best known online autism community sites is called Wrong Planet. I myself have often thought I belonged in another time period. I seem to have the mind of someone much older than myself.

I vary in my amount of focus; I space out sometimes and other times focus intensely very well. My long-term memory is very good, though my short-term memory isn't very good. (I have forgotten to do homework that I didn't write down in my planner). I guess I do see things normal people don't see - I seem to be able to read emotions well by tone of voice. I also tend to notice details other people pass by, like grammar mistakes on signs (like the sign on the deli cooler at work, which says "Cooler must be kept neatly and organized"). I also noticed last year that our vacation request form said it was due by February 30th, a date which doesn't exist (even in leap years). I also take in trivia very easily, and enjoy buying and reading trivia books. A supervisor at my last job called me a female version of Cliff Clavin (the know-it-all postman on Cheers).

My mom says my spatial problems are part of my Asperger's too, so hopefully I can get that tested so I will know if I can actually drive (my mother thinks with my spatial problems I'll get in a lot of accidents). I admit, I do often almost run into people. But I would like to be able to drive, since the public transit isn't always reliable or convenient here, not to mention it keeps getting cut back because California's budget is consistently going down the tubes.

Even after this evaluation, I'll have a few more appointments. My second one is in late July, since I couldn't make one for June 30th (the date I was offered) because I have jury duty that day.

Thanks again for everyone's prayers, and I'll let you know how the appointment goes!

[Christian Soldier]

Hmm... I never would have thought of Aspergers preventing one from driving, but then again, I'm not one to talk on that one. My own driving is...well... it scares me anyway.

[Jeff Gerke]

My little boy is autistic. I wonder about his driving ability one day too.

However, he's very good at his video games. Right now he's gotten better at the new Sonic the Hedgehog than I am, and I'm usually the best gamer in the house. He can avoid obstacles and stay on a path at high speed even better than I can.

It gives me hope about his driving!

Walden, I checked out Wrong Planet yesterday. Great resource. Thank you!

Jeff

[scintor]

Hi there Waldenwriter.

I have Asperger's syndrome as do two of my children. The good news is that Asperger's is also known as the "Genius desease." People who have it often have very focused and exceptional abilities is some areas while having diminished social awareness. The number of exceptional people in history who had the condition is truly astounding.

Now for the hard part. Asperger's is not a disease that can be cured, but is description of the way you are. Knowing wether you have it or not can be quite helpful though. In my own case, I have very little social awareness, which leads to confuision in social situations and lots of occasions where I am unaware of things that "everyone knows." Being aware of this deficit has allowed me to watch for such things and take steps to mitigate the problems that arise in social situations. I had to learn that most people do not think like I do and their assumptions are often very different from my own.

If you find out that you have Asperger's (which sounds very likely from your discription,) don't let anyone (including yourself) treat you as if you are broken. You are not. You are part of a very special minority of people who see the world from a different perspective; A perspective that allows humanity to change and advance rather than becomming stuck in a comfortable rut for all eternity. We may be a small and odd group, but those of us with Asperger's are far more important than most people realize: and that's the way we like it.

Scincerely,

[e-mail]
AKA Mark McDonald

[torainfor]

That was beautiful, Scintor.

[Jeff Gerke]

Scintor and Walden,

As you both know, my son is autistic (high-functioning, but not Asperger's). He really does think differently from everyone else. I learn so much from him and admire him terribly. When he's not making me weep or pull out my hair, that is. ;-)

I've been thinking about the idea that autistics are from the "wrong planet." I love that idea, especially since I love SF.

So...what would the right planet look like? If there were a planet filled with nothing but people on the autism spectrum, what would society look like? What would architecture look like? What would the jobs be--or would there be any? What would government look like? What about economy or police or food services or homes?

And what would they do with people from the wrong planet (i.e., our "normal" world here)?

Jeff

[jinn]

The music would be incredible. 'Talent' would have a different definition among many, as many would be so very good at what they do. Their talents choose them, and they don't often question it. They wouldn't understand fads, because new ideas would often be disregarded unless they closely resemble an old idea. The thinker of the new idea would persist, though, and in time may succeed in making the new idea an old idea by sheer stubbornness and enough passage of time.
Violence would be equally intense, I think, because they live with emotion burning constantly and often out of control.
Active sports like football would be completely different, if they exist at all.

(My brother is autistic, I think closer to Asperger's on the spectrum, but with all the debate among psychologists about the particulars it's hard to say for sure.)