General Autism Discussion

Who knows what it is. We have so little to go by now until we learn more.

It just seems to me to likely be either mix-ups or standard overlap.

If I go to the doctor with trouble walking and they say I've got a fractured bone then later discover I have muscle tension issues, them fixing the muscle tension issues enabling me to walk doesn't mean that they also fixed the fractured bone. I might well have not had a fractured bone at all and they just screwed up, or maybe the bone is still fractured and I'm just better able to walk now that I've only got one thing making it difficult as opposed to two.

I'm with Silas, here. I noticed a huge improvement in my attitude, behavior, and Aspie traits once I got over the "depression" part.

On a related note: Do any of you take medications related to your symptoms? I took some antidepressants and OCD-treating meds for a while, but after I quit them I found myself doing a lot better. I was 19 at the time. Still not sure if "getting better" was a case of the meds or me growing up.

I started taking anti-depressants at 19 since I flnked out of my first semester at college for my depression and I did get a bit better once that started being treated. Once I got my official diagnoses about two years ago I began taking vyavanse for my ADHD. And I'm still on both but I only take the vyavanse when I have school or feel like drawing that day. Otherwise I don't need it. And t has nothing to do with changing who I am, I have experienced no negative side effects nor radical changes in who I am, I just prefer to conserve the supply because that's how I always think.

My depression was a result of my inability to handle my ASD In a large and new environment so far from my usual fallbacks and support systems, especially since I wouldn't know I had ASD until two years later. An I've broken down similarly before when I was younger but it was always attributed to all the bullying that happened to me.

My depression was unrelated to my ASD, it was tied to other things going on in my life at the time.

And I take medication for my ADD, but while there's is apparently a lot of overlap between people with ASD and people with ADD I don't think my ADD meds effect my ASD.

As for getting over depression, medication doesn't 'cure' depression, that's not what it's there for. Antidepressants get you into a reasonable state of mind, once you're in a reasonable state of mind you can change/deal with whatever it is in life that's making you depressed, then come off the meds. It's the same way a crutch doesn't fix a broken leg, it just lets you walk around like normal while you work on healing the leg, which is a lot easier when you're not being constantly distracted by the pain of a broken leg.

Yeah, the antidepressants basically got me in a right enough mind to be able to get myself up in the morning, mostly clean my room, and be able to see my therapist for my treatment. Of course these things aren't cures, just aides. Isn't that why psychological disorders and dealt with in terms of "treatment" and not "cures"?

How did you figure out you had ASD? What led to you finding out?

Who's that question aimed at?

I found out via being observed while going through a two day battery of testing. Originally it was to see if we could figure out specifically what was going on with me after proving to have poor academic performance post-high school, tons of anxiety that affected my ability to hold a job, and you know, the depression thing.

The results showed, in addition to the ASD, that I had ADHD and slow processing speed despite my college level abilities and knowledge.

My counselor mentioned that the movies and music I like is shared among a lot of the other ASD people he counsels, so I think it might be interesting to share music tastes. Maybe with an example or two.

I like a lot of the songs on the radio, and some Jpop, but my absolute favorite genre is Symphonic Metal. I bought the latest Epica CD today, and it catapulted its way up my list of favorite albums.

edited 17th Oct '14 6:45:28 PM by Zendervai

The music I listen to is video game soundtracks and chiptunes, along with original instrumental music.

The music I listen to is video game soundtracks and chiptunes, along with original instrumental music.

Man, I always thought it was just me. I'm the only person I know of who only listens to instrumental music. People always ask stuff like "who do you listen to" and it's like I don't know, does Lindsey Stirling count?

Lyrics are fine if you're specifically listening to music for the sake of listening to music (I like a lot of Weird Al's songs) but when you're listening to something in the background, lyrics just make it distracting.

How common is depression among ASD?

You could easily turn that the other way around — one could trigger the other, as could be around people that already have it...

I have fortunately never experienced depression.

I was diagnosed with DD-NOS at about the same time I was diagnosed with Asperger's.

Never had a diagnosis of depression, ever.

Mine wasn't diagnosed, I use the word depression to describe my mental state for that time period because it both seems to fit and is the one used by a freind of mine who has a lot of experience with that sort of stuff.

But like I said it wasn't my ASD that bought it about, it was more general Uni issues (in part bought about by my (at the time un diagnosed) ADD), a general burnout from spending two years telling myself things would get better once I left home but having that not happen, a bad 'home' enviroment (my first halls flat was not a fun place) and attachment/abandonment issues from the collapse of a very close relationship I had with someone (this was made slightly worse by the fact that I'd had another close freindship fall apart in a similar manner a few years back, after a while it seemed inevitable that all my close friends would walk out on me).

Now the last one might seem ASD related, and on a level it was, but from my end the issue was very much massive over attachment. Now her ASD probably made it harder for her to actually communicate what was happening with me, but I'd also put a lot of that down to her being a coward who runs from problems and me being someone who tries to tackle them head on. Frankly the entire thing was a mess on so many levels, two late teen (at the time un diagnosed) aspies with different conflict resolution manners and no training in how to be normal, "blind leading the blind" covers it in so many ways.

I'd say my ASD probably made it harder to deal with. The honesty factor meant everyone knew I was in a bad state, which pushed people away, this meant I had trouble building a local mental safety net. Luckily I still had the one I'd build up over the years (though that had taken a big hit due to the fact that the person tied to the last issue used to be a key part of my mental safety net) and that's why I never did anything foolish and eventually got though it. Plus I'm sure my ASD meant I didn't deal with the person cutting contact with me in the best manner, but considering how badly she handled it I'm not sure if it would have made that much of a difference.

edited 18th Oct '14 4:02:43 AM by SilasW

My counselor says that I show some signs of depression, but he thinks it's almost directly tied to my job. Which I hate.

When I tested into my PDD diagnosis to get vocational help from the state, I was also diagnosed with dysthymia, which is similar to depression but apparently not the same thing. It's milder than true depression, and it's also supposedly possible to have it and depression at the same time. I wouldn't be surprised if I had depression too since work has been burning me out lately.

See, if I had known this when I did take antidepressants, I might have done better overall. It would've been good to know that "no, I don't have to keep taking these." I stopped taking them partly out of laziness, and once I had been off them long enough I noticed myself doing better and quit them altogether.

I like orchestral soundtracks, classical music, and choral music.

I like videogame sound tracks, especially reorchestrated ones, ontological mysteries, science fiction, and cosmic horror stories

There's something I'd been thinking about. How to get more autistics into the workplace, and get us to stay there.

One of the things that interests me, and seems like it could be useful, is a law that's been proposed in Germany as well as some US states, that will require any company with more than 100 employees to have 5% of them be people who are classified as disabled.

I'd been thinking a lot about the possible effects, both good and bad, of such a law, and how it might help autistics, or might not.

First off, companies want to make as much money as possible, and spend as little of it as possible. While there are ethical exceptions, this is the rule. So, this will ultimately be what drives their behavior in the face of such a law.

So they'd want to hire people who qualify as disabled but are the least disabled possible. If they do their research into this area, they may find that high-functioning autistics, despite the crappy statistics regarding us when it comes to jobs and employment, are actually some of the best workers you can get in some kinds of circumstances. We often know our shit, we're really good at certain kinds of tasks, and we tend not to screw around and waste time socializing in the office (which ironically, is the sort of thing employers often want their employees to do, as I see many articles even on places such as Forbes about how social skills matter more than work skills, and people who are "likeable but incompetent" are more likely to keep their jobs than people who are "competent but not likeable"). If a company truly does care about money first and foremost, high-functioning autistics would be more desirable than, say, people with conditions such as Down syndrome (who, ironically, are more likely to be employed).

So let's say a company hires autistics to fulfill their "5% must be disabled" quota. Now what?

I've heard many stories of autistics facing workplace bullying and being driven out of the workplace, and having to look for yet another job. But if this law exists and is enforced, companies will find workplace bullying has suddenly become expensive. If the disabled employee leaves the company (for any reason, not just harassment), then that means being required to hire a new employee as a replacement. If this keeps up, with disabled/autistic employee after employee leaving and being replaced, then the company will want to stop the hemorrhaging of money by putting a clamp on workplace bullying. Suddenly, there will be a reason to make it stop, since it's costing money.

Then there's the tendency to want to make as much money as possible. A smart company would try to find what the autistic is good at and actually put them to work in that field, so at least they'll be making the most from their "5% disability" quota. After all, you got this "retard" in the company, so why not make the most of them, since you can't get rid of the person?

Also, if a company discovers that an employee was diagnosed with high-functioning autism, they may pressure the person to "come out", to get an official diagnosis, so that the person can fulfill the disability quota (and the company could then avoid hiring another disabled person, or fire one they already have). "Hey, I think that weird guy who doesn't talk to anyone, and who I don't really like, might be autistic. Think we could get him diagnosed so we don't have to hire some cripple or a retard?"

Now, all this is a best-case scenario. Many things can go wrong.

Most companies are not smart. They do what they're used to doing, and are bad with change (heck, just witness the sheer number of companies that go under when industries are disrupted or nimble new competitors show up with a great product). So they could very well not do the things I listed above, even though these are the things that would actually be best for their company.

Many high-functioning autistics have gone undiagnosed. Since autistics often have it very rough due to their problems socializing and fitting in, this would only benefit autistics who have been diagnosed, not people who have no idea that they're autistic and are struggling. Undiagnosed autistics would still face the same problems that autistics already face in the workplace, unless some eagle-eyed coworker or boss thinks "I wonder if that person has autism? If so, better to have them fulfill our quota than to hire someone new."

It could open the door to disability fraud, as companies may want people to get false disability diagnoses in order to avoid hiring actual disabled people. It could create an industry of doctors and psychologists being paid to falsely claim someone is disabled so as to fulfill the quota.

Companies could try to keep the autistic down, as in, keep them in a low-paying position, knowing they're unlikely to bargain for higher pay (as autistics tend not to know how to, or that they may need to, do these kinds of social things). They might hire the autistic and put them in some dumb out-of-the-way job rather than give them something meaningful to do, thus wasting the autistic's intelligence, simply because the company doesn't think the person would be any good at a "real" job.

The upside is that smart companies may do the things I'd listed in the best-case scenario, and word of mouth could spread about their practices, leading to other companies adopting them. Ultimately, such a law could be good in the long run to autistics and businesses that know how to use them. But it would take a while to get there.

Thoughts?

...

How about not ascribing fully conscious moustache twirling as an essential part of most upper and middle-managers days?