Discussion History UsefulNotes / AspergerSyndrome

On a meta level, even Asami didn\\\'t expect that, Bolin had no idea what Mako did and the readers never saw it coming either. Mako\\\'s decision and the fact that his torture is incredibly effective to make a Red Lotus talk is something even Zaheer wouldn\\\'t predict.

I was professionally diagnosed with Asperger\\\'s at a relatively late age (late 30s after seeking treatment for depresssion) and think that this section is just generally somewhat misleading. While it\\\'s true that AS doesn\\\'t define your entire identity in the sense that people with AS/HFA have different personalities and intelligence levels, comparing it to having red hair or a limp as the quote does is just absurd and even comparing it to dyslexia or alcoholism is very dubious. For a start those conditions (if it\\\'s appropriate to refer to having red hair as a \\\"condition\\\") can all be treated and overcome (except dyslexia, although the ways of managing that are somewhat easier to implement that those for managing AS).

AS and other ASDs are the result of atypical brain development from as early as 4 weeks into foetal growth which continues into the early years of childhood and beyond (when people argue about the causes of ASDs they are arguing about what causes this atypical development rather than the fact of it). This means we have hundreds or maybe thousands of neuro-chemical reactions going on at a vastly different intensity to that found in neurotypicals with very likely some reactions being entirely missing or novel when compared to neurotypicals (research, as they say, is on-going). That\\\'s why it\\\'s a pervasive developmental disorder (emphasis on pervasive). The brain is where your identity or personality or whatever you want to call it \\\"lives\\\" so to suggest that this radical change in the wiring and cognitive function has as little effect on identity as red hair or even alcoholism is wrong headed. The quote itself looks like something that someone with AS got from a CBT therapist. It\\\'s a bit of a truism among therapists that young people (which for these purposes means under 30) with AS will almost always ignore Occam\\\'s Razor and seek alternative explanations for behavioural quirks which can reasonably be explained by AS because they aren\\\'t ready to deal with the ramifications of a serious mental health problem that will be with them the rest of their life and limit the choices available to them compared to neurotypicals. Some therapists see this as harmless because it gives them a hook for CBT and makes it easier to help the patient manage their condition, others worry that it makes the ultimate reckoning worse.

To hopefully illustrate what I mean take adult sexual relationships as an example. Aspies have huge problems with these and many books (not all of them helpful) have been published discussing the issues. The problems range from things like fear of intimacy (which often manifests as being sex repulsed) to problems communicating sexual desire (the male AS partner will generally assume that a woman doesn\\\'t want to have sex with him unless she expressly says she does and a learned fear of misreading social cues will generally prevent the AS partner from initiating anything in case he\\\'s got it wrong and might commit a sexual assault, this continues even as the relationship develops and it\\\'s a common complaint of wives with AS husbands that he never shows any sexual interest in her. There has been a recent move for Aspies with these type of issues with sex (especially those relating fear of intimacy and sex repulsion but others as well who have decided sex is all too much bother) to declare that they are asexual. It\\\'s perfectly possible they are of course. However, it\\\'s an asexuality caused by the AS rather than the type of asexuality an asexual neurotypical will have. Functionally they might seem to give the same result but the mechanism the by which result has been arrived at (the \\\"model\\\" of asexuality if you will) is very different and this tends to lead to NoTrueScotsman style arguments and, ultimately, a schism between the Aspies and the neurotypicals.

The sad fact is that, unless you\\\'re lucky enough to have an exceptionally mild case, everything about you will be affected and defined by the AS and the limits it imposes on you whether you realise and accept it or not (which is NOT to say that everyone with AS is the same ). Looking back I realised it happened to me and I didn\\\'t even know I had it (although I knew something was wrong with me, I suspected one of the forms of schizophrenia for which AS was often mistaken although when I persuaded by parents to take me to a child psychiatrist she said I was fine, this was couple of decade prior to AS being an acknowledged diagnosis) for the vast majority of my life.

The page possibly should also mention the frighteningly high levels of depression and suicide among Aspies compared to neurotypicals (see http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/278678.php for levels of suicidal ideation and Attwood \\\"Complete Guide to Asperger\\\'s Syndrome\\\" pages 140 to 142 for a discussion of depression rates, in reviewing the literature he says that about 1 in 3 will experience at least 1 episode of clincal depression in their life, other researchers have estimates as high as 65%).

I was professionally diagnosed with Asperger\\\'s at a relatively late age (late 30s after seeking treatment for depresssion) and think that this section is just generally somewhat misleading. While it\\\'s true that AS doesn\\\'t define your entire identity in the sense that people with AS/HFA have different personalities and intelligence levels, comparing it to having red hair or a limp as the quote does is just absurd and even comparing it to dyslexia or alcoholism is very dubious. For a start those conditions (if it\\\'s appropriate to refer to having red hair as a \\\"condition\\\") can all be treated and overcome (except dyslexia, although the ways of managing that are somewhat easier to implement that those for managing AS).

AS and other ASDs are the result of atypical brain development from as early as 4 weeks into foetal growth which continues into the early years of childhood and beyond (when people argue about the causes of ASDs they are arguing about what causes this atypical development rather than the fact of it). This means we have hundreds or maybe thousands of neuro-chemical reactions going on at a vastly different intensity to that found in neurotypicals with very likely some reactions being entirely missing or novel when compared to neurotypicals (research, as they say, is on-going). That\\\'s why it\\\'s a pervasive developmental disorder (emphasis on pervasive). The brain is where your identity or personality or whatever you want to call it \\\"lives\\\" so to suggest that this radical change in the wiring and cognitive function has as little effect on identity as red hair or even alcoholism is wrong headed. The quote itself looks like something that someone with AS got from a CBT therapist. It\\\'s a bit of a truism among therapists that young people (which for these purposes means under 30) with AS will almost always ignore Occam\\\'s Razor and seek alternative explanations for behavioural quirks which can reasonably be explained by AS because they aren\\\'t ready to deal with the ramifications of a serious mental health problem that will be with them the rest of their life and limit the choices available to them compared to neurotypicals. Some therapists see this as harmless because it gives them a hook for CBT and makes it easier to help the patient manage their condition, others worry that it makes the ultimate reckoning worse.

To hopefully illustrate what I mean take adult sexual relationships as an example. Aspies have huge problems with these and many books (not all of them helpful) have been published discussing the issues. The problems range from things like fear of intimacy (which often manifests as being sex repulsed) to problems communicating sexual desire (the male AS partner will generally assume that a woman doesn\\\'t want to have sex with him unless she expressly says she does and a learned fear of misreading social cues will generally prevent the AS partner from initiating anything in case he\\\'s got it wrong and might commit a sexual assault, this continues even as the relationship develops and it\\\'s a common complaint of wives with AS husbands that he never shows any sexual interest in her. There has been a recent move for Aspies with these type of issues with sex (especially those relating fear of intimacy and sex repulsion but others as well who have decided sex is all too much bother) to declare that they are asexual. It\\\'s perfectly possible they are of course. However, it\\\'s an asexuality caused by the AS rather than the type of asexuality an asexual neurotypical will have. Functionally they might seem to give the same result but the mechanism the by which result has been arrived at (the \\\"model\\\" of asexuality if you will) is very different and this tends to lead to NoTrueScotsman style arguments and, ultimately, a schism between the Aspies and the neurotypicals.

The sad fact is that, unless you\\\'re lucky enough to have an exceptionally mild case, everything about you will be affected and defined by the AS and the limits it imposes on you whether you realise and accept it or not (which is NOT to say that everyone with AS is the same ). Looking back I realised it happened to me and I didn\\\'t even know I had it (although I knew something was wrong with me, I suspected one of the forms of schizophrenia for which AS was often mistaken) for the vast majority of my life.

The page possibly should also mention the frighteningly high levels of depression and suicide among Aspies compared to neurotypicals (see http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/278678.php for levels of suicidal ideation and Attwood \\\"Complete Guide to Asperger\\\'s Syndrome\\\" pages 140 to 142 for a discussion of depression rates, in reviewing the literature he says that about 1 in 3 will experience at least 1 episode of clincal depression in their life, other researchers have estimates as high as 65%).

I was professionally diagnosed with Asperger\\\'s at a relatively late age (late 30s after seeking treatment for depresssion) and think that this section is just generally a little misleading. While it\\\'s true that AS doesn\\\'t define your entire identity in the sense that people with AS/HFA have different personalities and intelligence levels, comparing it to having red hair or a limp as the quote does is just absurd and even comparing it to dyslexia or alcoholism is very dubious. For a start those conditions (if it\\\'s appropriate to refer to having red hair as a \\\"condition\\\") can all be treated and overcome (except dyslexia, although the ways of managing that are somewhat easier to implement that those for managing AS).

AS and other ASDs are the result of atypical brain development from as early as 4 weeks into foetal growth which continues into the early years of childhood and beyond (when people argue about the causes of ASDs they are arguing about what causes this atypical development rather than the fact of it). This means we have hundreds or maybe thousands of neuro-chemical reactions going on at a vastly different intensity to that found in neurotypicals with some reactions being entirely missing or novel when compared to neurotypicals (research, as they say, is on-going). That\\\'s why it\\\'s a pervasive developmental disorder (emphasis on pervasive). The brain is where your identity or personality or whatever you want to call it \\\"lives\\\" so to suggest that this radical change in the wiring and cognitive function has as little affect on identity as red hair or even alcoholism is wrong headed. The quote itself looks like something that someone with AS got from a CBT therapist. It\\\'s a bit of a truism among therapists that young people (which for these purposes means under 30) with AS will almost always ignore Occam\\\'s Razor and seek alternative explanations for behavioural quirks which can reasonably be explained by AS because they aren\\\'t ready to deal with the ramifications of a serious mental health problem that will be with them the rest of their life. Some therapists see this as harmless because it gives them a hook for CBT and makes it easier to help the patient manage their condition, others worry that it makes the ultimate reckoning worse.

The sad fact is that, unless you\\\'re lucky enough to have an exceptionally mild case, everything about you will be affected and defined by the AS and the limits it imposes on you whether you realise and accept it or not (which is NOT to say that everyone with AS is the same). Looking back I realised it happened to me and I didn\\\'t even know I had it (although I knew something was wrong with me, I suspected one of the forms of schizophrenia for which AS was often mistaken) for the vast majority of my life.

The page could possibly also mention the frighteningly high levels of depression and suicide among Aspies compared to neurotypicals (see http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/278678.php for levels of suicidal ideation and Attwood \\\"Complete Guide to Asperger\\\'s Syndrome\\\" pages 140 to 142 for a discussion of depression rates, in reviewing the literature he says that about 1 in 3 will experience at least 1 episode of clincal depression in their life, other researchers have estimates as high as 65%).