Posted by Minnie-Haha on May 20, 2005, at 16:04:29
In reply to freaked out by asperger's, posted by River1924 on May 19, 2005, at 0:06:23
> ... "Hey doc, this may seem like an out of the blue question: could I have some mild form of asperger's syndrome? I see some of the autistic elements to my thinking (like, hello, where is my executive functions to connect memory to speech to feelings.) And, I never feel intimacy with anyone. But other parts
> I don't see in the definition of asperger's: the intense concentration on a single subject... but you have always put me in the ocd category which I never understood so maybe you see something there I can not. Just curious.
>
> R."
>
> My doc emailed back a one word reply: "Yes."
>
> I didn't really expect him to say, "yes." I expected, "of course, not." I'm 37 years old. I'm just kinda freaked and thinking "now what?" Any support out there?I learned a lot about Asperger's (and similar/related disorders) two years ago when my then 3rd-grader went through evaluations to try to find out what is "wrong" with him. Long story short: The experts never agreed on anything except that he is is highly gifted. Gifted people (especially highly or profoundly) often behave enough outside the norm to be "disordered", have social problems, be clumsy, be very sensitive -- physically and emotionally. Because they are sensitive and often misunderstood, they can suffer from depression and anxiety, too. I've heard (but don't know if it's true) that the Asperger's group has a higher percentage of gifted members than the average population. And my personal feeling is that highly or profoundly gifted people are often Asperger-ish. That's why I decided to quit trying to find a label for my son and mostly address his gifted needs -- and other stuff on an as-needed basis. (He gets ongoing speech therapy for social skills, and sometimes OT for sensory and motor-skills issues.)
Are you familiar with Dabrowski's theory of positive disintegration? Here's a link: http://members.shaw.ca/positivedisintegration/#overview
Or the misdiagnosis of gifted kids? Here are a couple of links on that:
http://www.sengifted.org/articles_counseling/Webb_MisdiagnosisAndDualDiagnosisOfGiftedChildren.shtml
http://www.sengifted.org/articles_counseling/Amend_MisdiagnosisOfAspergersDisorder.shtml
There are support groups for adults with Asperger's. Here are a few links.
http://www.aha-as-pdd.org/
http://www.grasp.org/
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/adult-asperger/
http://www.danda.org.uk/
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AspergersSingles/
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AS-PEOPLE/
http://www.aspergeradults.ca/If these don't interest you, just Google "asperger adult" and you should find plenty to keep you busy.
PS: I'll bet there is a higher percentage of gifted people on this site than in the general population, too.
poster:Minnie-Haha
thread:499690
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050516/msgs/500431.html