Category Archives: Autism / Aspergers

Autism / Aspergers, Reblogged

Sensory Sensitivities: Understanding Triggers

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Again, Musings of an Aspie (Cynthia Kim) expresses my thoughts perfectly. I’m sitting her in my new sweater just feeling the tag in back becoming more and more painful. Why I bother to leave them on for so long before I cut them off, I will never figure out. Stubborn and determined not to let a tiny piece of fabric win over me. Silly old woman.

musingsofanaspie's avatarMusings of an Aspie

This is part 3 in a series about sensory sensitivities and atypical sensory processing. Read the other parts: Part 1  |  Part 2  |  Part 4

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While atypical sensory filtering is related to sensory sensitivities, not all unfiltered sensory data will trigger sensitivities. Remember the sounds I described hearing as I’m typing this? I’m not especially sensitive to any of them. I hear them and it’s hard to tune them out, but I don’t have a biological stress reaction to them. They’re just there and over the years I’ve grown used to having a lot of irrelevant aural data constantly pinging around in my brain.

In fact, I didn’t know until a couple of years ago that other people don’t hear all of those distinct ambient sounds when they’re engaged in an activity.

I suppose what’s happening in this case is my sensory gating is failing…

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Autism / Aspergers, Reblogged

Sensory Sensitivities and Atypical Sensory Processing

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Yup. This is exactly how it is for me as well. I used to think that every other person on the planet was like this as well. Now, I have learned otherwise.

musingsofanaspie's avatarMusings of an Aspie

This is the first in a series of posts about autistic sensory processing and sensory sensitivities.  Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

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I once had a t-shirt that I really wanted to like. It was a souvenir from a trip to Hawaii. The color, the material, the fit, the design–all perfect. It would have been my favorite new shirt, except for one thing.

It had a tiny thread in the collar that scratched my neck. A thread so small that I couldn’t see it. I’d cut out the offending tag and all of the visible stitching holding the tag in place, but that one little thread refused to go.

So I decided that I was going to get used to it. I was going to pretend that evil remnant of plastic thread didn’t exist. If it was too small to see, surely I could ignore it.

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Autism / Aspergers, Reblogged

Raise Autism Awareness – watch & share this video

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This video is a great introduction to autism and the person presenting the topic has a delightful voice.

Shrugs, Not Hugs's avatarShrugs, Not Hugs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gZjDxt8Zrg

What is Autism? What is Asperger’s Syndrome? Is it common? What can be done about it? – From the National Autistic Society (UK)

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Autism / Aspergers, Reblogged

Gender and Autism: A Preliminary Survey Post

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In my search for an understanding of what it means to be a woman with Aspergers/ASD/what-not, sites like Musings of an Aspie help me put things into perspective and at the same time meet people whose brains work like my own. This is a really great article on how one’s gender might influence how one lives Asperger.

musingsofanaspie's avatarMusings of an Aspie

I’ve been planning to write about gender and autism for a while now. Months ago, I wrote a personal reflection piece. It got two emphatic thumbs down in beta, so I let it languish in my drafts folder. Then, after some feedback from commenters here, I decided I would write a more informative companion post as context for the personal reflections, but that never happened. Then I cannibalized the personal reflections piece for something I was invited to submit to an anthology, which took me weeks to write because apparently everything takes me weeks to write lately.

Which left me still wanting to write about gender and autism here. As a first attempt, I’ve  surveyed some of the ideas that people have put forth about gender and autism over the years, starting with Asperger himself.

Note: I’ve linked to a bunch of articles in this post, many of which I…

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Autism / Aspergers, Reblogged

Adapting Peggy McIntosh’s paper on “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack of privilege” to accommodate and reveal how Neuro-Typicality constructs its own unspoken system of privilege in our society.

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seventhvoice's avatarSeventh Voice

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“As a “neuro-typical person”, I realized I had been taught about discrimination as something which puts others at a disadvantage, yet at the same time, I had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, which are that “neuro-typical privilege” puts me at an advantage.

 

 

I think “neuro-typical people” are carefully taught not to recognize their privilege, in much the same way that males are taught not to recognize male privilege.

 

So I have begun in an untutored way to ask what it is like to have “neuro-typical Privilege.”

 

I have come to view “neuro-typical privilege” as an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was ‘meant’ to remain oblivious.

 

“Neuro-typical privilege” is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, code books, visas, clothes, tools…

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Autism / Aspergers, Reblogged

23 Things you can take for granted if you happen to be Neuro -Typical with Neuro-Typical children

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While colour and great physical handicaps are the most visible indicators of minority groups, most minority groups are going to have to think about these 23 points that majority groups get to take for granted. We might preach equality to all but some people are more equal than others.

Autism / Aspergers, Reblogged

This is autism

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autisticook's avatar...autisticook

Last Monday, Autism Speaks told the world that autism is:
. . . living in despair
. . . fear of the future
. . . exhausted, broken parents
. . . lost, helpless, burdensome children

That kind of autism is not my autism. My contribution to the This is Autism Flash Blog.

I enjoy the sounds of the city around me, the strains of birdsong that I can hear even through traffic, the purring of my cat that almost but not quite manages to drown out all other sounds, the clicking of my keyboard while I’m typing. I hear the trains going past in the distance and I love getting sucked into that rhythm. When I listen to music, I become the notes, the melody, I can pick out the individual instruments and still hear how they work together to create a single sound. I sing along with…

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Autism / Aspergers, Reblogged

“I am Definitely a Mad Man with Too Many Box Sets”

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Shrugs, Not Hugs's avatarShrugs, Not Hugs

One common characteristic of Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) is that it gives you a type of brain that loves to obsess over particular things. Lots of people are fans of things and many are obsessed with Star Trek, handbags, cars or particular celebrities. However, with AS sometimes an obsession can be quite unorthodox, or even dangerous.

A teenager with AS who is intensely interested in hair will often find a fulfilling and happy life as a barber or hairdresser. But what if their obsession is with fire to the point of becoming pyromania? Or an intense love of their Xbox (other video game consoles are available) means that they spend more time on Halo than they do with real people? This is where an obsession is defined, it completely occupies the mind. As for myself, I have several areas of interest into which I can very easily get obsessed. At the…

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Autism / Aspergers, Reblogged

Autism/Asperger’s Awareness in Women – A Teenagers Perspective – Written by Marnie

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seventhvoice's avatarSeventh Voice

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“I wrote this for an all-girls group I am part of and thought that maybe I should share it and see what others have to say. Be nice ok. It took a lot for me to be able to talk about this.”

“Autism and Asperger’s displays itself very differently in woman than it does in men.

Most Autistic traits in males are very obvious, they don’t hide them and it’s very clear.

With women, we actually subconsciously try to hide it, it’s in the female nature to fit in; you may find you mimic your female friends in different ways.

For example, you might copy certain phrases they use, figures of speech, accents, physical stances and behavioural habits.

I, for one, used to copy my friends self-harming and it wasn’t to get attention, it was because I assumed this was normal behaviour for other girls.

When I was in

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Autism / Aspergers, Reblogged

A Brush with Anti-Science: Why I Have A Problem With The Pervasive Distrust Towards Science

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Agreed. There are so many theories out there, but until they are properly tested then we cannot know the value of them.

Autism / Aspergers, Reblogged

Women and Autism – How one woman’s letter to a psychologist finally helped her receive an ASD diagnosis after years of personal invalidation.

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Being disbelieved or belittled for how you are on the inside is never fun. Just because a person is a shrink of some kind, does not ensure knowledge of the way the genders differ when it comes to various syndromes. Nor does it ensure an understanding that while a professional has encountered one type of autists, it does not mean that all autists will react/behave in the same manner.

seventhvoice's avatarSeventh Voice

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This amazing letter was written by a woman who suspected that she may be on the Autism Spectrum, prior to meeting her psychologist for the first time. Here’s what she had to say.

“Dear Dr L—

I hope in this letter I can give you a more thorough explanation of how I feel, the way these feelings affect me and why I think a diagnosis and continued support would be beneficial to me.

I have an over-active mind and experience high anxiety.

I constantly see things at multiple levels, including thinking processes and analyse my existence, the meaning of life, the meaning of everything continually.

Nothing is taken for granted, simplified, or easy.

Everything is complex.

Being serious and matter-of-fact has caused me many problems and I have been told on numerous occasions that I come across as rude and/or abrupt.

Every year my work progress development…

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Autism / Aspergers, Reblogged

The Poetry Paradox

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I read a lot. A lot. One thing I’ve come to realise is that while I get all of the abovementioned tools, I am often wrong about the commonly accepted analysis of meaning in a piece of work. It seems I puzzle things out so that my answer differs from what others see.

I gave up on trying to understand poetry long ago because I never seemed to see what others saw. Now I just read it and take what I want from it. The same with just about everything else.

Even when writing reviews on the books that I do, I often wonder if I’ve read what other reviewers seem to have read.

Shrugs, Not Hugs's avatarShrugs, Not Hugs

ImageI find myself pondering the commonly held beliefs about autism and Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) on quite a regular basis. One that puzzles me is the perception that people with autistic spectrum disorders are emotionally devoid, that they are emotionless robots. I see myself as quite an emotional person. I study the arts, poetry specifically, which arose in me great swathes of joy, sadness, intrigue and awe. But does this put me at odds with what someone with AS “should” be like? 

Thanks, in part, to my mother’s devotion to reading me bedtime stories I had a passion for books and could read before I started school. At the age of seven I stumbled across a book called Golden Apples: Poems for Children in my primary school library’s meagre poetry section. In it I read W.B Yeats’s short poem ‘The Song of Wandering Aengus’. I cannot profess to have understood the…

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Autism / Aspergers, Myths, Reblogged

Myths, Lies and Suspicious Minds – Debunking the popular misconceptions that surround the lives of adults with Asperger’s Syndrome

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seventhvoice's avatarSeventh Voice

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Since first being recognized in 1944 by an Austrian paediatrician, Hans Asperger, the neurologically diverse disorder known as Asperger’s Syndrome, has  arguably become one of the most widely misdiagnosed, socially misunderstood and contentious disorders on the Autism Spectrum.

For this reason, those living with Asperger’s Syndrome often find themselves having to battle against a sea of erroneous professional and social misconceptions (myths) which leave them wide open to a consistent stream of criticism and suspicion as to who they truly are, their levels of ability, and the validity of their ‘unusual’ ways of being the world.

The aim of this article is to redress some of the myths that have sprung up regarding Asperger’s Syndrome  over time.

Myth 1: Asperger’s Syndrome is both an over and under Diagnosed condition that only affects males .

Since its addition to the DSM in the late 80’s researchers have contended…

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Autism / Aspergers, Reblogged

Invisible

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I get this feeling a lot when I am at parties with people who might be some sort of family or friends but not really close. Other people probably do not mean to exclude me from their conversation. But their conversation slowly pushes me out until I find myself feeling like an intruder. Perhaps I am perceived as one as well. I imagine I can be a difficult person to converse with as socially accepted “small-talk” bores me. Why is it so difficult to talk about heavier stuff?

musingsofanaspie's avatarMusings of an Aspie

Before we get to today’s post, an announcement: As part of the avalanche of advocacy this week, there will be a flashblog on Monday, Nov 18th. You can find the info at “This is Autism” Flashblog. It’s open to autistic individuals, parents and allies and is accepting writing, video, graphic and comics submissions.

On to the post . . .

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Sometimes [often?] I feel invisible.

I thought this feeling would go away when I grew up. Feeling invisible as a kid is normal, right? Everyone is bigger than you. Smarter, more experienced. And the ones who weren’t bigger or smarter or more experienced, were funnier or prettier or  . . . something.

I never quite understood what that something was, just that I didn’t have it. When teachers forgot my name, I shrugged and mumbled it for them. Then mumbled it again when they mistook my…

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