Links

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

Link 2013-11-23 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

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.

Seventh Voice

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

Link 2013-11-21 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

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

I 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

Link 2013-11-17 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

Seventh Voice

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

Fake It ‘Til You Break It

Link 2013-11-17 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

Autism / Aspergers, Reblogged

Invisible

Link 2013-11-17 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

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?

Musings 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 . . .

—–

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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Autism / Aspergers, Reblogged

Theory finds that individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome don’t lack empathy – in fact if anything they empathize too much

Link 2013-11-17 humanitysdarkerside 1 Comment

I have observed this as well. My son who is an autist does not express his feelings well, but he certainly feels it. I guess that could have to do with him being a guy. But luckily I have two sons, and the other son has never had trouble expressing how he feels.

Seventh Voice

“A ground-breaking theory suggests people with autism-spectrum disorders such as Asperger’s do not lack empathy – rather, they feel others’ emotions too intensely to cope.”

“People with Asperger’s syndrome, a high functioning form of autism, are often stereotyped as distant loners or robotic geeks. But what if what looks like coldness to the outside world is a response to being overwhelmed by emotion – an excess of empathy, not a lack of it?

This idea resonates with many people suffering from autism-spectrum disorders and their families. It also jibes with the “intense world” theory, a new way of thinking about the nature of autism.

As posited by Henry and Kamila Markram of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, the theory suggests that the fundamental problem in autism-spectrum disorders is not a social deficiency but, rather, a hypersensitivity to experience, which includes an overwhelming fear response.

“I…

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Autism / Aspergers, Reblogged

When the benefits of the many outweigh the good of the few….

Link 2013-11-10 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

… if all it takes is a sense of justification to overthrow those once clear lines of delineation between right and wrong actions, then how much longer will it be before we lose all concept of a collective sense of right and wrong all together?

Autism / Aspergers, Reblogged

I ALREADY AM A HUMAN BEING – Written BY Judy Endow

Link 2013-11-10 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

I have to admit that I feel human.

Autism / Aspergers, Reblogged

Hovering on the Fringe

Link 2013-11-03 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

This was me growing up. Finally, someone put it all into words. What a relief.

Musings of an Aspie

My apartment building is testing the alarm system so I’m at the park today, sitting at a picnic table, writing. It’s a beautiful day and the park had been deserted until a few moments ago when a group of kids on a field trip showed up to eat lunch at the picnic tables and play on the nearby playground.

Watching them find seats and settle down to lunch reminds me of how much I dreaded field trips as a kid. The unfamiliarity of the setting. Having to find someone to sit with on the bus. Worrying that I would end up without anyone to hang out with during the inevitable free time we were given as a reward for enduring the educational portion of the outing.

As the kids are finishing up their lunch and breaking into little groups to play football or soccer, I hear a crash. Two boys…

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Autism / Aspergers, Reblogged

Autistic as a Reclaimed Word

Link 2013-11-03 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

What are my thoughts on reclaiming the word autistic for myself? In many ways autism is a word, but words have power. Perhaps this means that I have to come out of my autism closet and decide how I am going to define autism rather than letting the word define me.

Musings of an Aspie

Most adults on the spectrum prefer to be called autistic, rather than a person with autism or a person who has autism. The general consensus is that autism is not a separable entity. To be “with” something or to “have” something implies that we might somehow be able to rid ourselves of that thing and still be the same person, much like someone who has been cured of a physical illness.

I have always been autistic and always will be. If I was not autistic, I would be a completely different person. My autistic neurology affects how I experience the world and how the world experiences me. I am autistic. This feels very simple and logical to me.

It is not, however, always as simple for others. I’ve noticed that a lot of people in the autism community (which is different from the Autistic community) find the use…

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Autism / Aspergers, Reblogged

Tony Attwood – The Pattern of Abilities and Development for Girls with Asperger’s Syndrome

Link 2013-10-24 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

We really do need to do more research when it comes to girls and autism/aspergers. Is the visibility of male Aspergers the reason they are used as a template for what a female Asperger should be?

Seventh Voice

The overwhelming majority of referrals for a diagnostic assessment for Asperger’s Syndrome are boys. The ratio of males to females is around 10:1, yet the epidemiological research for Autistic Spectrum Disorders suggests that the ratio should be 4:1. Why are girls less likely to be identified as having the characteristics indicative of Asperger’s Syndrome? The following are some tentative suggestions that have yet to be validated by academic research, but they provide some plausible explanations based on preliminary clinical experience.

It appears that many girls with Asperger’s Syndrome have the same profile of abilities as boys but a subtler or less severe expression of the characteristics. Parents may be reluctant to seek a diagnostic assessment if the child appears to be coping reasonably well and clinicians may be hesitant to commit themselves to a diagnosis unless the signs are conspicuously different to the normal range of behaviour and abilities.

We…

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Autism / Aspergers, Reblogged

Asperger’s Syndrome – Removed in theory but not in practice……

Link 2013-10-24 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

Parallells my thinking.

Autism / Aspergers, Reblogged

Asking the Hard Question: A Story About Me, Jeffrey Tambor, and Being the One Who Asks Something Uncomfortable

Link 2013-10-15 humanitysdarkerside 2 Comments

Dylan asks an excellent question, one I feel certain many of us have asked.

Fantasy

Heppe, Matt: Writing archery don’ts!!! (2013 May 31)

Link 2013-09-17 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

For all of you authors out there who want to write your own archery scenes – PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AT MATT’S ARTICLE.

He explains why some scenes described in books and movies just are not possible in real life. Here is a taste:

Have you read the following scenes in a book? Or maybe seen them in a movie?

A company of archers stands ready on the battlements of a castle as a horde of (vikings, orcs, Frenchmen) charges towards them. The captain of archers shouts, “Nock! Draw! Hold it! Hold it!” as the enemy approaches ever closer. Finally, at the critical moment the command is given… “Fire!”Or maybe an archer/sniper is hiding behind a tree, bow at full draw, waiting for a lone horseman to approach.Or an archer has a bow at full draw, holding an enchantress prisoner.To all three, I declare… BALONEY!