One damn thing after another. I am on vacation and took the chance to visit with my psychitrist. He is an old friend. It occured to me that we spent so much time shooting the bull that we did not get much of the “Talking Cure” stuff done. Besides he is in the medication business and I wanted to try to to work out some life issues.
I scheduled a meeting with a Psycological Therapist. It was an unusual relationship in that I have to fly out of here in a couple of days. In any case, she took exception with the ADHD diagnois and proposed Asperger syndrome. Off to Wikipedia I went.
They could have written the article all about me. Spooky.
I suspect at least some of this might be like a fortune-teller doing a cold reading. Still there is more than a little truth in this diagnois.
Incurable, hardly treatable, with only some limited ability to overcome the most obvious symptoms. Right now I am feeling a little down.
When I get back to Saudi I will log onto the AS support people at Wrong Planet. Still, it is sad to think that, well to think that “This is all there is or will ever be” (so to speak) in my life.
Get an actual diagnosis from a dispassionate professional.
I am NOT making a personal comment about you, but “I’m a self-diagnosed Aspie” or some variant thereof is translated to English as “I have finally found an excuse for being a loser!”
I’m not sure Asperger’s syndrome is real. BUT, if it is, it requires treatment or mainstreaming, and my own mini-prejudice is only validated by the undiagnosed rushing to find a medical reason for their social ineptitude.
Get diagnosed accurately and you’ll now what to do next.
Oddly, I had the exact OPPOSITE reaction. I was SO relieved to find out what it was, that it was like a great weight off my shoulders. And truth be told, knowing the symptoms and having a better understanding of how they manifested in me helped me put a LOT of things in perspective.
Of course YMMV but I think you’ll find that knowing what you have and getting the appropriate support is going to help a lot.
I have read extensively about Asperger’s Syndrome, as I’ve always felt my brother was the poster child for it. After 25 years of moments of staggering genius mixed with odd, awkward, abberent behavior, I finally convinced my family to take him to a psychiatrist last year, and surprise surprise, he was officially diagnosed, confirming what I suspected for the last decade or so. I am not a psychiatrist, so of course nobody listened to me, despite my research.
Of course, the Internet is teeming with self-diagnosed Aspies, so don’t be one of those people. Get an official diagnosis, if only to confirm your suspicions.
I’m presenting a seminar on Aspergers, autism, ADHD and the genetics behind them on 1/28. They are real, and have a genetic component to them. They are also inherited at a rate of 90%, making them the most heritable of the behavior disorders. There is a problem with diagnosis in that there are several behavior inventories that deal with the DSM-IV criteria in different ways. If you’re in doubt, find out how you were diagnosed and go to someone else for a diagnosis by another inventory.
I wouldn’t call AS incurable (although some aspects of it will always be with you). The main problems are social interaction, repetitve idiosyncratic actions and a mania for certain obects or subjects. These are deficits, but ones that you can learn to overcome. If you are aware of your behavior and understand the diagnosis, you have already gotten through the hardest part.
My son, 13, was diagnosed with AS two years ago. He still doesn’t understand what it is, what it means, and how it makes him different from others. So right now, we have no “handle” that he can grab and understand what he needs to learn and why some things he does are inappropriate. We can only repeat ad nauseum “Don’t do that, it isn’t polite.” I pray someday he will become self-aware enough that we can discuss why he does things and how to follow expected social norms better.
I’m a little unclear on what you’re saying. When you say there is a genetic component, does that mean there some sort of physical test for AS? I’ve been evaluated by two psychologists, but both were interview situations. One included a long set of preset questions that was scored numerically. Is this invalid? I was in my 40’s when they told me I had it; I’d never heard of it before then.
IANA Psychologist, but: Just because something has a genetic component doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a physical test for it. There are maladies that can be shown to run in families, or to be transmitted from parent to child but that are diagnosed through the symptoms, not via a blood or other physical test. These days doctors and other scientists can review DNA tests and sometimes find a section of genetic material that seems to exist in significant numbers of the diagnosed.
Example: It has been recognized for a very long time that hemophilia has a genetic component. Once a woman has a hemophiliac son, it is known that there is a 50-50 chance that subsequent sons will be hemophiliacs. The disease itself is recognized by the symptom of clotting difficulty. But it was known to be genetic before the chemistry of the blood and the existence of platlets and their function were understood.
Maybe some day we will be able to analyze a person’s DNA and find out the gene, or set of genes, that are related to things like Asperger’s, bipolar disorder, and other ailments. In the meanwhile, we can see that they are genetic, and the potential for their expression is present from birth.
Aspergers runs in my fiance’s family; my understanding is that from the same line his uncle, brother, and cousin have it to varying degrees (and there’s anecdotal talk about “odd” distant relatives from the same family). My fiance and I don’t have any intention of having children, but if we did, does that mean there’s a 90% chance one of our hypothetical kids would have Aspergers?
3acres: The implication is that there could be a “blood” test for it, and that is exactly the topic of my talk. There are ~ 170 genes that have been linked to Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ADHD, AS, Autism), and a combination of a few can cause behaviors that would be diagnosed. I would love to have a lab test, as that is part of my job. Sometime in the future we may, but not now.
Kayeby: That is my understanding of that statistic, but see my comments to eacres. ASDs are highly variable in presentation, even among twins. So yes, your child might have a 90% chance of inheriting enough genes needed to create the syndrome, but we don’t know enough about the genetic link to be able to say for sure. If you want a professional opinion, see a genetics counselor. I can only tell you what I’ve read for my seminar. I am not an expert, etc.
Well, I am embarassed to admit it. I messed up my one and only* psycotherapy session. Went in and began to ramble. Went off topic and stayed there. Grumble. Something like panic I suppose.
Ought I to continue with therapy*? Could I expect Still could I expect therapy to do much good? At $130 an hour would it be worth it?
Grumble.
Of course I am leaving for Saudi on Friday, so all of this is sort of theoretical.
A good psychotherapist knows that it takes time for therapy to work. From your footnote, I gather that therapists are not available in Saudi, which is too bad. I am not knowledgeable about Asperger’s, and of course IANAD, but my observation of other people’s therapy for other conditions indicates that yes, it can work, and yes, it is definitely worth it. This is contingent upon getting a good therapist; one that you can work with productively, which is not always the case. I am also guessing that either you don’t have insurance or that it doesn’t cover psychotherapy, which again is too bad. I find it very irritating that in many cases mental health is not covered by insurance in the same way as physical health. :mad:
Kayeby and Vlad/Igor, it could also mean that “in 90% of cases of people with Asperger’s, it was found that there had been family precedent.” You know, sort of like the way “most abusers have been abused” does not mean “if you were abused you’ll most likely beat up your kids and rent them out to the neighborhood’s perv”.
Vlad/Igor, can you give us a reference as to which is the case?
Sorry but my experience with medical professionals is that 99% of them don’t understand those statistics they love so much
I’ll work on it. I practice on Friday, and the big day is Monday. In the interim, I have to create a written abstract, outline and bibliography. I’ll be reviewing the reviews, and I’ll look it up.
It troubles me to see you putting ADHD in a “spectrum” with the pervasive developmental disorders. They are quite distinct disorders in a number of ways. Why do you consider them to be part of a “spectrum”?
Someone on another Board recently posted a link to this interesting interview with a genetic researcher looking at autism. It says that a significant proportion (30%?) of the genetic mutations involved in autism may be spontaneous mutations (i.e., not inherited).
Also, when people talk about a spectrum, they may be talking loosely–the above article from the NYTimes discusses “orphan” mutations (extremely rare and in many cases spontaneous rather than inherited), quite a number of which result in mental or behvioral problems which can look a lot like autism or (to use a catch-all older phrase) “retardation.”
I would agree with this as well. And even if you do have a valid diagnosis, it does not qualify as an excuse, though it may give you some greater self-understanding. People are still going to react to you in the same manner they have been. I have seen many people who seem to think, “This means nothing is my fault!! I have a DISEASE! People should understand and not judge me.”
Not just me, but several researchers in the field believe it to be so because of co-morbidity. Mutations in the dopamine/dopamine receptors are implicated in ADHD (Daley. Child Care Health Development. 2005;32(2):193-204) and in autism (Yang. Int J Devl Neuroscience. 2007;25:69-85). On p. 196, Daley discusses ADHD co-morbidity seen with ODD, PDD, CD, depression and anxiety, although the reason for the co-morbidity is not clear.
The interview with Michael Wigler is interesting, but from what I’ve read, I don’t think that de novo mutations can tell the whole story. I think that when the are a causitive factor, they do so in the company of inherited traits that put the individual closer to the “tipping” point.
