Asperger's Syndrome's topics - tribe.net

see this movie!

moonmom — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 06:08:31 GMT

Mozart and the whale.
Never seen anything that got close to the angst and joy of love with neuro quirks.
I've been that girl, fallen for that guy...and made him crazy
sans the happy ending as yet
But maybe there's hope
free link to movie http://www.watch-movies.net/movies/mozart_and_the_whale/
or just go rent it!!!
I LOVED IT

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 2 replies

How many in one family!

bard — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 03:01:30 GMT

I have been told that one in every one hundred or so have aspergers. I have it and my ten year old son has it. Now I am watching a little boy just over two years old show the same Attributes. We have a fun Household at times, but usually we function pretty well!
So, we range from Sixty, Ten and Two......all males. No complaints!

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 10 replies

Aspies and eating (again)

Ol Soul Young Heart — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 05:03:00 GMT

My son, he's almost eleven, is a high functioning aspie who's almost 5 feet tall, very thin boned, and weighs about 55 lbs. The doctors (and his mom and me) are getting concerned because he's actually lost weight over the last few months, instead of gaining it. He's been checked for cilliac disease (via a slightly invasive stomach lining biopsy!) and wheat and milk allergies, but has shown negative (he hasn't had any diarrhea problems, in fact the opposite). The GI specialists says this is typical for Aspergers, and may end up putting him on a feeding tube from time to time! He's on medadate (and yes I don't like it, but I've seen his school and social functioning with and without, and concede that that it does help, at least for now)and has also asthma, but is otherwise healthy.
He's a great and generally cooperative kid, who will sometimes try new foods, but sticks to his fav's like cheese pizza, chicken fingers, fish sticks, pasta with Alfredo, cheese, hot dogs, etc. a very mid-western starch and protein kind of diet, with some brocolli and carrots now and then, plus cheetos, ice cream, and some chocolate. He doesn't eat fruit (ever), or lettuce and tomatoes, and it's a chore to get him to eat lunch, even though we pack it. When he's with me, it seems he eats enough that he shouldn't be losing weight, usually breakfast (waffles) and a snack or two plus a decent amount of dinner. His mom says she was the same way and build when she was young, but doesn't remember losing weight (except once when she was very sick), but had far less medical attention and wasn't diagnosed an aspie until after he was. So my theory is that he's not absorbing as much of his food as he could, perhaps because of some nutritional deficiency or related condition.
Does anyone have any experience with this? I'm open to anything that has even a vague basis in science or empirical efficacy. Most of the alt medical posts you read online say no wheat or milk, that it's bad for ("or even the cause of") autism/aspergers, but what am I to think when the standard medical tests show negative on those, and studies with a GFCF (gluten free casein free) diet don't show any corroboration of the claims, except in unscientific single-blind studies, and single patient testimonials? There are also some studies that point out that thin boned children lose even more bone thickness when you take them off of milk. So generally what I'm looking for here is not the web-viral hear-say alternative cures that are all over, but some real experiences with approaches, supplements, etc. that might improve either his appetite and or food absorption. Any info or leads on this would be greatly appreciated, thanks

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 2 replies

what happened to tribe? where is everyone?

moonmom — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 22:04:08 GMT

All my usual tribes have very old posts. It's like people wandered off. Any clue what it is?
I finally set my preferences to posts only, so I could see them all, but they are down to a trickle.
What is up?

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 12 replies

please come help me

prometheusPAN — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:39:17 GMT

i am an aspie and i have a new bbs. Its an open source think tank. Its going to take some aspies i think to get it running cuz most people
don't get it. NTs just hop in to political cults of personality, and don't think about taking responsibility to solve problems.

I really need help and this is a very awesome idea and opportunity for everybody. Esp for aspies since we are the cure for the common groupthink.

http://mytalktoday.com/forum/forum.php
http://mytalktoday.com/forum/index.php

thanks!

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 0 replies

Summary Results of Asperger's and Sexuality Survey

Hunakai — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 06:47:34 GMT

Hi all,
I've finally posted the summary results for the second version of the Survey on Asperger's Syndrome and Sexuality. You can find the link on the first page of my site, www.tantra-intimacy-aspergers.com.
I haven't written a report or summary yet, but thought I'd at least share the summary.
Would like to hear people's thoughts and reactions too.
Thanks!

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 14 replies

Noooooo......dating

moonmom — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 01:50:17 GMT

I think I might rather be alone then do this again.
What am I missing. Is it supposed to be fun. I think I hate it.
Now what?
And that date went well.
Ohmygod
I feel like I've been dipped in honey and rolled in ants!

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 9 replies

I believe I have been taken advantage of...

pmheart6 — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 00:30:54 GMT

Hi,

I believe I have been taken advantage of. I was dating a lady who's son had undiagnosed asperger.

She also self diagnosed me. (I just took an online quiz, and got a ~185/200. on the aspie and 18/200 on the non aspie.)

She kept me pushed to my stress limits, she spent my money - I had good credit. She didn't so we purchased things on my credit cards. We were going to pay for the goods together.

I feel 1. I was gullible since I never had a loving relationship 2. Since I trust what people say and take it for fact (that she would work harder next week to help pay for it).
3. I was pushed beyond my limits. I ended up lashing out, and she used that as an excuse to spend more.
4. I ended up feeling trapped.

I finally broke free, but have been paying for it ever since, and have not been able to pay it down

She has racked up ~$15k in debts for her half. That has caused my already high stress go through the roof.

Her current partner is trying to say they were "Gifts"
As of now, I only have about 3 more months to sue, but don't know how to go about it.

Any Ideas.

I have a suitcase of negatives and pictures from 30 years of her life. I can hold as ransom. Of course most of the ones she really wanted are already in Scrapbooks.

Thanks

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 4 replies

A Recent Blog -- Feedback Welcome

water_muse — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 06:56:32 GMT

Hi all,

I just wanted to note, for anyone here who might be interested, that I'm actively interested in feedback regarding this particular recent blog entry I posted regarding AS, my own personal history, the notion of "passing" for normal and my current research into autism and pursuit of a diagnosis.

http://people.tribe.net/water_muse/blog/aa16641c-7632-40ae-a39a-9f250c2739ec?_click_path=Application%5Btribe%5D.Tribe%5Ba3384e24-a77d-4eb6-ad48-1a48c0348d79%5D#comments

Thanks

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 0 replies

Communication exercise using AS as a model...

charmaine — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 07:22:22 GMT

A high school student has been given an assignment to develop a communication exercise, and present it in the form of an interactive game. He chose the social/communication interpersonal aspects of AS as his topic.

I rather liked the brainstorming notes that he came up with -- and have included them here to see what y'all think of his idea. :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I think it would be interesting to set up a scenario where one person is challenged to interact and communicate verbally and socially with others. Only there is a slight premise. The others speak a slightly different language, and have very different social/cultural customs, etc.

Many students are given cards which outline the intricacies in the proposed language, and their social customs. For example, the gesture of 'thumbs up' may be a huge negative put-down, such as the familiar gesture using the middle finger. Or perhaps, no matter what, one usually laughs when presented with a serious situation, and in this culture, this is the usual manner to diffuse the seriousness of the issue. Perhaps, a guy would be expected to smack another guy on the behind as a simple 'greeting' etc... etc...

Other students do not receive the cards.

Now, one student who is not given a card, is given the challenge to go thru a role-play where they are assigned to interact with a group of students who received the cards. They would have a particular goal to achieve, such as fitting in on the first day of a new job. But they alone have NO idea what the given 'rules of the game' or 'acceptable' and 'non-acceptable' words and actions are. They just do not really 'get' the nuances, and will quickly become lost.

How does this student feel?
Is the interaction 'difficult' and 'stressful'?
Does he become anxious when trying to get thru the social situation and achieve the given goal?
Does he feel unsure as to how to proceed?
Does he feel isolated?
Does he find it hard to make a connection with one or more of the others, due to the inevitable pitfalls?
Does he figure out the 'mistakes' he is making?
Does he desire to just pull away and finally 'throw in the towel' and give up?

Afterwards, discussion might include questions such as:

What were the pitfalls?
What may have made a positive difference in the outcome?
If the student had been able to be more 'aware' of all the different nuances, would it have made a difference in the interaction and the outcome?
How many students without cards were able to guess, or learn, what they were missing? etc...

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 0 replies

Hi everyone !

James — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 08:01:35 GMT

Hi everyone I'm James.
I joined tribe some time ago but I've just been lurking till now.
I am a diagnosed Aspie and I also hang around LiveJournal.
Great to meet everyone.

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 10 replies

hyper-sensitivity to little sounds

ॐ Moksha — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 10:31:42 GMT

I just thought I'd share this. I have read that people with AS can become quite agitated over little repetitive sounds in the environment that other people can tune out. The ticking of a clock is one example of this.

I find that for me it's chewing noises. I have yet to meet a single other person who is as bothered by them as I am. Often I can't even eat in the same room as other people for this reason. It also limits what jobs I can hold. Perhaps that's why I am making a career out of call centres - if it's your job to talk, usually there is a rule in place that you can't be eating anything at the same time. But sometimes people will stick gum in their mouths anyway. Others don't seem to even notice, but to me it's as loud as thunder. It's even affected my schooling - inevitably there will be at least one person in every classroom that will be chewing loudly on a daily basis. One class I quit attending; the other I actually failed because I would come home so exhausted from the stress of having to hear that all the time that I didn't have any energy left for homework. Even when I'm on the bus I have to select my seat based on who is chewing - I'll usually sit ahead of them so I don't have to see them, and I'll put my music on so I don't have to hear them.

I am on an anti-depressant called Mirtazapine (generic Remeron) which helps to calm me down a little but it doesn't quite take care of everything. I have been like this for at least 10 years, so the best I can hope for is to be in situations where things are quiet and controlled.

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 27 replies

Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's

charmaine — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 06:56:35 GMT

On the best-sellers list for hardcover nonfiction:

#10 Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's by John Elder Robinson

Has anyone read this?

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 5 replies

Aspies and Food

janathemama — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 13:54:04 GMT

My Aspie 18 year old don' eat. - She is bordering on anorexic, being 164 cm tall and only 46 kilo's (5foot 3 and 101 pounds?). But I cant seem to stir her appetite.

She keeps wanting to eat white sliced loaf with honey,- and that only once a day,- and nothing much else. I buy her healthy stuff she calims she likes,- but she says she 'just forgets' its there, and doesnt eat it, and often I have to throw it out..

Any advice?

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 32 replies

Interesting article about female Aspies!

poopylungstuffing — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 19:25:04 GMT

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/magazine/05autism-t.html?ei=5124&en=c14e5673246d52fa&ex=1343966400&adxnnl=1&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1186340500-OcaLs7s76mHGmbS9A3+55w

Wow! I really might be an aspie after all!

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 2 replies

Aspies in Books

neuroptik — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 06:58:27 GMT

I was going to reply to the "Aspies in Movies" thread, but it was already pointed out that books should be a separate thread.

Geek note: I actually did a ctrl+f in my browser to see if books had been mentioned, and whether others found their mention in that thread appropriate. Yes, I'd do that even if I weren't the moderator of the tribe. =p

I'm re-reading Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. It's a great convoluted tale, and has what I believe are great laughs, especially for Aspies.

One of the main characters is such as Aspie: Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse.

Has anyone else read this, and know what I'm talking about? =)

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 0 replies

A few questions

water_muse — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 00:49:30 GMT

Hi all,

I apologize in advance for the blundering I'm fairly certain I'm about to do.

With some initial reservations I've come recently to the conclusion that I am probably autistic. I've been doing some research to try and figure out what it means for me specifically. The most important thing for me to learn right now is how to use this new information to resolve some issues in my life, mostly related to jobs, money (or lack thereof), child support and family law.

So the way I found myself here is that several weeks ago I had a weird conversation with my mother. I'm currently 32 and I have 3 children who live with their mother in the Dallas/Ft Worth area (I'm currently in Austin). I've perceived my mother for many years as being rather a hypochondriac and so when she talks about health issues I tend to tune her out. There were two reasons I didn't in this case. The first is that she described what seemed (at least to me) to be fairly poignant "symptoms" that I apparently grew out of at an early age, like sudden memory loss or being in trance states in which I was unresponsive to pin pricks (no pain response). Basically something like a combination of sleepwalking and talking in your sleep except that there wasn't any way to wake me up because I wasn't attached to the pain response or other senses that would normally wake a sleeping person. The latter is that it occurred to me that an official diagnosis could potentially be helpful in dealing with my ongoing job/money/legal problems (they're all closely related) which have been on-going at a minimum since at least 2000 when I split up with my ex-wife and which in August last year had me so totally frustrated that I was seriously considering suicide (only the 2nd time in my life that's happened - the first was in Navy boot-camp in 1997 which is an experience I'm grateful of for various reasons I won't get into right now). I started researching Asperger's Syndrome and have discovered that many of the experiences that seem to be fairly common amongst aspies are experiences I'd mentioned to people for many years but never considered that they might be related and largely thought they were just innocuous, individual peculiarities of my own. For example I'd told people for a while before researching AS that I don't really know what hunger "feels like" and so I've developed a habit of eating regularly because if I don't then I just keep going until I basically fall over and it seems like a lot of aspies have had similar experiences. Both my ex and my current girlfriend have always complained about my being alternatively very distracted and at the same time very focused on what I'm doing, to the point that it's difficult to get my attention much of the time. This seems to fit into the category of the narrow focused interest that creates savant-ish skills in the chosen pursuits of aspies. I've also talked (even bitched sometimes) about being "honest to a fault" so much so that it's caused a number of problems for me over the years. Many years ago I remember being turned down for a job at Pizza Hut because their psych. evaluation (yeah, at Pizza Hut) said that "no one is that honest" and therefore I must be a habitual liar.

Shortly before I started researching AS I started a thread in the Extreme Honesty tribe to try and locate others who may have had similar experiences with regard to the honesty thing. Having not become aware of AS or that this seems to be a common experience for aspies I didn't have any real foundation for understanding or explaining the issue I've been having and I ended up getting a lot of "you're just playing the victim card" from some of the folks in that tribe (including assumptions that I'm a liar apparently)... which I gather is fairly indicative of some of the issues related to NT's expecting certain types of language or behavior and aspies being somewhat challenged to provide it via the experience of "what comes naturally for you must be learned by myself the way you would learn to play the piano". Having no prior exposure to information about AS of course I was routing around in the dark for a way to explain my experiences, i.e. trial and a lot of error.

Now the whole reason for my having started that thread in the first place, in spite of the perceived "bitching" going on, was to connect with others who might have had similar experiences so that I could maybe learn something that might help me in the future, because it seems fairly obvious that I've been unable to learn how to overcome these social challenges on my own. In looking back over the course of my adult life specifically, it seems to me that at least half the times I've been fired from jobs it's been the result of social blundering on my part related to my being challenged to understand when and how and why people tell "little white lies". Hell, I'm challenged even to understand self-censorship. I'm just a bad liar, so when I censor myself it always feels like people can tell that there's something I'm not saying and it seems fairly often that they assume it's something way worse than it actually is. I don't have any proof to back it up, just anecdotes about how people behave, like the fact that during a set at a local comedy club some guy in the audience felt like the appropriate response to my saying "I'm bisexual" even though he didn't know me and didn't have any reason to believe he would ever know me, was to start loudly looking for crosses and holy water. I'm not saying this to "bitch" for it's own sake -- just that these are the sorts of examples I have to work with. People overreact, I know they do, yet I have a difficult time understanding why or what to or how they'll overreact and so it makes censoring myself very difficult even though I may want to for their sake if not mine.

And the social challenges are a huge problem for me -- they have been since at least 2000 when my ex and I split up because of the child support. Without there being any kind of conspiracy, the judge refused me my right to appear in court and a boss who'd fired me testified in court that I'd "abandoned" the job the day after my wife kicked me out of the house. Looking back on everything that had transpired with that particular job (like all the others), it all makes sense, I understand why things happened the way they did, why I became unpopular with my coworkers and why I was fired (although not why my boss claimed that I had ditched). It's just that 20/20 hindsight didn't help me then and it's still not helping me now. In the intervening years I've done everything I could think of to get good jobs so I could pay the child support and it's not worked for me. I lost several jobs to the companies I worked for collapsing in the economy (post-dot-com) and several more to my own social challenges so my average income since 2000 has been about half what the state insists it must be, bringing me currently over $70k in arrears child support. In 2000 or 2001 shortly after the child support was awarded the state suspended my driver's license for non-payment of child support, which just this last month prevented me from interviewing for what looked like a great programming job here in Austin because their office is 17 miles from the nearest bus-stop (and even that bus-stop is all the way across town) so the owner of the business didn't even bother responding when I emailed him back to tell him I was interested and could work remotely. I wasn't looking for programming jobs, he contacted me because he was looking for a ColdFusion expert to lead a team here in town and there aren't very many people with my background in that field. I stopped looking for software jobs a few months ago because I realized that I couldn't think about pursuing them without becoming violent. At least not in the present tense. This was following having been arrested and spent a night in jail for driving with a suspended license, which if you read the fine print means it's illegal for me to be poor, particularly when you consider that I've received letters from the state threatening to throw me in jail for non-payment of child support, which was the reason they took my license to begin with. So basically, 6 years of working next to and being an important resource for people with six-figure incomes while I lived in slum-like hovels with a continual threat of jail (for not having better finances) has got me to a point where I can't function in that environment currently. (I'm really not "bitching to bitch", I'm just explaining why I'm not working in software and doing my best to explain why I think autism may be at the root of what I've been "doing wrong" thus far.)

I know this can work. I've seen plenty of examples of people talking about autistic people who've been very successful, including speculation about Bill Gates, etc. I just need to make it work for me. Right now I'm working at a gas station down the street while the decade of work I've done as a software engineer goes to waste. The gas station job is problematic too because the TABC have been hammering the store where I work and busted someone just before I was hired and then again just a couple days ago less than 24 hours after a previous "sting" at the same store failed (when the district manager was at the register). People who work for the chain are turning down offers for overtime at my store even if they would normally love to get the overtime because they don't want to be arrested like the girl they busted a couple days ago who was from another store. I've been getting a lot of overtime myself, unfortunately primarily because they're having serious problems keeping the store staffed, and several of my recent shifts I've been alone on shift during a 2nd shift on the weekend when there are supposed to be 2-3 people in the store to handle the traffic. The real issue here though is the concern that I could be arrested on felony charges for failing to pass the undercover cop test, at which point the prosecuting attorneys would also have the option of reviving my felony driving with suspended license charge (which they may or may not do) that I'd already plead no-contest on in order to get the "be a good boy and don't get in trouble and we'll drop the charges" deal.

So here are the questions I've been having real difficulty answering through my own research.

1) What tests are used to produce an official diagnosis of AS or "high functioning autism" (which I'm apt to think is the same thing)? I took the online test, although I'm aware of the issues related to people learning coping mechanisms, etc. (Plus the results made little sense to me -- if the scale is 1-4 how do some traits get average scores of 4.3?)

2) How easy is it today to get an official diagnosis as an adult? I found this blog article that makes it seem fairly straightforward: http://wesnerm.blogs.com/net_undocumented/2003/09/asperger_syndro.html

3) What are the pros and cons of having an official diagnosis?

4) How does the law treat an official diagnosis of AS? Is there potential for me to receive any kind of disability compensation or relief from the child-support debt? I spoke with a guy here in Austin just the other day who said his wife was able to forgive most of his child support debt (and that apparently the state couldn't do anything about it) yet my ex tells me that when she tried to do the same thing she just got treated very badly by the attorney general's office who told her she wasn't allowed to do that, even though the over $70k I ostensibly owe is at least an order of magnitude more than the amount the state has spent on aid for them (food stamps, tanf, etc), with much of what they've spent having been already "paid back" through previous taxes and child support payments.

5) Has anyone found that there are constructive environments in which it's helpful if your employer knows you're autistic before they hire you?

Thanks

p.s. Aside from the gas station job I've also been doing several other things to try and bring in some more income, seeking work as an illustrator or graphic artist and running this cafepress store http://www.cafepress.com/anupwardspiral , none of which have broken even yet financially.

p.p.s. Are there any other ColdFusion programmers in this tribe?

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 9 replies

New take on Aspergers

brentt — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 00:21:14 GMT

I was going to write this article but someone beat me to it.

http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Aspergers

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 6 replies

Asperger Syndrome and serious illness?

Hunakai — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 13:41:08 GMT

Got any thoughts on how you'd handle having a serious illness?
How would you want concerned friends and relatives to act? How could they best help?
What would be your way of getting and processing info about your illness and treatment?
How would you want your emotional needs dealt with?

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 1 reply

Aspies or Autistic folks in the movies

poopylungstuffing — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 22:55:35 GMT

Can anybody name characters they have spotted in movies who seem like they might be Aspies..or otherwise within the autistic spectrum..whether intentional or non-intentional?
I mean some are obvious..but others might be less obvious..

My favorite is Harpo Marx.
My second favorite is Gelsomina, the heroine of Fellini's La Strada...as she seems that way to me.

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 68 replies

aspie telepathic memos to pets

azee — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 04:51:25 GMT

1. When I say move, it means go someplace else. It does not mean switch positions with each other so there are still two of you in the way.

2. The dishes on the floor are yours and contain your food. All other dishes are mine and contain my food. (Please note: Placing a paw print in the middle of my dinner does not stake your claim on it, nor do I find it aesthetically pleasing in any way).

3. The stairway was not designed by NASCAR and is not a racetrack. Beating me to the bottom is not the object and tripping me doesn't help because I fall faster than you can run.

4. I cannot buy anything bigger than a king size bed Locate your inner beast and remember that sleeping animals can actually curl up in a ball, so it is not necessary to sleep perpendicular to each other, stretched out to the fullest extent possible.

5. My compact discs are not miniature Frisbees.

6. For the last time, humans like to use the bathroom alone. If by some miracle I beat you there and manage to get the door shut, it won't help to claw, whine, meow, bite the knob, or get your paw under the edge and try to pull the door open. (Trust me, I have been using the bathroom for years...canine or feline attendance is not mandatory)

7. When you see me asleep on the couch, it is not funny to make a sudden leap onto my stomach and drop a chew toy, bone or jingle ball on my crotch, no matter how much that makes the other family members laugh.

8. DOG: Don't think for a minute that making a sad face and whimpering pathetically will get you out of trouble when I find a puddle of pee on the carpet. The face and whimpering only validate that you knew it was wrong when you did it.

9. CAT: My sitting down to bite into a juicy sandwich is not a signal for you to begin gagging loudly and then hocking up the most disgusting hair ball in history.

10. DOG AND CAT: The proper order is kiss me, THEN go lick yourself. I cannot stress this enough. To pacify you, I have posted the following message on our front door:

RULES FOR NON-PET OWNERS WHO VISIT AND COMPLAIN ABOUT OUR PETS:

1. They live here; you don't.

2. If you don't want their hair on your clothes, stay off the furniture.

3. I like my pet better than I like most people.

4. To you, it's an animal; To me, it is an adopted child who is short, hairy, walks on all fours and is speech-challenged.

5. Dogs and cats are better than kids. They eat less, are easier to train, usually come when called, don't ask for money, never drive your car, don't hang out with losers, don't drink or smoke, don't worry about the latest fashions, don't wear your clothes and don't need a gazillion dollars for college. And if they get pregnant, you can sell the results.

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 0 replies

Natural Remedies for Hyperactivity

Thu, 17 May 2007 19:20:04 GMT

Right now I've decided to use a more natural method to calming my 7 year old. I'm giving him an herbal type of liquid called Valarian root mixed in with his liquid vitamins. I feel this is a much better approach to this problem than what Western Medicine has to offer. It's safe too and doesn't cause halucinations.

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 36 replies

aspie teen and autonomy

cooldawn — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 19:13:00 GMT

When I was in jr high I took the bus or walked wherever I wanted to go. My son is getting to that age where he wants to "do stuff" and I can't (or don't want to) shuttle him around all the time, so I got him a bus pass last week. I kinda worry about him getting into his book and not paying attention to where he is but he has a cell phone to call in case of emergency or whatever. The times he's ridden the bus he's been fine - only missed his stop once, but the bus driver was nice enough to get him headed in the right direction. Part of me is afraid I may be presenting him with more than he can handle, but part of me feels like he needs a way to be a bit more autonomous (he'll be 14 in a couple of months).... thoughts?

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 5 replies

Asexuality?

Hunakai — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 21:55:07 GMT

Hi,
I heard recently from someone (not a Tribe member) who had been diagnosed with Aspergers by more than one clinician. However, he seems to have an additional "set" of "issues' (god, the language is clumsy! sorry!) that seem to be in the realm of asexuality as well. But his therapist told him that Aspies don't have sex drives. I told him this was not true, as I was aware of many people with Asperger's being quite sexually active with partners.

I sent him a link to the Asexuality site -- www.asexuality.org
just in case he might feel some resonance with the information there. And this seems to be an excellent site with an active community, very positive about asexuality.

But is there, in fact, a higher incidence of asexuality in Aspie and Autistic people? I have no idea, and have just begun to research. Any ideas or information will be very helpful.

Thanks!

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 56 replies

new tribes

prometheusPAN — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 00:08:04 GMT

ever want to participate in a politics tribe but know that the NT bickering isn't something you are up for?

ever want to particpate in a politics tribe that actually does have rules and enforces them against personal
attacks?

i just created a new tribe for politics, and i am hoping that you folks will support me by joining and posting
a batch of threads.

also, i hope that this thread will remain open for people to invite people to assorted tribes...

i just found a few tribes last night that i wish i had know of sooner. maybe you know of some tribes that
might be more aspie freindly than most... let us know where they are...
-----
greetings. You may or may not have noticed the recent conflict on the politics
tribe. I imagine a lot of people haven't read that tribe in a long time, since
its become a troll tribe. Inna just booted me off of that tribe,
after contributing fuel to the trolls flaming of me personally.
(innas answer to my complaint that there was out of control personal attacks
was to attack me personally.)

I am starting a new tribe for discussion of politics without trolls
and without ad hominems. I will probably be using rules much like the
ones inna has posted, but, unlike her, i will actually enforce those rules.

I am interested in discussing anything about politics, and i am more than
happy to accomodate different points of veiw and different political
affiliations.

If you are interested in a reasoned, meaningful, and polite discussion on
political issues, please come join my tribe. Thanks so very much,
peace and light,
prometheuspan.

ps, sorry,
i would use the invite system, but for some reason the system has now blocked me from
using it.

http://tribes.tribe.net/truthosaurs

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 0 replies

Classes for ASpies

teamnoir — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 23:26:50 GMT

I keep posting about how wonderful NLP has been for me and how useful it can be for aspies. So it occurs to me to ask...

If there existed classes for aspies, or workshops, what sorts of things would you like to learn in such a class? Flirting? How to navigate cocktail parties? Job interviews? If you could write a title or a syllabus for a 1 day workshop for aspies that you'd like to take... what would it look like?

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 4 replies

I'm not dead and I haven't been abducted by aliens....

Michael — Thu, 24 May 2007 02:51:01 GMT

Yep... So wassup my people's - I'm back.... Tight....

Peace,
-Mike

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 3 replies

tick tock tao

prometheusPAN — Sun, 20 May 2007 08:35:24 GMT

Get eight freinds together and try it.
If you practice only a few hours, you should start having at the very least an awesome choral group. And if you go on for a while, you should start making transitions into Theta states of consciousness.

This is called Glossolia. It is a reconstruction based on an intrinsic understanding of several key principles about how mind works. I won't try to explain why it works, I will just tell you that it does.

prometheuspan
4/19/2001 4:27 PM 2 out of 31

The internal dialogue structure of Theta States of consciousness is harmonic-
musical. We know this as people often experience "hearing a chorus of Angels"
when a Theta condition is induced.

Drumbeats at the same cycles per second as a given state are powerful cues
that can help us to enter altered states of consciousness.

The following is a methodology for entering Theta states of consciousness, designed
by yours truly.

prometheuspan
4/19/2001 4:28 PM 3 out of 31

Trybl Vortx Part Two, The Prequal.

Drummers Parlance.

In theory, the Trybl Vortx system by itself should work fine. It is an absolute
description of the variables involved, and a total solution. In practice,
singing like angels is too hard. The requisite skill, or understanding involved
is too far removed from human experience.

Thus, we have "Drummers Parlance", Both a pre-quel game, and a description of a
very specific form of communication.
Drummer's parlance is simply the communication verbally of a pattern or
patterns, which can then receive tonal or musical counterparts. Drummers'
parlance in the strictest sense is non-tonal, or rhythm only. Sounds are
representations of various durations of time.

The duration of time covered by a "A" is a .1 amount of time. The duration of a
"Ta" is.2 duration of time. The duration of a "Ka, or a "Te" is also a .2
representation of time. Then a "Toom" is a .3 duration of time. These
definitions can be stretched, but the general idea is there.

Then, those kinds of syllables are arranged to count time in pattern. The
pattern repeats, and that is what gives us a "Full measure" of time.

For instance:

Tecka Tecka Toom Toom Te Ka Toom Ta La Toom Teck Teck Ta Ta

Tecka Toooma Tecka Ta Te Ka Ta Tooma la Teck Toom Teck la

Ta Tecka Ta Toom Ta Ta Ta La Tecka Tecka Ta Tooma Ta Ta Ta

Toooma Toooma Ta Ta Ta Toom Ta Toom Ta La La Ta Tooma Ta La

Elata Ta Lata Eee La Ta Ee Lata Tooma Ala La Ee La Tecka Tecka

Tee Tooma Tee Tooma Ta Ta Tecka Tooma Elata Tao Teck Toom Tecka Tao

Ticka Ticka Tock Tao Ticka Tooma Tock Toom

Tick Tock Tao Tao Ticka Tao Tecka

prometheuspan
4/19/2001 4:30 PM 4 out of 31

This gets us to 29. I am going to go with the idea that you get my point before
I count to a thousand.
The point is that we have now created 100 "phrases" if we count that high, which
are one or two beats long. The Lengths of the various beats is variable and is
the most interesting part of all of this. If we say that it all just goes from 1
to ten, then Tao-Aum is 13 counts. Rhythms we feel comfortable with are at their
simplest 3 beats long. The heartbeat is Ta-silence-Doom. More complex rhythms go
up into the 20 beat range but not much higher. Any set pattern should repeat
within 20 beats or the human mind won't be able to comprehend it.
Tecka Tecka Toom Toom is six beats, and in the time of the second exploration,
4,1,4,1,5,5 counts long. 20 counts. A pattern at 23 beats;
Tecka Tecka Toom Toom Elati Tati Toom Toom Tecka Tecka Elati Tati Toom.

With a count of 4,1,4,1,5,5,2,1,2,2,2,2,5,5,4,1,4,1,1,2,2,5 for sub- total of
10, 10,11,10,10,10. And a total of 61 counts.

So the point of all of this is to get a mental picture of what is possible for
different kinds of rhythm patterns.
The Idea of drummers parlance is that I should be able to say to a drummer,
"Give me: Tecka Tecka Toom Toom, Elati Tati Toom Tao" And have them go, "Give
that to me three times." And I Go "Tecka Tecka Toom Toom, Elati Tati Toom Tao
Tecka Tecka Toom Toom, Elati Tati Toom Tao Tecka Tecka Toom Toom, Elati Tati
Toom Tao Tecka Tecka Toom Toom, Elati Tati Toom Tao" And Then They are doing it
with me, and it sounds good, because we are both in the same pattern.
Then, I can play my flute inside of the pattern of the drummer, and the next
thing you know, we sound like a rocking duet.

That's only part one of Drummers parlance and it's the most interesting half.
The other half is even more annoying and more like an exercise but it really
works.
This other half is basically as simple as "counting time."

123123123123123123123123123123123
123,123,123,123,123,123,123,123,123
12341234123412341234123412341234
1234,1234,1234,1234,1234,1234,1234,
12345, 12345,12345,
12,1234,123,123,1234,
123,12,123,1234, 12,
And so forth on and on into infinity.

By learning Drummers Parlance, we are learning to think in the kinds of patterns
that we have to use later on in Tick Tock Tao.

prometheuspan
4/19/2001 4:31 PM 5 out of 31

The rest becomes a question of what you are trying to express. The answer is of
course that you are trying to express an emotion, which is really just a state
of consciousness. Realizing this, we are looking at 4 states of consciousness,
and realizing that certain tempos, beats, and tones describe each of these
states. Thus, music can be created specifically to harmonize the individual into
a given state of consciousness.
(But this hasn't been done as far as I know yet, only frauds have tried it,
people who had no real understanding of states of consciousness, or not enough
skill.)

Where do we go from here? We start a pattern, and we show how any such pattern
evolves musically and harmonically, how slow beats have within them the seeds of
faster beats and how fast beats are tied to slower beats. Using the eight roles,
any given pattern can become a total song.

The entire process is in a sense best accomplished in a large group of people.
The 4 track is a great tool, but we don't have 20 earphones and 20 plug-ins for
those earphones for 20 people to participate in recording. So we get the people
singing first, and then once we are really rocking we make our first sample
recording. Then, if we want to, we take that to the 4 track and add in whatever
we want to. Since we don't have 20 people, the best thing to do is to go with as
many as we can get.
The main thing is that everybody has to do his or her homework. They have to get
a real sense of what we are doing away from it all. They have to actually read
the form. Otherwise it's just playing around. The other thing is we have to have
an understanding that we approach things from a very serious level at first.
Sure it leads into fun, but without focus it disintegrates into noise.
I'd love to be able to hang out for 60 years and play with everybody, but I
can't afford to. What has to happen instead is people have to take responsibly
and seriously the information I am giving them for 30 minutes at a time a few
times a week, and then in a week or two it will be the Angelic Choir.
And then we can release the forms and the structure as just a tool that got us
to the place of being able to play at a more sophisticated level.

Thank you for your time and energy. May peace love and light win within us all.
PrometheusPAN

prometheuspan
4/19/2001 4:32 PM 6 out of 31

>TRYBL VORTX (Part One)
Tick Tock Tao
Is a specific form for improvisational singing with a group of people. Using
this structure, We move from simple to complex, with each individual adding
another level of complexity. By attuning very specifically to the pattern as it
all ready exists, we evolve the pattern without loosing each other. Thus we can
be together as long as we use the structure.

The Idea here is that we have modeled the timing and harmonics relationships
that naturally exist with each other, and come up with "parts" or "roles" that
reflect these relationships. Then, we model the natural evolutionary path of a
pattern, as it moves from complexity to simplicity, and we find that in essence,
these roles have an order to them in terms of who follows who and what follows
what.

In reality Tick Tock Tao is thus nothing new. It is simply a way of organizing
things that are well understood all ready. When we look at Tribal cultures all
over the world (or what is left of them after being effected by the global
hive... We find that they have very specific formats for social interaction in
different states of consciousness. Whereas we, the global hive, have protocols
structure or format for existing in only one state of consciousness.

The words "Tick Tock Tao" are culled from inside of a trance space. The entire
sequence was at one time used as a trance cue to enter a specific state of
consciousness. The meaning of the words is as follows. Tick refers to time.
Visualize a clock. Music is all about time and timing relationships. Rhythm is
in a sense just various ways of counting time.
Tock has a double meaning, including Talk. Talking, communicating. Tick Tock Tao
is a way of learning to communicate musically, rather than a way of creating
entertainment. We try to treat music from the very different perspective of the
shaman. We have two hemispheres in our brain, and one side is verbal while the
other is musical. The fact of our attunement to pitch and the ability of our
voices to sing indicates that at one point in time in human history, we sang to
each other as a form of communication
I have taken this presupposition one step further, and have tried to understand
how music can be used as a genuine shamans tool for facilitating altered states
of consciousness. Specifically, in Theta states of consciousness, Those states
associated with spiritual experience and perception of subtle levels of reality,
we can expect the human animal to have communicated musically, rather than
phonetically. The reason is simple and is about personal experience.
In Deep Theta states, the energy of the electrical impulses in the brain comes
into phase. Millions of signals that in Beta states of consciousness are just
going off in their own way in their own time and their own direction all
suddenly come together "in phase" or in harmony. The hum that is experienced is
audible to the ear, as the electrical output of the brain no longer scatters
itself in patterns of interference but amplifies itself in patterns of sustained
harmony.

prometheuspan
4/19/2001 4:33 PM 7 out of 31

Tao refers to the idea that we are indeed changing our state of consciousness
through the use of this exercise. Specifically, we are moving from the yang
waking state to the yin waking state. Thus, the Tao of consciousness is
spinning.

The entire poem:
"Tick Talk Tao" said the Druid to the Drow,
"Be here now and keep your vow to remember.
Do you remember, before you were born?
Leaping through the barley and dancing in the corn?"

"Tick Tock Tao" Said the Faery in the Tree
To the Cave monk sentinel of the cave monk Key
"It's the birds and the bees and the omens I see
That opens the portal of perception to me.

(The poem is an instruction for the ego wall to disintegrate allowing the memory
of pre-mortal existence to come into consciousness.)

Drummers Parlance
Tick, Tock, Ti, Ta, Tia, Ticka, Tocka, Toom, Tooma, are all sounds that are used
in verbal communications of drummers' patterns. This is called "Drummers
Parlance" and is a reality model that was presented to me by a master drummer.
The drumming in the community in which I was operating vastly improved as he
introduced the idea to us.

The Essential Idea
The idea is simple. We can communicate the drum patterns verbally and
phonetically. If we can't do that, we shouldn't be drumming. (At least according
to him.)
The reason is that verbal and phonetic communication proves that understanding
exists about pattern. Otherwise there isn't necessarily and in fact true
understanding. Most drum circles are very chaotic and a-synchronized to the
trained ear.

Instructions
In Tick Tock Tao, there are eight roles. The roles are organized into "Alpha"
and "Beta." Which means "Leader" and "follower." (To some degree. As you will
see, the relationship between Alpha and Beta oftentimes gives the Beta more
freedom and more responsibility too.) The role types are Aummer, Drummer,
Singer, and Whisperer.
These roles represent the natural evolution of pattern. We go from tone, to
rhythm, to song, and out away from order into chaos. Thus, the Aummers start,
and are given time to warm up, then the Drummers Start, and are given time to
warm up, then the singers start, and are given time to warm up, and then the
whisperers start. Nobody is really waiting for them, at least not until level
two.
The Whisperers have a special role. They perform slowly the evolutionary path
of all three other types of roles. When they finish, if the groove is still
going, the Aummers become Whisperers. They get to drum, and then sing, adding
their own parts to the more
>

prometheuspan
4/19/2001 4:35 PM 8 out of 31

complex pattern. Once the Aummers have been singing for a while, The drummers
should feel free to sing also.
In this way, the pattern evolves into complexity.
On the other hand, especially while we are learning how to do Tick Tock Tao,
what will often happen is that the pattern will start to break apart. The
Whisperers are the pattern police. If the pattern starts to fly apart, their job
is to make sure that it flies apart completly, blows itself open wide, and thus,
the energy is released.
Even really rocking grooves must eventually come to an end, and it is the
whisperers job to raise the energy out into chaos and celebration. That way a
new groove can start.

I have written role cards to make this very easy. Each person receives a role
card. (If there are more than eight people, buddy up with the person next to
you, unless that person is a singer, in which case, play drummers.)

Tick Tock Tao in the most formal sense does things the hard way by going from
toning to rhythm. It may be easier to start out with a simple pattern of some
kind.

Alpha Aummer
Everything begins with you. You breathe deep and hold a base tone.
For three full breaths, The Beta Aummer matches you. The Beta Aummer Tones the
same tone exactly, and covers you while you breathe. Then The Beta Aummer picks
a new tone, and the two of you take turns. When the drumming starts, you will
begin oscillating between the first tone and the second tone, for the duration
of a full measure. For instance, the drummer will say
"Ticka Ticka tocka teck toom tock
doon" The drummer will do this over and over, and you will tone for the duration
of that pattern a single tone and then another single tone, back and forth. As
things evolve, you can bring in more single tones for the full measure of that
pattern. Eventually, once the singers are really going, you can chop the pattern
into smaller chunks and tone for the duration of those.
Your part may be boring for you, but remember, you are helping everyone else
keep time.
In level two of the game, you will pass your card on and receive a new card, and
a new role. Maintain your old role until you fully understand your new role.
Then switch roles.
Remember to listen to the tone the Beta Aummer gives you, and try to take turns
breathing and toning with them. (Take your breathe on a given beat.)

prometheuspan
4/19/2001 4:38 PM 9 out of 31

Alpha Aummer
Everything begins with you. You breathe deep and hold a base tone.
For three full breaths, The Beta Aummer matches you. The Beta Aummer Tones the
same tone exactly, and covers you while you breathe. Then The Beta Aummer picks
a new tone, and the two of you take turns. When the drumming starts, you will
begin oscillating between the first tone and the second tone, for the duration
of a full measure. For instance, the drummer will say
"Ticka Ticka tocka teck toom tock
doon" The drummer will do this over and over, and you will tone for the duration
of that pattern a single tone and then another single tone, back and forth. As
things evolve, you can bring in more single tones for the full measure of that
pattern. Eventually, once the singers are really going, you can chop the pattern
into smaller chunks and tone for the duration of those.
Your part may be boring for you, but remember, you are helping everyone else
keep time.
In level two of the game, you will pass your card on and receive a new card, and
a new role. Maintain your old role until you fully understand your new role.
Then switch roles.
Remember to listen to the tone the Beta Aummer gives you, and try to take turns
breathing and toning with them. (Take your breathe on a given beat.)

prometheuspan
4/19/2001 4:39 PM 10 out of 31

Alpha Singer
You listen to the Alpha Drummer, whose pattern is slower than the beta drummer.
You listen to the tones created by the Aummers. You Mimic the Alpha drummer
until you are sure you have the pattern. Then, you begin to add tones. Your
first tone should be the same as the alpha Aummers, and your last tone should be
the same as the beta Aummer. Next, you fill in that rhythm with tones. You
create a song that becomes the master tonal pattern. If level two is achieved,
your choices become the
Underlying pattern that everyone else follows in the creation of song.
Remember that you are listening to two elements and blending them. You are
listening to the rhythm first, to pick it up, and then to the tones the Aummers
are using, so that it all stays in harmony and key.
Synthesizing these two levels is the hardest job in Tick Tock Tao and one that
it can't work without. If you end up feeling overwhelmed by the task,
Switch roles with somebody else.
The difficulty of this job is made easier in that your song is with the slow
beat, not the fast one. This is very key to your success. Pay attention only to
the Alpha Drummer,
Not the Beta Drummer. Beta Singer
You listen to the Alpha Singer. They will be singing a slow song. You mimic
their song until you are certain that you have it. You will notice that they are
in beat with the alpha drummer and in tone with the Aummers. Put your attention
next on the Beta Drummer, who is your pal. They are doing a beat that is faster
than the Alpha Drummer. Separating yourself now psychologically from the alphas,
follow the same pattern you have but bring more beats into it and evolve it so
that it is in time with the faster tempo.
This skill is all about taking the singing pattern and adding "flams" and
"perks' to it. If the long pattern is going "Teck Tooma" while the fast pattern
is going "Elata Ladoonta"
Then you are simply adding two syllables. Maybe its "TaTaTa Tooma
Tecka Tooma" for the fast pattern. Now you are essentially multiplying two by
three, three syllables for each of the main two.
Each Of the Alpha singers tones becomes the base note in a chord.
You are filling in the rest of the notes to form a whole chord.

As a Whisperer you mimic the Aummers. This is your chief job, but of all the
jobs, your job changes the most. If the pattern makes it to a full on groove,
with the beta singer completely in for a while, you go ahead and begin to evolve
along the path. Spending

prometheuspan
4/19/2001 4:43 PM 11 out of 31

If you are paying attention you will have questions about things that got accidentally cut, and then I will be motivated to explain a bit more.
If not, I'd be wasteing my time...

This all appliesto telepathy rather directly, as the art of MIMICKRY that you have to employ, of listening to the group, of not letting your ego interere, but rather, giving over to the true center, these are all the same skills you need for telepathy.

Further, if you attain theta this way, in a social environment, two things will happen.
1. You will be able to hear the angelic choir
2. You will have limited telepathy with the people you are doing it with.

Good luck.
If ANYBODY actually takes me seriously and does it, you could have profound
results in only the next few hours.

I have for myself eight cards, on which I have the eight roles written down.

Thats a great way to go, as then you can switch roles without even talking about it.

DJ43
4/20/2001 11:40 AM 12 out of 31

I take you quite seriously, and I am going to have to print these posts out so that I have them permanently.
However, it will be days before I can attempt to do the actual process, not a few hours, sorry.
Thank you for so much detail.
One question, just so I am clear, I need to be sure to gather seven people together, or may it be a number less than eight including myself?
Respectfully,
Denise

Prometheuspan
4/20/2001 9:34 PM 13 out of 31

There are eight roles in the game as described, I think about four is the bare essential absolute minimum. There is no real maximum, but you will ahve to work out organizing it yourself.

You can easilly have two or three people fill each role.
Group them together of course, and make sure they follow each other.

Best of luck!!

And thank you so very much for getting to it at all!!

The real take off for this area will be the results you achieve.
two more weeks for the area and counting...

iammeinabody
4/21/2001 3:30 PM 14 out of 31

Thanks for the info. It clarified some experiances and gives me something to work on. I'm having a great time trying to keep up on all this. Now I just need to expand time so to include practice. K

prometheuspan
4/21/2001 3:52 PM 15 out of 31

yes, but does anybody have any questions?

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 0 replies

Using Aspergers to deflect

brentt — Sat, 12 May 2007 20:07:54 GMT

http://youtube.com/watch?v=rbgUjmeC-4o

This kid seems to be using his diagnoses to deflect encouragement to read (study?).

Since when is having an aversion to reading a part of AS symptoms?

It sounds like he has ADD caused by too much TV watching to me. When I was his age I was the same way. I could not sit down and read a book for the life of me, and watched TV all the time. Reading actually made me anxious. Attributed to having ADD. Then I stopped watching TV, because I had no where to watch it for a few months, my mind became much less muddled, and eventually I became a voracious reader.

Having an aversion to reading and liking TV instead seems to be common to NT and AS. This kid seems to be using his AS diagnoses to deflect encouragment to read, and it kind of upsets me. Because in the comments there are a bunch of people saying "I want to show this to my student with AS". But how many of those kids, like most kids, NT and AS, are looking for any excuse to watch TV instead of study are going to try and use this pseudo-symptom as an excuse to deflect encouragment to read?

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 5 replies

pack deltas pack psychology school

prometheusPAN — Sun, 13 May 2007 07:02:51 GMT

this is a tribe i have created to explore pack psychology and to help people who have a hard time
in NT social situations.

Please come post your insights and help to create some interesting and useful threads.

http://tribes.tribe.net/packdeltas

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 0 replies

Anyone suspect...?

brentt — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 04:14:12 GMT

Seeing the video that the VT gunman sent into the police, I suspect he may have been an aspie. Isolated, unable to connect with people, and had little awareness of whats socially acceptable (with his stories). Just a hunch.

There was a random shooter a few years in my area who actually was an aspie.

Has anyone seen anything in the news about it? I mean, he obviously had some other problems, but I wouldn't be suprised if he was aspie.

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 31 replies

Aspie World

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 07:44:36 GMT

Let's give ourselves a break from soul-searching, and have some fun in this thread.

What would a world be like where the AS / NT ratio which we have now were reversed?

The Olympics and Ballroom Dancing would take a knock for a start............. :)

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 8 replies

How Accommodating Should People Be?

ॐ Moksha — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 04:53:07 GMT

I've been thinking about this quite a bit today. Some people see AS as a disability, others see it as an identity. In either case, how far should institutions go in accommodating - as one of my friends put it - the "quirks" of an Aspie? Should the unique needs and challenges of someone with AS be considered in categories such as equal opportunity employment, anti-discriminatory laws, special needs classes, etc? I find that even the most enlightened people I know snicker when I tell them what my needs are because they obviously think it's all very "stupid". What is it going to take to get people to understand what kind of suffering we undergo just trying to function from day to day? I wonder if someday we'll be seeing ad campaigns on TV similar to those which try to promote awareness for epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, etc? It's almost as if...in order to get taken seriously, you have to be *so* autistic that you're banging your head against the wall...*sigh* I suppose I'm being a little self-pitying, but perhaps it's due to feeling misunderstood by the people that I'm supposed to be able to trust the most...my friends.

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 24 replies

Guessing at what "normal" is

khrysso — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 23:15:32 GMT

I've seen discussions of this in this tribe and have talked with my BF about it, too, and I think that it's really important to acknowledge the point that there is a difference between "pathological" and "dysfunctional."

About 20 years ago, when it began to become fashionable to be "codependent" and to talk about being "Adult Children" from "dysfunctional families," there was a book that I found really helpful by a psychologist named Janet Woititz. It was called _Adult Children of Alchoholics_.

Dr. Woititz eventually dropped the phrase "of alcoholics" because she began to find that adults who had been children in all kinds of dysfunctional families had grown up to have all the same characteristics.

It is important to note that during this time, the common wisdom was that it is not the severity of the condition that makes the condition "dysfunctional," but rather the extent to which the condition was denied or ignored or lied about. The typical phrase was, "A family is as sick as its secrets."

I came to believe at that time, and continue to believe, that any time a child is brought up without reference to his or her particular needs, that child probably ends up qualifying as an "Adult Child..." [of fill-in-the-blank].

By that token, because I was a gay child of str8 parents who had no clue about how to raise a gay kid to gay adulthood (why should they?), I had particular dysfunctions in my upbringing that my siblings, as str8 kids, didn't have. I had to re-educate myself as an adult when I came out, with a whole new set of norms.

I absolutely do not believe that homosexuality is a pathology; however, I do believe that, in the heterocentric context in which I was raised, I was a dysfunctional adult until I came to terms with who I was.

Dr. Woititz, who has passed away, wrote some books that I've really enjoyed, and in most, if not all of them, she highlights these characteristics of Adult Children. One of those characteristics is that Adult Children have to guess at what normal is.

I know, from the reading and talking I've been doing, that Aspies have to guess at what normal is. But having to guess at what normal is isn't a specifically Aspie trait--it's a trait that Aspies have in common with lots of people, AS and NT alike, who grew up without certain clues as to how to function in society.

Woititz's family keeps a web site with resources that she published and supported:

http://www.drjan.com/

The 13 characteristics of ACs that she identified are at this link:

http://www.drjan.com/13char.html

Here are the 13 characteristics, along with her commentary aboout whom they apply to:

"Adult Children of Alcoholics was originally written with only children of alcoholics in mind. Since its first publication, we have learned that the material discusses applies to other types of dysfunctional families as well. If you did not grow up with alcoholism but lived, for example, with other compulsive behaviors such as gambling, drug abuse or overeating, or you experienced chronic illness or profound religious attitudes, or you were adopted, lived in foster care or another potentially dysfunctional systems, you may find that you identify with the characteristics described here. It appears that much of what is true for the children of alcoholics is also true for others and that this understanding can help reduce the isolation of countless persons who also thought they were "different" because of their life experience."

--Janet G. Woititz
Adult Children of Alcoholics - The Expanded Edition

1. Adult children ... guess at what normal behavior is.

2. Adult children ... have difficulty following a project through from beginning to end.

3. Adult children ... lie when it would be just as easy to tell the truth.

4. Adult children ... judge themselves without mercy.

5. Adult children ... have difficulty having fun.

6. Adult children ... take themselves very seriously.

7. Adult children ... have difficulty with intimate relationships.

8. Adult children ... overreact to changes over which they have no control.

9. Adult children ... constantly seek approval and affirmation.

10. Adult children ... usually feel that they are different from other people.

11. Adult children ... are super responsible or super irresponsible.

12. Adult children ... are extremely loyal, even in the face of evidence that the loyalty is undeserved.

13. Adult children ... are impulsive. They tend to lock themselves into a course of action without giving serious consideration to alternative behaviors or possible consequences. This impulsively leads to confusion, self-loathing and loss of control over their environment. In addition, they spend an excessive amount of energy cleaning up the mess.

There are a lot of reasons, I think, both physiological and environmental, for Aspies to have these qualities. I draw your attention particularly to #10, to make the point that though you may feel isolated, you are definitely *not* alone in the quality of feeling like you're on the outside looking in on a group of people who have some secret-to-normalcy. To some extent, NTs can have this feeling, too--a lot.

One of Woititz's books that speaks more broadly to these things is called _The Intimacy Struggle_ (or, in older editions, _Struggle for Intimacy_). It is less specific about alchoholism and may allow you to feel more included if you like the concept but shy away from the "child of alchoholics" part.

I hope this helps in some way. I think it's really important to know that part of guessing at what normal is is discovering that not everything that applies to your non-normative state is actually abnormal in any way.

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 10 replies

Formal diagnoses

Klaatu — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 07:32:47 GMT

I'm just curious, how many people in here have had formal diagnoses and what all these diagnoses entailed.

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 14 replies

I'll Just Start Here

khrysso — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 06:30:44 GMT

I just joined this tribe and haven't been able to figure out where to just jump in, so that's why I'm starting a new thread to introduce myself.

I've been involved in a pretty intense cyber-and-phone romance with a Tribe friend (we're both gay men) for a couple months now, and he's told me a lot about his social anxieties, and I have noticed some patterns of his that can be very irritating, like when he checks out for a day or two. (I am very extroverted and like to be checked in with fairly frequently.) The differences between us brought us to a critical point in our relationship in the last few days, and we were able to talk them out and he was able to establish some very insightful empathy with me.

Then the other day I woke up from a nap and it hit me: go Google Asperger's and see if it fits him. I did, and it seemed to, and I immediately directed him to do the same, and he said that every single characteristic in the Wikipedia article was like the story of his life (which I kinda knew because we talk a *lot* on the phone, but I wouldn't presume to "diagnose," so to speak).

So we've been talking about this a lot and I joined this tribe and have invited him to it, as well. I suspect he'll be joining it, too, in the next day or so.

I'm particularly worried about sex and intimacy, since I am 20 years older than he and quite experienced in the sexual arena, and I am fairly adventurous. He, on the other hand, is quite inexperienced and has little history of enjoying some of my favorite activities, including deep-kissing. Now that I know what I know about AS, I'm worried that he may never develop a broad repertoire of enjoyable activities, and I fear that I could get frustrated or bored.

Fortunately, we're both into lots of physical affection, cuddling and snuggling and such (and I never get bored with those!), but I don't even know how to construct cuddly-talk fantasies. We're both, I think, at the proverbial "sixes and sevens," kind of nonplussed: it's like I have to start all over, too, to imagine what our erotic life might turn out like if we get our desired scenario and are able to live together (in the same country...) someday.

I'm also very aware that as a very extroverted NT, I will fall naturally into a leadership role regarding basic life-skills, and he will trust me to provide some cues as to what "normal" is. It is an awesome--in the traditional sense of the word--to be entrusted with such a sacred duty. He would be especially easy to exploit, and I am rather afraid that I won't be extra-careful enough with him. I'm already sad that I've been a bit hard on him, before I realized that normal social conventions can't be expected with him all the time.

Fortunately, I am a person of goodwill and deeply in love with him, but still, his faith in me is staggering: there's still so much we don't know about each other, and there are many ways in which he has more to lose if I prove to be not what I seem than I do if he is not. I am deeply, deeply moved and honored at the trust he has placed in me thus far.

Right now the plan remains to talk a lot on the phone--he has an extraordinarily good long-distance rate--and, we intend, meet this summer, once I get my passport and can travel from the US to Canada. He has dual citizenship since his parents were both Yanks, so it would be easier for him to move, once he got his paperwork in order, though we'd be allowed to marry there, if we wanted to. But I am also committed to a longtime platonic companion in the States, so I need to stay here for the foreseeable future.

His situation is complicated by the fact that he was orphaned by the time he was 17, and so his natural reclusiveness was compounded by losing the last of the tenuous familial ties he had. He has been without any kind of built-in ties for nearly 10 years now. So intimacy, which is enough of a challenge between two NTs, is a considerably trickier challenge for us, and he runs a great risk, tying himself to me, because if I provide emotional stability for him and something would happen to me, he thinks he might feel an even more profound sense of disconnection. (Though I am only 47, I have Metabolic Syndrome and am already a heart attack survivor.)

So we are very happy to have one another's love and affection, but there are a lot of new things that could go haywire, and we're both feeling our way along now...

So that's me, and, I guess in a few days it'll be that's us...

Khrysso

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 10 replies

Child With Aspergers

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 17:46:26 GMT

I have a son who is 7 years old and is an Aspie. He's hyper at times and throws things around just to get a reaction out of me and laughs about what he does. How do you get around this? Any advice? I also have a 5 year old son who sometimes copies his older brother but tries to help me out other times. I love both my boys equally and show a lot of love to them by hugs and kisses and saying "I love you" to them. I try to reinforce this because my husbands family is so unemotional and I want to instill quality emotions into these boys. Mind you, only one is an Aspie, not the other. I have seen the Aspie open up to affection already.

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 19 replies

The online AQ test of Simon Baron-Cohen

Sat, 28 Oct 2006 23:56:31 GMT

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html

I just took this and scored 34. 32 and above indicates a diagnosis of autism or Asperger's might be likely. (The online test doesn't serve as an official diagnosis, but a score of 34 tells me that think I might be an Aspie---I've never been diagnosed--is not JUST a weird idea in my head.)

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 25 replies

sayings

janathemama — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 16:01:48 GMT

"people dont care how much you know- until they know how much you care.."

does this mean anything to you?
Or know of any other sayings which seem to mean a lot to many, and not much to you?

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 15 replies

making a difference

☼Sunshine☼ — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 22:11:45 GMT

www.drspectscan.com/evite/

Parents of autistic children live with tremendous stress. They need biomedical information, as well as personal assistance. When I helped a mother put a shoe on her resistant son and saw him immediately rip it off and throw it across my waiting room, I decided to act. That’s why I, J. Michael Uszler, M.D., assembled a team of Autism experts to discuss new developments and coping tools for Autism and Asperger syndrome. You can attend this information-packed, online event in the comfort of your own home. The specific, insightful steps and new strategies will make an immediate difference in your life, and in the life of your autistic loved one. I promise you, the “Autism Caregivers – your S.O.S. has been heard!” event will live up to its name. Experts are J. Michael Uszler, M.D., Jeff Bradstreet, M.D., Valerie Paradiz, Ph.D., Stephen Shore, M.A., Robert Krakow, Attorney at Law ...

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 0 replies

Autistic Adult Picture Project

moonmom — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 20:11:45 GMT

This is a really cool thing. I posted it back in '05 I think but it got swallowed.
http://www.isn.net/~jypsy/AuSpin/joina2p2.htm

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 3 replies

Aspie Career Corner!

Fri, 29 Dec 2006 11:59:57 GMT

At the tail end of the "Unlucky in Love" thread, there was a good post from TeamNoir about Engineering. That there were quite a few Aspies in Engineering classes and the professions associated. I thought it might be a good topic to start up by itself!

What ARE good Aspie career choices? Why do those careers seem to be attractive to Aspies? What are your own experiences with jobs you've had in your life? What aspects are most rewarding?

This can be for those of us who may want a career change. It's never too late. My mum (not an Aspie) went back to college in her mid-40s to pursue nursing. This can also be for parents of Aspie kids.

I'm not a parent, but the thing I'd want most for a child (if I had one) would for them to be happy. It doesn't matter what they do. So I wouldn't want to be forcing a child into anything, but if there were several career choices in which there were a higher percentage of Aspies, I would do my best to make that available. A place where they WOULD fit in, and not feel left out or odd. A place where the gifts of Asperger's can be utilized.

There ARE gifts. That intense focus on a subject, for instance. Even when reading novels for pleasure, I often can't put down the darn book to sleep, I MUST finish the book. So anything that allows me to focus on something and continue to work on it without being disturbed is good for me. And if that wasn't present in whatever job I've had, I'd find something to do. I couldn't just stand there and chit-chat with other people.

So, what careers have you folks had success with? What other kinds of jobs do you think would be suitable and enjoyable from an Aspie perspective? Are there any that you would say "NEVER work as a such-and-such" or in a kind of business?

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 32 replies

other-awareness

babalon — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 01:25:42 GMT

my thoughts are percolating on an idea... whic may or may not be accurate at all. so I want to type something out and then i can leave for school.

NTs may have a continual lowlevel awareness of others, an "other-monitor" that Aspies lack. it's not so much that we lack a self-monitor, it's that we lack the other-monitor.

i remember my mother complaining that i never thought of others - i did, but when i was actively *thinking* about them. NOT when i was doing something *else*. others simply didn't enter my mind when i was deciding whether *I* wanted to do something or not. their emotions and thoughts about what i wanted to do was not simply dismissed, it was not simply not considered, it was so totally irrelevant that it would never have occurred to me to even consider it. OTOH, when i was thinking about another person or people, they were usually mad at me for having been "thoughtless" and "inconsiderate".

i think that's possibly one of the basic disconnects between aspies and NTs. it's like - why would i care what others think when i'm doing calculus. equally, why would i care what others think when i'm doing anything else, unless that something else actively involves them - unless they're directly relevant to that activity - like, buying a gift for them or soemthing.

anyways - i haven't gotten much further than this - just wondering how much it fits with NT or Aspie readers' experiences. NTs: *are* you aware at a low-level of others potential reactions, feelings, etc, at all/most times? is other-awareness part of your decision-making as a default at some level (even the active choice to dismiss or discount how others might react/perceive/respond/feel)? is this something that's always been there or something you developed as you grew up?

I'm not talking, btw, of making noise that bothers someone next to you - I'm talking about things like deciding to go shopping without considering how my shopping will affect my roommate, or reading at a family gathering, without considering how others might view it.

My hypothesis is that NTs may have some kind of "other-monitor" that runs at a low level all the time and that, when they do something without concern for others, it's because they *chose* to dismiss that consideration, whereas that Aspies don't have the other-monitor and so the thought of how others might view something never even arises... except in cases of direct interaction.

To me - if I'm interacting with someone directly, then their reaction/feeings/thoughts, etc are relevant, otherwise, they're not. But it's not a conscious active *choice*, it's just that it never occurs to me to consider. (Although, after my mother and various lovers and partners over the years telling me that I should do this, I've gotten more into the habit, but it's still something I have to actively remember to do, where I think the NTs may have to actively choose *not* to do it.)

Anyways - what do you guys think about this? Does it make sense? Does it fit with what goes on inside your heads?

BTW - I don't care about whether others reactions are good or bad or whether they should care or not, just about whether the "consideration of others" when the others aren't directly involved in an action is a built-in default or not for aspies/NTs.

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 3 replies

New Tribe, Sex, BDSM and Tantra for people with disabilities

annann — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 09:06:42 GMT

New Tribe, Sex, BDSM and Tantra for people with disabilities

http://tribes.tribe.net/sexbdsmtantra4peoplewithdisabilities

I have started yet another Tribe and this one may be the most important one yet.

It is for people with disabilities of any type, physical, emotional, mental, social, visible or hidden who engage in sex, BDSM and Tantra.

This is a place where you can discuss whatever you want to regarding these two subjects. How to do it, prejudice you may encounter, healing, whatever.

For the purpose of this Tribe, disabilities can be any type, physical, emotional, mental, social, whatever you or others see as a disability. Anything that has hindered your ability to function or to be accepted by others.

Sex, BDSM and Tantra are often oriented for so called "normal" people, people who do not have any kind of disability. It can be a challenge for those of us with any disability to partake of these activities.

Have you found that sex or BDSM or tantra has helped your disability improve? If so, share about it in this Tribe.

These activities can often be healing for people with disabilities but they can present special challenges that others often do not understand.

Disabilities can often be hidden, not visible to the naked eye, the person is not in a wheelchair, has all their limbs, is not blind but is still dealing with living a disabled life but others do not realize it and assume that person to be "normal".

Chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, learning disabilities, depression, Asperger's, etc are all examples of hidden disabilities.

Anyone is welcome in this Tribe, with or without a disability, to learn how to deal with their own disability or others disabilities.

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 0 replies

New Year's Eve Social Situation Survey

Hunakai — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 19:21:37 GMT

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=446203077075

A quick 28 question survey about social situations and New Year's Eve.

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 0 replies

Anyone Else This Unlucky In Love?

ॐ Moksha — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 03:52:20 GMT

I apologize if this topic has been covered somewhat in another thread, but this is something that is at the forefront of my mind today.

For as long as I can remember I've had exceptional difficulty making friends. I have never, ever had as many friends as the people around me. I tend to be very exclusive to just one or, at the most, two friends at a time. I put everything on to one person. So, it should come as no surprise that I approach love and dating in exactly the same way.

I will get super, super attached to (obsessed with?) one person and fall deeply, hopelessly in love with them. Maybe it's partly a result of the extreme isolation I felt during childhood (raised Jehovah's Witness - not a happy thing to put a child through, when you're given no choice but to stick out like a sore thumb and refuse to participate when the rest of the class is eating Halloween candy). If you're lonely for too long you start holding on more tenaciously to the people who do care about you. If you're a really different breed all throughout your childhood, the people who are kind to you are indeed few and far between.

A lot of people that I have liked have run in the other direction when they sensed my unusual focus on them and the intensity with which I felt feelings for them. But I'm not sure how much of this is upbringing and how much of it is a natural predisposition to be that way. Perhaps this is a bit assumptive, but since mental illnesses of various stripes run in my family, I'd actually be surprised if I *didn't* inherit some atypical neurotype from somewhere.

That being said, in addition to the circumstantial stuff, I suspect that my true nature is to be obsessive. It was probably just brought out by my environment. So very very many girls have said no to me, usually not in a rude way and not because of anything specific, but just because "it wasn't meant to be" or they didn't "feel the magic" or some variation thereof. I guess it's because I'm just too much for them. But I can't help being so intense. I've asked so many people what I've been doing wrong, hoping I could fix what was wrong with me and be more like other people, and they tell me to have more confidence and be happy and people will be drawn to me. Yet, how can you base confidence on experiences that have taught you that every girl you really like is 99% likely to turn you down? People seem to interpret the asking of these types of questions as weakness of character or lack of confidence but I'm honestly just trying to learn consciously what others seem to just instinctively know. *sigh* I can't win. Nobody has been very helpful about "training" me to integrate better. I've asked lots of people, including professionals. One psychiatrist said that I just "had issues". Pbbt! Anyone could have told me that...

This solid trend toward rejection in love keeps happening, and it is so distressing. I really am trying to be the best person I can be, perhaps trying too hard, because I see people with no inclination toward self-improvement pairing up all the time. It's like...nobody can relate to me or something...

And that's why the most recent incident has gotten me so down in the dumps. Last night, the girl I've been in love with for nearly 2 years made it clear that she will never love me back. Here, I thought I *had* found a girl with narrow, intense, creative interests just like me. She seemed socially awkward just like me and into her own very emotional world most of the time just like me and had a strict upbringing just like me. So many factors were there. But it is all one-sided. She is firm about not wanting to give me another chance (there was a bit of a spark between us one and a half years ago, which adds to my confusion). I feel like an outsider among outsiders.

I have been so lonely for so long, and I don't know why, and nobody has the answers. Every time I get turned down by someone I have been deeply in love with, I feel physically ill, like I don't want to function or even live anymore...I know that can't be normal but I continue to experience this over and over again...

Can anyone here relate to this, at least? If so, perhaps I truly have found my "tribe"...

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 16 replies

Sports

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 07:19:58 GMT

It is received wisdom, in these relatively early days of AS analysis and categorization, that AS people are dreadful at sports, lacking the co-ordination skills which most athletic and team games require.

I believe the position to be overstated. Although not very good at it, I took up boxing and competed semi-professionally in my early Forties. I can run in a straight line, and manage not to drop the weights on my head at the gym. On the other hand, I never could work out team games such as hockey and soccer, and was the classic "last one to be picked" throughout my school years.

What is your experience in this area?

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 9 replies

I deleted the survey thread because...

Hunakai — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 06:32:05 GMT

Hi all,
I deleted the survey thread because my entire survey got posted on it, and many of the questions are very sexually explicit and not everyone may want to read that stuff. On the survey website, people go there knowing they will be asked sex questions, and are warned to expect explicit language. In other words, they are making a choice to deal with that kind of material. Here, on tribe, it's another story.
Hope no one was offended. I know the person who posted the survey in its entirety meant well, but I think this is not the right venue.

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 7 replies

rudy the red-nosed aspie

oatwillie — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 19:26:17 GMT

The parable of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer shares striking similarities with the Asperger condition. Think of the parallels...never being asked to join in any reindeer games (perhaps due to perseverances about one's own "games"). Dang bully reindeer, laughing and calling Rudy names. Good grief, this is soooo familiar to Aspiedom!

Then that wise old elf notices Rudolphs unique gift. The illumination, that in spite of not being like all the rest, his special talent shines the best

Merry Christmas, my Aspie friends! This time of year presents unique challenges to us all, and in it, may you also find new ways to open the gifts of our condition.

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 2 replies

coaching and diagnoses

Lout_Sue — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 01:47:37 GMT

I heard a show on NPR about mingling, and another about manners that both freaked me out, in that I would never ever go to the lengths they suggested to be polite (swallow the lobster that was "off" even if it kills you).

Then, we were doing a work day in the classroom with our students (mid sch hi func aut) and the one who was organizing the library (very neatly) brought out this teenage etiquette book called How Rude, and I got completely immersed in it, especially considering that I was going have to attend a couple of Holly Day parties that weekend for my newish job teaching at a film school. I really wanted to make a good impression, and so was desperate for some tips.

My sister, whose classroom it is, responded to my avid interst in the book by saying, "Ya know, you can get some coaching for all that." With my new job I now have health insurance and so am considering trying to get an official diagnosis and then some sort of support. Anyone have any experience with negotiating a diagnosis from an HMO and/or any experience with social coaching?

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 0 replies

What about pretend play?

Sat, 28 Oct 2006 23:43:56 GMT

I've read that autistics don't engage in pretend play. Do aspies?

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 15 replies

Is there a relation between Asperger's and schizoid personality disorder?

Wed, 15 Nov 2006 21:53:14 GMT

The two psychologists who know me best---one professionally and the other as a college prof who became a friend--incline to the schizoid personality view of me rather than an Asperger's diagnosis. However, both see some parallel and both admit Asperger's isn't something they're well versed in.
That sound like anyone else's story?

posted in Asperger's Syndrome - 3 replies

Asperger's Syndrome's topics - tribe.net

see this movie!

How many in one family!

Aspies and eating (again)

what happened to tribe? where is everyone?

please come help me

Summary Results of Asperger's and Sexuality Survey

Noooooo......dating

I believe I have been taken advantage of...

A Recent Blog -- Feedback Welcome

Communication exercise using AS as a model...

Hi everyone !

hyper-sensitivity to little sounds

Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's

Aspies and Food

Interesting article about female Aspies!

Aspies in Books

A few questions

New take on Aspergers

Asperger Syndrome and serious illness?

Aspies or Autistic folks in the movies

aspie telepathic memos to pets

Natural Remedies for Hyperactivity

aspie teen and autonomy

Asexuality?

new tribes

Classes for ASpies

I'm not dead and I haven't been abducted by aliens....

tick tock tao

Using Aspergers to deflect

pack deltas pack psychology school

Anyone suspect...?

Aspie World

How Accommodating Should People Be?

Guessing at what "normal" is

Formal diagnoses

I'll Just Start Here

Child With Aspergers

The online AQ test of Simon Baron-Cohen

sayings

making a difference

Autistic Adult Picture Project

Aspie Career Corner!

other-awareness

New Tribe, Sex, BDSM and Tantra for people with disabilities

New Year's Eve Social Situation Survey

Anyone Else This Unlucky In Love?

Sports

I deleted the survey thread because...

rudy the red-nosed aspie

More links for Asperger's

coaching and diagnoses

What about pretend play?

Is there a relation between Asperger's and schizoid personality disorder?