Posted by ramsea on January 5, 2007, at 7:36:11
In reply to Re: Asperger's Syndrome test results.............. » ramsea, posted by Quintal on January 3, 2007, at 11:46:26
Interesting links, Quintal.
About the facial expressions, yes. It is entirely possible for someone with AS and a normal to gifted intelligence to become adept at the meaning of facial expressions.
Some aspies are notable for their flat affect and inability to maintain eye contact; some actually swing the other way, and like myself, make such a study of it that we are extremely expressive.
Some might say we gesticulate and express a little too much--perhaps since we have gone out of our way to learn the art of expression rather than getting it naturally we miss some aspects of the game. We doth protest too much (or too little as the case may be). But we pass for normal.
Several members of my family have AS, so in my case it seems to be a genetic thing. We don't express our AS identically though at all. For example, my son and father are "classic" AS "types", being engineers and computer techies, while I--an unusual female AS---am obsessed with health, poetry and art.
My father is quite flat in expression and doesn't maintain good eye contact--but I am the opposite. At an early age I took up the study of how to fit in and make a good impression. I was always different and the odd one out. Childhood was a difficult time for me. I was also very clumsy to the point of being made fun of a lot. I read countless books (as a child I spent most of my free time in the library) on how to be a popular girl, how to make friends, look good, and get people to like you. It was one of my obsessions. Still is, really. I am a self-help addict.
One thing that is very difficult is to get diagnosed with AS as an adult. It is possible for a person to have many of the traits, and even to have "qualified" for the diagnosis at some point earlier in life, but to adapt in sufficient ways as to make diagnosis no longer possible.
Even if an adult is suffering from the negative aspects of AS it is still difficult to get diagnosed as an adult. Many of us are diagnosed with other disorders, everything from Major Depression to borderline personality to alcoholism to ADD to schizophrenia, and so on.
A person with AS is just as likely as the rest of the population to have any of the other disoders, of course. In my case, I am "co-morbid" with both AS and bipolar, and I guess also alcoholism and PTSD. I have always had a lot of depression and anxiety, which is common in aspies. But I'm sure you know that AS isn't a mental illness, it is a neurological condition. There is no medicine as such for dealing with it, though individual symptoms may be dealt with using meds.
There are wasy to learn to cope with the differences we have from neuro-typicals and even to turn some aspects of it into advantages.
Tony Atwood and Lorna Wing Publishers have a lot of good books on AS--it's a good starting place for reading. It's harder to be diagnosed as an adult with AS in the UK than it is in the US--where it is also hard. So if you self-diagnose, you can benefit from all the research and knowledge, but not receive NHS help or benefits from the State.Any other questions, I'd be happy to answer. ramsea
poster:ramsea
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URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070101/msgs/719507.html