Aspergers/ASD support thread

RedBern

just wanted to share a spooky thing that happened this week - it is ASD related!

There was a Youtube clip on an internal works chatboard about a girl with autism who had shown fantastic intelligence via a laptop - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNZVV4Ciccg - she'd been treated by all around her as having learning difficulties for 11 years, and she started using the laptop (when she was 11) and at 14 was communicating really well. I couldn't watch it on my works laptop so sent it to my home address. I was distracted and typed in the first three letters of my home email, clicked send and thought no more about it. About an hour later I had an email from someone I didn't know, thanking me for the link, he'd been moved by it as his child was also on the autistic spectrum and it gave him a different perspective on some of the behaviour his son shows! His email address started with the same three letters of mine..... however, when I checked my contacts - I don't know the guy, have never as far as I remember had any dealings with him, and don't know how his address 'popped up'! Of all the people I could have sent it to.... how random is that

seven-day-weekend

Just to say my son is now buying his own flat! We gifted him the deposit to make the mortgage repayment affordable.

He and his girlfriend have lived in it since Febraury.

He says he has to be a grown -up now and has behaved very responsibly with it, asking my advice on financial matters if he does not understand them. Things are looking up!

He sent me a wonderful cartoon through on e-mail, which could be entitled 'B--'s trip to the solicitor's office'. Made me :rotfl::rotfl:

jackieb

Well done to him!

That cartoon is funny. :rotfl:

My 19yo son has just been diagnosed with Asperger's. My 16yo daughter was diagnosed last year. I wonder what i've done wrong that's taken so long to get them a diagnosis? Should I have been more pushy? My daughter's psychologist said it's because we've both coped so well with it. I don't know if coping is the right word.

Savvy_Sue

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

'B--'s trip to the solicitor's office'. Made me :rotfl::rotfl:

That is priceless! :rotfl: Did he draw it himself, and if not, where did he find it?

seven-day-weekend

Hi Sue, no he did not draw it himself - I'll ask him where he got it from.

That is EXACTLY how he was in the solicitor's office. He was trying his best to understand all the legal-ese, and trying his hardest to concentrate on the important task in front of him and after the solicitor had finished a long spiel about the flat and asked B-- if he was OK with that, B-- turned to me and said 'Am I OK with that?', He did ask some sensible questions as well though!

davidgolf44

PasturesNew wrote: »

I was brought up with nobody knowing what was wrong... just that something was wrong/different.

So I've spent my life being told off for not being like others. Being put down for the way I do things. Being made to feel bad for everything.

Nobody ever told me I was different. I never knew. I just knew that life was hard, frustrating, awkward.... and whenever I tried to express that I was told I was negative/it was just me/everybody managed/I must be useless.

So I plugged on, really putting effort into everything, but never achieving. Never knowing why. Never having a circle of friends. Alone.

Nobody told me why I was different. People have told me many times that I'm weird/odd/different, but without knowing there was a name to the difference you can just put it down to being "not like them" and people would drift off to have their type of life. Leaving me alone, hurt and confused.

Each time I'd keep trying at everything. Lose a job, get another. Always fighting my way through life. It has been like swimming through treacle.

And now I have a name for it. And it hurts that for 40 years I've been made to feel like poo about all this stuff. About what I did/didn't do. About what I think. About my opinion. Utter, utter poo. I've not been down about it, just plugged on .... and nobody would ever discuss with me why my viewpoint might be wrong or show me a different way. They'd just say "you're wrong" and walk, leaving me to it.

Now I have a name to it, it will make it easier.

But I'd like formal diagnosis before my parents die, so I can go to them and let them know it wasn't them, it wasn't me. It just was.

I've never had a relationship with my parents, it's been broken by this thing. I've never had a relationship with my siblings, it was broken by the thing. The thing that nobody could ever name. The thing I never knew existed.

Maybe, with a name to the thing, they can all stop making me feel so useless at everything.

I must have made their lives hell, not knowing that I was different. Trying to communicate. Not managing to.

Without a formal diagnosis I can't tell them. If I tried I'd be put down again, as "don't be so stupid" and they'd never forgive me, let me forget I mentioned it. So I need the bit of paper for closure. Before they die.

This is amazing,it's exactly the way I feel.I was recently diagnosed as having Aspergers, and I hope you get a formal diagnosis soon.

sock-knitter

just wanted to post and say one of my sons with adhd, and adhd, has finally got a part time job in sports direct

angie_baby

sock-knitter wrote: »

just wanted to post and say one of my sons with adhd, and adhd, has finally got a part time job in sports direct

:beer: Thats great news

Angie

heartbreak_star

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Hi Sue, no he did not draw it himself - I'll ask him where he got it from.

That is EXACTLY how he was in the solicitor's office. He was trying his best to understand all the legal-ese, and trying his hardest to concentrate on the important task in front of him and after the solicitor had finished a long spiel about the flat and asked B-- if he was OK with that, B-- turned to me and said 'Am I OK with that?', He did ask some sensible questions as well though!

The cartoon is (I think) from xkcd.com

They have loads of quirky little cartoons like this, it's a great site!

HBS x

mum26

Hello everybody, I would really appreciate some advice.

We have six children, ds1 who is our third child was diagnosed as having Asperger's two years ago (after quite a long dragged out experience).

However his school would then offer no help as the could not get the Ed Psych to come and see him (because he was diagnosed by a paediatrician by referral from our gp - which is what the senco of his lower school told us to do). He spent two years there and never even had an IEP!

However he is starting at a new school on Thursday which he is very excited about (mostly because they will have Macs ) so i'm not too concerned about him at the moment, the new school is literally brand new with a very keen enthusiastic staff so fingers crossed they will be a bit more enlightened. He is also quite a chilled out sunny boy most of the time which helps. Best quote ever "I want to be like Steve Jobs when I grow up, not dead but just like him" I think only an aspie mum would laugh at that

DS3 who is our youngest however is a different kettle of fish. I have no doubt that he also has asperger's and that he is more affected than ds1. He is of the no tact, no brakes on his mouth variety and will loudly berate or comment on ANYTHING. He is 7 and a half now so it is becoming less normal in relation to his peers iykwim. He is at the lower school his brother attended and again they don't seem to know what to do or if i'm honest they don't want to have to shell out any of their budget to be told what they need to do, I have raised the issue several times and they just agree with me and don't do anything. I know I should stamp my feet but I have hearing problems and it can make it really difficult to be bolshy. We are hopefully moving him as well to a nearer lower school for a variety of reasons which I'm sure you can all understand feels me with a bit of hope and an awful lot of worry.

What is the magic word for actually getting some help? I am starting to crumble a bit now, he is often up and talking to me non stop from 5.30am - 11.30pm, he is difficult to feed then hungry and loud about it. He can be very whingy (I feel awful writing that but he really will go on for days and days about something) and it is so draining. He isolates himself from friends because he will comment loudly then gets upset because he doesn't get invited to play etc, he will also parrot rude words and phrases which is a nightmare because he has no "gob filter" at all.

I just don't know what to do