Is There Anybody Else Here With Aspberger's Syndrome?

[Domestic_goddess]

Quote:
What kind of meds work for Asperger's? For some reason I thought it is treated with cognitive behavior therapy.

Behaviour therapy is huge, but doesn't always help everything. More then anything life skills are just as helpful. He takes 2 different medications the first one is zoloft for anxiety and depression. This has changed everything for him, he able to cope with simple things and not get as frustrated. Also he takes risperdal and it's a basically an anti-psychotic, with helps in many ways, his anger being a huge one and then his OCD. He was this angry suicidal maniac who was in special ed classes and turning our house upside down daily and physically hurting everyone. He got suspended from school for punching a kid in the face, which was a huge turning point for me. One year later, he's in main stream classes, he has friends, no longer suicidal and his anxiety is almost non exsistant. He's participating in our church, which he would no do before. We were very hesitant to try medications and now I would never go back, he's a whole different kid.

 

[justbugged]

it is a blessing that you were able to get meds that helped your son so much. It is interesting how much we all are like, but at the same time we are so different too. A spectrum disorder is a very interesting thing.

 

[geebs]

Yep... I understand the kitchen thing... I have my children stack the dishes into a small organized (key here) space and then I can tackle them by stack... I only look at 1/2 the kitchen at a time... 1/2 of it has to remain pristine and the other 1/2 needs to be cleaned.. It is so I can look at the other 1/2 and remember what the goal is... I know Wierd... I hide the big stacks in the oven and bring them out only when I have conquered enough to not be overwhelmed... (my daughter is in charge of getting the stack out of the oven)... If it gets forgotten, which has happened, it isn't fun...

I have to have a clean room in the house that no one touches anything... that is my sacred spot... where I can go for sameness and a template for what order should look like... kinda like I have to retrain my eyes to "see"... I will go over to very orderly friends houses just to get incentive and remember what an orderly house feels like so I can go home and replicate it in my own environment... it is a coping tool... If I don't take tme to visit tidy ppl then my own housework suffers... I forget that order is important and brings a good feel to a home..... It sucks that I cannot get a housekeeper because so much of what I do is memory.... putting things away and commiting them to memory as I do... no one can put things away or I would never know where they are. My daughter that always rearranged things finally moved out... I must say that is a huge relief as I think I was going nuts with her moving things on me all the tme... I think it is grounds for murder...LOL

 

[EweSheep]

sounds alot like my dd, who could not clean her room without telling her to clean up her room step by step. First take off...second, clean and I felt like I was talking to a three year old. And she has to be reminded often like my hubby. Both of them are not lazy but lazy in the mind LOL! If it does not get the way she wanted to be, she would resort to temper tantrums by forcing a piece of Lego to FIT into another Lego that does not "piece together" efffectively. She would start the tiny pieces on the bottom and big pieces on top which it is too heavy for the Lego to support and we both tried to tell her it would not work and showed her why it does not work. She blocked it all out, slammed the pieces, pounded on them with her fists and screamed. I told her that is enough and took the Legos away from her. She would get so upset and really wanted to work on it. With that mindframe, wheels a-spinning 100 miles per hour, I could not justify giving the Legos back to her when she did it again and again but not grasping the concept that top heavy items will not stay up. Again and again she would do it. I do not know why she was doing that, is she is trying to defy the odds of making it to work when you know it is 100 percent failure rate? Might just give her some duct tape so it can stay up LOL!

made an appointment with family doctor to see if she would need to be tested because of her bullying issues and cogetive methods that she keeps repeating the same mistake over and over. Hubby has this issue as well but not as severe at times.

 

[MrsChickendad]

Aspergers does seem to have a genetic aspect. My SIL went undiagnosed until my grandson was diagnosed. One of the key components we have found is the lack of "common sense". Both SIL and GS are very bright academically, but aren't able to break things down in a methodical way. I don't think it is "lazy" it is just too difficult to attempt a big job.

DD and SIL have been redoing GS's room. It did not occur to SIL to leave the ratty carpet down until last to protect the hardwood floor, then pull it up. Luckily DD has an extra dose of common sense, so as long as she is in charge of a project, it happens.

 

[chicknerd]

Quote:
Three generations in a row in my family. Looking back i see it in my father. We actually probably have it on both sides too. The lack of common sense is simply going into situations they have not been exposed to nor had explained so they dont know what to do. And it is amazing how a non Aspy will see two situations as similar enough yet the Aspies cannot see the similarity - they are two distinct types of situations.

Common sense??? It must be learned.

Some good news - my Aspy son, who is now a graduate student is teaching a course this weekend on ------ chocolate. There is a special program this weekend called SPLASH. It is run by students at MIT for kids of all grades. It runs the weekend and is full of classes kids would normally not see. Things from advanced math, to Boom- a class where they blow things up, to Mandarin chinese, basket weaving, etc etc. My son did it every year when he was a kid, all the way through high school even, it was one of the few places he found peers. Being bright and Aspergers is a difficult thing. But this program has exploded. It was originally for kids from Mass. and surrounding states. Now I know kids who come from California even just for the weekend. I just cant imagine.

But he decided to teach a class on Chocolate!!!! And he even told his dear mom she gets to keep all the samples not used. Gee something actually sunk in.

(And this kid is NOT using cheap chocolate for the course.....

)

 

[geebs]

And why would he... (use cheap chocolate) after all I am not sure it is allowed in Aspyland!!! LOL

Everything the fourth power!!!!

 

[annaraven]

Heck with the kids - *I* wanna take that class! Actually, several of those classes.

And yes yes yes to the "common sense" comment. And to the generalizing. It's related to gist memory - an NT will see a list of words all related to sewing and "remember" falsely that the word needle was on the list. An Aspie won't as likely - they'll remember the words but not necessarily generalize about them to misremember the "gist". It's like when they say an Aspie can't see the forest for the trees - but that's not even right -because the Aspie is too busy learning about the specific species of tree and the leaves on it and the bugs that live in it and the lifecycle and ... This is why we make good researchers. And sucky managers. It's not lazy brains, it's different brains.

 

[geebs]

We cant see the forest for the species of trees and fauna in them and the mollecular structure, lifecycle, global impact on the environment etc...

To know us is to love us...

Our deficiets may be many and deep but they are only speedbumps compared to our abilities... It is sooo coool when you have a kid with aspbergers and you think.. they will struggle their whole lives and then one day at age 15 you find they have a GIFT that was there the whole time... just waiting to be discovered... only something THEY can do... That just rocks... I love self discovery... It just makes my world go round... I took my son iceskating for the first time last summer... He could be an olympic champion with work... he had an aptitude for it that is just unbeleiveable... No NT would dare go out there without an incling of fear and spin and jump and "master" the ice in one evening... He was chest bumping a kid at high speed (who had lessons for 7 years) and was showing him up!!! It was a hoot.

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

Hi Everyone,
We're currently having our son evaluated. So far it's looking like Aspergers. I'm bummed because I know it means he'll have a harder time. No parent wants to see their child suffer in any way. It's certainly not the worst diagnosis a child can have!! It just makes me sad because he's 9 and he's noticing that he's different than other kids. He doesn't have any "friends" at school, he relates better to adults. (He's not an only child).

Of course, part of me wants to just say that he's a little quirky and not label him anything. I just need to understand so that I can help him get along in life. I'm glad I found this thread. I haven't read all of it but I will. I see my son in so many of the posts that I've read already. Can I ask, should I accept the diagnosis of the school alone? They're doing an IEP right now. Or should I get more assessments? We brought him to our medical doctor and Psychiatry started evaluating him there but I don't know how useful it is. I was very apprehensive about the school's competency level, but I've met with them several times now and they are very competent.