A little lesson in assuming...

[repsac]

Myself, I have a condition very similar to Aspergers but a bit more...heh, strange? Is that a nice way to put it? I have a Schizoid personality disorder. Without dragging out the huge wiki on it, basically : <SNIP> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizoi...ality_disorder </SNIP>

Myself, I always take a sampling of music; whether on my Ipod or phone to listen to. In my case it's a way I can be solitary, closed in my own little shell even when I'm out in public. I've only had problems once, when talking on the phone through a mic on my lapel. I think they thought I was talking to myself.

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[Lace Neil Singer]

I have music in my head. I can listen to that, and tune out outside noise quite well. To the fact that if someone's talking to me, I'll often miss what they said at first.

[tollbaby]

Myself, I have a condition very similar to Aspergers but a bit more...heh, strange? Is that a nice way to put it? I have a Schizoid personality disorder. Without dragging out the huge wiki on it, basically : Schizoid personality disorder (SPD) is a cluster A personality disorder characterized by a lack of interest in social relationships, a tendency towards a solitary lifestyle, and emotional coldness. SPD is reasonably rare compared with other personality disorders. Its prevalence is estimated at less than 1% of the general population.


Myself, I always take a sampling of music; whether on my Ipod or phone to listen to. In my case it's a way I can be solitary, closed in my own little shell even when I'm out in public. I've only had problems once, when talking on the phone through a mic on my lapel. I think they thought I was talking to myself.

wow... that sounds remarkably like my ex-husband. like.... frighteningly so!

[repsac]

When I was diagnosed, my doctor told me that there are far more out there with it, but they don't get diagnosed for two main reasons.

One, they're solitary. Meaning they rarely get out :P

Two, it's in the schizophrenia family. People hear that and automatically assume that the dogs next door are telling me to do things. Trust me, beyond the sad "gimme food and chocolate, though I know it's bad for me." look, they ain't saying much.

The toaster on the other hand...

The toaster is evil.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Your toaster might be, but mine isn't! I have tamed my toaster, and now it's good.

[Horsetuna]

onthe topic of these things, how do you get diagnosed? i have been to psychs before and doctors, but most seem to chalk it up to depression, and the last psych I remember was odd... I swear he was trying to convince me to be MORE paranoid. I stopped going to him and havent' gone to one since, even though I could probably use help.

I'm always nervous asking doctors for specific tests. I feel like I'm telling them to do their job.

[Gurndigarn]

Two, it's in the schizophrenia family. People hear that and automatically assume that the dogs next door are telling me to do things. Trust me, beyond the sad "gimme food and chocolate, though I know it's bad for me." look, they ain't saying much.

The toaster on the other hand...

The toaster is evil.

That's what my friend found out. While he was on a bad acid trip. In a KMart.

KMart still won't let him back.

[repsac]

Mine started with the usual "depression" and such type of diagnosis. It wasn't until I took a test in college that things started to fall into place. Oddly, it was for my psychology class.

Having said that, any good psych will talk with you about it, and should give you a test to rule out disorders like mine. Still, you've got to figure, as I said earlier. It's really rare anyway.

[Ree]

My BIL suffers from that.

I must say, you are either on some good meds, or you handle it well.
I read your stories on here where you describe being out and about, making observations of the things you see, and you have held so many customer service jobs requiring you to interact with the public.

We have to practically use a crowbar to pry my BIL out of his house, and even going to the store for milk and cigarettes is a major deal that he has to work himself up to do.
His social worker usually has to prearrange it and specify when he is coming to take him on an outing.

Even coming to visit us is a major event, and he usually ends up talking himself out of it at the last minute.
He is also largely unemployable because he cannot interact with people.

Funny thing about those tests, though.
You have to be careful with them. Sometimes, if a person wants to have something exotic wrong with them, or they need to put a name on some intangible feelings, they can skew the answers.

My daughter was pretty upset a couple of months ago, because her doctor had given her a test and the results showed that she was possibly bipolar.

Now, I'm not in denial, but I did ask her if her doctor was also made aware of the continual stress she had been under for the past 3 years, and perhaps the clue to her anger and depression lay there, moreso than in a chemical imbalance in her brain.

As I suspected, she hadn't told him of the deaths of both paternal grandparents, with whom she was very close; the stress of living with 2 very high needs foster girls who made her life hell, after 16 years of being an only child; the stress of college and living with a roommate from hell; and numerous other stressful events that could have been piling up for years.

[rdp78]

Well, Schizoid is the mental disorder I was diagnose and had it for about 7 years now. I'm on two medications and see a doctor for about every three months for it. The only people who know I have it is my intermediate family, my doctors, DRS couselor and job coach (I think my Goodwill case manager too).

I'm surprise Repsac has this disorder because after reading some of his post I wouldn't even think he had this disorder or any type mental disorder. Then again like Ree said he might be handling it very well or he is on some really meds.

I on the other hand I'm sort of handling well however, the longest job I had (execpt working for my parents' company) is my shipping clerk job which lasted over five years and I walked out on it because I had problems dealing with my co-workers/bosses (also it particully bored me to death). I got that job through DRS (Dept. of Rehablitation Services) and after that I went through them again.

However, the cashier job I got on my own even through my job coach (private agency) help me with the training and making sure I didn't have problems. Unfortunely as we all know working with the public can be very stressful (especially when there are only two people working) and well, after about 11 months I snapped harshly at a customer (this happened in November). So well, I got suspended and well, I think I'm terminated but it's not really official (the SM hasn't called me back about it, they haven't even asked about getting my nametag back).

Anyway I'm not to worry about it cause my job couselor got me a trainee job at Goodwill and I have been working there since the end of January. I am paid minimun wage (still $5.15 ) and only work for three days a week for four hour shifts. I have a case manager who supervises me and make sure I follow the schedule. I mainly help with getting mercherdise out in the store, straighting items and help with the employees when needed. No, I'm not cashiering, thank god, and if someone asked about something I usely direct them to the manager on duty or another employee (there's about half dozen employees in the store at most times). It's also temporary but they always have openings all the time so I'm not to worry about it.

Now about listening to music the only time I've taken my MP3 player (or before I brought that my CD player) is when I'm on a long road trip with my family and that's about it. I never had a need to take it with me when I'm going shopping or anything like that. I have however taken a book to read when I'm eating in a restaurant because I'm well, alone and I'm not really good with socializing either.

Now I've done volunteer work at a local independent movie theatre and I dealt with the public becuase I was a ticket taker. I did that when I was in between my last two jobs and it was a bit stressful because I had to deal with all kinds of problems but I always point them to an actually employee so they can deal with it (yes, there were few SCs). Anyway I haven't done it since because of what happened and I was just afraid of dealing with the public again.

[Discourtesy Clerk]

Mysty, just curious...how did you find out you had Asperger's? I heard about it a while ago, did a fair bit of research on it, and frankly, it sounds so much like me that I'd like to find out if it is...but I don't know where to start. Any pointers?

I can definitely understand your thing with the headphones...anytime I go somewhere, school, walking to work, clothes shopping, whatever, I've got my trusty MP3 player to drown the idiots out. That cashier bitch was WAY the hell out of line, she had no right to accuse you of anything or treat you like shit just because you had music. It sounds to me like a simple case of giant-stick-in-arse, with more than a dash of irrational paranoia, from someone who does not belong anywhere near a customer service job.

[MystyGlyttyr]

To be honest, it was reading an article in People magazine. I was just flipping through it and started reading about an autistic boy who was shooting a documentary about autism. That was when I first realized there was a spectrum of disorders and not just your stereotypical "Rainman" autistic. I actually came running to my mom with the magazine crying and going "This is me, this is me."

There's some tests online you can take which are just about identical to the ones your doctor would give you...the forum over at http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com has them. There's one that has like, 200 questions or something like that on it, that's the one I'd go with.

I've never "seen" a real doctor about it, mostly consulted with a friend doctor and whatever autism experts I come across, so I'm not officially diagnosed. However, every expert I've talked to agrees I'm basically a case study in Asperger's, right down to my lack of respect for doctors and refusing to go see them to get properly diagnosed.

[XCashier]

There's some tests online you can take which are just about identical to the ones your doctor would give you...the forum over at http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com has them. There's one that has like, 200 questions or something like that on it, that's the one I'd go with.

I took another one, at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html and scored a 34. If I do have AS, it would sure explain a lot of things in my life...

[Cia]

I scored a 38 on that quiz. Scored 37 on the autism spectrum quotient which is very high and on another quiz I scored a 23 where Aspies usually score 25.

Well it does explain some things but I think that I'll just stick with calling myself OCD.

[Dreamstalker]

Sometimes I'll get dirty looks from other people on the subway platform...they claim they can hear my music? After the last time this happened, I asked my mom to tell me if she could hear my music (granted this was at home, but my MP3 player was at the same volume it usually is). She couldn't hear mine at all (and if she couldn't hear it indoors, then there's no way that lady could have heard my music on the platform with all the other noise).

I took another one, at
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html and scored a 34. If I do have AS, it would sure explain a lot of things in my life...

18 for me. I've been starting to question my AS diagnosis as of late (I was born very premature and had a number of brain bleeds when in the PICU, and the aftermath may have mimicked AS/autistic symptoms until the brain repaired itself).