Anxiety Support Group

Anxiety is a physical condition marked by intense and persistent feelings of distress, fear, angst or dread. General anxiety caused by routine day-to-day stresses usually passes quickly and is experienced by almost everyone at one time or another. However, such feelings that linger over time and are very difficult to cope with, and which lack a clear cause, may indicate...

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Asperger's Syndrome

ChristianWhovian
ChristianWhovian

I watched a video by Mark Rober about his Autistic son. I've always been interested in disabilities (wheelchairs, blindness, deafness, Autism, etc.) YouTube gave me a recommendation based of that. It was a video about Autism. I found that pretty interesting and ever since, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. 


As we were sitting in our booth, hopelessly waiting for customers, I told my mom "Did you know people can have Autism without knowing it?"


We talked for a bit about it. She told me about Asperger's Syndrome. 


When we got home, I looked that up and watched some videos about it. Some symptoms are:


Obsessions over random topics


Flapping your arms in an awkward way


Rocking


Poor social skills due to the inability to read social cues


Poor communication skills


Uncomfortable with looking people in the eyes.


Blabbering on about your obsessions but unable to talk about other things


Difficulty in following instructions as you don't understand them


I realized that I have some symptoms of Asperger's Syndrome so I took some online tests. They all said "This is not a diagnosis but you have a strong likelihood of having Asperger's Syndrome."


I don't want to tell my parents what I think right now until I can talk to our Doctor in Utah. That may be next month.


I asked my dad what he thinks it is and he clearly does not have a big understanding of it. Then he asked "Why?"


"Just curious."


"You don't have Autism."


I'm not so sure that's true right now. I'm not scared of being diagnosed with it, I am just really confused.


When we were younger, my twin sister walked into our room and said "Mom just told me you have Autism." I was pretty sure she was joking so I made a joke back and we laughed it off.


This has been on my mind a lot lately. Especially after having those tests say I have a strong likelihood of having it. 


Those symptoms I listed are all the symptoms I have. Girls are harder to diagnose than boys so I'm still not sure.


I might find out soon though. I'll come back with more when I learn more.


Again, I am not worried about it and I'm not self-diognosing myself. There is a possibility though and I'm planning on asking our Doctor before I tell my parents. 


Merry Christmas! :)

mtd
mtd
Autism and anxiety have similar symptoms and it would take an educated doctor to determine/diagnose. I have a 21 yo grandson who is autistic. So I know a little about the subject. I have no doubt that you are not only not autistic, but you look for things to diagnose yourself with in order to make sense out of your own shortcomings. I often wondered if I might be autistic myself, but the more I learned and observed about my own anxiety I determined that I am not. Anxiety blunts our emotions, it keeps us from being who we really can be because of fear. Anxiety also keeps us from progressing and learning from life experience because our minds are so fixed on fear. There is nothing wrong with wondering if you may be autistic, but believe me, you don’t really want to be. I watch my grandson’s struggle with all the issues of his autism, all the obstacles in his way, all the manifestations that prevent him from living a full life normally, What I observe from your posts is typical for anxiety, you think about things that would never occur to an autistic person. Your mind is too sharp. What you really need is to deal with the fear that keeps you rooted to your safe space. Your self confidence needs to be built. That’s basically where you need to focus your attention. I sincerely hope you do.
rmb
rmb
Ok asperger’s is on the autism spectrum. There are degrees of autism from super high functioning to non verbal and everything in between. I know adult people who have been professionally diagnosed with asperger's when they were kids or teens and they are high functioning, “sharp” individuals. You would never know they had such a diagnosis. They aren’t treated for it. They just live their lives, go to school, work, have relationships and friends, etc.

Asperger’s needs to be diagnosed by qualified professional. If you are concerned, ask your doctor how to be evaluated. Based on some of your other posts, you seem to self diagnose a lot. So just be careful with that. That can kick up anxiety and also can be a distraction from just living life.

My question would be if you have asperger’s, what would change for you? What what you do differently?

My neighbor’s daughters were in grade school when
they lived next door. They both had asperger’s. One was social and the other more reserved. Both were in school. Both went on to college. The only sign to me they were a little “different” was they were a little socially awkward. Not the same as social anxiety in my opinion.
ChristianWhovian
ChristianWhovian
I'm not self diagnosing myself. I just think there's a possibility I might have it.
If I was diagnosed with it, it would probably change my life for the better. I would have a better understanding and my family would have a better understanding about myself and why I do some things.
Our doctor, who lives in a different state, is a different kind of doctor. He works more spiritually. I actually trust him more than other doctors. Hopefully, next month we'll go up to see him. I haven't seen him in 2 years.
mtd
mtd
If you were to research anxiety disorder, you would find many similarities to autism. Anxiety disorders stunt our growth as a person. We are so distracted by fear that we simply don’t learn all the finer points, just as autistic people. The difference is that we are able to learn and understand, autistic people rarely do.
rmb
rmb
I get what you are saying about it may help you and your family understand yourself. I also think knowing what something is can be validating. But sometimes it’s worse to be labeled. There is no shame in being diagnosed with autism or any disorder but those labels stick with you.

I worked at a job where a young man in his early 20s reported to me. He was autistic. He was verbal but could not hold a conversation beyond repetitive sentences and he could only follow processes that were not more than three steps. He was very regimented, had melt downs if anything was disordered from his routine. I inherited him from the person who left the job before me. It was really challenging for me to manage someone like this. I just didn’t have the patience or time. Anyway my point is there really is a vast spectrum of autistic behavior. That kid went through an entire training program with a case worker just to be able to work part time doing remedial work.

If you do have asperger’s and sure, it’s possible I suppose but then it may not really change anything outside of just having a name for “it.” I think it’s worth a visit with your doctor. They can help refer you to other professionals who have expertise in these areas.
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