Anyone have aspergers? Is "weird"?

[HAROX]

SW, you forgot the apostrophe. It's Asperger's.
Of course how do you say asperger's? Okay, now say aspergers.
I say asperger's this way: "ass-perger-chk-s"
Kind of like saying "check please" without the "plea", but every time I do, people think I have a speech deficiency.
I just point out, I have "bad teef".

Dauntless' statement that there is no Aspergers is technically correct.
My statement that I don't know what the F I'm talking about is also technically correct.
AS for all the rest, Asperger's or any other mind syndrome is serious enough to have a name.
As for the guys who would leave you waving at the curb, well, there are assholes and then there are ASS-holes.

Is this weird? Well relatively speaking, no. Maybe I'm weird, for being such a dumbass. But then, I'm forgiven, not by all, only by the ones who really count in life. And THEY are neither ASS holes nor assholes.
Long story short, if you want to evaluate your mind yourself, go right on and do it.
I get more out of reading your threads than you probably are aware of right now.
Otherwise I wouldn't have taken the time to point out the absurdity of Dauntless' retort herein.

 

[dnmun]

i am really fond of this woman and the inspiration she has provided to so many with autistic disorders. i lived in ft collins and went to CSU where she is now resident, just a wonderful inspiring person for those of us who have attention disorders related to social interactions. maybe her best work is done for the millions of domesticated animals who are led to slaughter in a more humane manner. i think that will guarantee good karma for many many lives to come:

https://www.google.com/#sugexp=eqrwrth&gs_rn=19&gs_ri=psy-ab&tok=fq8Op8zkW7m_c5aq5y38ag&cp=8&gs_id=u&xhr=t&q=temple+grandin&es_nrs=true&pf=p&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&oq=temple+g&gs_l=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.48705608,d.cGE&fp=922e862274675230&biw=1680&bih=935

 

[Eskimo]

I"m on a pension because of it. There"s some other physical things too though, like my knee arthritis and stuff.
Only thing i don"t have is that for me it"s not difficult to watch anybody in to his eyes while we speak. Many aspergers shy eye contact i have read.
It tends to make you a loner. When people want to sosialize with you, you tend to say no, because you know most of the social relationships tend to go wrong very easily, you have a slightly different software. There are three or four accusations i have heard million times through my life.
"How can anybody be so childish!" If they get to know me better, they won"t call me childish at all usually. Because of aspergers people start to talk to you like a toddler basically, and it really pisses you off after few decades. So you tend to avoid social interaction. If you appear somewhat childish on a first glance, people talk to you like you would be a child. First impression is all that matters.
99% of people give you three seconds, and then they are not interested anymore. This test aspie fails every time. Aspie avoids easy, light social manners and wants to get deep and serious right away, because that"s his chance to make himself known too. Aspie appears as too childish, then people start to talk him like he is a child, and then aspie feels insulted and leaves. It"s frustrating scene. Women with high mother-instict expecially are lethal. You can end up protesting "I"m middle aged jesus christ!". Then they stare at you confused. What? you are an adult really?
All you see is true...Women dislike aspergers because that famous woman"s instict just does not work with aspie. Women can not grasp your logic. Some feminists take this too personally sometimes.
"Man, you got some nerve!" People feel i can not feel shame when they think i should. People may even punch you when you have no negative intentions whatsoever. You understand this kind of thing makes you a voluntary loner after a while. After a while people just tell you you should feel more shame. It sounds hilarious. Then they get more miffed.
It eases when you grow older. Everything slows down when you age, your asperger too. After your forties you start to land on planet earth slowly. Means: you appear more like other people, feel more connected with them, etc. Still life is full of misconceptions (right word?) every day. Even just buying some grogeries can go wrong socially.
Foreign languages are usually easy for aspie. You just pick it up from teevee or somewhere, no clue about grammary , and off you go. Use it with instict, like a rock"n"roller plays guitar without notes. First you just mimic, and then you go solo

 

[Philistine]

Autistic kids rock.

 

[swbluto]

This MONKEY'S face, you mean. As this is William Holbrook Beard's 'The Jester,' I'd say it's his typical animal in a human role effort, meant to be comic as always, the monkey looks content to me. Reminds of 'History of the World Part I,' as though the monkey is thinking 'It is GOOD being jester.'

Really? He seems awfully pensive to me. Forlorn. Abandoned. Contentment is the last thing in my mind, especially if he's torturing the dog out of downtrodden frustration (And no doubt he'd be downtrodden if he was relegated into the role of the jester, used by the royal courts.). Now if he had a mischievous look on his face, I could understand the tail-squeezing from a contented angle.

Better if he was grabbing the cats' tail with his own PREMORDIAL tail. (Did I spell that right? I really hate to get the spelling wrong, don't mean to bug you that way.) Ironically I think you've hit the nail on the head, ACCIDENTALLY. That was some marvelous EMPATHY with the character of the painting, regardless if it was a misunderstanding. Oops. Inappropriate hand gestures can be a stronger indicator of such things as Catatonic Schizophrenia.

Well, it's primordial, but I have a feeling you're looking for the word 'prehensile'.

Individuals must meet the criteria in sections A, B, C, and D to receive a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder.[34]
A. Deficits in social communication and interaction not caused by general developmental delays. Must have all 3 areas of symptoms present.
1) Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity; failure to have a back and forth conversation.
2) Deficits in nonverbal communication such as abnormal eye contact and body language or difficulty using and understanding nonverbal communication, and lack of facial expressions or gestures.
3) Deficits in creating and maintaining relationships appropriate to developmental level (apart from relationships with caregivers). This may include trouble adjusting behavior to suit different social contexts, difficulties with imaginative play and making friends, and a lack of interest in other people.
B. Demonstration of restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior, interest or activities. Must present two of the following.
1) Repetitive speech, repetitive motor movements or repetitive use of objects (echolalia, idiosyncratic phrases).
2) Adherence to routines, ritualized patterns of verbal or nonverbal behavior, or strong resistance to change (insists on eating the same food, repetitive questioning, or great distress at small changes).
3) Fixated interests that are abnormally intense of focus (strong attachment to unusual objects, restricted interests).
4) Over or under reactivity to sensory input or abnormal interest in sensory aspects of environment (such as indifference to pain, heat or cold, negative response to certain sounds or textures, extreme smelling or touching of objects, fascination with lights or spinning objects).
C. Symptoms must be present in early childhood (May not become apparent until social demand exceeds limited capacity).
D. Symptoms collectively limit and hinder everyday functioning.

You wouldn't imagine how much of that applies to me. Also, get over the stereotypes of "Aspergers = Completely lacks empathy". All humans are on a giant spectrum of traits, and there's nothing intangible that a large segment of the population 'lacks completely'. Your stereotypical ways of thinking and use of absolutes is pretty abhorrent to me because it's not very realistic (Let alone, tends to be very pessimistic.).

As for the teenager, just because there's people out there who falsely use the label doesn't mean they aren't out there. If half the population claimed they were komodo dragons and, for some reason, that turned out to be false doesn't mean one can deny the existence of komodo dragons. It just means many neurotypicals are liars. Coincidentally, that's what they tend to be good at with the better social cognition, so it wouldn't surprise if there are plenty of NT liars masquerading as aspies (For various reasons that NTs crave, like Attention, Sympathy, To manipulate the system, finding an excuse for their behavior, etc.). Especially those emos taking up the label with reckless abandon (Wouldn't surprise if it were true for a few of them, however; aspieness -> little to no friends -> sadness -> feels compelled to assimilate into the associated subculture and take up the sartorial emblem.)

 

[swbluto]

Autistic kids rock.

lol

 

[dnmun]

tavis had temple grandin on his program yesterday and she does much better 'one on one' when the background distractions are limited so she can focus. her public lectures are usually broken up as she asked audience members not to do stuff while she is talking, quite amazing. i bet she told them in advance to be still, she is like that, takes control of her surroundings.

most of the people who knew william schockley well felt he was autistic too. and was his downfall because of the obsessive focus (on the wrong things along with the paranoia) and bad bad interpersonal relationships he had with those who worked for him. which was why the traitorous eight left to form fairchild.

 

[swbluto]

You wouldn't imagine how much of that applies to me. Also, get over the stereotypes of "Aspergers = Completely lacks empathy". All humans are on a giant spectrum of traits, and there's nothing intangible that a large segment of the population 'lacks completely'. Your stereotypical ways of thinking and use of absolutes is pretty abhorrent to me because it's not very realistic (Let alone, tends to be very pessimistic.).

As for the teenager, just because there's people out there who falsely use the label doesn't mean they aren't out there. If half the population claimed they were komodo dragons and, for some reason, that turned out to be false doesn't mean one can deny the existence of komodo dragons. It just means many neurotypicals are liars. Coincidentally, that's what they tend to be good at with the better social cognition, so it wouldn't surprise if there are plenty of NT liars masquerading as aspies (For various reasons that NTs crave, like Attention, Sympathy, To manipulate the system, finding an excuse for their behavior, etc.). Especially those emos taking up the label with reckless abandon (Wouldn't surprise if it were true for a few of them, however; aspieness -> little to no friends -> sadness -> feels compelled to assimilate into the associated subculture and take up the sartorial emblem.)

Talking about social cognition, as part of the lessened development in social cognition, there's a tendency to misuse or elide pronouns in speech.

Can you find the missing pronoun in the paragraph above? (Looks like I did it twice, shiitake mushrooms!)

One form of it is called Pronoun Reversal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronoun_reversal

Pronoun reversal is common in toddlers. While it may signal an autism-spectrum disorder when it persists for an abnormal length of time, some degree of pronoun confusion can occur as a part of normal speech development. Children refer to themselves as "he," "she," or "you," or by their own proper names. Pronoun reversal is closely linked to echolalia: referring to themselves as they have heard others speak of them, resulting in the misapplication of pronouns.

For example:

Parent: What are you doing, Johnny?
Child: You're here.
Parent: Are you having a good time?
Child: You sure are.

As with many other autistic traits, if speech continues to develop more normally, this pronoun reversal might be expected to disappear. However, it can also be highly resistant to change. Some children require extensive training to stop pronoun reversal, even after they have stopped echolalia.

(How embarrassing to implicitly accuse myself of having toddler-esque speech characteristics by linking to this. )

 

[swbluto]

You wouldn't imagine how much of that applies to me. Also, get over the stereotypes of "Aspergers = Completely lacks empathy". All humans are on a giant spectrum of traits, and there's nothing intangible that a large segment of the population 'lacks completely'. Your stereotypical ways of thinking and use of absolutes is pretty abhorrent to me because it's not very realistic (Let alone, tends to be very pessimistic.).

As for the teenager, just because there's people out there who falsely use the label doesn't mean they aren't out there. If half the population claimed they were komodo dragons and, for some reason, that turned out to be false doesn't mean one can deny the existence of komodo dragons. It just means many neurotypicals are liars. Coincidentally, that's what they tend to be good at with the better social cognition, so it wouldn't surprise if there are plenty of NT liars masquerading as aspies (For various reasons that NTs crave, like Attention, Sympathy, To manipulate the system, finding an excuse for their behavior, etc.). Especially those emos taking up the label with reckless abandon (Wouldn't surprise if it were true for a few of them, however; aspieness -> little to no friends -> sadness -> feels compelled to assimilate into the associated subculture and take up the sartorial emblem.)

Talking about social cognition, as part of the lessened development in social cognition, there's a tendency to misuse or elide pronouns in speech.

Can you find the missing pronoun in the paragraph above? (Looks like I did it twice, shiitake mushrooms!)

One form of it is called Pronoun Reversal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronoun_reversal

Pronoun reversal is common in toddlers. While it may signal an autism-spectrum disorder when it persists for an abnormal length of time, some degree of pronoun confusion can occur as a part of normal speech development. Children refer to themselves as "he," "she," or "you," or by their own proper names. Pronoun reversal is closely linked to echolalia: referring to themselves as they have heard others speak of them, resulting in the misapplication of pronouns.

For example:

Parent: What are you doing, Johnny?
Child: You're here.
Parent: Are you having a good time?
Child: You sure are.

As with many other autistic traits, if speech continues to develop more normally, this pronoun reversal might be expected to disappear. However, it can also be highly resistant to change. Some children require extensive training to stop pronoun reversal, even after they have stopped echolalia.

(How embarrassing to implicitly accuse myself of having toddler-esque speech characteristics by linking to this. )

Talking about some of the unique characteristics of lessened social cognition: I don't have a well-formed personal identity!

You know how people's identity is often formed in their relations with others in their local social circles? Yeah, that, I don't have much of that.

I go for 2 or 3 days at a time, adopting a particular accent of some person or group and reading everything I write in my mind in that accent. As well with my conscious's narrating voice. In that period of time, my personal identity takes on whomever is associated with it.

Sometimes it's a psychotically nice flight attendant, sometimes it's a caviar-indugling rich snot, sometimes it's a mad scientist and other times it's a boomerang-wielding australian! I'm telling you, it's quite weird not having the same kind of personal identity as most other people.

 

[swbluto]

most of the people who knew william schockley well felt he was autistic too. and was his downfall because of the obsessive focus (on the wrong things along with the paranoia) and bad bad interpersonal relationships he had

Don't know who he is, but when you don't understand other people very well (And, who knows what else? Annoying voice? Annoying verbal patterns? Annoying lack of interest in the fashion trends and sports du jour?), they have a tendency to dislike you and gang up to backstab you, and when this pattern happens repeatedly over the autistic person's lifespan, for a few people, they get a bit paranoid about others. I sure as hell know I am!!! Especially during the middle of group project, one of the members leaves with that sly grin, as if hiding a steely knife behind his back as he was plotting my demise. Coincidentally, it happened!

When people are out to get you, you tend to get paranoid!!

Doesn't surprise me he had "bad bad interpersonal relationships". After reading wikipedia, doesn't surprise me he was an exceptionally intelligent inventor, seems part and parcel with the spectrum. The whole thing about not being constrained to the norms tends to encourage inventiveness.

One of my favorite characters of the mad scientist persuasion whom was probably associated with the spectrum was Lucca, the mad scientist character in the Super Nintendo game Chrono Trigger who invented the time machine who sent Chrono, the main character, millions of years into the past.

 

[Dauntless]

Why would I mean prehensile? I'm not acquainted with castles and jesters in the new world. If it WAS prehensile, why would it matter that he grabbed something with it? I think YOU meant primordial SARONITE. At least you can make that anywhere.

You wouldn't imagine how much of that applies to me. Also, get over the stereotypes of "Aspergers = Completely lacks empathy". All humans are on a giant spectrum of traits, and there's nothing intangible that a large segment of the population 'lacks completely'. Your stereotypical ways of thinking and use of absolutes is pretty abhorrent to me because it's not very realistic (Let alone, tends to be very pessimistic.).

Umm, nooooo. As long as you're talking about something that the deficit in empathy is basic to it, you DON'T get over it. It's the lack of access to the giant spectrum of traits, etc., that brings about the classification. . . . There seems to be this tense calcium deposit I can't get through.

What is abhorrent is the masquerade, the fun of it all, over something that causes people to suffer. Perhaps you could place your heel on some foreheads.

As for the teenager, just because there's people out there who falsely use the label doesn't mean they aren't out there. If half the population claimed they were komodo dragons and, for some reason, that turned out to be false doesn't mean one can deny the existence of komodo dragons.

Now WHERE did all this denial of komodo dragons come from? Maybe you should READ my post before responding to it. Just because there ARE komodo dragons doesn't mean that someone who fantasizes about being one and tries to say he fits some of the description of one and what doesn't fit him he rejects as not being part of the real komodo dragon (Catching breath) doesn't mean he turns out to be a komodo dragon afterall.

It just means many neurotypicals are liars. Coincidentally, that's what they tend to be good at with the better social cognition, so it wouldn't surprise if there are plenty of NT liars masquerading as aspies (For various reasons that NTs crave, like Attention, Sympathy, To manipulate the system, finding an excuse for their behavior, etc.). Especially those emos taking up the label with reckless abandon (Wouldn't surprise if it were true for a few of them, however; aspieness -> little to no friends -> sadness -> feels compelled to assimilate into the associated subculture and take up the sartorial emblem.)

A Komodo dragon would never speak that line. Still, you make a far more convincing Komodo dragon than Asperger case. (There is no apostrophe because there is no 'S') I just picture someone who works with the asperger reading what you post and saying 'Oh, PLEASSSSSSSSSE. . . .' The sheer recklessness of your abandon. . . .

Mainly it's not "Liars masquerading," you're unique in that. Mostly people are told, kids are raised to believe, soforth. There's this quick buy in, but they are told. Only when one hides himself away and says 'If I can dream it I can be it' are you then lying. Actual case where someone was accused of killing someone, one of his relatives insisted "I know in my heart he could NEVER. . . ." as everyone else acknowledged they knew this day was coming. Right up to the day that he all but confessed to her about it. Oh, I guess "I know in my heart. . . ." doesn't mean anything.

So this Farmer had some workers a'diggin' in his land, where they dug up this 10 foot wooden human. Ah, he started sayin' this was one of those biblical giants the preachers talk about, having become petrified. While he's shooting his mouth off about his giant, this guy Phineas comes along and says "I'll buy yer giant off ya." But this Farmer didn't go to all the trouble of carving out this giant and burying it on his land all by himself for the workers to then dig up just to sell it to a well known huckster, so's he says no. He made his own show with the giant, once it was a success he sold it to some other hucksters.

Meanwhile, Phineas goes back and carves his own giant, or has someone do it for him. Then he markets it as the "Real" giant and calls the farmers giant a "Fake." The guys what bought the giant from the farmer is P.O.'d at that point, right? They's SUES Phineas at that point, which gets the judge P.O.'d because the giant then has to testify under oath that his giant is "Real." The judge says something to the effect of 'This court is NOT going to declare your giant REAL, you got that?' So's the other huckster guys admit their giant is fack and the throws the case out of court so Phineas wins because he was right about the other guys giant being fake. The judge also said something about the the other hucksters doing this because they's feelings was hurt, which they was.

But now they's absolutely MORTIFIED, see in's how more and more people are going to see that giant Phineas gots and are ignoring what the Farmer got. So one of the other huckster guys says to the newspapers: "There's a sucker born every minute." And "Some people you can fool ALL the time." This is how folks come to believin' that Phineas hisself said "You can fool some of the people all the time, you can fool all the people some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time." Phineas hisself says he never said it, he did. But folks believe he said it, because he said it when he was sayin' he didn't say it so's people would know what he didn't say because that's what he said when he didn't say it. People have a hard time understandin' that.

Now, I might write like ole' Huck Finn, I might sound like ole' Huck Finn, but I ain't no Huck Finn. That giant ain't no giant, especially there ain't no REAL giant. Even if many a preacherman at the time insisted the giant just had to be real, he just had to. And Abraham Lincoln didn't say what Phineaus Taylor Barnum didn't say any more that P.T. Barnum said it. Mr. Lincoln said "You can please all people at some times, but you cannot please all people at all times" as part of his first presidential campaign. But lots of people believe as true lots of this I's sayin' ain't true. Though I's think I's might have you convinced that I ain't no Huck Finn.

[youtube]Mt36cSopN_A[/youtube]

 

[HAROX]

(There is no apostrophe because there is no 'S') I just picture someone who works with the asperger reading what you post and saying 'Oh, PLEASSSSSSSSSE. . . .' The sheer recklessness of your abandon. . . .But lots of people believe as true lots of this I's sayin' ain't true. Though I's think I's might have you convinced that I ain't no Huck Finn.

Hey Dauntless, harox here.

I said there's an apostrophe in Asperger's.

The only way I know there is, is because I Googled it. And there's an apostrophe in Asperger's. Maybe if you Googled it, you could quit being so reckless in your abandon, Dauntless.

And no you ain't Huck Finn. He was far too simple.

So, it's been fun watching this "argument" develop with yourself.

Now we know why this is a thread for the OTD.

(Now I will crawl back under the bridge)

 

[swbluto]

Long on story, short on fact. Imbued with personal sentiments, to hell with rationality.

Typical. Neurotypical.

Not wasting my time with illogical mindsets - it'd be a waste of my carefully managed positive energy. Just like those idiots on yahoo who believe physics proves that going 80 mph is more fuel efficient than 55 mph, because some finagling of the equations yields imagined support for their feelings, that feeling they don't want waste their time driving 55mph. And all the uninformed idiots who believed it. Did I go in there pointing out to everyone how the Navier-Stokes equation proves their ludicrous math wrong? Hell no, I chose my battles wisely. I picked one person that actually seemed like they had a semblance of physics understanding, and left it at that. The other guys are unipolar magnets driven by their personal sentiments and preference for convenience, and no amount of logic, reason and veritas is going to change that. So, I'm picking my battles wisely - not going to argue with rationality-blind impassioned raconteurs who, like the herd, believe talking more and being more dramatic at it makes them 'right'.

Following the tradition of Steve Wozniak and the other Apple-ites, the bozo bit reserved for a certain fearless character on ES is set to 1.

 

[Philistine]

I scored a 9 on the test.

I bet liveforphysics would score as the alpha autistic around here, lulz..

Personally I doubt that, whilst I don't claim to know him much, I have had some private messages with him on occasion, and made the mistake of questioning the veracity of some his claimed exploits. Suffice to say I am no longer in doubt as to his claims. So unless he is diligently compiling a vast database record on the vaginal and anal tone of the women of California, I am pretty confident (even with no psychology qualifications) that I can attest to the fact he isn't suffering a spectrum disorder (unless vile reprobate has been included as a spectrum in the DSM lately).

I sympathise with Dauntless, in the sense that I too think that psychiatry/psychology has become absurd with the exploding series of mental 'disorders', but I don't think Aspergers is one of them. I personally think that the human brain has limited possible resources, which can be allocated to different tasks/skills. Alan Schneider when he was at the ANU center for the Mind did some interesting research in this area with Savants. He basically showed that you can manufacture Savant skills with electromagnetic stimulation of the brain.

Dauntless is clearly annoyed that the psychiatry/psychology industry keeps inventing mental "disorders" to keep themselves in business. I don't want to upset him more, but to me he clearly displays traits of one the latest mental illnesses to be catalogued, and I think he suffers from the condition, it is called being a F*cking Asshole.

 

[heathyoung]

I think you are spot on with that diagnosis, Dr Phil(listine)

An official diagnosis doesn't change anything in this country, apart from getting subsidised medication (which you would normally get anyway). You can't treat aperger's (yes apostrophe, since it was Karl Asperger who discovered/named it) but you can treat some of the comorbidities that either an AS or NT could suffer from.

 

[wineboyrider]

Luke seems to be much too extroverted to be an Aspie. I took the test and scored a 19. Just had my class reunion party last night at the winery and boy did we rock it! I am a raging libertarian, but tend to have few Aspergers traits as I was voted in as class treasurer, homecoming prince, most funny and most likely to be the class clown!
Details with numbers actually bore me to death and I have to learn the physics to understand the world better. I have a natural trait for languages though as I learned German fluently in about 6 months....

 

[swbluto]

I think you are spot on with that diagnosis, Dr Phil(listine)

An official diagnosis doesn't change anything in this country, apart from getting subsidised medication (which you would normally get anyway). You can't treat aperger's (yes apostrophe, since it was Karl Asperger who discovered/named it) but you can treat some of the comorbidities that either an AS or NT could suffer from.

I personally think of 'aspergers' as a personality type, as there's no health risks associated with it, aside from whatever is associated with low social status (Like getting fat), which isn't necessarily highly correlated with aspergers.

As such, it's silly to think of it being possible to 'medicate', other than what might normally be thought of as a form of 'medication' for most people. (I.e., ecstasy, I hear, makes people more social.)

Have people ever found any drugs to medicate those overly aggressive extroverts? You know, the adrenaline junkies that do crazy stunts and kill themselves off early via some accident, usually darwin flavored.

We sure as hell need medication for everyone's problems! Need to boost the pharmaceutical's profit margins by pathologizing as much of the human spectrum as possible, and tailor design a drug for each. Then after their kidneys start failing from popping too many pills, you can start hooking them up on pills for that! Kaching, Kaching!

 

[Philistine]

Have people ever found any drugs to medicate those overly aggressive extroverts?

It has different marketing names like White Widdow, Ak47, Pineapple Express, Orange Bud. I religiously take my medication.

 

[melodious]

I think I've known someone with a high amount of symptoms that would be associated with AS. In college I played in a Big Band horny section and for years I would be the official taxi driver for Craig the pianist. Now Craig, was a cool cat, and wouldn't hurt a puppy, but he had odd eccentricities that I've been able to pick up on that would coincide with AS. For one, outside of playing, he was a social hermit, as he would just sit in a corner staring at the wall, sometimes mumbling to himself. On rare occasions, he would repetitively bang his forehead on the hallway walls of the music department, similar to Beethoven or Rowlf the Dog. In 1 on 1 conversations with persons he trusts, he would open up socially and be more communicative. Craig eventually ended up becoming a piano tuner.

 

[Philistine]

for anyone wondering, yes, Melodious is in fact the same person as Dauntless, after he has had a puff of White Widow.

Bring on the frosty colas I say....

 

[neptronix]

I personally think of 'aspergers' as a personality type, as there's no health risks associated with it, aside from whatever is associated with low social status (Like getting fat), which isn't necessarily highly correlated with aspergers.

Oy, i think of it that way too. There are many labels for personality types. The number of labels keeps growing.
It needs no cure, just special consideration.

Have people ever found any drugs to medicate those overly aggressive extroverts? You know, the adrenaline junkies that do crazy stunts and kill themselves off early via some accident, usually darwin flavored.

I think you're referring to the alpha male types? I am laughing at the idea of introverts inventing their own categories of mental disorders for the rest of the general public though :lol: here are a few 'problem personality types' i can think of:

1) Showy alpha male syndrome. ( must continually dominate or prove self worth )
2) Excessive small talker syndrome. ( low-grade social butterfly syndrome )
3) Social butterfly syndrome/oversocial disorder. ( seriously debilitating, leads to decreased productivity and the collection of too many friends )
4) Authoritative assertion syndrome. ( enjoys bossing people around and gaining power )
5) Brigham's disease ( produces too many children, enjoys company of children too much ).

Oh, what else..

 

[Eskimo]

Aspies tend to get excited about things. I mean really, really excited about things. That"s something "normal" people can not stand. Person, who is excited about something, faces lots of envy. Ability to get excited creates envy. For normal people it is soooo important to be 100% cool, calm and collected all the time. Shure, normal people can get drunk, violent, what have you, but very rarely really excited about anything. It is so childish to be excited about something, at least around here. Aspie faces different wellcome in different countries, cultures have differences. Person who is considered weird in one culture is considered normal on the other. We are propably most american EU-country, but still quite different. This lutherianism favors gothic mood, no New Thought legacy here.
Many people get diagnose when they are over forty. It is a massive relief for these people. They are not looking for sympathy, aspies are usually called assholes, if you have asperger, you don"t get sympathy, it"s a tragedy. These people want explanation, answer. Forty years people have been tellin you you are just no good. Evil breed. Cursed. Nobody wants to recognize your behaviour as something else than pure wickedness. Feminists are seen as a victims of structures all the time, but you, you are just bad, bad, bad. World is perfect, and you are screwed.
Then you get that diagnose. Ha-ha. Somebody is saying now, you are not a devil"s child. It"s...big thing. You don"t feel anymore like a witch in a small village, there"s explanation. Like there was finally when it was found that molded rye seeds contained LSD. Science is wonderful, less people are burned. Personally i don"t use any medication. Many pretty normal people do. It"s a weird world. Darwin"s screwed, competition is not level anymore. You go out on the street and meet people who"s serotonine and dopamine levels are fixed medically. People who are arrogant without realizing it. A person without medication is like a 1700-century soldier with black powder gun middle of the WW2 with these people. It"s not a level fight, sober ones better back off.
:wink:

 

[swbluto]

if you have asperger, you don"t get sympathy, it"s a tragedy.

Oy, it's curious to see how something like Down Syndrome gets far more understanding than wave-flapping autism. It's not so curious in the sense that people recognize normal emotional processing via the associated facial and tonal dynamics and use that to recognize 'like', thus who's in-group, but curious nonetheless. They seem to be equally affected to me. (Though, I might be biased as I live with someone with a particularly severe form of DS.)

As for as aspies, pfffttt, yeah, nerds don't get any sympathy, that's for sure! Wonder why - must be the stereotypes of the diabolical madman plotting everyone's demise or maybe that's what they be thinking, munnnn.

These people want explanation, answer. Forty years people have been tellin you you are just no good. Evil breed. Cursed. Nobody wants to recognize your behaviour as something else than pure wickedness. Feminists are seen as a victims of structures all the time, but you, you are just bad, bad, bad. World is perfect, and you are screwed.

Isn't that the case! "Being born evil" and all that.

It's curious seeing the kinds of reactions I get, sometimes. I don't tend to approach random people after having left high school, so it doesn't happen often anymore, but there's this instinctive 'spooked' reaction that happens within the first 500 milliseconds after I talk. What follows tends to vary - usually the person tries to avoid and leave the situation quickly, other times they become vile and start attacking via insults or somesuch, but there's been more colorful reactions, like getting called the devil and the guy started running away as if I was hunting him.

I wish I could find a good picture of the reaction, as it's so particularly distinctive and consistent, but yet doesn't seem to be particularly 'common'. It really needs to be a video to capture its entirety (Can't think of how to find such a video on youtube.)

I can tell the reaction is instinctive, thus genetic, based on the fact the reaction is so quick. Thus, I'm inclined to think there's a genetic component underlying most everyday interactions. A sort of "genes with human bodies as their carrier" kind of reality, thus it's not so much an interaction between humans, but rather what's inborn and thus genes.

It was those kinds of reactions, amongst other factors, that whittled down the list of possibilities pretty freaking quickly. However, ASD wasn't on the list at the beginning (And, thus, my list remained empty for many years, lol) and my only conception of it was that of a moaning hand-flapper, but after learning about aspergers, it occurred to me that people are on a giant, gradated spectrum with variance in all sorts of traits and I realized you didn't *have* to be a hand-flapper and/or rocker to be affected by the spectrum.

Sometimes I think about what may've happened to someone like me in the past, I know I can't be the first, there's been far too many people all throughout time.

I suppose that I may've been like Hypatia of Alexandria, in how the masses would've hunted me down and dismembered as the clerics declared my practices the devil's work. (When, in actuality, they just thought I was the devil and needed some killing.)

Maybe Galileo, and house arrested for having the audacity to think the world round.

But, of course, they're like History's rockstars and it'd be a bit impudent to think myself like that. I'd probably just be like any commoner, tinkering with wheels and being reluctantly accepted because of the utility of my work.

I've spotted a few aspies in Hollywood, I've spotted a few of them in documentaries and I've spotted a few of them milling around in real life. They also seem to be overrepresented in the tech industry, with gates known to have autistic characteristics and zuckerberg seems to have aspergian traits.

Sometimes, I wonder if I'm not really aspergian but really a "unique kind of critter" with a particular fate in store. Like sudden death syndrome, as nature has determined that my fate. It sounds too chimeric, so it doesn't seem very realistic, but sometimes I wonder who's/what's pulling the levers behind the scene.

 

[Philistine]

Read this book: http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374533555

 

[swbluto]

I think you're referring to the alpha male types? I am laughing at the idea of introverts inventing their own categories of mental disorders for the rest of the general public though :lol: here are a few 'problem personality types' i can think of:

1) Showy alpha male syndrome. ( must continually dominate or prove self worth )
2) Excessive small talker syndrome. ( low-grade social butterfly syndrome )
3) Social butterfly syndrome/oversocial disorder. ( seriously debilitating, leads to decreased productivity and the collection of too many friends )
4) Authoritative assertion syndrome. ( enjoys bossing people around and gaining power )
5) Brigham's disease ( produces too many children, enjoys company of children too much ).

Oh, what else..

No, not the confident alpha-males, but the aggressive, confrontational guys that presumably are always battling for second or third place in the social hierarchy. Might be an alpha male, but that'd be the exception, not the norm. This idea comes from studies on baboon cultures in the documentary "Stress: Portrait of a killer". Apparently the aggressive baboons, during one particular season of famine, ate human garbage and died off while the more cautious of the group survived and the group became more peaceful. Not sure what you can infer from that, other than the purpose of the aggressive risk-takers might be one of warning to others. The "volunteers" who teach others in the group, through their harm, what NOT to do. Then again, I can imagine the opposite, too - Where the risks taken were successful, they'd teach others what to do. Risk-takers, I guess you could call 'em, with its risks and rewards.

lol, Brigham's disease. I thought that was called "Welfare momma" disease, lol.