This!

This graphic is nice, but please follow the link to the post that accompanied it on Facebook, especially if you really want to understand me at all. This describes my reasons for what I do daily spot on. I never recognised autism in myself until a friend was reading an article about Asperger's (not a thing in the DSM-5, but still), to understand a friend of ours better. Then he started to realise they applied to me, right down to trouble with proprioception and motion issues. He had me read it, asking me to keep an open mind, and I realised it, too. That's when I sought an assessment, which was really hard in our area as an adult — it took a year to even find someone here. EKU [Eastern State University, in nearby Richmond, Kentucky] had a five-year waiting list! But I was finally diagnosed, and I'm going forward with finding support and figuring out how it affects my life, what was missing all those years, and what can help now. I do wish I hadn't been missed for 57 years. It would have made such a difference. I wouldn't have spent all that effort and thought I was messing up for no good reason, when I was supposed to be 'gifted and talented'. I wouldn't have spent all those years putting in such an effort masking that I actually lost myself for a long time and built up a huge amount of anxiety. But I'm hoping now that I can release some of the anxiety because I finally know the underlying issue.

Twenty-five

Citation:

25. Asperger's on the Job: Must-have Advice for People with Asperger's or High Functioning Autism, and their Employers, Educators, and Advocates by Rudy Simone (with a forward by Temple Grandin), 2011, Future Horizons, 159 pp. ISBN: 978-1935274285

I liked this one pretty well. I'm having difficulties with management at work and I'm trying to get ideas for helping myself do a great job and navigate some of the issues I'm having.

Thirteen

13. Asperger's and Adulthood: A Guide to Working, Loving, and Living With Asperger's Syndrome by Blythe N. Grossberg

This explains so much

So recently someone I know had me read an article he'd been looking at due to a friend we have in common who has high-functioning autism, formerly called Asperger's Syndrome, He'd originally wanted to understand the friend better, but when he read the article, and the symptoms, he decided it might be good for me to read, too, without his comments or indications, but just to read. I didn't really know much about autism, or Asperger's, but once I read the article it was clear that there was a chance it applied to me, which was a surprise. I did seek to be assessed, but the one centre that diagnoses in the area has a five-year waiting list and gives priority to students of that university (Eastern State University, in a nearby city). The two universities in our city do not appear to do this. They did suggest local resources, but the only therapist on it that did assessements charges a lot of money and I just didn't care for the vibe of her website.

I reached out to a Facebook on neurodivergency and was pointed to a website called Embrace Autism, run by a psychologist and another person who is an autist, which contains the same validated tests used to diagnose. The website has the scoring built in, and while it does not provide an official diagnosis by any means, I took six of the tests, five of which are validated by research and are used professionally, and I came out as autistic on all of them, which kind of surprised me, and one, on emotional quotient, indicated much less awareness of appropriate emotions and empathy than I expected. One of the tests asks questions regarding your childhood vs. now, and it was stronger as a child but still clearly within the area of being autistic as an adult. I am pretty highly functional by the test results, and before the diagnosis of Asperger's went away to be included as part of Autism Spectrum Disorder, I would have been considered a person with it. I am more functional than our friend, for example. But this explains a lot of the issues I had a s a child, and one of the tests measured masking and assimilation as an adult in trying to seem more 'normal'.

So I've been reading a couple of books on self-care for those with autism. And I recognise several aspects of the MRI issues today to be directly related to sensory integration problems (found in autism, though it can be a separate issue as well).

In addition to the tests, the website has a lot of resources for people who want to learn about autism or who have it. I'd really recommend it. And the main book I'm reading right now is Looking After Your Autistic Self: A Personalised Self-Care Approach to Managing Your Sensory and Emotional Wellbeing by Niamh Garvey (ISBN-13: 978-1839975608).

Anyway, for what's it worth, it does really make a lot of my life more understandable, and it would explain a lot of my sensory integration and anxiety issues. I just wish I could get assessed officially.

Two studies, one putting a false hope to rest, the other giving new hope

in understanding autism.

California Study Finds No Link Between Vaccines, Autism

After the mercury-based preservative thimerosol was removed from vaccines, there should have been a drop in new autism cases. That isn't the case. In fact, they continued to rise. Of course, there are a lot of parents and activists who wanted (and in some cases, still want) thimerosol to be the boogeyman in this case. At one point many parents were refusing vaccines for that reason.

I'm no fan of thimerosol. I'm allergic to it, for one--it used to be in contact lens solutions and would cause red streaks down my face wherever it touched. A doctor researching whether I could be given the DPT (diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus) vaccine when I was in college (they didn't have just plain tetanus, and I'd hurt myself), came across the thimerosol ingredient on the list and I explained my reactions. He was convinced there was a paper in it somewhere. That was in the mid-80s. Then came the vaccine scare. It made sense--it's related to mercury and can cause damage in animals. But it just never panned out. Still, it's probably just as well that it's been removed largely from vaccines.

But this looked quite promising:

Chromosome Abnormality Linked to Autism

Okay, they can only link it to about 1% of the autism cases, but it opens doors to newer discoveries. It seems there are mutations that are not directly inherited but rather happen in utero as a result of a variety of genetic aspects in the parents. In these cases it might be possible to do genetic counseling regarding subsequent pregnancies.

Autism is a developmental disorder that affects social interaction and communication. It presents as a spectrum of disorders. Asperger's is one of several on the autism spectrum. There is a wide variety in the severity of symptoms. Many people with autism are seen as a bit 'quirky' but are highly intelligent and function well in society. Others are more severely impaired. A famous author with autism is Temple Grandin. Here's a list of several others who have been diagnosed with autism or one of the spectrum disorders and those for whom autism is speculated (controversial, of course). There's a lot of controversy in autism--and not just in it's cause. For example, there's the autism rights movement and the sociological and cultural aspects of autism.