Asperger's Syndrome

First-off, an actual diagnosis would be great; there's a joke that Aspergers is a contagious disease spread by the internet and contracted by reading the Wikipedia page on Aspergers and self-diagnosing

I have more than a shade of Aspergers; I had huge problems with social etiquette growing up, physically inept, several classic repetitive behaviors and so on. I spent much of my time trying to work out what the rational structures governing conversations were, so I could take part in them; factual adult conversations were obvious, smalltalk was an absolute mystery. I'd pretty much randomly repeat things I'd heard people say in other conversations >_<

I still have problems with things like eyecontact, emotionally connecting, and some repetitive physical behaviors and stimming. But not nearly as severely as when I was younger. Still have problems with smalltalk, and guessing emotion from cues, but otherwise alright.

While it can be difficult for social reasons, Aspergers doesn't have to be thought of as a 'bad thing'. Medicine and psychology revolved around 'neurotypical' people, and anything different was seen as a 'disease', but thankfully this is changing. In some senses, Aspergers can almost be an advantage; I had more than one college lecturer on the autist spectrum, for instance. But being a 'weirdly eccentric nerd' is far more acceptable now, than when I was growing up. There's different types of people. with different aptitudes and abilities, rather than people whose brains are 'wrong', imho.

So, thinking positively, if your kid is an Aspie, they're likely to be unusually honest (inappropriate in a world of pervasive subtle social lies), highly devoted to their interests (not necessarily bad at all), and often precociously articulate. On the other hand, social-emotional communication and processing may be problematic, concrete linguistic meanings will likely crowd out subtleties and subtexts, and 'getting the joke' won't be easy.

As with any other child, you just want to encourage them, and help them grow into the world. This can be harder in some areas (like social), but thats all part of the uniqueness of a new human being.

I was also diagnosed with mild aspergers syndrome in my late teens. I get jokes and i have a good sense of humour but there are other areas where i struggle but its not all that bad as long you understand the condition and keeping working hard to minimize the effects it has on your day to day life.

On the positive side, i have a lot of empathy for people and i'm very good at putting an arm around someone who's having a hard time and saying something that will make them feel better.

Sometimes i get very frustrated with myself though especially in social situations where i can sometimes just zone out completely and want to be on my own especially if i'm surrounded by a lot of people talking over each other.

I would say that aspergers is just another way of analysing situations but on the whole i've fully accepted how i am and the vast majority of people wouldn't know i was any different to anybody else but i've worked very hard at it over the years and its something i need to keep on top of daily because as far as i know, there is no cure for aspergers but i wouldn't want to be cured at this stage anyway. I just learn to adapt to new situations as they happen.

Completely concur Tony. Support/awareness from public service psyc. outpatient services when I tried to get counselling recently was appalling. The Government/HSE never offers much in the way of mental health but it appears that for persons with Asperger's, services, training and dedication are very far behind our international neighbor's standards.

Dee, Do you know your brother can put down on his CAO form that he has Asperger's? It counts as a disability on the CAO system so long as you have medical evidence to certify diagnosis. College's will take it into consideration when offering support when entering college (In DCU I was assigned a mentor, among other supports) and also make concessions (within reason) for courses if the required points arn't met, but all entry requirements are satisfied.