Adults With Asperger's Syndrome Support and Discussion

I'll make the point again that it is the number of people with which you get along, not whether or not they're on the same IQ level.

I have not been diagnosed but I have always felt isolated by my thinking (out loud of course)from others who don't make the connections (filling in the blank) or do not see where I am going with my thoughts (until two days later at which time they only chuckle) or do not see where I have been (well that is uncalled for because to know me is to love me.)

Any thoughts about my thoughts (out loud please)?

It doesn't help that much to get diagnosed because, unfortunately, I believe all or most health insurance co's do not recognize it as an "allowable condition". So that's why my husband's psychiatrist had to medicate him for paranoia and ADD and depression, even though I believe all are part of his Asberger's. Having a high IQ probably doesn't cause Asberger's even though both could occur in one individual. Feelings of isolation can also come as a result of being a child of an alcoholic or a dysfunctional home, or lack of a home as a child (aka being a foster kid or?). But isolation can definitely come from a super high IQ combined with an unwillingness to lower onesself to the level of less intelligent comrades. In high school, I learned the lesson that if I wanted friends, I had to BE one, which meant I had to come down out of my ivory IQ tower and do stupid things with people who, well, had lower IQ's. Sometimes I actually enjoyed doing those less intellectually stimulating activities...like hiking up mountains, going fishing, beach trips, picnics, camping...I found that I could think high thoughts while doing mundane activities and still have friends to be with. I have helped my Asberger's husband to do this type of thing, too, and he has started to really enjoy doing these things.

Marcie

I just had a thought...perhaps yoga could help to soothe the mind...also, swimming is very soothing...as is great music...or an aquarium with fish...in fact my husband adores all these and I just thought this minute that I need to use them more in his life. Also, there is some B vitamin that really helps with the nervous system...but I forget which one...and I seriously need to give that to my husband because who knows?...it might help lower the dosages or numbers of medications he is currently taking...which would be wonderful...I do worry about the side effects of them on his mind.

Marcie

Marcie and Ken,

From what you've written here, Ken, I don't think any diagnosis could be made, because you haven't quite figured out what's up with you, whether or not you're thinking out loud. :-)

Insurances don't cover helping patients with Asperger's (not Asberger's), and behavioural therapy is rather expensive. For me, the actual diagnosis helped tremendously. I'm inclined to deal with it, myself, and have found that much of what I've done in life has been to do just that - deal with it myself.

Asperger's and IQ do not cause each other. They have absolutely nothing to do with each other, in fact, except in the fact that they can occur in the same person at the same time. (I reference research done by three different institutes who work with ASD.)

Autistics who have a high IQ are called High Functioning Autistics (HFA) and those with Asperger's Syndrome, which are on the less extreme end of the spectrum of austim come close sometimes in causing confusion as to whether or not a person is on the top of Asperger's or the bottom of HFA.

What I find is that for me to have friends, this has nothing to do with my actual IQ, but the other idiosyncrasies involved with being me. There is no "ivory tower". There are other issues. I don't think I'm better than anyone else, but people sure think I feel that way. Misperceptions and inability to communicate otherwise...and complete frustration when people don't "get it".

Maggie

I take a prenatal vitamin every single day. It has loads of B-vitamins which help the nervious system and just about everything imaginable. Somehow, I think your husband might object, if he knows it's a "prenatal" vitamin, however...

I do Qigong. It is slow, calculating, and yet doesn't quite bend one into the pretzel one can find in doing some forms of yoga. I am about as un-pretzel-like as one can get.

I have the gecko and the dog. Swimming is good. I do run, and I practice breathing deeply.

HI, my son is 2o, he is a deaf mute and he also has asbergers,asbersgers is a tough thing to deal with especially in children, and it is so often misdiagnosed,and misunderstood, so as a mother of a son who has asbergers, I understand the frustration, and sometimes ignorace and harshnessfrom people who have no idea,and have no awareness into autism or asbergers, my son is 20 now and he was born deaf, plus the asbergers, so I do know how I struggled with him all these years, and as a parent has been very difficult and trying at times!!, but i have your back if you need to talk, joanne