Coming to terms with Aspergers

Martin1964

Hello, I'm martin I'm nearly 54 now and beginning to understand my self being.. and that I might be suffering from aspergers !!
My life as always been difficult due to feeling anxious being around people also to being narrow minded 

Pippa_Alumni

Hi @Martin1964, and welcome to the community!

Thanks for sharing this with us, you may like to check out our ASD discussions. Do let us know if we can be of any assistance!

JennysDad

Hello @Martin1964. Very glad to have you with us.

You have found a safe place here and are among friends, so please don't be shy of telling us about yourself or of asking any questions. The better we get to know each other, the easier we may find ways to be of use to you.
Warmest best wishes to you,
Richard

steve51

Hi @Martin1964

Good Afternoon & Welcome.

It’s Great to meet you today.

Please please let me know if I can support you in anyway???

Martin1964

Thank you, I'm just coming to terms with my problem.
My life as greater understanding and everything what's happened in my life as started to fit together.

steve51

Hi @Martin1964

No probs my friend!!!!!

Please please let me know if I can help you with?????

Thanks.

Martin1964

Hello everyone, been doing some soul searching these past few days. Is it possible to be able to control aspergers ?
Need to get my life back on track. Though my anxiety levels seems to be the main issue. 
I've problems at work is it that I've brought them upon myself due to this condition, 
Many thanks 

Martin1964

I work as a bricklayer, mainly working on building sites, there are people which keep going on about me in doing this I'm being single out. Now due to this, these people are poking fun of me and I'm biting back. Nobody is ever says anything and all this is brushed under the carpet. If I spoke to anyone about my circumstances,all they say is to leave as I'm selfemployed. Are people poking fun due to me having aspergers ? Is this happening due to being different ?

JennysDad

Hello again Martin, @Martin1964. Good to hear from you.
I can't offer specific advice, I'm afraid, but I'm going to suggest you try the 'Ask an ASD Advisor' forum, here: https://community.scope.org.uk/categories/ask-an-asd-advisor
I'm also going to 'name drop' someone here in the belief that they may possibly help: @VioletFenn
Please keep in touch.
Warmest best wishes,
Richard

Martin1964

Thank you Richard..it's just I'm trying to get answers . Also I need to know which direction I need to travel in to try and live a fulfilling life. 
Aspergers as been a plague on my life especially in relationships. Never realised I suffered from this condition 
Many  thanks Martin 

JennysDad

Hi again, Martin, @Martin1964
Can I ask if you've had a formal diagnosis - a medical diagnosis - of aspergers? And if you have talked to your GP or local mental health services about it?
There is a sense in which a formal diagnosis does not much matter, since you clearly have a problem and are trying to deal with it.
As to your colleagues, it's unfortunately only too common to read about bullying of anybody seen as 'different', from their schooldays to their last days sometimes. The world we live in is often not at all nice.
Best to you,
Richard

Martin1964

Hello....I've done a test on the Internet which says I'm midrange aspergers,  now I'm asking questions and looking for answers.
I feel that for nearly 54 years I've dug an hole and jump in. Also I feel that this condition as robbed me of my life.
I'm not actually being bullied in the work place,  I get on well with people it's that some people don't like me so I'm wondering if this condition as something to do with matters. If you go on about me in start to feel anxious and feeling stressful.. this is probably due to aspergers.
This is why I'm back in the work place many thanks 

JennysDad

Hi Martin,
So that's not a formal, medical diagnosis. If you're concerned that you have Apergers it might be worth consulting your GP and trying to get a referral? I say this because, of course, it could be something else, even something similar, and it would be best to know.
As I suggested before - the link is still in the posts above - it might be worth your having a word with our ASD advisor.
Warmest best wishes,
Richard

Martin1964

Thank you Richard for listening, it's been nice getting all this off my chest. Starting to feel as if my head as cleared. ....

JennysDad

Hi Martin,
I am very, very glad to hear that.
Best to you
Richard (still here, still listening)

vysvader

@Martin1964
Hi Martin,

Per year, 1/5 of the population is suffering from a form of an easily treatable anxiety (and that's exactly the diagnose what you've described), they change year by year, it's about many people but they're hiding it (so they don't target each other and they don't laugh each other. Perhaps, the diversity doesn't help your enemies to imagine (empathize) that like they're in your skin). In fact, the concepts of those two diagnoses are staying separately but can look similar. If you've got Asperger Syndrome then it's good if you know, but either way, the anxiety is a separate matter which you should focus on and get rid of. Despite all, yet still... you show up some aspects of a high EQ (managers should've) in the written form. For example, you've many times explicitly, easily, naturally, and affectively written about your feelings in a very direct crystally clear way, and so on... Notwithstanding, nevertheless, if you made a test so that's it. I may take it only as a fact, it's proven.

Best regards,
J. Vysvader

poppy123456

Hi,

Aspergers syndrome is no longer an official diagnostic catagory and it was removed in 2013. It's now known as ASD, although many people that were officially diagnosed with Aspergers before 2013 continue to use the word. You may find this link interesting.

https://www.verywellhealth.com/does-asperger-syndrome-still-exist-259944

vysvader

Thnx. Well, AS is diagnosed under HFASD (a part of the spectrum - a contrast subgroup of ASD) as well as the anxiety belongs to the mood disorders, not under the ASD which is totally distinct from the mood disorders.

Particularly, the diagnosis is under HFASD because it doesn't cover the whole spectrum, autistic spectrum disorder - ASD, just a part thereof, at the same like Asperger Syndrome already did before, so the grouping just returned to the 1944 concept of the autistic spectrum. Asperger Syndrome was renamed many times but from 80' years, it'd been still used as an unofficial synonym... The high functioning autistic disorder isn't new. Just the names and grouping change.

Try a few statements:

1. Apple is a fruit and shoppers sell it labelled as "apples".
2. "Shoppers start to sell it labelled as "fruits", therefore fruits don't include apples, apples aren't included".  

And compare:

1. "AS is an ASD and medics diagnose/call it AS".
2. "Medics start to diagnose/call it ASD, therefore ASD doesn't include AS, AS isn't included". 



Best regards,
J. Vysvader

Geoark

I will try and explain this again.

Aspergers as a diagnosis was dropped by DSM 5, this is a diagnostic tool  used primarily in the US.

It has not been dropped by the World Health Organisation in its ICD 10 diagnostic tool which is used in the UK.

Therefor linking to a US website is probably not very helpfull in this circumstance try instead: https://www.nhs.uk/news/mental-health/aspergers-not-in-dsm-5-mental-health-manual/

ICD 11 has dropped the various titles but the coding for autism still has the same number of codes for distinguishing various disorders within the spectrum.

While the latest version of ICD 11 was published June 2018 it is not due to be endorsed until May 2019 and member states will not be using the new coding until January 22, if endorsed.

Therefor aspergers is still a recognised diagnosis in the UK and will continue to be so until at least 2022.

How this will help, or hinder, those on the spectrum is still to be seen. When we were told our daughter potentially had aspergers I did a lot of research, for the first few months I could not relate most of what I was reading to my daughter until I came across a site discussing aspergers in girls and then things clicked in place for  us.

While labels can be misused, they can also be useful. 

vysvader

Yep, obviously, your explanation is correct, however, there're outdated UK-based websites, not just direct misinformation by online journals, e.g.:

"A revised edition (ICD-11) is expected in 2018 and is likely to closely align with the latest edition of the American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)" (National Autistic Society, 2016, p. 1).

"Although not the most commonly used manual in the UK, DSM-5 is likely to have a significant influence on the next edition of the ICD. This manual has recently been updated and is also used by diagnosticians" (National Autistic Society, 2016, p. 1).

Either way, the US classification didn't undergo any big changes, it's just about the terminology.

Reference:

National Autistic Society (2016, June). Autism profiles and diagnostic criteria. P. 1. Retrieved from: https://www.autism.org.uk/about/diagnosis/criteria-changes.aspx

poppy123456

Strange that because when my daughter was going through the ASD assessment i was told that aspergers is no longer diagnosed...