Yes. I wonder if there can be an argument for different types of AS. So some people may struggle with speech. Some may be physically uncoordinated. Some may be very bright. Some may be so different. Is there a common thing that we all have? I just have a feeling of being different. I have feelings that are not like what is outside. I can fix some of my strange bits but I do not want to fix them all even though I don't fit in that well.
I am female and i was anorexic and now have much clearer understanding of the things underneath that led to that. Normal things for me, but not normal for society. Either way is illness. So I don't try to be either way anymore.
becca
AspieGirl
Reading the wiki article I found, that I in fact show some signs of codependency. But if it is because of me being AS or if it's because of the alcoholism of my father or event the unloved-feeling I had as a child or because I feared my father, I don't know. As a matter of fact, I always try to find excuses for any fault anybody makes...
But I think not all the problems an Aspie has can be related to his of her aspieness. One can easily have lice and fleas as well... Being AS does not prevent anybody from having psychologic disorders that are not related directly (but maybe promoted) to aspergers.
Sibylle
I've been asked to talk to a reporter from our local paper about my experience in having autism for a feature article he is doing in the next couple of weeks.
I will certainly be sure to tell him that women can have Aspergers and other autistic conditions and that they can manifest themselves differently in girls and women.
Have printed off some good articles about Autism that are basic but give a lot of relevant information. Hopefully, some mention can be made of all my craft projects and my large menagerie of pet rats but the most important thing is raising community awareness of autism, especially in adults.
Judging by what is happening where I work, this awareness is long overdue.
Reading Women From Another Planet was the thing that confirmed to me I could place myself *somewhere* on the spectrum, whether Aspie or not-quite I dont know (depends on the day!!)
Before that, on the one hand I had the evidence of my son's and my similarities- glaringly obvious similarities, sometimes- and all the 'he cant be autistic, he's just like you were as a child' comments I had about him pre dx... on the other hand I had lots of information on the web about Aspie boy children that I didnt relate to all that much at all now OR as a yong child.
The 'edge of the group' scenario fitted me quite well as a child- when I had friends, that is! Often i didnt!
It seems to me a great deal of gender bias occurs in many areas, such as health, child rearing and education. It takes active effort to monitor whether a judgement is influenced by the gender of a person.
I know if i was male, i would have been treated very differently and i would have behaved differently ( I behave more 'male ' now and get more help with some things)
I saw the movie The Machinist recently. It starred Christian Bale, who lost about 60 pounds to play the character of Trevor. Has anyone else seen it? It was quite shocking for me to watch as he really looked horrible. His behaviour was obviously anorexic.
But in the movie reviews explaining the storyline, the character of Trevor was described as insomniac, as if this explained his extreme loss of weight.
If he were female yet still not sleeping, he would have been described as anorexic.
The movie is very interesting from an intellectual point of view. I liked many things about it. But not uplifting.
We make judgements very rapidly and automatically that have far reaching implications on how we treat each other. I know if i were male i would have been a really horrible little boy to deal with sometimes. Now i am strangely in between.
becca
I think had I been a boy I might have got more academic encouragement but on the other hand, could have ended up with more bullying as I didn't like sports.
Further to that, some oddities were certainly noticeable when I was a child but it was just put down to my being "highly-strung" and my parents had the hope that I would just grow out of being shy and too emotional and fussy about some things.
When I didn't, I could be told to "try harder" and "think more about other people". I believe my parents had hopes I would meet a nice man who would marry and take care of me but what they didn't realise was:
(a) I had trouble in reading the signs that somebody was interested in me + didn't often know how to respond.
(b) the man would have expected something in return for "taking care" of me: it could have been complete agreement with all his ideas, entertaining clients on a regular basis, having a large family or whatever and I probably wouldn't have been able to cope with these expectations for an extended period of time.
© I was still able to develop skills in being independent but it took longer than most people. Being taken care of could have stunted this development even further.
I don't know about anywhere else, but there has been a headlice epidemic in Australia for the past 7 years or so. Resistant strains have developed and so head lice infestations have been common. Whenever you get rid of them, they soon come back.
Getting back to the other topic at hand, they say "co-dependency" is bad but aren't we all dependent upon others in some way or another?
We had a lice problem in our housing complex one year. The NTs kept advising each other on what to do with a lot of misinformation. One woman very authoritatively said that it was necessary for those who had been infected to put all their linens outside in garbage bags for three weeks to stop the lice from reproducing. She is a school assistant so everyone listened to her. Another NT advised that it was necessary for us all to wash every bit of fabric in the house with the result that everyone here was doing twenty loads of a laundry at once. Logically I called my public health nurse, who gave completely different advice. After I spoke to the nurse, although I knew then that it was completely unnecessary I still went through the same procedures as everyone else, including the many loads of laundry because I knew the NTs would blame me if there was another outbreak if I did not do as they did.
There is a lot of misinformation about lice. They cannot jump through the air to transfer from one head to the next and cannot live more than a few hours off the human body.
What should people do for head lice? I have heard different things like: wash the hair with special shampoo, comb with small comb, put mineral oil or baby oil on the head and leave on overnight, wash all clothing/bed in hot water, vacuum and shampoo carpets, put baseball caps in freezer etc. What works?
Girls with Asperger's. Well I guess I was one of them. There might have been clues in kindergarten but no one really knew much about it back then. I am still waiting for people to understand that children with autism grow up into adults with autism. There was also misconceptions that males do not suffer from anorexia nervosa or distorted body self-image. But making diagnosis easier is not the same as trying to get people to accept people who are different (physically, sexual orientation, racial and other). The bullying I experienced in school was nothing compared to the suffering I have endured in employment and for lack of employment.
Alex has had them a few times and 'shared' them with me.. grr...Nit combing worked well for us. It required a HUGE amount of bribery, treats and cajoling (and that was just for me hehehe- just kidding) but I didnt like the idea of dumping a load of chemicals which probably wouldnt work on our heads. :evil:
I didnt bother with all the bedlinen stuff... I was nitcombing every other day and tbh i have enough trouble keeping up with the washing we do have than having to do two sets of bedlinen every other daywhile de-nitting.
... for getting rid of head lice, that is, shave yer head. That's where the meme of the "convict haircut" originally came from.
"Gaol Fever", or typhus, was treated by shaving the convicts' heads.
I do hope that the chemical methods will continue to work, because, well, I shaved my head once for an experiment and I don't think I look very good as a skinhead.
As I wrote on another thread, here, the chemical methods don't work that well anymore. I reckon that the lice have bred themselves some resistance to the poisons. We may well have to resort to old-fashioned methods, i.e. shaving of heads.
I hope not, I don't look good with no hair.