Aspies For Freedom

From what I've read, adult Auspie's learn certain social skills intellectually (rather than intuitively) as they grow older and can therefore compensate, at least to some extent, for their social difficulties.

I have taken some of the online quizzes and have scored in the Auspie range, yet I haven't been officially diagnosed.

However, I have read some psychological profiles done on me when I was in pre-school.  There are references to me having difficulties with fine motor schools and playing next to, rather than with other children.

Also, when I was in Kindergarten the teacher had a meeting with my parents because they thought there was something wrong with me.  Later it was discovered that I was reading at an advanced level, so the whole thing was dropped.

When my parent's got divorced (I was about 7) I was sent to a psychologist, I think, because I wasn't expressing my feelings, or some such thing.  The rest of my siblings only went a couple of sessions, but they kept me on for a year or so.  Now I wonder if they diagnosed me with Auspie's, or something else, but no one ever told me, because they didn't want me to think I was different or something.  I remember I was supposed to draw pictures of how I felt.  I thought it was silly, but I just drew what I thought the psychologist would like.

Also, I've been thinking about my Grandfather, who died before I was born from Cirrhosis of the liver.  I am wondering if he drank to deal with social difficulties (which I tend to do sometimes, though not at that level), and if he had social difficulties due to Asperger's or something else.

Is alcoholism common among Aspies?

Hope someone can make sense of this pile of words and provide some feedback.

Thank you.

Ciao

Jonathan

J Autism Dev Disord. 2003 Aug;33(4):403-15.

Autism families with a high incidence of alcoholism.

Miles JH, Takahashi TN, Haber A, Hadden L.

Division of Medical Genetics, University of Missouri Hospitals and Clinics, #1 Hospital Drive, Columbia, MO 65212, USA. milesjh@missouri.edu

To determine the significance of neuropsychiatric disorders in autism families, we analyzed 167 pedigrees ascertained through an autistic child; 39% had alcoholism in patterns consistent with transmission of a genetic trait. Children from high alcoholism families were more likely to have the onset of their autistic behavior occur with a loss of language (52.5% vs. 35.8%, p = 0.04). This occurred primarily in families where the mother was alcoholic (80% vs. 40%, p = 0.05), suggesting an association between maternal alcoholism and regressive onset autism. Children from high alcoholism families were less likely to be macrocephalic (14.7% vs. 40.6%, p = 0.0006). Children from high alcohol and low alcohol families did not differ in dysmorphology status, IQ, sex ratio or sib recurrence risk.

PMID: 12959419 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Hi Jonathan,

I think it is a real possibility that they may have diagnosed you without telling you (EDIT: depending on the dates) . The first time I found out about Asperger's was from a sealed school report I was not meant to open :evil: .

Between the ages of 7 to 11 I saw more psychiatrists and psychologist than most people see in a lifetime. During this time there was no explanation to me what so ever. I really did not like the experience, I thought it was every one else who had the problem :grin: .

When I was at school I felt there was a big conspiracy, some of the staff would act differently to me then they would to other pupils. It turned out I was right.

By what I can make out from medical reports, at age 11 they decided I had Asperger's but wanted to rule out any medical reason for me. After the all clear was given my parents decided not to follow up with an official diagnosis, my sister was very ill at the time.

After discovering all of this I asked my GP about it I was referred to where I got officially diagnosed back in 2002.

When it comes to Alcohol it has its benefits. I am more likely to have conversations after consuming small quantities. The down side is it makes me fill off the next few days. I don't drink that often at all so my body is not use to it. I do not get hangovers but my thought patterns fill different.

JSL

Thanks Stella and JSL.

It also occurs to me that people used to always tell me I talked a lot when I was kid.  Someone would ask me a question and I might give a 10 minute monologue, or I'd give a monologue without being prompted by a question.  I've learned to curb this somewhat as I've gotten older, though I still find myself telling people everything about some particular topic I find interesting.  I get depressed when people are put off by this, but I guess NTs don't communicate like that.

I also noticed something in another post in this forum about peripheral vision.  I'm not entirely clear on what those symptoms are supposed to be.  I occasionally tend to interpret things in my peripheral vision differently, and even occasionally with things that are right in front of me.  For example, one time I was looking at the back of a girl's head and I swear I saw a golden retriever.  But these things don't typically occur for more than a second and it doesn't really interfere with my life.  Though I wonder if that's a sympton, just an over-active imagination, or what.

Apologies if I'm talking about myself too much.  Thanks for your interest and support.

Jon

I wonder if there is some crossover in this study with fetal alcohol syndrome. This is some info on fetal alcohol syndrome -
"Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is a set of physical and mental birth defects that can result when a woman drinks alcohol during her pregnancy. When a pregnant woman drinks alcohol, such as beer, wine, or mixed drinks, so does her baby. Alcohol passes through the placenta right into the developing baby. The baby may suffer lifelong damage as a result.

FAS is characterized by brain damage, facial deformities, and growth deficits. Heart, liver, and kidney defects also are common, as well as vision and hearing problems. Individuals with FAS have difficulties with learning, attention, memory, and problem solving.

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) is an umbrella term describing the range of effects that can occur in an individual whose mother drank alcohol during pregnancy. These effects may include physical, mental, behavioral, and/or learning disabilities with possible lifelong implications. The term FASD is not intended for use as a clinical diagnosis."

I don't know, Amy....  MEDLINE produced only this one peer-reviewed paper in response to the search string "autism AND alcoholism" which means that very little research has been done on it.

Stella

I've partied too much in my life. I used to (and sometimes still do) get too drunk in social situations. When I finally wanted to look at my problem and fix it, I realized that I drink because it's fairly socially acceptable, and it helps me converse with people. I play in bands, which means I'm often out in social situations, and the drinking helps me feels comfortable. I'm currently trying to ease off it and just be myself around the people I know like me while not worrying so much about all the others. An aspie friend of mine admitted to doing the same (after reading on my blog that I thought I was an aspie and drank to help with social problems).

I don't know if there have been any studies or research into an idea.

edit-oh, I also think it had a hand in my father's alcoholism as he has always had social problems and I suspect he is also one of us.

J Autism Dev Disord. 2003 Aug;33(4):403-15.  

Autism families with a high incidence of alcoholism.

Miles JH, Takahashi TN, Haber A, Hadden L.

Division of Medical Genetics, University of Missouri Hospitals and Clinics, #1 Hospital Drive, Columbia, MO 65212, USA. milesjh@missouri.edu

To determine the significance of neuropsychiatric disorders in autism families, we analyzed 167 pedigrees ascertained through an autistic child; 39% had alcoholism in patterns consistent with transmission of a genetic trait. Children from high alcoholism families were more likely to have the onset of their autistic behavior occur with a loss of language (52.5% vs. 35.8%, p = 0.04). This occurred primarily in families where the mother was alcoholic (80% vs. 40%, p = 0.05), suggesting an association between maternal alcoholism and regressive onset autism. Children from high alcoholism families were less likely to be macrocephalic (14.7% vs. 40.6%, p = 0.0006). Children from high alcohol and low alcohol families did not differ in dysmorphology status, IQ, sex ratio or sib recurrence risk.

PMID: 12959419

I wouldn't be so quick to conclude that just because MEDLINE has no research information on a topic that there isn't any research on it.  

MEDLINE indexes selectively with a North American bias.  EMBASE for example has a slant toward European studies.   Some studies won't be selected for indexing- generally the better quality studies are indexed, but it's possible that a bias that leaves out qualitative studies (qualiatitive meaning they can't be generalized to the greater population).  However qualitative studies can show a depth analysis on a limited topic - they point in the direction of what may be subjected to a Randomized Control Trial.

Yep there is a link between the two. There's plenty of stuff you can't find in medline. Things only get in there once they are published and indexed. Not all medical journals (especially the foreign ones) make it into MEDLINE and it's really poor on older journals - eg say pre 1950 and ones in a foreign language.

If you want to get more up to date research ask the people doing it - the published stuff is usually at least a year or two behind the cutting edge.