On the imdb board for Mozart and the Whale, Jerry Newport spoke of Post Traumatic Stress and said
"That is frequent among aspie women, especially attractive ones."
I was just wondering if anyone could explain why this would be common among female aspies.
I think he may have meant that these "attractive" women may have been the subject of unwelcome and uninvited predatory sexual interest, as a result of which they have been traumatised, but you had better ask him yourself next time he comes in here.
Stella
I have shown PTSD-like symptoms simply as a result of physical mistreatment in government facilities. When I was about ten years old, they sent me to one where children who started to act out were held in severely discomforting positions, including having the arms pulled over each other in front of the body, long past the point where circulation stopped or muscles went numb. And that was one of the nicer qualities they had. I am sure that some of the male Aspie children who survive the abuses we're learning about in the news nowadays will report similar traumatic symptoms in years to come.
My PTSD resulted from child sexual abuse from a male babysitter, but it happens to NT's all the time.
I am sorry to hear that ADoyle. In my mind, there are few things lower than a sexual abuser of children. I won't list them for fear of making people sicker.
Anyway, PTSD, from what I read, was first observed in veterans of the Korean war, after which some rough diagnostic criteria was formulated. It was diagnosed in at least half of those who returned from Vietnam from what I hear. Most were okay with it and managed, but some apparently cannot look at fans without having horrid flashbacks.
Myself, I cannot speak to a psychiatrist of any stripe without having flashbacks, tremors, and the urge to fight. *shrug* But I am starting to doubt that Asperger's Syndrome is a factor at all in cases of PTSD.
PTSD used to be called Shell shock after some men in World War I suffered severe psychological trauma after battle. The diagnosis has evolved since then.
Oh... *tries to recall which source he read his information in* It makes me wonder why it took them as long as World War I to formally start diagnosing, in all honesty.
SHELL SHOCK AND ITS LESSONS
By Grafton Elliot Smith, MA. MD. FRCP. FRS.
Dean of Faculty of Medicine and Professor of Anatomy,
and
Tom Hatherly Pear BSc.
Lecturer in Experimental Psychology,
Manchester University Medical School
Published: Manchester University Press, England
First edition:
1917
full text of this famous paper online here:
http://www.gwpda.org/medical/shshock/index.htm
You're right, Stella, the best thing is for me to just ask Jerry what he meant. I washoping he'd see this topic, and that other people would like to talk about it. I don't think anyone meant that Asperger's was a factor in PTSD, but I think that if we have difficulty reading social cues, it could result in us not knowing when advances are made to us, and we may be traumatized more by some advances.
Iron Man, it saddens me greatly to read some of the things that have happened to you. I don't think anyone meant that it's not possible for males to have it. You've obviously been through some traumatizing events.
ADoyle, that's just awful, and you're right it happens to NT's all the time. NT can have PTSD.
I was just wondering why it might be common among AS females. I think Stella's response makes sense.
I am not so sure it is any more common in females than males. If there is any difference in how often it is diagnosed, it could well be attributed to social conditioning. Men tend to be a lot better at hiding the signs of trauma or such (nobody who has been in close proximity to me knows how painful priapism is, in spite of the fact that Liam Neeson's classic line in Kingdom Of Heaven that he once fought for days with an arrow through a testicle had me totally understanding his pain at the time). *shrug*
But then, I have never been good at figuring out why things happen.