Aspies For Freedom

http://www.psych-sci.manchester.ac.uk/po...c_year=all

This is an interesting study that I stumbled upon.  I wouldn't know the actual ramifications of it, but I do know that in my case (at this point I would say I'm atypical Asperger's) the indications strike a little close to home.

It would seem that self-consciousness might be contraindicated with Asperger's; perhaps the real link to delusional/paranoid thinking and intensive private consciousness with AS, comes from lack of theory of mind... thus the Asperger's patient looks inward to figure out what he's missing.

I know it was that way for me, I just didn't "get it" in high school, so I started analyzing and eventually broke down in paranoia and anxiety.  I find it telling that I had to "learn how to walk" in 10th grade, because I wasn't aware that my walk was "odd."  So then I became analytical to no end, to correct the problem.

Any thoughts?

It sounds very interesting but I can't make sense of the abstract so I'm not sure the full article/thesis would help... I'll forward this to someone who might be able to "translate" it though, if you don't mind.

Interesting but it is difficult to understand with all the technical jargon.

It might explain how Aspies in the past were often misdiagnosed with paranoia.  There is a huge difference between someone who thinks they are being persecuted and someone who is being persecuted and no one believes them.  I don't think that most of the clinicians would believe what most of us aspies put up with unless they witnessed it.  Most of the abuse I receive also, I hardly know what is happening at the time anyway.

Definitely hits home. I think the huge discrepancies between my self-image and my "ideal" do heavily contribute to my depression.

i think i can translate,lets see:
Introduction: Research evidence indicates people with Asperger’s syndrome have elevated levels of delusional beliefs, particularly delusions of persecution and grandeur (Abell & Hare, 2005).

- this chuck says intro:we have been thinking about asperger's and their  self imagery abilties, exspectally  thier  belief that every one is going to hurt them and  self worth.


Models of persecutory delusions from the psychosis literature are inadequate to account for the co-existence of persecutory and grandiose delusions in people with Asperger’s syndrome.
we read all the books we have on the subject and they dont make sense.we cant find a derect reason for this.


Research has found private self-consciousness and anxiety to be predictive of paranoia and delusional ideation respectively in Asperger’s syndrome (Blackshaw et al, 2001; Abell & Hare, 2005). Abell & Hare (2005) proposed a preliminary cognitive model of delusional beliefs in Asperger’s syndrome, recommending that further research investigates the relationship of self-esteem and delusional ideation in Asperger’s syndrome.

we have talked about this and we come to the tought that they are shy and frighted to be a  sign of over- frighten and feeling things that are not real  which is  to be  seen in Asperger's.We want to see if  thier self estem  plays a role in these feelings.

Aim: The aim of this study was to test the proposed model considering whether self-discrepancies, theoretically associated with low self-esteem (Moretti & Higgins, 1990), and predicted emotions were related to delusional beliefs. The roles of self-consciousness and metacognitive beliefs were examined and regression analyses investigated various components from the proposed model.

goal: we want to see if  the  plan works when looking at their false hoods, possibly linked to their self doubt issues, and  guessed emotions were  link to feeling things that are not real .the  roles that 'shyness' and thinking/reasoning about one's own thinking
were looked at and backwards tests were looked at heavly.

Thanks for that, although I can't stop thinking of the show "Mock the Week" where one person plays a politician and the other has to "translate" what they are saying into what they actually mean. It's very funny, especially when Hugh Dennis does the translating (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Dennis)

Yeah, thats a big part of the problem for me.

In a nutshell, it says that Asperger's is a psychosis.

I'd love to take some of those researchers and make them live as I have had to live, treated as I have been treated, expected to understand the incomprehensible on a daily basis, screamed at, beaten, BONES BROKEN, and then have them tell me that my unhappiness is "delusional" and "paranoid".

to be told oh, i dint know  or you should have told us  by teachers after tell them about the verbal bullying and thing being thrown at you.
of course we are dang depressed ,idolts. we were hurt  and  you say were a imarnaing it.


each of us have had simalar things happen to us. I Hate THE FACT DEPRESION IS NORMAL.

edit: we're on the second were
and imaganing

"54 participants were recruited; 24 healthy non-clinical controls and 29 individuals with a formal diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome."

Translation: take 24 oranges, 29 apples... now let's compare them on the basis of which ones make better orange juice...

I would agree to a considerable extent with Dogbrain that by comparing the "delusions of persecution" of Aspies with the world-view of people who have not experienced long-term marginalization, abuse, pathologization, alienation, etc etc, makes this whole study fairly worthless.

Whenever a persecuted group takes a stand about how they are treated, the privileged group (the ones who are not persecuted, but do the persecuting) always claims the persecuted people are delusional.

White Americans tend to claim there's no such thing as racism any more (and they also claimed that in 1962, before the Civil Rights laws were enacted.). Straight people say gays are asking for "special rights" when they are asking only for equal rights.  When women complain about sexism, men say they're just making it up. This study is just another example: "Those crazy Aspies think they get picked on..."

I see your point, but I was more looking at it from the angle of self-consciousness, mildly delusional/ideational thinking.. That is to say, there is a significant gap between how an Aspie really is and how he personally thinks he should be.  More so than the average person.

For me I have always had this private self-consciousness which sorta makes my "actual" real-world identity tough to pin down, I don't know how I should be, except for the way I would like to be.

I wonder if this kind of thing would be common among some Aspies.. I mean we've had to do the NT act all our lives (or many of us have had to), so wouldn't this kind of ideation be an obvious byproduct?  You can't really be the way everyone wants you to be, therefore how can you know who/what you're supposed to be?  The only thing you really have is your private consciousness, and then that may produce some wishful thinking which could become slightly delusional.

Do you see what I'm getting at?  I don't know if the study reflects this, but that's the angle I am exploring.

You know what, if you can geniuinely understand that abstract, I think you need to give yourself a bit more credit for reading comprehension. (friendly smile)

If the opposition is sufficiently vehement, specific "disorders" begin to be attached to it.  Drapetomania, for example, was invented to "explain" why black slaves might wish to escape their condition.  Today, we have a whole host of "comorbities" that can be tailored to fit the bill.