Aspies For Freedom

Doctors, like musicians are "practicing".  The science is constantly being updated.  The information flows where resources exist.

Diagnosing Aspergers occurs quite often here in Cambridge UK and the Autism Research Center (Simon Baron-Cohen, Sasha's cousin is the Director).

I was living in Los Angeles last year and that area is also more prepared for "new" diagnostics.  

I see Depression comorbid with Aspergers quite often.  Being a teacher and Aspie I tend to blame the intolerance and abusive behavior of our culture for depressing anyone who doesn't fit the "Tribal" mold.

So much of aour social rules are arbitrary and fecicious. The games are stacked against those of us without the NT blueprint hardwired.

If you are Bipolar then a dose of antidepressants would risk sending you into mania, a risk most would not take.   Depakote is an antipsychotic and could be used to force mania into depression.

But whether Bipolar, Aspergers or whatever if you look at the contributions of those so endowed, there is much hope!!!  
Look at Cavendish, Gates, Williams, Churchhill (not my favorite but my friend's here.  I prefer Chamberlain, my last name, [who knows what peace in our time could have led to.])

Look into neuronal pruning.  I go through life with more of a child like wonder and "I never want to grow up" Peter P.

Mikey

Buying a few more items probably wouldn't fit the manic mould. But your other experiences including having your brain race along with mood swings is typical of the symptoms I experienced while on anti-depressants.

I've heard of others complaining of this as well. There has been information in the popular media about this-- I think it was in "Time".

I'm glad for your sake that you got off the anti-depressants. Hopefully by posting information like this it will also warn others.

I also hope that you can find the correct med for you, if that is what you need.

I think I got wrongly diagnosed with Bipolar II.
I wasn't really diagnosed with Bipolar II, but the doctor talked allot about it, and wrote some kind of "depression stuff" on my papers, and gave me medicines for Bipolar II, for a while too see if I got better.  ..an I just got much worse.
- The medicine was some kind of epileptic-medicine combined with something else that I don't remember.
» I got back pain, shaking hands, balance problems, disiness, more tics and and sleeping problems.
The worst was the sleeping problems! I was totally exhausted and tiered all the time. Felt like I really wanted to sleep all day, but when I went to bed, I couldn't sleep, because my brain was "hyperactive" and "storming" with a mess of subjects and images all the time.
I slept maybe 2-4 hours each time, and was more exhausted when I woke up, then I was before I got to bed.
So I just quit the medicines (gradually) within 3 days, and told the doctor, and he didn't say much.

I think the reason I fit the symptoms of Bipolar II was:
1.) I talked allot, and fast without listening much.
I felt that the doctor wasn't able to remember my situation from previous sessions, so he didn't have a good overall picture of my situation.
I decided to give him as much information as possible, in as short time as possible, so he would get a "full picture" at one session.
(I'm usually a very calm person who like to think tings trough for a couple of seconds before I talk).
2.) I think I managed to look wery depressed.
I have seen that people who express feelings get help faster.
So with this doctor, I do a serious effort of locking sad, and express things like hopelessness and sadness.
I'm usually not able to cry, but I think I managed to make him understand that I was In a desperate situation.
3.) I also told him that I have "special skills", and that I like to "lock the world" out for days and hours specializing myselves in things I find interesting.
He's the doctor, I should be able to tell him everything that could be relevant, ..right?!

Perhaps you should requisition your records since you have an active interest in knowing about the diagnosis. Then again, the records that I have requisitioned in my own case were not helpful at all and seemed overly vague due to perhaps medical/ legal reasons.

Of course, I should follow my own advice and probably will request some more records during my next appointment. Until then....

Apparently the Lamogitrine, Depakote, or Tegretol {all anti-epilectic meds} wasn't right for you.

Like I stated before: I'm not so sure either about such diagnoses.

Records?! No thanks I hate papers.

I wish you the best of luck in finding what you seek.

He, he.. *** is a female-dog!
But I was more impressed by the fact that a *** could learn to write.
If a dog could get Asparger's/HFA, then the fact that it's able to write on a computer at all, must atleast make it an "savant doggy"!?

I think the admin. now have to delete all off-topic post's containing the word "***" in this thread.

"jdurg" -also known in this thread as "***" wrote "ATOMIKPSYCHO" hundred's of times in the post, for no apparent reason.

Yep, some kind of medicine made me go from maybe-Bipolar II to schizophrenia with back pain, more depression, and  heavy sleeping problems.
Medicine is OK, but I hate drugs, I'm trying to learn more about cognitive therapy, so I could maybe learn how to compensate for unreasonable things in a conscious way, instead of using stupid shortcuts like drugs.

Truthfully, I don't fully believe in any of the diagnoses. They are simply attempts to easily categorize, process and label people for billing purposes. That said:

The diagnosis of schizophrenia, for example, requires looseness of associations with "knight's move" type thinking. There must be delusions that a common person could recognise as such, and normally there are auditory hallucinations that sound exactly the same as someone speaking. The auditory centers in the parietal lobe are stimulated as if the person is having a conversation.

Now, in autistic thinking there is repetitive, sometimes depressive thinking as if one is stuck on a wheel. Some say that this mirrors schizo-affective depression without the loosening of associations. This is what a friend has told me that is in a master's program for psychology.

In either case, autism or some other so-called disorder cognitive therapy only helps for the range of thinking that you can control.

Yes that's an important point.

Just the symptoms, and not the disorder.

That's why I'm talking about compensating for drugs, and not replacing drugs.

To have efficient results from cognitive therapy requires a good therapist, and a motivated patient.
Like in my case, I don't know if my social problems comes from being bullied and neglected, or if the neglection and the bulling comes from me being an odd and spacey kid.
In both cases I can have benefit's from cognitive therapy.

When I in a conscious way learn to recognize my own reactions, I can start turning them into more "normal" reactions.

If i just accept that my problems comes from a disorder, and is not changeable. ..then I loose my selves.

One of my first sessions in cognitive therapy was when I was 18.
I thought my selves to shake hands.
I didn't know anything about cognitive therapy, but I decided to start shaking hands with other's even if I didn't feel like doing it.
I told my selves that it's okay, I can do this!
I decided to be the one with the initiative, and not always being the one surprised and locking at another persons empty hand.
And I got good at it!
Today I don't even have the unwilling and uncomfortable feeling of having physical contact with a stranger, while shaking hands.
And the funny thing about it, is that I probably feel better about it than a normal person would. ..because I'm not only shaking hands with a stranger, I'm also a winner.

I feel that some of the disconnectedness with the environment such as not having the full repetoire of normie skills that others seem to have is also where I lose myself in worry.

I began to superficially fit in a number of years ago, but still feel stress in social situations due to the wide range of information that others seem to possess. I compare this to my own limited worldly information and it causes stress.

For example, at the moment I've been spending too much time at this board worrying and not enough studying which will have its consequences. I'll probably take a little break.