Three great articles about adult meltdowns with Aspergers.

I came across three great articles on meltdowns and how to cope with them, for adults with aspergers or autistic spectrum disorder. They are on Tumblr and may be difficult to find sohere are the links:

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Losing my only social outlet.

I am not very sociable, but I feel I need social contact with others and my family want me to have more. My social contact can be divided into three parts:

1. Work
2. Family
3. Brass band

The idea was to expand this a bit and get a bigger social circle, maybe even a friend. But it all went badly wrong and contracted rather than expanded.

I really did enjoy being part of the band, but they had a reshuffle and decided to offer me a lower position. I felt this might be because my performance in the run up to the last contest had been not as good. The reason I felt was that changes to the parts at the last minute had upset my playing of the part. This was autism related so I decided to tell the band committee about my condition in the hope that they might see some adaptation possible to improve my performance if they kept me in a more demanding role. This backfired badly and I got the impression that it just cemented their decision. Their reasoning was that my playing ability was not in question, they just want younger players. I felt that playing a lower part would stifle my interest in practising and make me a worse player so I declined and had to leave. There was just no way they were going to back down. I feel discriminated against, not just because of my autism, but also my age.

What I did not know was that several other people had been hit with the same argument and had left (five or six in total). They are having a real clear out and bringing in new players. I only found this out this morning after a sleepless night preceded by some self harm.

So now I have lost a third of of my social contact and am a step backwards rather than a step forwards.

Anxietyand aspergers.

It has been a while since I posted anything here. I have been struggling with a bout of anxiety and self harm. Was prescribed an anti anxiety medication which, after one tablet, knocked me out for 48 hours and I did not recover from it for over a week. Apparently sensitivity to some kinds of medication can be part of my autism so prescribing it was probably not a wise mood. Thankfully I am on Propranalol (two 40mg tablets daily with the option of a third of needed). This is helping significantly. I have also started attending a local group assisting people with aspergers who struggle with anxiety issues. This is using the five areas approach.

I also bought this book which gives examples of how people cope with different aspects of living with Aspergers or High Functioning Autism. Anxiety is one of the top issues identified by aspies polled by the author:
Been There. Done That. Try This!: An Aspie's Guide to Life on Earth
I keep seeing things in it that I recognise and some of the ideas for coping with anxiety seem to be helping me.

Work meltdown imminent.

Arrived at work this morning on the verge of a melt down. I will do my best to avoid it, but its not going to be easy.

Accepting my limitations.

One of the advantages of knowing I have Aspergers syndrome is that it has allowed me to accept my limitations. I used to get very frustrated that I was not sociable enough, or not able to learn the same way others do, or was easily distracted or absorbed by things. These days I worry less about this because I know there is very little ability for me to change these things.

I used to feel that I should have made more of myself in my career or in my musical activities, but now I realise I have done very well at these things and realistically could not have gone any further with them.

I have a very happy life and am very content.

Poor muscle tone with Aspergers Syndrome

An interesting article on what "poor muscle tone" means by Gavin Bollard:

"Low muscle tone refers mainly to the distribution of muscles on the body, their initial state, speed and stamina. The affected muscles can be "trained" but that training won't come from sport or from and normal gym/weight training. It comes from some very specialized training - and it won't be 100% effective. In young children, the problems of low muscle tone will reduce in severity as they get older - up to about the age of 10, though aspies will likely continue to adjust and compensate for the rest of their lives."

Read the full article here:

http://life-with-aspergers.blogspot.co.uk/2008/04/what-does-low-muscle-tone-hyptonia-mean.html

How this affects me:

I have always had very flexible finger, toe and ankle joints. I also have quite poor fine motor skills and the combination of the two means that I have posture, grip and occasional injury issues. Its not the end of the world, but it is definitely a feature of my Aspergers.

Autism and evolution

There is some talk in the Aspergers community that Aspergers syndrome could be an indication of a next stage of evolution leading to a more advanced human. I disagree. I I think there are a number of features of autism which point to earlier forms of the human brain rather than future ones.

Temperature control problems – possibly related to the adaptations that took place during evolution from cold blooded to warm blooded. I am writing this with one painfully cold hand and one hot hand!

Identifying food by simple known flavours – possibly related to having to identify safe foods.

“Self obsession” – Its not selfishness but linked to survival, putting personal needs first.

Difficulties with tight or itchy clothing

Sensitivity to being touched – detection of close threat through hairs.

Sensitivity to sharp sounds – ditto.

This list could be expanded.

In fact I see a lot of similarity between my autistic traits and those of some animals. Its as if my brain is slightly wired up like those of my distant ancestors.

However, I can see some of these traits having an evolutionary advantage. For example, in a world where people are becoming more individualised and friendship is being redefined around social media and  people don't  interacting socially with each other as much as they used to,  an autistic person is likely to be able to survive better as they do not miss that social interaction. Also, dating is easier for autistic people nowadays because of online dating. There is therefore a greater chance of us marrying, having children and passing on our genes.

What do you think?