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.