Asperger's & Autism Forum

Hey Beautiful people,
I would like to keep this straight to the point, here's the thing I whole heartedly despise psychiatrists, they have never added value to me in my life, in fact my life improved exponentially when I got myself off the horrible meds that were prescribed and found a Psychologist who likes me for who I am and has unconditional respect for me. Do you know what the problem is? When it comes to other fields of medicine I feel proud and enlightened that I'm seeing someone who has superior knowledge to myself. And I don't mean to go all tom cruise, but NOTHING psychiatrists say have any biological validity, I can't stand the way they treat us aspergers. They misdiagnosed, they have huge egos and they still try to make people believe the "chemical imbalance" theory I mean do they even know how stupid and ridiculous it sounds? Oh and I've been to the top psychiatrists in the UK... Believe me each one can diagnose according to their special area of interest. That's their...

I'm an NT and I'm wondering about something. Do you care about what others think of you?

I'll lay out the scene. As an NT, I'm extremely sensitive to being judged by others. If we don't follow social norms, we feel a very strong internal "cringe" and the desire to just disappear- like a sense of shame. There is a very strong pressure to follow strict social rules, and we experience painful emotions from simply imagining we are being judged by others, even if we aren't treated differently as a result of breaking a norm.

I realize that people on the spectrum deal with social repercussions if they misread cues or inadvertently do something that isn't socially acceptable (as defined by NT's), so someone with ASD likely deals with others' REACTIONS to their behaviors; but does it matter to you what others THINK of you if it doesn't result in being treated differently?

I'm curious because I'm always trying to gain more insight into my bf who we believe has Asperger's but isn't...

I have had a slew of awful dates.

There is a combination of things happening.
Struggling with sleep.
People are judging me on my race and slight pudginess. While I do the same thing with weight, and from personal experience, I don't not want a particular race, but I might consciously and unconsciously have higher expectations for certain races because of personal experiences. There are a number of people who've had similar interests to me, but been heavier than me, and they are not into me and it's weird. It's not like I don't level with them at all.
To a degree, I feel I get judged in this manner for platonic friendships too.
I think it's human nature for people to do this, but then there's also just racism to a degree too.
There are definitely more complex social factors that come into play. Sometimes, from me, and sometimes from others.
One of my bosses pointed out that I don't look good in wrinkled shirts. I can't always tell that a shirt is wrinkled, but I haven't ironed...

After dance class, I normally leave straight away, but after some annoying incident involving people forgetting to tell me things, my mom's been hugging me to try and fit in more, to join their group.
So today I joined my classmates and teacher in having dinner at McDonalds. I had to get a Filet-O-Fish, the smallest thing I could get without arousing suspicion. Urghhhhhhhhhh I was carving health food for once and now I have this gross oily thing in my stomach and tastebuds.
So I wasted half an hour there. We weren't chatting or anything, everyone was using their own phones. I had finished eating and was waiting for at least 10 mins when I checked the bus schedule and found my bus was coming (they were taking a different one in the other direction) and if I missed it I'd have to wait another 20 mins.
So I got up, explained about the bus and said my goodbyes. My teacher looked really shocked when she asked "Are you going already?" I made my escape, but now I can't stop thinking...

I keep reading that ADHD and autism have issues with switching task. I'm wondering if I do but I'm no exactly sure what that is or wha it looks like. So what is it? And what does it look like when someone has issues with switching tasks?

So I was recently diagnosed and i am unsure what would help be with "Therapeutic services
provided to assist with developing social skills, increasing self-care skills, and general
independent skill development", any suggestions? And do not suggest ABA therapy.

I've been thinking a lot since my recent diagnosis and something that has struck me is that almost any time I've been in contact with autistic people it seems there has been some connection. Some examples:
1) a non-verbal autistic child aged 7 came and sat on my lap when I visited my daughter's classroom - his teacher aide was very surprised and said he only does that to people he knows very well or his family. He also followed me around a lot.
2) when working in a community home setting one of my clients, who had Aspergers, made eye contact with me despite having not opened his eyes in front of anyone for several years (he told me he did kept his eyes closed in front of others as a self-punishment for something he once did).
3) another client with Aspergers would only talk to me about what he felt, no-one else - he would wait until I was on shift, even if it meant waiting days. It seemed he hadn't done this before, as in, he never used to talk to anyone about what he felt.

It...

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I want to be able to have friends since i don't got any of those and the first step (after admitting my errors) is to learn body language but idk how. i tried looking it up on the internet but i got stressed out and ended up panicking and closing the tab. so how should i learn to read body language (and i may need to learn to socialize)?

Hello,

I used to rarely initiate a convocation through SMS /IMs , although I am better at this and am trying to push myself a bit more*

However, I've noticed that it can take *days* for me to reply to one of my friends' texts, I don't really know why it takes this long, and I am realising that this kills the conversation, and leaves a placid lack of interest from my part. They are obviously interested in me, and I want to be a bit more pro-active in how I express myself through these channels.

Maybe a reason could be the stress and lack of convenience when instantly replying, and so I put it off even though I know I shouldn't.

Does anyone else have these issues?