Recently diagnosed with AS and trying to understand it

Hi all,

I've recently been diagnosed with AS at 35 years old and am conducting research in order to understand the condition, and how it affects things.

As part of my previous research, I've read all the usual texts and sources, but now reading deeper into the neurological aspects of the differences in brain makeup compared to NTs.

It certainly is an interesting line of inquiry, but I'm only just scratching the surface, so there's still much more to learn.

One of the first neurological things I've learned is that people with AS have sensorimotor gating difficulties, i.e. we can't filter out only the most important information, as NTs do, leaving us often overwhelmed with information, and subsequently exhausted.

A lower amount of 'grey matter' in the brain compared to NTs is my next point of research, and one which I'm currently investigating.

I think that by understanding the neurological aspects more, it will help me cope with the debilitating and frustrating symptoms that I'm suffering from.

If anyone would like to contribute to this discussion, then please feel free to do so.

Thanks and all the best

Eclectic_Aspie wrote:I think that by understanding the neurological aspects more, it will help me cope with the debilitating and frustrating symptoms that I'm suffering from.

In your own personal experience, what would say are the most frustrating symptoms?

Personally, I don't suffer (and never did suffer) from glaring issues with communication, which seem to be often viewed as the most distinctive feature of AS. But AS (as a consistent and distinct subtype of autism) has already been discredited anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter much.

Ignoring issues more specifically related to ADHD, my most pervasive issues are generally related to inflexible and socially incompatible idiosyncrasies, lack of understanding of (or appreciation for) social rules, emotional asynchrony, lack of social and emotional insight, affective deficits ("inability to bond"), mood dysregulation, inappropriately logical thinking, disproportionate focus on irrelevant details, and excessive self-consciousness and overthinking. Sensory abnormalities are definitely an issue too, but tend to manifest through one or more of those other symptoms.

Eclectic_Aspie wrote:A lower amount of 'grey matter' in the brain compared to NTs is my next point of research, and one which I'm currently investigating.

really?!!!

anagram wrote:But AS (as a consistent and distinct subtype of autism) has already been discredited anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter much.

i'm waiting for the authors of DSM5 to have to eat humble pie on this one.

shock_the_monkey wrote:i'm waiting for the authors of DSM5 to have to eat humble pie on this one.

On one hand, simply giving someone a label of "autism spectrum" seems awfully vague, and possibly problematic on a bureaucratic level. On the other hand, research does seem to support the theory that Asperger's doesn't represent a discretely identifiable syndrome with a consistent etiology. So... should they have abandoned the old classification (like they did) without having a sufficiently equivalent replacement for it already in place? Not a simple question, although I tend to believe that they shouldn't.

I believe the acclaimed "lack of empathy" in persons with Aspergers Syndrome is actually just a lack of cognitive empathy (Understanding other peoples emotions) causing an indirect lack of emotional empathy (remorse, guilt and love). A lot of people with Aspergers syndrome around the age of 14-16 believe they're psychopaths when talking to a psychiatrist or psychologist. I believe persons with Aspergers syndrome may not receive the correct emotional understanding for a full level of emotional empathy to be established.

Although feelings of remorse, guilt and love can be overwhelming for people with Aspergers. This may lead to confusion for people who have Aspergers syndrome about their emotions. Has anybody got any thoughts on this?

ArcticGreen wrote:I believe the acclaimed "lack of empathy" in persons with Aspergers Syndrome is actually just a lack of cognitive empathy (Understanding other peoples emotions) causing an indirect lack of emotional empathy (remorse, guilt and love).

I think it's more of the opposite (lack of emotional / intuitive empathy --> lack of understanding / cognitive empathy), and while the latter can always be remedied to some extent, the former is hardly changeable at all.

I think the whole confusion between AS and psychopathy is mostly a result of the popular attribution of very vague and quasi-magical meanings to the word "empathy". In reality, one type of "lack of empathy" represents a fundamental disregard, while the other one results from a genuine lack of insight.

When people feel hurt, shocked or offended, they don't care why the "offender" acts the way he does. They only care that they feel misunderstood, outraged or invalidated, and automatically assume that this means the other person "lacks empathy" (of the universal, quasi-magical type). NT's will often get offended by such accusations, while aspies may believe them, and psychopaths will probably not care either way.

anagram wrote:

Eclectic_Aspie wrote:I think that by understanding the neurological aspects more, it will help me cope with the debilitating and frustrating symptoms that I'm suffering from.

In your own personal experience, what would say are the most frustrating symptoms?

Personally, I don't suffer (and never did suffer) from glaring issues with communication, which seem to be often viewed as the most distinctive feature of AS. But AS (as a consistent and distinct subtype of autism) has already been discredited anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter much.

Ignoring issues more specifically related to ADHD, my most pervasive issues are generally related to inflexible and socially incompatible idiosyncrasies, lack of understanding of (or appreciation for) social rules, emotional asynchrony, lack of social and emotional insight, affective deficits ("inability to bond"), mood dysregulation, inappropriately logical thinking, disproportionate focus on irrelevant details, and excessive self-consciousness and overthinking. Sensory abnormalities are definitely an issue too, but tend to manifest through one or more of those other symptoms.

Hi anagram,

I too suffer from a wide range of difficulties, many of which you have mentioned in your list.

In answer to your question, I'd say the most frustrating symptoms are the inability to communicate effectively in a 'real-life' social environment, and the sensorimotor gating (filtering) difficulty of not being able to ignore all the (essentially) irrelevant detail of something, leading to being often overwhelmed and exhausted, as well as overwhelming and bombarding other people with information, which leads to further social isolation.

Thanks

ArcticGreen wrote:I believe the acclaimed "lack of empathy" in persons with Aspergers Syndrome is actually just a lack of cognitive empathy (Understanding other peoples emotions) causing an indirect lack of emotional empathy (remorse, guilt and love). A lot of people with Aspergers syndrome around the age of 14-16 believe they're psychopaths when talking to a psychiatrist or psychologist. I believe persons with Aspergers syndrome may not receive the correct emotional understanding for a full level of emotional empathy to be established.

Although feelings of remorse, guilt and love can be overwhelming for people with Aspergers. This may lead to confusion for people who have Aspergers syndrome about their emotions. Has anybody got any thoughts on this?

Interesting points, which I will give some in-depth thought, but I'm not currently in a position to comment as I've not considered it sufficiently at present.

Thanks for your thoughts and I'll come back to these points.

shock_the_monkey wrote:

Eclectic_Aspie wrote:A lower amount of 'grey matter' in the brain compared to NTs is my next point of research, and one which I'm currently investigating.

really?!!!

anagram wrote:But AS (as a consistent and distinct subtype of autism) has already been discredited anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter much.

i'm waiting for the authors of DSM5 to have to eat humble pie on this one.

Hi shock_the_monkey,

A reduced amount of grey matter does not equate to lower intelligence...it's just that people commonly refer to brain power/ability as 'grey matter'. I am currently researching this to understand it more, but rest assured it's not directly related to IQ/intelligence.

Regarding the new DSM5 revision regarding 'ASD spectrum disorder' rather than specifically 'AS', I am also interested to see how this 'pans out', so to speak.

Thanks

You are a PI?

Do you look at genetics?

I was also recently diagnosed late, at 44. Because my toddler son was diagnosed 5 months ago. And I had suspected for a long time I was on the spectrum. My father has not been tested but I strongly suspect he has AS. Seems to me there is a strong genetic factor somewhere in my family genes.

Yes poor social skills here and I probably don't understand social clues very well. Poor eye contact with total strangers. I also get mad super fast. Hypersensibility to noises, smells, lights, it only gets worse with age. ADHD. You should speak to my husband: he used to say I come from a different planet... now we know it's the AS planet.

FemmeAspie wrote:You are a PI?

Do you look at genetics?

I was also recently diagnosed late, at 44. Because my toddler son was diagnosed 5 months ago. And I had suspected for a long time I was on the spectrum. My father has not been tested but I strongly suspect he has AS. Seems to me there is a strong genetic factor somewhere in my family genes.

Yes poor social skills here and I probably don't understand social clues very well. Poor eye contact with total strangers. I also get mad super fast. Hypersensibility to noises, smells, lights, it only gets worse with age. ADHD. You should speak to my husband: he used to say I come from a different planet... now we know it's the AS planet.

Welcome to our planet, FemmeAspie! I also just got diagnosed last year at age 43, also because of my kid, although he's 10 now. He has ADHD and possibly AS. Oh and I've had that same "other planet" discussion with my husband too

Welcome to the community

There are so many opinions and myths surrounding Asperger's, let alone the autism spectrum, but we do tend to share some things. One thing of which to be aware is that research is still in its infancy.

One of my massive bugbears (I have a few) is the empathy issue. How can you possibly empathise with someone if you can't understand the social cues, etc. that are influencing them? Once you can, however, I believe (completely anecdotally) that empathy is there, by the bucket-load ... it's the social understanding that is the difficulty/barrier. I have come across diagnosed kids who have an over-abundance of empathy and simply can't cope with it, as it is overwhelming!

Neuroscience has some fasciniating insights, but there is an awful lot that remains hypothetical and theoretical. There is a certain amount of dove-tailing in autism research, but this cannot yet account for the amazing heterogeneity of the autism phenotype ... we are still too complex for complete understanding and this should preclude the stereotypes. Speak to any specialist autism teacher and they will argue the autism phenotype is amazingly broad ... true, we share some common difficulties (as do typically developing children), but no two people are the same, and this is as true in autism as it is among the NT majority.

Tony Attwood has some useful things to say, and I would recommend anything he has written. Also check out Temple Grandin's stuff.