Hogmanay – or what the New Year may bring.

I do not do New Years resolutions as a rule. Not because I know they are futile and will be broken, not because I do not want to set myself something unnattainable as a target (although both of these are true in a way), but because I do not see why you should set yourself arbitary targets based on the date.

I intend to update this blog more often, it is just that life gets in the way so much.
Let me see what needs to be done in the next few weeks. This may be in random order as I think of it, rather than in date order.

First, you may need some background. If you are not interested, then that is OK, I will be posting more interesting posts soon I am sure

Twitter Autism Day

So I should have blogged about this before it started, and I am sorry.
Today a group of people, across many countries came together using social media to raise awareness of, and support for Autistic Spectrum Disorder, and related issues.

If you are interested, you can keep up using #ASD on the twitter search, and joining in the conversation, and listening to the speakers.

I have gained a lot of followers today, @Araldia and something that came up was that many people are interested in how I managed to get to 31 without letting anyone else diagnose me as Aspergers.

I have well established coping strategies that I use when dealing with Neurotypical people, but it is hard for me to think about the order in which to write, so please, if you only comment on one post on this blog, pick this one, and let me know what situation you are up against, and I will blog within 24 hours where possible how I dealt with similar issues, and how our Aspergers son, our ADHD son, and my ADHD husband deal with it also.

Maybe what works for one of us will work for you?

So someone in the comments asked me about my aspie profile from this site.
While I do not advocate self diagnosis, I feel that this tool a good way to identify possible things that can be then looked into further.

I do not feel, as you can tell from the title of the blog, that Aspergers is a disability.

http://www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php

This one is different to most online tests, as it is measured not on the questioners bais, but on the weighted response of those with an Autistic Spectrum diagnosis, and those with no issues at all (Neurotypical).

Some things are worth it.

So after 8 years, the one thing I wanted more than all others has come to pass. I now have my BSc. It has been hard work, I have nearly given up many times, but I got there. I did it. On my own. *with support*

Theft?

My son graduated to the mobile phone holding majority when he started high school in September.
On Saturday he admitted he had lost misplaced his mobile.
It led my husband and I onto a discussion about bullying and theft.

What’s so good about “normal” anyway?

The term neuro-typical is used by the ASD community to cover those that society deems normal.
My definition of neuro-typical encompasses all sorts of people. The mentally ill, in most cases are neuro-typical. Those with bi-polar disorder, those with schitzophrenia, those with narcissistic personality disorders, those that are work-a-holic, the paranoid and so on.

Routines

I didn’t think I was particularily a stickler for routines. I am quite scatterbrained, and do not like doing the same things at the same times every day. It would be useless for us to attempt to eat our food at precisely 5:30 or something, just wouldn’t end up happening.

But looking at my day in small parts, it has become apparent exactly how much routine I fit into my day.

Looking Back, Part I

As my diagnosis has come late in life, there are many things that I can look back on that suddenly make sense. Many of these I was not aware of as being different to what other people do.

When I was three I learnt to read, by shape first, then phonics. For instance, umbrella was two small, one tall, two small, two tall, one small. When there were two combinations that could be the same word, like tea or two the correct one would obviously be the one that made sense in context.

One of AS?

I suppose we are expecting Connor to show AS traits, so does this mean we are over analysing his behaviour?

Every time he spins something we glance at each other knowingly, assuming his fascination means he is becoming “one of us”.

We do not care if he is Aspergers, Autistic, Neuro-typical, dyslexic, or anything else, he is our boy. But we have had discussions about being ready to prepare him with coping strategies, I am searching for picture cards to use around the house, we are noticing lots of things that are probably normal behaviour. It is hard to tell what is normal, as the boys are both AS so our recent experiences are of them.

Explaining Merged Identity

I am an adult with Asperger’s syndrome. This means that although I am able to ‘fit in’ with you, I do not really understand you. You may be able to say “I understand what you must be going through”, but you don’t. You could be thinking that maybe I am upset about having AS, or that it means that in some way I am broken. Maybe you even feel sorry for me.
I have been an aspie all my life, I just didn’t know it until recently.