Last post Sun, May 11 2008 8:27 PM by purplerage. 14 replies.
This is similar but different than Autisim. I post this hoping it helps someone. I know many of people with Aspergers and Autisim, and understand them a lot because of a Sensory disorder. I actually understand people with spectrum disorders still more than people without. It's kind of hard to explain but the symptoms and a lot of what others see appear the same. I have felt a lot of similar things and try and explain when I can because I am able now. I wasn't able to express myself for a long time and so try to let people know I may be able to explain a little what someone else may not be able too. On the off chance it would help someone I just had to post. I hope that makes sence.
I haven't been officially diagnosed but I have a lot of sensory issues myself.
For example I always wear skirts because the feel of pant legs bothers me and has since I was a little girl. I dislike being touched, especially unexpectedly. Back rubs especially bother me. Loud music has always bothered me as well.
Have you read "The Out of Sync Child?" It's all about raising kids with sensory integratioin problems. I read it a few years ago and it was like reading my own autobiography.
Sometimes I think I understand people with aspergers and autism more than I understand people without also. I probably live somewhere on the edge between aspergers and not.
I have read it, that's how I knew, before I was thought to have something Similar to Aspergers. It was because I saw it that I went in and was evaluated and thought to have something different. I can't be diagnosed without a doubt because I am older now, but they have no doubt I have some sensory intigration problems.
I help people with many disabilities, but at work they appreciate my abilitiy and so when someone is having a hard time no one can understand, I go and usually can find out what's going on. Not always help but I deffinately work well with people who have either disorder.
I agree it feels like I'm on the edge between, and want people to know more about us. I do still have sensory problems, but people too now appreciate my differences for the good that is also there. I hope others get that someday too. Glad to know someone else, you are the first other person I have heard from outside of books.
That is exactly what I do really, and have done for so long now. I have been called many times to come help when no one else understands and I often can. I feel like it's an opportunity for some of us to use how we are. It's not something everyone can do, I have had so many people helped so much that for me it's such a great thing. I hope you find it just as rewarding always, and I promise sometime down the road it will come back, a child or family that you helped, you will see you probably made a bigger impact than it seemed at the time. After 11 years, volunteer before that too, I have seen great things years later that I didn't even know I was doing. It can help more than you realize now even, and I am so glad to know others are doing the same. I am glad for you and your friend, I know you will likely make a huge difference no matter how long you work with kids or anyone with Autisim or other Disabilities. I hope you have a long and happy career.
I have sensory issues. My primary dx is CP but I have been addressing sensory stuff lately. I recently installed a swing and I am trying to use that. I also do a lot with oral motor strategies ("chewies" are great for me).
I find the sensory integration stuff fascinating. I'd love to talk with other adults who deal with it.
Jen
I have CP too. I figure whatever caused problems in the motor centers of my brain also caused the sensory stuff.
I'm mostly sensory overreactive. I don't do well in noisy chaotic situations partly due to the noise and partly when people are bustling around I'm afraid I might get knocked over and fall.
Visual I do OK. Well except for around strobe lights. And having no visual spacial processing skills. But I'm not sure this is a sensory integration problem (although again I suspect the same brain damage process)
Tactile, that's where I get into trouble. I dislike being touched unexpectedly especially from the back. I can touch people when I dance or handshake or other ritualized things. I do hug my friends and family sometimes, but overall I'm not a "touchy" person. I think one of the reasons I've never been interested in dating is that I can't imagine wanting to hold hands with someone (besides when asuring the safety of a young child) let alone kissing let alone true intimacy. I almost dropped out of a chorus becuase we had to give each other backrubs at rehearsals.
I can handle wet things on my hands (like clay) but get very distracted by dry dusty things on them or just dryness from overwashing. I find wearing most pants very uncomfortable, also sneakers becuase they are too soft. Sometimes I find myself thinking "Take this off take this off take this off" the whole time I am forced to wear them, which I have been for school or work. Don't have much of a problem with labels.
I'm not too oral motor, but I do still suck my thumb when no one else is around, so maybe I am!
Have you heard of Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD)? I was just reading an article today about it from Time Magazine. They are questioning whether it's a legit diagnosis since it hasn't been accepted into the DSM And some people are skeptical.
Here's the article:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1689216,00.html?imw=Y
And here's an informative site I found about SPD-there's an adult checklist too so I thought it might be helpful to see if you relate to the symptoms.
http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/
I relate to dozens of the things on that list. . .
I'm a bit confused how this is differnet from SID (Sensory integration dysfunction). Will have to look that one up.
As far as the DSM, it's useful but not the be all and end all. It wasn't very long ago that homosexuality was in there as a legitmate mental disorder. And too many obviously impairing conditions don't fit categories well enough and are appended with -NOS. Someone could have an eating disorder that is signifigantly impairing on their life, yet not be eleigable for services because they don't meet the strict criteria for anorexia or bulemia and are lucky to get a label Eating Disorder NOS. And then things like "qualitative impairment" in things like Aspergers are not well defined at all. Until we can diagnose psychological and neuropyschological condtions by PET scan and blood tests, the DSM is all we have. But I wouldn't take the lack of inclusion to suggest a lack of realness, or vice versa.
Nightengale:As far as the DSM, it's useful but not the be all and end all.
Oh I totally agree-especially from a research standpoint. Unfortunately from a treatment standpoint with current managed care, DSM classification is a requirement to receive funding for care---even some of the conditions that are within the DSM aren't covered so it's a careful balancing game of ascribing a label which may best fit the person but according to our current standards won't merit care.
For anyone else following that might not have had the pleasure of memorizing the DSM (Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), NOS stands for Not Otherwise Specified....in layman's terms-you sorta fit this diagnosis but not really!
I once suffered from light and sleep deprevation for a period of 1/1/2 years while on a night shift. I got real sick and trees statred to look like they were moving and i ALSO HAD TO Wewr EAR PLUGS BECAUSE i GOT SO SENSITIVE TO SOUND THEN IT WAS TOO MUCH VISUAL stimulation so I stayed out of the mail. What I went thru for 3 months was like being qutistic. when I got medication and switched to day work I gradually got better. I returned to the mall and thought how beautiful it was with all its colors and sounds. Before I got better I just couldn't go with all the sensory sensations. Its made me very interested in autism. There is soon to be a big study on glutithione for autistic children. I had been researching it. A friend of mine put his 3 yr, old son on a precurser to glutithione qnd he has seen some improvement._ Glutiothione is made in the body and is our greatest antioxidant. It doesn't pass thru the blood brain barrier but can be made in the brain with the right building blocks.You can buy it at any good health food storeThe jarrow formula is N_A_C Sustain its N-acetyl-LCysteine and this is a precursor to glutathione. Check with your Dr. and do alittle research. Look how penecillan was mold on bread. Other thatn that I can recommend an excellent product at my site. Check out the video. My friend bruce takes it and all the pain is gone in his knees. its helped my asthma andndizzy spells. Just check it out www.shopgbg.com/317532 Also I give free help to those doing a workers' compensation case. I've won all the cases and appeals for people who did it on their own andngot rejected. I helped with their appeals and they won. I have a talent for this after doing 4 cases of my own and winning two EEOC cases/ here is my info if you or someone you know needs help zgailgoodman@yahoo.com and tel: 1 845-425-2775...I have cable telephone flat rate so I can call you and save you a phone bill. People have helped me so I'm just returning to the community. Sincerely Gail
As a person with aspergers, I am VERY picky about what I wear! I don't mind getting massages though...
I didn't know others with my disability had the same problem!
Kara, I memorised it once but long ago, I can't remember what I read by now, let alone know the newest.
I am so picky about what I wear among many things. my clothes have to be just so or it's beyond what I can stand. I don't know how to explain.
I think that's facinating with the person, sorry can't remember your name, that worked for so long, and became more sensitive. At work they often bring up how sleep deprivasion can effect a persons sences.
yes, I agree, whether you are there or not, there is noise, the tree fell, and the crash took place.
You were not there, you did not hear it, let's agree, you and I are there, and witness the tree fall,
then, let's try some other facts, like we are both deaf, we can't hear the tree fall, but we are deaf.
The tree fell, we could feel the tree fall, and witness the force of the tree falling, and flee, I don't
know which tree fell, but hopfully, we were deaf, we could hear the force of the wind and the all
encompassing space that got moved because the tree fell, just hope, it didn't fall on us. rite!
I was told, by someone at UCLA that he coined the phase "asperger". he continued to explain
what he expected me to have, being sent back to my doctors, they are not in agreement. Well,
when I was a child, I did not act as a child, I might have had the problem, not that I outgrew it,
but I do function, like no one sees what I have, yet no one can tell me what I have, not sezuries,
they don't agree with terretts, but they don't know, and when I was young, they didn't tell me,
they just left me, not knowing what I had, as I continued to have problems all the way around.
I still don't know, as I try to continue to find out, what do I really have, and they don't know.
