Self-test for autism

[BlackShanglan]

SSS - Very interesting. Many of the symptoms you mention are familiar to me from my mother's working diagnosis (i.e., still being studied) of "fibromyalgia syndrome." This is not the basic "fibromyalgia" diagnosis, but rather a theory that in some cases, the problems seperately identified as fibromyalgia, ADD/ADHD, depression, IBS, and stomach ulcers may share a joint causal mechanism involving brain chemistry. It's also typical for persons so affected to be especially sensitive to noises and to strong odors. I'd be curious to know if the doctors have placed Asperger's on the map as well.

I'm still mulling over the theory. It is true that in my mother's large family, all of the brother and sisters have more than one of the listed issues present. I, too, am doing my part to carry on the family tradition.

Shanglan

 

[Purple Sage]

I scored 9. Re: Autism- the 'autistic range disorders' are being diagnosed at an epidemic rate. Some suggest that increased professional sensitivity is the explanation for this, but there is good evidence that there is an actual epidemic taking place, and that environmental factors play a large role. In particular, the small amounts of mercury contained in thimiserol, a preservative used in vaccines, has been identified as a likely culprit. While denying that the problem exists or that preservatives have anything to do with it if it does, pharmaceutical companies have been eliminating thimeserol from most of their childhood vaccines. It is still, last time I checked, a good idea to check however.

 

[Guest]

SSS - Very interesting. Many of the symptoms you mention are familiar to me from my mother's working diagnosis (i.e., still being studied) of "fibromyalgia syndrome." This is not the basic "fibromyalgia" diagnosis, but rather a theory that in some cases, the problems seperately identified as fibromyalgia, ADD/ADHD, depression, IBS, and stomach ulcers may share a joint causal mechanism involving brain chemistry. It's also typical for persons so affected to be especially sensitive to noises and to strong odors. I'd be curious to know if the doctors have placed Asperger's on the map as well.

I'm still mulling over the theory. It is true that in my mother's large family, all of the brother and sisters have more than one of the listed issues present. I, too, am doing my part to carry on the family tradition.

Shanglan

When we were having our daughter diagnosed (she was five years old) we began to describe her symptoms to the psychiatrist. He gave her many hands-on tests, puzzles, picture identification, even card tricks, and noted her reactions to everything.

She cheerfully answered his questions while she played with all the toys in his office.

We described some of the things she was doing at home, like her sensitivities to certain things and her easy memorization of videos, and how she quotes them aloud, line for line.

I remember saying to him, "But that's nothing. We all do that at the dinner table."

And he stopped writing for a moment and looked up at us. "Oh, really?" he said.

Ooops. That's when I realized that this diagnosis was all-encompassing. WE were being evaluated as well.

 

[Guest]

I scored 9. Re: Autism- the 'autistic range disorders' are being diagnosed at an epidemic rate. Some suggest that increased professional sensitivity is the explanation for this, but there is good evidence that there is an actual epidemic taking place, and that environmental factors play a large role. In particular, the small amounts of mercury contained in thimiserol, a preservative used in vaccines, has been identified as a likely culprit. While denying that the problem exists or that preservatives have anything to do with it if it does, pharmaceutical companies have been eliminating thimeserol from most of their childhood vaccines. It is still, last time I checked, a good idea to check however.

No.

Recheck your sources, please.

This myth has been debunked.

Parents blame vaccinations because the majority of shots occur at the same time as the initial diagnosis of Autism.

The incidence, however, is far too few to be considered relevant. (They also removed the thimerosal from my contact lens solution, by the way).

More children are being diagnosed with these PDD these days because doctors understand more about PDD these days.

(edited to add) There is currently a great deal of evidence available to demonstrate a hereditary basis for many of these Pervasive Developmental Disorders. That is definitely not a thimerosal issue.

 

[wishfulthinking]

12.

I have never heard of aspergers. Thanks

 

[Xelebes]

32.

My younger brother has Asperger's Syndrome and my grandfather did too.

Oddly enough it didn't talk about auto-hypnosis.

 

[australwind]

26



My nephew was diagnosed with Asperger's 12 months ago .........

He is one of twins.....

 

[Guest]

26



My nephew was diagnosed with Asperger's 12 months ago .........

He is one of twins.....

This is a terrific book.

Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals (Paperback)

Tony Attwood

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/18...&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER&no=283155&st=books&n=283155

 

[annaswirls]

sweetsubsarahh,
You are obviously well read and have a lot of experience in the Autism Spectrum. I am glad the topic is so widely discussed, even on erotic literature boards

Interesting thread, I will have to take the test although I know I will score very high, especially on the sensory component


As far as the thimerosal debate, there are highly regarded professionals that differ widely in their opinions, so it makes sense that there would be two expressed here. I am not convinced that thimerosal has anything to do with autism, but I certainly was not going to risk it by giving my younger son vaccinations that still used it. One scientist who speaks out that it is NOT thimerosol also said he would not want his grandchildren to have it in their shots. Opinion in the autism community differs widely, if it is a myth, it is far from being debunked.

As far as the idea that because there is a genetic component to Autism/PDD etc. that does not in any way, negate the possibility that there are environmental factors.

People can be genetically predisposed for sensitivity to chemicals or other environmental factors.

People can say: but my kid had mercury in their shots and they did not get autism. To them, I can say, "My kid eats peanut butter without going into anaphylatic shock."

Why is this? Are some children genetically predisposed to have a sensitivity to peanuts and other's aren't? That is easy to believe.


Women can have the gene for breast cancer and never get breast cancer. It is a combination of a genetic predisposition and an environmental trigger that causes the gene to be expressed.

My guess is that there have always been genes that when expressed, cause the collection of characteristics called "autism" Most of our genetic material is never expressed. It takes a trigger, usually internal, to tell that gene to become active (or in some cases, to turn off) Many environmental factors can act to turn on or turn off genes.

The question of genetics vs. environmental conditions is not an either or situation.


Many things can trigger cancer... to switch on the gene that causes the cell replication to go haywire. Many things can trigger autism. Even if only 1% of all cases of autism are triggered by mercury, it is good enough reason to take it out for me!

note:
The "proof" that autism cannot be triggered by mercury has been done in large part by pharmacuticals who have used it. I have family and friends that work at the company that has done a lot of the research. There was a study that autistic babies had greater brain growth during certain ages, so they concluded-- Since there is the correlation between head size and autism, it cannot be the thimeresol. To that I say, could there be a correlation between head size and sensitivity to thimerosol? Again, it is not an either or situation.


note: scored 24-- was surprised there were not more sensory processing questions, or verbal processing questions in there. It seemed heavily geared to the social component of autism, and not the verbal and sensory pieces that are affected.

No.

Recheck your sources, please.

This myth has been debunked.

Parents blame vaccinations because the majority of shots occur at the same time as the initial diagnosis of Autism.

The incidence, however, is far too few to be considered relevant. (They also removed the thimerosal from my contact lens solution, by the way).

More children are being diagnosed with these PDD these days because doctors understand more about PDD these days.

(edited to add) There is currently a great deal of evidence available to demonstrate a hereditary basis for many of these Pervasive Developmental Disorders. That is definitely not a thimerosal issue.

 

[Liar]

Question #9, "I am fascinated by dates."


Well, I kinda like to go on dates?

I guess the fact that I didn't even think of the other kind of dates that I assume they mean (12/2, 9/4, and so on), means I'm very un-fascinated by them.


On with the rest...

 

[australwind]

This is a terrific book.

Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals (Paperback)

Tony Attwood

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/18...&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER&no=283155&st=books&n=283155

Thanks.........I'll look at that........

 

[cantdog]

I detest these quizzes.

 

[Liar]

Right. 13. On the lower end of Average.

Mixed bag of questions there.

 

[BlackShanglan]

While taking Annaswirls' point about differing reactions to substances, I think it also fair to point out that there are many ideas still prevalent in parts of the autism community - facilitated communication springs most immediately to mind - that have been debunked repeatedly and very thoroughly in the scientific community. That some people still believe these theories does not mean that they have not been debunked; it means that some people choose to believe them despite the overwhelming evidence against them. Because of this, I'd argue that the presence of debate on thimerosal and the fact that some people believe it is connected to autism does not necessary mean that it hasn't been credibly debunked.

Austism-spectrum disorders can be very frustrating. There is no clear cause, there is no clear cure, and the behaviors involved can leave parents feeling isolated, unloved, angry, or defeated. While the lack of inarguable knowledge of a cause does mean that it's important to keep one's mind open about all possible causations - including thimerosal - it also means that this is one of the areas of human experience that can leave people grasping at straws. The emotional investment in some ideas can be enormous, especially if they are ideas that present hope or deflect (unwarranted) feeings of guilt or self-doubt. It doesn't surprise me that there is continued debate in the autism community about thimerosal, but I have seen nothing on that topic (or on FC for that matter) that can really answer the evidence against those theories with evidence rather than with a passion and a will to believe. On the whole I think it wonderful that vaccines makers have had the good sense to work quickly to eliminate the question, but should I be presented with the choice to vaccinate myself or my child with a thimerosal vaccine or not vaccinate, I would not hesitate for a second.

Shanglan

 

[rgraham666]

I scored a 26, above average but lower than I expected.

I suspect that is because at my age, I've learned a lot of coping methods for my problems. Chiefly a lot of solitude and rarely venturing into new venues of social interaction.

I realise now that a lot of my problems in the working world and school stem from my sensitivity to external distractions. The way businesses and schools are designed is practically hell on earth for people like me. Noisy, excessive and rather bent social interaction, strict rules that have to be followed all the time. No wonder I went insane.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

My brother-in-law is autistic and has "idiot savant" abilities ( a terrible term). He has the calandrical ability to instantly convert any date to a day of the week--such as what day your birthday will fall on in 2022--and he's obsessed with sports. Not only can he easily tell you who played in the 1962 World Series, but he can also play on the piano the exact chord used by any NHL or NBA stadium's scoreboard to signal the end of a period (they're all different, you know. I didn't.) He also knows the tonal key around which every baseball announcer pitches his voice and the interval between their normal announcing speech and their "home run!" exclamation, and he'll get upset if you try to immitate one of them and get the pitch wrong.

He lives in a special residence and has a job of sorts (nothing very demanding) so he's considered functional, but he shows the classical symptoms: disengagement with people and "social blindness", inappropriate behavior and all that. When he was younger he used to engage in a lot of the autistic's "stimming" behavior of rocking and stroking and all that, but he's in his 40's now and it's all sports. He comes over with a radio plugged into his ear, turns on a game on one TV and plays a video of another game on another, and if I let him he'd get on the computer and start calling up team rosters and schedules and stadium and ballpark dimensions and capacities. He seems to be able to follow 4 or 5 games at the same time and always know what's happening in each one, even if they're different sports. It's not just for the noise, though he will play back a touchdown or a home run over and over again until he gets the announcer's voice and inflection just right.

He's not without a sense of humor though, and he does show and respond to affection. He gets upset if he doesn't know the exact date we're taking our Christmas tree down on though. He needs to know where everyone is and what time they'll be back home and i spretty much obsessed with dates and time. He floored us all by announcing one night that Shemp Howard of the Three Stooges was the handsomest man in Hollywood, but he was able to join in the general shock and laughter afterwards. (Or maybe he was laughing at our inability to appreciate the fact.)

My wife and her mother have been through all the various theories and explanations. When he was diagnosed as a child, the prevailing etiology was that of Bruno Bettelheim, who maintained that autism was caused by a cold and indifferent mother. This of course just destroyed my mother-in-law, who is anything but cold and indifferent. Since then Betteheim has been thoroughly discreditied not only for his theories, but for his credentials as well, which he apparently faked.

We've been through the mercury theory, the bacterial theory, the crawling theory (it's caused by not allowing the child enough crawling time for their nervous system to develop), the pasteurization theory, the nursing theory (not enough mother's milk) and many many more.

The mercury-in-vaccine theory bothers me not because I think there's anything to it, but because it encourages parents to avoid having their kids vaccinated, which is not just a risk to your kids but to everyone else's too. Should your kid survive his encounter with DPT or polio, he then becomes a walking epidemic, speading his germs to everyone else.

We're in the midsts of a bunch of unexplained epidemics: ADHD diagnoses have skyrocketed, and so have cases of asthma, which have reached pandemic proportions and no one knows why. Everything from use of antibiotics to cockroach infestation to electromagnetic fields in the home has been looked at and no significant statistical correlation has been yet found.

I know about Asperger's, but I'm a little surprised to hear that Tourette's is part of the same constellation as autism. I thought Tourette's had been linked to specific, progressive disease factors, which Asperger's and autism are not. Although MRI of severely autistic individuals shows differences in the way the brain handles information, there's no apparent difference between an autistic and a normal brain.

The best explanaton I've ever heard sees autism (and ADHD) as a disorder that affects the powers of attention. Attention--the ability to think about what we want to think about--is probably the most baffling of our mental abilities and involves everything from neocortex to brain stem and possibly even input from the newly discovered "second brain"--a neural network that controls our gut and digestion. There were some studies that linked autism to difficulties in stomach development in the fetus, but I don't know if these studies are still valid or not, or what came of them.

Not all autistics show savant abilities like my brother-in-law or Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, but such abilities are truly astonishing when you run across them. The ability to compose music without ever having had a lesson, or to extract cube roots from ten-digit numbers in a matter of seconds, or even to remember the batting average of some third-rate player from the 1966 Dodgers's roster humbles you in the face of that fantastic thing we have between our ears, and makes you realize just what incredible and miraculous beings we really are.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I detest these quizzes.

*L* Try taking the adult ADHD test put out by--who else?--the Pharma house that makes drugs to treat it.

Sample questions:

I get easily bored during long meetings

I often wish I were doing something else.

I start more things than I finish...

The one thing they didn't ask is whether you put your pants on one leg at a time.

--Zoot

 

[cloudy]

*L* Try taking the adult ADHD test put out by--who else?--the Pharma house that makes drugs to treat it.

Sample questions:

I get easily bored during long meetings

I often wish I were doing something else.

I start more things than I finish...

The one thing they didn't ask is whether you put your pants on one leg at a time.

--Zoot

I've seen that one.

My middle child has ADHD, and just like Sarah found, I was evaluated at the same time he was. Yep, mom has it, too, although I missed the hyperactivity part, and just have garden variety ADD.

I've learned the coping mechanisms over a lifetime, but it still causes me problems. Writing can be especially hard - I'll start a story, get halfway through it, and then just completely lose interest in it. I hate that, but I don't know of anyway to fix it, so I live with as many, if not more, stories unfinished as I have finished.

 

[rgraham666]

I have that problem as well, cloudy.

The real trick is not to let it bother you. I'm learning that's the way I am, although I still haven't completely accepted it, and know that I'll come back to a piece later.

Acceptance is the important thing here. Most people, despite their protestations, think there is something 'wrong' with the various ways of perceiving and coping with the world. Too many of us who have these ways of perceiving accept this viewpoint as true.

Even the way it is studied supports this. What we have isn't just different, it's a 'diagnosis' and we can be 'cured'. If not today, then someday in the future.

One of the biggest challenges of our society in the future is going to be integrating people like us. Our society is losing a lot of useful energy by deciding we 'don't fit in' and sidelining us.

 

[Guest]

I've seen that one.

My middle child has ADHD, and just like Sarah found, I was evaluated at the same time he was. Yep, mom has it, too, although I missed the hyperactivity part, and just have garden variety ADD.

I've learned the coping mechanisms over a lifetime, but it still causes me problems. Writing can be especially hard - I'll start a story, get halfway through it, and then just completely lose interest in it. I hate that, but I don't know of anyway to fix it, so I live with as many, if not more, stories unfinished as I have finished.

Yes. Isn't that a bitch?

Hubby is ADHD and had to see an adult psych for a few visits to get that diagnosis. Mine is more ADD, but doctors have determined the Asperger's traits have probably come from my line - though my sister doesn't believe us, the little shrew. Hubby takes meds, I've tried but they tend to stress me to much. (By the way, I can't write on the meds, but I can edit like a dream.)

But like Rob said, we've learned coping skills as we've grown. We've had to. But I well remember the difficulty I used to have in focusing at times - the lunchroom, for one. I remember being overwhelmed with the noise and I'm still very uncomfortable in similar loud group situations.

One of the things I'm most happy about is that because our children are gifted/OHI (other health impaired ) they have an IEP in the public school system. This Individual Educational Plan allows us to adjust their classes in the manner we see fit. It's the Law.

For instance, my daughter is in middle school now and she'll never have to take Physical Education. Good. That was such a nightmare in elementary school. Her clumsiness with the team activities made her miserable. In middle school she can take foreign language prep, and then start her first year of French as an 8th grader. Isn't that excellent? She can't wait to start French; she's already doing Jump Start Spanish on the computer. Isn't that what we should be doing for these kids?

Our son needs the physical activity of elementary school PE, but he has problems with overstimulation. He's an impact boy. The impact from jumping, from throwing his body into things (couches - people) feels good to him. We invested in a mini-Moon Walk. Inflates in seconds, holds up to 200 pounds of kid. Well worth it, as both kids will jump and jump (also good aerobic activity). Our son will also calm from a sustained hug and he loves to swing on the swingset for hours.

We have to educate the teachers every year. We're not exactly pushy (well - OK - we are) but once the teachers realize we aren't asking for special favors because our kids are jerks, just a few minor accessibility options so they can function, they're OK with it.

A small example - "Please write the instructions on the board (or have them on the assignment paper) if you are giving them orally to the class. Our children cannot aurally process those instructions, and in turn will freeze up and be unable to do the assignment for you, which they truly wish to do."

With the exception this year of one of our son's gifted teachers (and I swear to Christ I'm going to pull her fucking hair out by the root) they understand. They wish to learn more about Asperger's and they have no problem adjusting a few things to help with the sensitivities - more room for our son around his desk so he won't bump into anyone else accidentally, for example - practice runs of what to do when there is a sub because change is so difficult - little things like this.

At any rate. Cloudy, babe, I have the same number of unfinished stories as you, I'm sure. And while I did stop writing for a time in order to deal with family grief, it's high time I got my butt in gear. *sigh* I don't think I can blame this lack of motivation anymore on anyone but me.

 

[Guest]

*L* Try taking the adult ADHD test put out by--who else?--the Pharma house that makes drugs to treat it.

Sample questions:

I get easily bored during long meetings

I often wish I were doing something else.

I start more things than I finish...

The one thing they didn't ask is whether you put your pants on one leg at a time.

--Zoot

Aren't those amazing?

And so insulting. Those "tests" gift-wrap ammunition to the nay-sayers who continually say there is nothing wrong with our kids, that ADHD is a make-believe disease and our children have just been horribly parented.

Of course they are trying to sell their product, but if you give stimulants to a child who isn't really ADHD they'll be dancing on the ceiling. If you over-medicate an ADHD child they'll fall asleep.

(And I'm still angry with my sister who just had her first child. I look forward to his diagnosis with great eagerness, as she is so certain there is nothing medically wrong with mine.)

 

[lucky-E-leven]

Interesting thread and responses.

14

 

[impressive]

23

I think introversion has more to do with my score, though, than any tendency toward the autism spectrum.

 

[matriarch]

20

....and I have no idea what that indicates. But, like Imp, I was assessed over a weekend workshop, several years ago, by a Briggs-Meyer team, and to the surprise of everyone who knew me (but not myself), I came out as introverted.

This is an interesting (if pointless test in this setting), and as I used to work with a team of Educational Psychologists, three of whom specialised in Autism in children, and part of the system is a special assessment centre dedicated purely to autism, I'm going to send them link and see what they think.

Thanks Logo.
Intriguing.

 

[Purple Sage]

Annaswirls, thanks- individual predispositions are a factor many people don't think about, and this certainly makes it more difficult to identify environmental factors and how they are connected to genetic traits.
Sarah and Shanglan- I tend to be somewhat conservative when it comes to 'debunking'. There is an area of reality that exists between what is proven, in the scientific sense, and what has been proven not to be so. Unproven and debunked are not at all the same thing, and while I don't consider the thimerasol connection proven in a definitive way, there are enough well established impacts of mercury on neurological development to suggest prudence is in order. While the doses involved in studies of adults are vastly higher than the trace amounts in vaccines, adults have more robust systems and are not undergoing the cycles of rapid neural growth and decay that infants are. This is the kind of case where, there being no very good reason to include mercury in vaccines, taking it out would seem to be in order until such time as it can be proven not to be a problem. Single-dose packaging and refrigeration eliminate most of the need.

Mabeuse- I'm a big believer in vaccination, so I certainly understand your concern there. However, this only makes it sadder that pharmaceutical companies take the tack of pursuing policies that shave a penny or two off their costs at the expense of good public health policy. If it were the case that the vaccines themselves, or an indespensable ingredient of them, were suspected, but not proven, to be the cause, I would tend to favor vaccination anyway, while looking for alternative vaccine designs. As it is, I can't see any compelling reason to put children at risk.

I can't recall the source, but I read recently about a person in India with severe autism who claimed there was another person in his head. MRI's and other tests supported the idea that he had an extra 'florescence' of neurons with a high degree of independent activity. In essence, this would seem to be similar to the way in which mammals have an 'extra' brain structure pasted on top of the lizard-brain (or, rather, growing up out of the middle of it)- so perhaps autism, or some of it, is a sort of evolutionary experiment. Even so, it's entirely possible that these new structures are stimulated by environmental factors, just as one-eyed sheep are the result of pregnant ewes grazing on a particular weed.