I found this link at the bottom of an article Robert124 posted a link to (on the thread 'Autism In The News. Good For A Change'). Just thought I'd post it here in case it was missed as I found it very helpful to read. It's several short personal stories from women of all ages who were diagnosed with AS in adulthood, discussing some of the difficulties that led them to seek a diagnosis and what it has meant to them since then.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/women_late_diagnosis_autism
Hi nexus9, I tried typing 'musings of an aspie' into Google and it came up fine! I think the blog is no longer being updated but it still seems available to read, I'll try posting the link again below in case I did it wrong (entirely possible as I'm not good at these things):
https://musingsofanaspie.com/about/
The Blog's author, Cynthia Kim, has also written a book which I haven't yet read but if it's as good as her Blog it should be worth a read: 'Nerdy, Shy, and Socially Inappropriate'.
Heads up Endymion, the link appears to be expired! It sounds interesting though.
I mean, there have been quite a few luminaries 'coming out' recently: Anthony Hopkins, Eminem, for example. I am pretty sure they would not need to be reminded about the abc's of toilet training either.
Ugh! Thank you for posting THAT! I was considering ordering that book too as it was recommended to me but you've saved me from the same reaction you had.
Why oh Why is it so difficult to find decent information out there re. Asperger's? I keep hearing how autism is a continuum, the justification for phasing out the use of the term 'Asperger's', how we're all on the spectrum ... then every piece of information from the biggest autism organisations in the UK just goes right ahead and ignores us!! After a LONG phone call to one such organisation, where I truly felt I'd at last been listened to on this point, they sent me another useless pack regurgitating the same basic info. as all the rest but included the gem on toilet training adults.
Try the above link to this blog, it's a few years old now but there's a lot of relatable stuff on there about day to day life and concerns and, well, musings!
Sorry, it took me a minute to decode that because of the way the threads here are loaded: for a minute I thought you were asking me to ring the supplier of my personality type!
No, it's not a fault with my internet supplier I'm afraid. We don't have a choice of suppliers up here, it's BT's 1980's snail-pace (no fancy fibre optic for us) or nothing. We chose nothing and got a satellite connection instead. It gives us speeds like the modern world but only until our usage limit is reached then it's back to the 1980's again. It's fine, at the end of the month I get another 10-GB and start all over again. Oh the trials of island life! : )
Doesn't sound right - maybe ring your supplier? There could be a fault in the line somewhere.
This is a lot more worth reading than what I did order recently - and wish I hadn't. Asperger's and Girls, with this horrible, condescending essay in it from some 'expert' telling her benighted friends they have to conform to socially acceptable dress codes and fit in and smile and make sure they have washed today and brushed their hair if they stand any chance of improving their position in the social hierarchy. Nothing I have read recently had made my hackles rise as much as that one. The other essays just did not address what I was looking at, I guess. There was a lot in one essay about introducing the topic of the birds and the bees: namely don't tell other people when you are on and don't masturbate in public. I think on the whole I have never been on that level of functioning and probably none of the women on this BBC article, so once again, thanks for that. Glad to see modern ways of thinking stop banging on about the empathy thing too.
More than 90 percent of nice, conscientious people would probably fail the Milgram test for example, and never mind the Boneli-Voigt.
As a child I got a diagnosis, at least one was considered, but it was not called autism or Asperger's back in the 60's, it was seen as a mental illness. No one was ever honest with me about what the difficulties were. But my parents were told I lack social intuition so everything about social niceties had to be explained to me in great detail - usually by what felt a lot more like being constantly lectured at and told off.
So, a rose by any other name.
Whatever 'it' was seemed to cling like poo to me after school anyway, as I kept on being criticised for not making eye contact, for example. It all still does raise a lot of painful feelings.
Interesting question about the handles!
I chose Robert on this forum because my mother was intending to call me that, but my grandmother on my father's side overruled her saying I would be nicknamed 'Bob'
Instead I got a rare unusual name which is constantly misspelt, difficult to pronounce and even worse nicknames!
I can definitely relate to those things you mentioned, I read something similar a while back and many of the female Asperger's traits resonated with me such as masking and mis-diagnoses over the years. The latter being particularly frustrating because once I read up on the things my previous GP tried to convince me I had, I knew with certainty they did not apply to me! (There is a BIG difference between frustration and depression, for one.)
Isn't it weird that personality types, regardless of NT or ND, are divided or categorised into 'Male' and 'Female' types? I've met so many people who defy those stereotypes that the categorisation itself seems arbitrary. I wouldn't expect my shoe size or my eye colour to determine my personality type, or anyone else's, so why is it expected that genitals determine personality?
The inclusion of 'female' traits on the diagnostic spectrum at last will, I believe, help just as many men as women to be recognised as having autism and, I hope, help to put an end to this ridiculous sexism re. personality types.
Hi it is a 42 page document, It discusses why females are missed out being seen, gives variouse stories of females who were diagnosed later in life, how the women masked or were treated for many things other than autism, it suggests that females present differently to males even though share similar traits, specific differences exhist and should be added or used instead of the current Male orientated diagnostic criteria,
I see this problem as so wrong, for to long things have been just left as they are, females are often just described as shy,or suffering from anxiety when in reality may well be autistic.
It is a lot to read but it is a very precise study and highlights why females are often left unnoticed.Ibhope you eventually get a chance to read it.
I tend to relate more with females and always have,
Current research has pointed to the fact some males can have female wiring which isn’t anything to do with gender identity or preference, but may explain why some males are more hyper sensitive to emotion. And have a stronger empathy.
x()x
I couldn't get this link to work for me, it said something about "cannot reach IP address"? I'll try again tomorrow as it might just be my very slow internet speed : /
I only get 10-GB per month and when that's used up my speed drops to (what feels like) worse than dial-up. I think it said my speed is currently 64 Kbps but, other than painfully slow, I don't really know what that means other than it's not enough to do much with.
Thank you for the link though! It's interesting to me that in reading female Asperger's stories, I feel able to relate to other women for the first time in my life. Ordinarily, pre-diagnosis, I tended to relate to men more than women.
Endymion thank you so much for posting the link to the women’s stories.
I really get upset that even now females are diagnosed using Male orientated criteria, ok there is more understanding of female traits presenting differently to males but still no big change in the main arena for females.
here is a link to information regarding the hidden females on the spectrum.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5040731/
It seems more awareness is being shared by social media, I can only hope that as more famous people talk about their own experiences it will be more accepted as a difference not a disorder or defect.
It needs to be highlighted how many great things have only come about due to individuals with Aspergers. It shouldn’t be that way but Highlighting anything using celebrities these days gets a wider audience,
thank you and take care all.
x()x
The Channel 4 programme (on Wednesday) is being advertised a good bit and the BBC appear to have links to a few autism stories this month, the two mentioned above for a start. It's certainly better publicity than previously. It was also just earlier this month that there was a lot of talk about reviewing PIP guidelines to take account of AS, and I heard a news story shortly after that about disability parking permits being extended to those diagnosed with autism. That seems like an explosion of interest to me although, to be fair, I perhaps didn't notice such stories so much before my own diagnosis.
something of an explosion of interest in autism this month
recent publicity highlighting autism.
...This sounds quite exciting. Please specify where all of that is, Thank You.
True! I hadn't considered that but it's quite likely. There seems to be something of an explosion of interest in autism this month, it can only be a good thing I think. Although I have wondered about being 'outed' if anyone who knows me at all well is taking in all of this recent publicity highlighting autism. Not necessarily a bad thing I suppose but I just haven't spoken about my diagnosis to anyone yet. Maybe it's now time to ...
