Therapy for Autistic Behaviour?

Apparently I'm to have a 'course' of six - eight group sessions to "help me come to terms with" my diagnosis and to "teach" me about autism. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this and don't really know what to expect from it but I'm willing to give it a shot. Mainly because I've complained long and loud about the lack of services re. autism in my area and feel that when they finally get around to providing this service, the least I can do is give it a chance. 

I'm dubious that this proposed course will be able to provide me with anywhere near as much (or as useful) information as I've found on this forum. The professionals who will be giving this course are currently in training for it (as I sort of have been too with all of the research I've done since diagnosis) and I suspect they'll probably know just about the same as me when the time comes but I'm willing to give it a try, give it the benefit of the doubt. The worst that can happen is that I won't find it useful, although I am a little concerned at the idea of group sessions. (Okay, more than "a little" concerned!)    

lol

Yuck! "groups"!  Worse! "groups of NEW people" . . . 

You shall have to get on and bare it now you've complained LOL ;)  That will teach you . . . he he ;)

No, all jokes aside, I went on one about ADHD and it was deplorable. The title of if was ADHD and ADD something or other.  I pointed out that ADHD has not been called ADD since 1987.  I don't like disorder, classifying or grouping things incorrectly.  It's very difficult for me and that set me off straight away! Ha!

It also made wonder what they actually knew if the title of the group was so terribly flawed and hadn't been called ADD for 20 years.  Experts talking in a group would surely know this?  They lost me with the title.  I was long gone! lol

But if you go with the attitude of perhaps co-educating rather than expecting a revelation on Autism imparted by a neurotypical person then it might be useful if not for you then for them!  Though that kind of defeats the object I accept.

I agree this forum is by far the most useful place for me to get the 'real deal'.

I love this forum.  I'm so scared I'm going to go for my Autism assessment and be told that I'm not autistic now.  I shall be devastated if that happens now.  The waiting is unbearable.

xx

Hopefully you wont have to wait too long to find out, it seems to vary a lot across the country. If the result isn't ASD, but you feel you definitely identify with ASD and with people here, there's no reason why you shouldn't still use this forum. There are a lot of self-diagnosed people here too!  

It's a good song. I'm a synesthete so music will have colour. I will hear certain songs and they have a "colour scheme" of sorts. So I'll have a sort of "compartment" for songs in the same colour scheme. Hearing one song in that colour scheme sets off a chain of wanting to keep things in that compartment. Weird I know but synesthesia is actually being acknowleged as something that is more prevelant in ASD people.

I "hear" bits of songs all day. Sometimes it can be uncomfortable. I had an overload not long ago and all I could "hear" through it was the first 8 bars of Inner City Blues. I have to be careful on overloady days with music.

80's and 90's rap music was the best rap music. Full stop!

Oh! My daughters and I did that as an 'in' joke for years (still do occasionally) that whenever anything happened, however mundane, one of us would say "There's a song about that!" and we'd sing it! Just remembered that when you mentioned it there.

Love that song!   I think what makes this thing with me a bit more weird is that I don't need to hear any music?  My husband says its a bit scary lol So he will say something to me and I can just reply in a song lyric.  They just kind of pop into the brain.  From where I don't know.  Like whole rap songs from the 80's - 90's but could be anything, could be a commercial, could be just about any song in the world.  This I think I will mention at the assessment now I think more about it.

I was in my dad's car the other day and We Built This City on Rock and Roll came on the radio. I don't usually realise I'm singing along or humming to things. I sung every word. Then realised. Hadn't heard it for years. Pretty embarrasing, lol. Thank god my dad's used to it!

I know it's a cliche but "If we didn't laugh we'd cry" is fitting sometimes! Lol, American colloquialisms are sometimes very, very, inappropriate when put into seeming innocent British phrases. A guy I know had his cousin over to stay. His cousin said "I'm going out to smoke a ***", the American guy burst out laughing and said "Why do you want to go out and shoot a gay guy?. What did he do to you? Are you homophobic?". It was pretty funny. Lol, I remember that phase growing up, god bless her!

Have taken my real name off !  Good thinking!  thank you!

Do you think maybe it's the kind of stuff ASD people over analyse rather than the fact that they do it?  You see I don't care much for any of those things that you describe there but other things, things that maybe NT would not give a second thought, will wreck my head for hours?  Maybe you are right, but maybe it's the nature of the over analysing that  might be different?  I don't know.

I just think people are people. NT or not. I've met NT people who are analysing everything. What people are wearing, how they look, their friends opinions, and the list goes on. Most of the ASD people I've met are more accepting in ways. They tend to ignore a lot of things NT people generally don't.

What about double entendres?  See I can use those myself, ie say something with a double meaning but I might not get it if someone else uses one?  

I am also very literal.  Once I worked for an estate agent.  A tenant called me to tell me they'd lost their mailbox key.  I posted it to them!  It is one of the most embarrassing things I've ever done and I felt so stupid.  There is no two ways about it, it was very stupid, but sometimes my brain just doesn't think sideways!  That's probably THE worst one but there have been other things similar.  Yet my verbal IQ is gifted.  What good is it when you do things like that?  It is useless! 

I don't always find NT jokes very funny either 

I'd forgotten about it.  I haven't thought about it for years! I just thought what can I connect with myself before I developed the masks?  The true self?  Then that song started playing in my head and I had it right there.  One of my "gifts' or "special interests" is lyrics to songs.  I can not hear a song for 30 thirty years but if something triggers it, just like what happened with this now.  Then every word will flood into mind with visuals.  In this case Olivia Newton John floating around on roller skates?  I wonder if I should keep that little pearl of information from the assessor in case she diagnoses me with something else 

I just don't tell people these things!  It's all coming out now !

Oooh! I love Hotel Chocolat stuff but it's SO damned expensive! They can well afford to lose a few strawberries!! That reminds me of a story / joke I heard about a guy who went around shops advertising goods as 'Buy One Get One Free' and trying to walk out of the store with just the 'Free Ones' LOL love it! 

Literalisms are the best laughs though, especially when the other person doesn't 'get it' but maybe that's just me being mean. Or when people inadvertently use an unfortunate colloquialism. I watched a show the other night where a presenter asked an apparently famous British actor if he'd had to "beat off lots of American men to get that role?" Classic! My daughter has dropped a few massive bombs like that recently but I don't think NAS would appreciate me posting them here   : /   She's trying so hard to be a fully-fledged teenager but isn't quite there yet (13) so her use of slang phrases she's heard is ... interesting! 

Xanadu is a crazy film! Swan from The Warriors and Sandahl Bergman from Conan The Barbarian starring in a movie about a guy who makes album covers who finds an immortal Greek woman who wants him to open a roller disco with Gene Kelly! It's insane! A film with a premise like that would never be made today. The 80's and the birth of home video were great!

I know the movie because ELO are on the soundtrack. Nothing to do with glitter, dance, or roller disco's.........

I like your new forumname!!

I've heard it in a poem but I hadn't heard of the movie. Just Googled it but I only know Olivia Newton John (movie-wise) from Grease which I liked! (Pssst! I'm not sure if it's a good idea to use your real name on here  : O  Think the moderators delete them!)   

No problem! It's been good for me too because I haven't really had anyone to relate to who was diagnosed late or is in the same age range as me. Also relating to people who have had a recent diagnosis. Filling in all the gaps is relieving after all these years!

Hey don't think of them as mistakes! As Bob Ross (the white guy with the big afro who paints on TV) says "We don't make mistakes here, just happy accidents", sounds a little whimsical but I like it! It's better than angst and regret! I've had that stage in my life. It was a big ******* waste of time. I actually watch Bob Ross when I've had a meltdown. He is like Valium and Zen mixed but in double denims. I'd seriously recommend watching him when you need a cooldown. I don't worry about posting the "weird" stuff, if it helps people out I don't mind looking a bit silly. We can look back and laugh at it all in good company!

Having an understanding partner is great. Both of the girls I was engaged to pretty much accepted my weirder moments. They were both NT but they had their moments themselves. I remember when one of them dyed her arm hair blonde to hide it. She was dark skinned! Needless to say it didn't look good! She had a degree too and barely any hair there, just a compulsion about it. So NT people can be as just as "weird" sometimes!

I remember we nearly got arrested once for eating a punnet of chocolate strawberries. They had a sign saying "TRY SOME!!!", so I did. I started eating the punnet. She came walking over and said give me some of those. So we carried on looking around the shop. The assistant came over and said "When are you going to pay for those?". I said "How much are they?. It said try some." She said "£15, and the sign means buy some" very rudely (It was one of those snooty Hotel Chocolat stores). I refused to pay because it said "TRY SOME!!!" not buy some and her attitude. I wasn't rude, I just pointed out the difference. We left the store and security were walking in. She was laughing about it, I pointed at her arms and we both started laughing even harder. Looking back that was the whole "literalism" thing kicking in.

I've decided to change my username!  People keep thinking I'm here about my children with mummy to six and I'm not here about them lol I'm here about me.  So I changed it to Xanadu.  My real name sounds a bit similar.  I was born in 1975 and in 1980 a wonderful film came out called Xanadu and I liked Olivia Newton John and got quite lost in it.  This was all "pre-roles".  So it's fitting and that will be my name from hereon  It's still me!

I'm not really used to connecting with people . . .this is quite addictive!  I can connect for a little while with people but then I'll say something 'odd' (which isn't actually odd but which has gone right over their heads) and then it goes 'quiet' then you don't feel very connected anymore   Then you feel 'odd' again.  That doesn't happen much here does it !! 

Hmm "hyper analyse".  I've given that some more thought.  I'd never heard it called that before!  I have gone around my whole life explaining that I what I do is "play chess" in my head over everything.  If someone makes one move, I am working out why they made that move, what it could mean and what might happen if I make a particular next move.  I'm scouring the entire board, looking for every possible eventuality and the significance of that!   So I've just been calling it "playing chess in my head" but you say "hyper analyse".  Now that's a much more concise explanation for it!  I'll run with that in future, thank you . . . 

Sometimes the 'hyper analysing' can look like paranoia, it's not though.  I do it for it everything.  Which type of washing powder to buy . . . signing up to something . . . accepting an invitation . . . everything !! I am constantly scanning the entire picture.  I could over complicate a boiled egg !  I must start writing all this stuff down to present to my assessor !! 

Most definitely! 

I think it is!

Ha!!  This is what my husband thinks, that it is my latest obsession!! Autism!  

He just ignores me and lets me get on with these things to be honest.

Besides he likes my weirdness, he's a bit weird himself.  I swear he's got 'something' - you couldn't be with me for 10 years and just be totally and completely neurotypical I don't think.

He's never shocked by anything that I do or say!

Thank goodness really!

I too post things on here and think "can I say that" is that "too far" . . .

No one seems to bat an eyelid and the biggest shocker is that people seem to connect and then I think "ok then".  No one thinks this is weird :O 

Like dipping your toe in the water and slowly edging in . . .lol

Ha!!  This is what my husband thinks, that it is my latest obsession!! Autism!  

He just ignores me and lets me get on with these things to be honest.

Besides he likes my weirdness, he's a bit weird himself.  I swear he's got 'something' - you couldn't be with me for 10 years and just be totally and completely neurotypical I don't think.

He's never shocked by anything that I do or say!

Thank goodness really!

I too post things on here and think "can I say that" is that "too far" . . .

No one seems to bat an eyelid and the biggest shocker is that people seem to connect and then I think "ok then".  No one thinks this is weird :O 

Like dipping your toe in the water and slowly edging in . . .lol

I'm not really used to connecting with people . . .this is quite addictive!  I can connect for a little while with people but then I'll say something 'odd' (which isn't actually odd but which has gone right over their heads) and then it goes 'quiet' then you don't feel very connected anymore   Then you feel 'odd' again.  That doesn't happen much here does it !!