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!  

I had EEG scans as a kid for petit mal, I was found not to have petit mal. I'd just sit there "zoned out" a lot in class and my educatonal psychologist suggested it. At the time I was only about 13 and it was normal to me so I didn't worry. When it was pointed out to me I became concious of it. Around the age of 11 to 14 I realised things weren't quite "right". I was good at hiding it though.

It generally isn't epilepsy in ASD people. It can be a thing Donna Williams called "total sensory shutdown" some SPD experts call it a form of agnosia, in my experience I'd disagree with calling it agnosia. Now on the subject of agnosia........

I have gone blind temporarily for a few minutes (visual agnosia). Under flourescent lights, in rooms with a lot of a single solid colour (usually green or red). My other senses work but everything I hear is louder, which in turn makes "colours in my mind" brighter from the synesthesia! The total sensory shutdown thing is a total loss of awareness, agnosia still lets you think! Basically my senses are fucked!

Don't worry that you will have seizures. You really do need to read that book by Bogdashina, it explains so many things you are familiar with and it helps you rationalise a lot of things! The things I was scared of sensually were so much less scary after reading some of the experiences shared in the book! I wasn't alone in what was happening. I've said it before here that I think the sensory side of ASD is really pushed aside by the social aspects of ASD, sometimes the sensory aspect is what causes the social aspects. Especially isolation. I will do anything to avoid light somedays so I will behave far more different on bright days.

There are so many things you will learn that will make ASD less scary!

I've spent the last few nights looking these things up: since you both mentioned similar things I started thinking that maybe they weren't so unheard of after all. I'm sort of wishing now that I hadn't bothered.

Apparently 'Absence seizures' (previously called Petit Mal Seizures - which I had heard of but thought only applied to people with Epilepsy) are a well known phenomenon and have pretty much all of the hallmarks we've been talking about. It doesn't make good reading, I'm beginning to feel that ignorance WAS bliss. Surely a person can't have a form of epilepsy and not know about it? 

Myoclonic seizures were also mentioned and sounded horribly familiar despite being something I thought wasn't particularly unusual and has certainly never bothered me before. (random muscle twitching)

Anyway, I'm still getting used to having ASD and don't need to be thinking about any other possibilities right now. Everything I've discovered about ASD so far has been a welcome discovery, for one reason or another, but nothing mentioning seizures sounds like a positive. I don't think I'm okay with this.  

Yeah but if you are ASD and on acid it has to be different to an NT on acid. In my experience it was a double whammy of everything I put up with daily. I hated it. Mescaline was a psychadelic I took that made me feel more in tune with things. I only took it twice but it did make me feel more focused. After a while I decided psychadelics weren't my thing. It just felt worse.

I've taken lots of different drugs and the drugs that made you feel "up" were the worst though. I'd get nervous and I don't sleep much anyway. I liked anything that slowed me down. Heroin made me itch though so I didn't like it. Lucky thing really.

My thing was alcohol and benzodiazepines. I smoked a lot of weed before it changed to the stuff that's popular now. That stuff is trippy and made me feel terrible, not relaxed at all. I spent pretty much 15 years as an addict. They dulled my senses and I could work well under the influence. I don't get staggering drunk either. I just looked normal that was the problem. I had a massive habit. I'm lucky I'm not dead or have done lasting damage to my body.

I basically tried anything I could to escape my own reality. I'd even go as far as to say I was trying to break my own brain and even further to say I hoped that I wouldn't wake up after some binges. When I got sober I started to get to the place I'm at now. All those years helped me avoid facing up to what was really the cause of my problems. 2 years after getting sober I got diagnosed ASD.

In short I wouldn't advise doing any of it. I was just poking around trying to alleviate everything but it made things worse in the long run. I was running from the truth.

Sorry I didn't reply earlier I had to go out last night. I'll get the brain-fuzz type of thing but that's more of a thing when something is really taking up my concentration. The one thing I'm concentrating on becomes dominant in my conciousness and the rest of the world becomes more like a dream. I sort of disconnect from the rest of reality.

I'd generally say that I haven't experienced more than a minutes lost time. It's definitely anxiety related. Most certainly. If I have a thought that makes me anxious or sensation I'll start to overload then my brain just "turns off". When you come out of it, you can find yourself on stairs, holding a hot drink, and in other dangerous situations. THAT is scary. I had it happen in the bath once and that was probably the worse time it made me panic.

The anxiety-overload-switch off cycle can be a thing that goes on for hours. It never takes over because I'm on a sort of auto-pilot. I've carried on in a conversation and other people have been there when I've been doing things. I've never done or said anything out of place. I've even asked someone what I'd just said and it was verbatim what I'd intended to say. The fear of doing something is a big thing though. A few years ago it was taking me to some dark places. I'm starting to accept it though.

No, I'm rubbish on alcohol. I just fall asleep!  I tried cannabis as a teen but never really got anything from it, I never understood what all the fuss was about, and was never interested in trying anything else despite being around a LOT of it at one point 'many moons ago'. 

It's unbelievable to me to hear others describe these weird states! I find them really frightening as it feels like a complete loss of control, once they escalate. I have no control over what's happening and can't really remember much after it. My sight perception is affected differently in that the room zooms in and out at different speeds and it's difficult to walk without clutching onto things. Sounds sort of fade in and out too. 

I suppose at least that I get some warning of mine, I can sort of feel them coming at least a day in advance. I think it would be more frightening if they happened out of the blue as you are both describing! How do you stop yours, or come out of that state? I end up, eventually, falling asleep and they're over when I wake up with just the after effects left.     

Oh my goodness.  I have this!! I have these fleeting kind of surreal states.  They used to frighten me but now I just let them come and pass and carry on with what I'm doing.  They affect my vision and my light perception.  Sometimes everything feels like it goes very dark.  Or the light feels unbearable.  I've also had 'things' move in my peripheral vision.  Things are not really moving.  It's my eyes or my brain.  So for example, say there is stripy wallpaper well it kind of moves, but you know it's not really moving, it's your eyes or brain.

This happens much more in crowds, which causes me panic and anxiety.  I won't go into crowds by myself.  I have been diagnosed agoraphobic but I am not agoraphobic, I know it's sensory.  I am one of the least "afraid" people that you will ever meet.  However, it's true that I avoid going out alone.  I simply could not go the high street alone.  I could do the school run "tops".

I have had this all my life.  I do go out but not without someone.

I, I am sorry to say have taken ACID as a teenager, twice.  I can tell you now that this Autistic experience is nothing like acid.  Though acid is vile.  I can't understand why people enjoy drugs.  I have tried them, just to "fit in" but hated every minute!

Alcohol on the other hand made me feel more "connected and what I felt you should feel like if you were normal".  I stopped drinking 8 years ago, because I liked it "too much'.  I wasn't an alcoholic or anything but what I was doing was not 'sensible drinking' either :O 

Anyone else like alcohol a bit more than they probably should?

Oh my goodness.  I have this!! I have these fleeting kind of surreal states.  They used to frighten me but now I just let them come and pass and carry on with what I'm doing.  They affect my vision and my light perception.  Sometimes everything feels like it goes very dark.  Or the light feels unbearable.  I've also had 'things' move in my peripheral vision.  Things are not really moving.  It's my eyes or my brain.  So for example, say there is stripy wallpaper well it kind of moves, but you know it's not really moving, it's your eyes or brain.

This happens much more in crowds, which causes me panic and anxiety.  I won't go into crowds by myself.  I have been diagnosed agoraphobic but I am not agoraphobic, I know it's sensory.  I am one of the least "afraid" people that you will ever meet.  However, it's true that I avoid going out alone.  I simply could not go the high street alone.  I could do the school run "tops".

I have had this all my life.  I do go out but not without someone.

I, I am sorry to say have taken ACID as a teenager, twice.  I can tell you now that this Autistic experience is nothing like acid.  Though acid is vile.  I can't understand why people enjoy drugs.  I have tried them, just to "fit in" but hated every minute!

Alcohol on the other hand made me feel more "connected and what I felt you should feel like if you were normal".  I stopped drinking 8 years ago, because I liked it "too much'.  I wasn't an alcoholic or anything but what I was doing was not 'sensible drinking' either :O 

Anyone else like alcohol a bit more than they probably should?

Yeah but if you are ASD and on acid it has to be different to an NT on acid. In my experience it was a double whammy of everything I put up with daily. I hated it. Mescaline was a psychadelic I took that made me feel more in tune with things. I only took it twice but it did make me feel more focused. After a while I decided psychadelics weren't my thing. It just felt worse.

I've taken lots of different drugs and the drugs that made you feel "up" were the worst though. I'd get nervous and I don't sleep much anyway. I liked anything that slowed me down. Heroin made me itch though so I didn't like it. Lucky thing really.

My thing was alcohol and benzodiazepines. I smoked a lot of weed before it changed to the stuff that's popular now. That stuff is trippy and made me feel terrible, not relaxed at all. I spent pretty much 15 years as an addict. They dulled my senses and I could work well under the influence. I don't get staggering drunk either. I just looked normal that was the problem. I had a massive habit. I'm lucky I'm not dead or have done lasting damage to my body.

I basically tried anything I could to escape my own reality. I'd even go as far as to say I was trying to break my own brain and even further to say I hoped that I wouldn't wake up after some binges. When I got sober I started to get to the place I'm at now. All those years helped me avoid facing up to what was really the cause of my problems. 2 years after getting sober I got diagnosed ASD.

In short I wouldn't advise doing any of it. I was just poking around trying to alleviate everything but it made things worse in the long run. I was running from the truth.

No, I'm rubbish on alcohol. I just fall asleep!  I tried cannabis as a teen but never really got anything from it, I never understood what all the fuss was about, and was never interested in trying anything else despite being around a LOT of it at one point 'many moons ago'. 

It's unbelievable to me to hear others describe these weird states! I find them really frightening as it feels like a complete loss of control, once they escalate. I have no control over what's happening and can't really remember much after it. My sight perception is affected differently in that the room zooms in and out at different speeds and it's difficult to walk without clutching onto things. Sounds sort of fade in and out too. 

I suppose at least that I get some warning of mine, I can sort of feel them coming at least a day in advance. I think it would be more frightening if they happened out of the blue as you are both describing! How do you stop yours, or come out of that state? I end up, eventually, falling asleep and they're over when I wake up with just the after effects left.