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.  

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.  

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!