Therapy for Autistic Behaviour?

Yeah, the psychiatrist wanted a diagnosis done by a psychologist just so he could be sure it wasn't some form of psychosis. My previous psychiatrist kept trying to put me on a anti-psychotic, but when he took over asked for anything he could get concerning my ASD symptoms. He got me booked in with a psychologist and she gave me the diagnosis for synesthesia. My GP has also been good.

I think more than anything he was building up a case against the previous psychologist. She had apparently took no notes for a number of patients and not logged anything about my ASD. It worked out well for me. I didn't get given the medication and I now understand more.

I got an Autism worker from my local Autism charity. She's been great at helping me with moving forward since my diagnosis. I was told by the psychologist that diagnosed me that I should call them straight away for support. I think she was particularly good at giving advice and contacts on the day I got my diagnosis.

I think that it's bad that so many people are just being given a diagnosis and just being told nothing else. I got given a sheet with contacts for support. How are people supposed to move forward without anything at all. There is a lot of money being given to kids (which I don't mind at all) but none to adults concerning support. ASD can cause a lot of mental health problems, which in turn cost money. There is no support or much understanding in most mental health trusts concerning these issues either. They need to address it. It would save money in the long term and also save ASD people a lot of trouble and harm.

I was a bit taken aback there that a psychologist would be involved in sensory issues but then, they're involved in ASD so Why Not! It would be interesting to read more about the subject but I'm not sure if my tastes and smells are proper synesthesia or just being over-sensitive to smells. 

Why don't we all, immediately after diagnosis, get a manual or something with all of this information in it? It takes ages to gradually find all of this stuff piece by piece! How did you get an Autism worker? What do they do?     

Yeah, I tend to put everything in a playlist where I know what's coming! It's good to keep the mood flowing.

I was talking with my Autism worker a year after being diagnosed and I decided to tell her about my senses crossing over, for years I thought I was schizophrenic. She handed me a book and told me to read it and maybe it would explain more. It's called Sensory Perceptual Issues in Autism and Asperger Syndrome by Olga Bogdashina. It explained a lot of things and put my mind to rest on a lot of sensory issues. I'd recommend reading it. She also wrote a letter to my psychiatrist, who got my synesthesia diagnosed by a psychologist.

There are a lot of things that aren't really told to ASD people regarding sensory input. I smell bleach and it is the worst thing imaginable, every sense is overloaded and I feel complete terror. Coffee is another smell that is particularly strange but not unpleasant like bleach. As for colours and sounds everything crosses over. Sensory issues need to be emphasised more. I was literally terrified for years until I found out some more info. Bogdashina's books in general are very good.

Ugh! Cookie Monster!!! Of course he did!!! I swear the past few days my brain has been on strike or something. 

Yeah, I'm not keen on the random selection thing either. It spoils a really good mellow song if it's preceded by a few thumping ones - sort of taints it with that let-down feeling.  

I read something about synesthesia a while ago. I don't have it but I get something a little bit similar in that I can taste and smell colours. Some colours make me feel really sick, purple is the worst. It tastes of mould and sweat and rotten milk. It's a really heavy, rank smell. I can't be around that certain shade of purple. 

I remember saying in a carpet shop once that a gorgeous, luxuriously deep-pile off-white carpet smelled of vicks vapo rub and salty seaweed (it was an unusual, for me, combination) and the owner was NOT happy! I don't bother mentioning smells to anyone outside the family anymore because no-one else seems to smell them anyway. 

I can taste and smell other things too,  I quite like it most of the time but it can be a bit intrusive if it's something disgusting.       

Sexy Eyes and When Your in Love With a Beautiful Woman are good records! Didn't Cookie Monster sing C is for Cookie?

My mp3 player on shuffle is really random. Al Green will play after Pantera, then some Fleetwood Mac followed by Wu-Tang Clan. I never put it on shuffle until about a year ago. I never did it again! Far too much going on!

Some times fun has to be ridiculous! Otherwise it wouldn't be fun!

I think the Americans and Canadians know what they are saying! I've been hiking before and many times I've heard them say it. I crack up myself. It's a word that is disappearing now though!

My kids 'blame' me for having all sorts of random music on their phones, from Dr Hook to Johnny Cash. We listen to the weirdest stuff, singing along when we're all together, even 'classics' such as 

"A duck walks up to a lemonade stand, and he says to the man running the stand, 'Hey, you got any grapes? ..." 

and Elmo's "C is for Cookie, that's good enough for me"

They have some of the same sense of the ridiculous that I have, poor things.  

I like to sing songs from Madonna's first album with my mom, Dress You Up and Get Into the Groove. Don't tell anyone! Mom wants to sing songs from Metallicas Master of Puppets album but I always put Madonna on!

Some things don't translate very well at all!! We had a Canadian couple staying with us one summer and the woman kept on about her "F**ny Pack" the kids were younger at the time but old enough to have heard THAT word and it cracked them up every time. Very unfortunate! 

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