aspergers and personality disorder

Hi Aspie's Mum,

I am sorry to hear that you and your daughter are going through this difficult time. I hurts me when I look back and can now see how much my mental health problems as a teenager hurt my parents. I wasn't able to understand this at the time. Understanding others emotions doesn't come easily to us on the autistic spectrum but we can learn it. I may not realise I am hurting people at the time, but when I find out I wish I could take it back. Be patient with your daughter. She needs you and loves you.

I am very fustrated at how much the diagnositic label you carry around determines the type of help availible. I belive lables (when they are correct) are helpful, but there are too many assumptions made about which types of help are suitable for a particular diagnosis. For example, I have come up against the 'you have ASD and therefore will not be able to benefit from psychotherapy' issue. I believe I have in the past and could continue to benefit from therapy. I know a lot of people on the autistic spectrum and the variation in their personalities and difficulties is huge.

I agree that most psychitrists do not understand Aspergers and the significance of the Aspergers diagnosis is often underecognised by mental health proffesionals.

I was diagnosed with AS as a child. I recently recieved the diagnosis of Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder after a period in hospital. The psychiatrist that diagnosed me only met me once and I felt that it was a case of 'you don't neatly fit into any other catorgory so i'll go with personality disorder' I am in the process of contesting this diagnosis

I belive that the 'emotial instability' I experience is primarily a result of Aspergers not PD. When I am in a comfortable situation and not under stress I am very articulate and can display reasonably good social behavoir (i.e i'm not noticably 'autistic') However, when I become stressed, sensorily overloaded, or experience a sudden change in routine/ unexpected social pressure it is af it I suddenly become 'more autistic'. At these times my language ability declines, I have trouble understanding complex information, I resort to repetitive behavoirs to help calm me down and become more 'emotionaly unstable'. Under exteme stress this can lead to a complete meltdown and at these times I may self harm, behave in an unaceptable way or put myself in danger in other ways.

I think it is this contrast between being very 'high functioning' social and emotionally one minute, and then behaving like someone with 'severe autism' the next is the aspect of my difficulties that most people, including myself, find the hardest to understand. I think it is becasue of this that I have picked up the 'emotionally unstable' personality disorder lable. I think the psychiatrist sees these rapid changes in behavoir of being a sign of an underlying mental health issue like PD, but I see it as being a fundemental characteristic of being on the autisic spectrum.

Everyone I know on the autistic spectrum experices increased reaction to stress in this way to some degree. This inconsistancy in my behavoir troubles me greatly. I have been acused by some of 'putting it on' when I am distressed. People can't get their head round it. Do you think your daughter's self harm/episodes of distress are related to her Asperger's issues? What is your take on it?

I personally found speaking with a psychiatrist with a specialism in Autism very helpful (I found it personally helpful, however the other professionals involved dissmissed most of what she said/advised) I don't know whether there is someone like this in your area. If there is, push for an appointment with them.

She didn't say that it was impossible for someone to have both ASD and PD but she said that lots of the PD symptoms could be explained by ASD. She explained that she doesn't tend to use the term 'Aspergers' as she thinks that it can be unhelpful to see people with 'aspergers' as having 'a mild form of autism' as this can undermine the difficulties that people diagnosed with aspergers can have. She explained that she sees all people with ASD as having 'autism' and that people with 'autism' can lie on a spectrum ranging from mild difficulties to severe difficulties and that an individual can move up and down that spectrum depending on their experiences and situations. Some people with autism have a learning disability and some do not. This may sound like pendantics but I think it is a helpful way of looking at it personally. I means that it is possible to be very intellegent but severly autistic and that someone can have have a learning disability with mild autism. Or be somewhere in the middle.

This was helpful to me because I have behavioural and emotional challanges that most professionals feel are 'too autistic/dysfunctional' for someone with an IQ as high as mine. They think that because I have a high IQ I can only be 'at the mild end of the spectrum/aspergers' and therefore my emotinal reactions are too extreme to be because of my ASD .... and therefore it must be a personality disorder. Having a high IQ has also meant I have learnt to mask some of my symptoms and learn social skills by copying other and this can mask the true extent of my difficulties.

I also found it helpful that the ASD psychiatrist explained that it is common for people like me to become 'more autisic' in stressful situations. She also explained that ASD presents differently in females and that most professionals don't get this. Females are better at copying others' social behavoir and tend to be more motivated to 'fit in' than boys with ASD and that this can also mask the difficulties caused by ASD.

The last useful thing I got from my meeting with the specialist ASD psychiatirist was that she explained that ASD is not a purely psychological illess but that people on the spectrum have many neurological and physiological differences too. The brain is wired differently, there are differences in neurotrasmitters, there are changes in the immune system and sensory systems and they are increasingly finding more and more links between ASD and physiology. She exlplaiend that psychiatry tends to view ASD as a purely behavoiral disorder and this means they only have half the picture.

I hope some of this is helpful, please let me know if I can answer any other questions.

Best Wishes

Hi Aspie's Mum,

I am sorry to hear that you and your daughter are going through this difficult time. I hurts me when I look back and can now see how much my mental health problems as a teenager hurt my parents. I wasn't able to understand this at the time. Understanding others emotions doesn't come easily to us on the autistic spectrum but we can learn it. I may not realise I am hurting people at the time, but when I find out I wish I could take it back. Be patient with your daughter. She needs you and loves you.

I am very fustrated at how much the diagnositic label you carry around determines the type of help availible. I belive lables (when they are correct) are helpful, but there are too many assumptions made about which types of help are suitable for a particular diagnosis. For example, I have come up against the 'you have ASD and therefore will not be able to benefit from psychotherapy' issue. I believe I have in the past and could continue to benefit from therapy. I know a lot of people on the autistic spectrum and the variation in their personalities and difficulties is huge.

I agree that most psychitrists do not understand Aspergers and the significance of the Aspergers diagnosis is often underecognised by mental health proffesionals.

I was diagnosed with AS as a child. I recently recieved the diagnosis of Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder after a period in hospital. The psychiatrist that diagnosed me only met me once and I felt that it was a case of 'you don't neatly fit into any other catorgory so i'll go with personality disorder' I am in the process of contesting this diagnosis

I belive that the 'emotial instability' I experience is primarily a result of Aspergers not PD. When I am in a comfortable situation and not under stress I am very articulate and can display reasonably good social behavoir (i.e i'm not noticably 'autistic') However, when I become stressed, sensorily overloaded, or experience a sudden change in routine/ unexpected social pressure it is af it I suddenly become 'more autistic'. At these times my language ability declines, I have trouble understanding complex information, I resort to repetitive behavoirs to help calm me down and become more 'emotionaly unstable'. Under exteme stress this can lead to a complete meltdown and at these times I may self harm, behave in an unaceptable way or put myself in danger in other ways.

I think it is this contrast between being very 'high functioning' social and emotionally one minute, and then behaving like someone with 'severe autism' the next is the aspect of my difficulties that most people, including myself, find the hardest to understand. I think it is becasue of this that I have picked up the 'emotionally unstable' personality disorder lable. I think the psychiatrist sees these rapid changes in behavoir of being a sign of an underlying mental health issue like PD, but I see it as being a fundemental characteristic of being on the autisic spectrum.

Everyone I know on the autistic spectrum experices increased reaction to stress in this way to some degree. This inconsistancy in my behavoir troubles me greatly. I have been acused by some of 'putting it on' when I am distressed. People can't get their head round it. Do you think your daughter's self harm/episodes of distress are related to her Asperger's issues? What is your take on it?

I personally found speaking with a psychiatrist with a specialism in Autism very helpful (I found it personally helpful, however the other professionals involved dissmissed most of what she said/advised) I don't know whether there is someone like this in your area. If there is, push for an appointment with them.

She didn't say that it was impossible for someone to have both ASD and PD but she said that lots of the PD symptoms could be explained by ASD. She explained that she doesn't tend to use the term 'Aspergers' as she thinks that it can be unhelpful to see people with 'aspergers' as having 'a mild form of autism' as this can undermine the difficulties that people diagnosed with aspergers can have. She explained that she sees all people with ASD as having 'autism' and that people with 'autism' can lie on a spectrum ranging from mild difficulties to severe difficulties and that an individual can move up and down that spectrum depending on their experiences and situations. Some people with autism have a learning disability and some do not. This may sound like pendantics but I think it is a helpful way of looking at it personally. I means that it is possible to be very intellegent but severly autistic and that someone can have have a learning disability with mild autism. Or be somewhere in the middle.

This was helpful to me because I have behavioural and emotional challanges that most professionals feel are 'too autistic/dysfunctional' for someone with an IQ as high as mine. They think that because I have a high IQ I can only be 'at the mild end of the spectrum/aspergers' and therefore my emotinal reactions are too extreme to be because of my ASD .... and therefore it must be a personality disorder. Having a high IQ has also meant I have learnt to mask some of my symptoms and learn social skills by copying other and this can mask the true extent of my difficulties.

I also found it helpful that the ASD psychiatrist explained that it is common for people like me to become 'more autisic' in stressful situations. She also explained that ASD presents differently in females and that most professionals don't get this. Females are better at copying others' social behavoir and tend to be more motivated to 'fit in' than boys with ASD and that this can also mask the difficulties caused by ASD.

The last useful thing I got from my meeting with the specialist ASD psychiatirist was that she explained that ASD is not a purely psychological illess but that people on the spectrum have many neurological and physiological differences too. The brain is wired differently, there are differences in neurotrasmitters, there are changes in the immune system and sensory systems and they are increasingly finding more and more links between ASD and physiology. She exlplaiend that psychiatry tends to view ASD as a purely behavoiral disorder and this means they only have half the picture.

I hope some of this is helpful, please let me know if I can answer any other questions.

Best Wishes