"the point" to my leisure activities...

Mathsfailure....can I ask why you see yourself as a failure? I do too, yet I am professional golfer. Shh!!! It's a secret! Even Bubba Watson is one and he has ADD, and I am sure he is a Autistic savant. Tiger Woods,Rory Mcilroy,Adam Scott  probably are on the Spectrum too.

You are no failure and have a clear interest in Maths, hence the use of Maths in your surname.

I hope you like my comments?Thanks.

Re the talkative side...people diagnosed with aspergers e.t.c often have other conditions too! One being attention defficite disorder. There are 7 types, classic,innatention,limbic,ring of fire e.t.c. maybe why you are talkative. Compulsive eating is included in add. Oh and anxiety add. Sorry about your parents comments. Hopefully things are better with your parents,getting into uni e.t.c now

I get over-excited about new opportunities. I used to wonder about bipolar, but I believe that a child like enthusiasm for things can be an asd trait along with impulsiveness.

I also occasionally, find myself talking too much, when I get to know people better. For some reason the people I am with go quiet, and I feel the need to keep talking to fill the silence. I think it is a bad sign, but I'm not sure how I end up there. I always assume that when the people I am with go quiet, then I have said something wrong.

My son can go on about things too much sometimes and I get a bit exasperated with him, but I love him very much and he is probably the most important person in my life. Don't take it to heart if your parents get like this, they just want you to be happy. 

If you think that you are annoying them a little, then go for a walk/run to vent the pent up energy. You will come back calmer, and they get a chance to get on with what they are doing. You will all be the happier for it.

I did not see your original post, so I hope I havn't got this completely wrong.I

Volunteering, hobbies, and a woodwork course sounds bliss to me! Maybe you are talkative just because you are excited about new possibilities? I would be! And is understandable to feel annoyed at your parents comments, which sound a little tactless. As RS said, they probably didn't mean it to come across like that.

And you certainly are not a maths failure. Getting to degree level makes you smarter than 99.9% of the population. It is a skill that most employers want, and most employees lack. 

Good luck!

Hi,

I expect other people will chip in to the thread and I won't answer quickly sometimes as I have a few things going on. :-)

You have come through a bad patch so you are likely to be stressed and anxious for a while. Hopefully, this will settle as you get to understand more about ASD. Hopefully you will be able to work yourself away from the medication with time. Medication isn't necessary for ASD as such.

Biipolar disorder is often mistakenly diagnosed in ASD people. Our behaviour, particularly when stressed and when we don't understand how we work or how the world works, is hard to distinguish from true bipolar disorder. Is the psychiatrist you are with a real specialist in autism conditions?

Given your state of distress and anxiety it is normal that you will take all of the little remarks badly. I don't expect your parents are intending to be harsh, it may just come across that way to you.

Social phobia is a learnt problem that can be unlearnt with a lot of patience and self awareness. Your interactions with the world will have been fairly dismal due to your communication problems. You can work on these and learn how to have better interactions and you might learn to trust people out in society a bit more.

Is maths what you really want to do? I'm guessing that it is because you have so many maths books.

NAS18906 said:

Hi "MathsFailure"

I struggled to find your original post this morning and was sorry to see that you have removed it. You sound as though you could do with some help and friends and I firstly wanted to say that this forum is  a very good forum to discuss issues like yours where you may really struggle to find anywhere else that understands what you are going through and the problems and opportunities you have. The forum is a very safe and friendly place and we are all struggling with similar issues so there is a lot of experience and insight that we can help you with.

I put your tagname in quotes as it makes me just feel sad to see someone define themselves by what they have failed to do. So far, you have succeeded in getting to university in complete ignorance of your Asperger's condition. You have then come unstuck, unsurprisingly, because you didn't know how to manage. If you can learn to understand your condition and learn to deal with it then I don't see any reason why you can't go back and finish your degree or find another course to follow.

Please post a reply as I would really like to continue the discussion that you tried to start.

Thank you :)

I hope to go to university in future but for the time being I'm doing volunteering, hobbies, hopefully work and a 10 week woodworking class starting in January (my Christmas present :)) and maybe some other classes :)

Today I can't settle to anything and I'm irritating my parents because I'm so overtalkative. Is it possible to have bipolar disorder and social phobia and for the social phobia to take over the mania? I'm never highly sociable so the psychiatrist said I don't have mania. I'm not that bothered as I'm happy enough with my pills as they are and am aware of the side effects for mood stabilisers. Of course it would be great if things could be even better. 

I was making my cv today and asked my dad how I should do my grades. He said "leave them all there to fill space because you have nothing else going for you" and my mum backed him up saying it's true. Lots of things are true but still horrible to say e.g. you are really obese to a short very fat person.

You're right. I do need some friends :)

Hi "MathsFailure"

I struggled to find your original post this morning and was sorry to see that you have removed it. You sound as though you could do with some help and friends and I firstly wanted to say that this forum is  a very good forum to discuss issues like yours where you may really struggle to find anywhere else that understands what you are going through and the problems and opportunities you have. The forum is a very safe and friendly place and we are all struggling with similar issues so there is a lot of experience and insight that we can help you with.

I put your tagname in quotes as it makes me just feel sad to see someone define themselves by what they have failed to do. So far, you have succeeded in getting to university in complete ignorance of your Asperger's condition. You have then come unstuck, unsurprisingly, because you didn't know how to manage. If you can learn to understand your condition and learn to deal with it then I don't see any reason why you can't go back and finish your degree or find another course to follow.

Please post a reply as I would really like to continue the discussion that you tried to start.

:-)

Were you good at numbers or good at abstract and theoretical use of numbers? A lot of people on the spectrum choose mathematics because they think they are good with numbers, and then find mathematics is totally alien.

Your issue with reading them suggests that you keep having to look further back and further back to find the concept you seem to need to carry out the concept you were trying in the first place (if that makes sense). It is one of those subjects where you always need to have picked up on earlier material.

The fact you feel you need to copy them out, suggests you are not able to go further than repetition, and take the concepts further on your own. That suggests numbers were more your thing than maths theory.

Concentration is also tricky with such subject matter. You can end up staring at the same page for hours, without being able to move on.

You need to think back to why you feel the need to study mathematics. Is it because you've been told you are not a real scientist without it? Or have you got the idea that you like working with numbers, so mathematics is the obvious subject to study, rather than arithmetic or accountancy. Some universities have applied mathematics courses which are still theoretical but direct the theory at real world problems like engineering.

Have you considered studying any other subjects?  Engineering involves mathematics, but isn't all mathematics. But lots of subjects provide opportunities to wotrk with numbers as part of the course.... whether that's statisics (another evil), applied mathematics, or quantitative - retail, valuation, estate management, etc.

It is very common for people on the spectrum to choose mathematics, especially pure mathematics, and come unstuck, usually in second year. If the right advice was around more people on the spectrum could be spared trying to do the wrong degree.

I wish I could convince NAS to be more careful about recommending Mathematics or Computing to people with an aptitude for numbers or computer games, without really understanding that the link isn't that reliable. The number of people let down by such pooor advice is tragic.

Hey nice to meet you .