Helvic

I would talk with GP first about your initial experience of this woman on the phone, letting him know that she now has it recorded somewhere that you stated you had an IQ of 2% (that did make me laugh by the way when I read that! I don't think anyone has an IQ of 2%!!!) Do you think perhaps English is not this person's first language? I'm just trying to think through it. Then, after speaking to GP I would have an appointment with this woman & talk with her about the phonecall & how you weren't & aren't very inspired. But then I'm very direct & very honest & it doesn't seem to go down well with most people. I like to say what I mean, whereas a lot of other people don't say what they mean... it seems to me. Good luck with it. Be good to know how you get on... H

Kathryn, thanks a million for posting those links... I shall peruse this evening...

Sarni perhaps supermarket work isn't a good fit for him, particularly if he's out on the shop floor most of the time. Supermarkets are very bright, noisy busy, bustling environments. I personally cannot stand them. You mention that he doesn't do till work... what is his role currently? And when the supermarket talk about your son not meeting their communication targets... what targets are those exactly? Do they apply to all members of staff with the same role? Or are they targets specific to your son... & if they are, who set them? And how on earth do they measure communication targets exactly? I would be very interested to know. I'm also wondering if they have made it clear to him exactly what is expected of him with regards to communication with customers. Does he have anyone supporting him in the workplace, either from within or from an external agency? Another thought I had was... perhaps some social skills training & practice might be helpful for him so that he can develop the use of 'social niceties' in a variety of situations? Erm, if I think of anything else I'll post again...

Yes, that's very helpful information, thank you. Do you know why your partner stopped taking Escitalopram if as you said it worked wonders for her? You say the panic attacks ceased after 4 months treatment but would they not then return soon after she stopped taking it...? It sounds as though you work in the mental health field too...? df118's, or Dihydrocodeine... analgesic medication... what sort of pain do people that you've known experience when they're coming off Escitalopram?

Thanks very much for your good wishes Zen. I wonder if you would mind me asking a little bit about what it means to you to have Aspergers? How are you with relationships? Do you work? How old were you when you were diagnosed? It is fortunate that you had people around you when you were younger who had some knowledge & understanding of the spectrum. Do you think your life would have been different without diagnosis, & if so, how

Escitalopram is not a tricyclic, neither is Citalopram... they are SSRI's (Selective Serotonin Reupatake Inhibitors). I have researched them & understand how they work on the terminal buttons of & synapses of neurons... I just would like to hear of anyone's personal experience of them for anxiety...

I am an INTJ pending adult aspergers assessment at the Bethelm & Maudsley... & I've just been prescribed this antidepressant today, starting at 5mg, for social & general day to day anxiety. all of the research I've read indicates that it is very effective for anxiety. I was just wondering if anyone has any personal experience of it...?

Although I have been reading posts in here on & off for about a year, this is my first posting. It has taken a very long time to get an appointment at the Bethlem & Maudsley Hospital Behavioural Genetics Clinic. I was referred there almost a year ago following a local diagnosis of adult Aspergers (I'm 39) by a very gentle, sensitive & understanding psychiatrist & professor of psychological medicine who is attached to the occupational health department of my workplace. I have had long-standing difficulties primarily with social communication, perceptual experiences & anxiety/stress. & generally seeing & experiencing the world differently to most other people around me. Looking back to my childhood I think I probably had more of an autism/hyperactivity presentation, which has been modified by the re-socialisation that has occurred as a result of having worked in the statutory mental health services since I was 19. In the last 2 years I began to experience a lot of bullying at work & eventually had a difference of opinion with a manager which resulted in him making a complaint about me & me being disciplined & being given an 18 month final written warning for, what I was told was an "error of judgement" & constituted gross misconduct - its a long story to go into but it was considered that I had refused to carry out what was deemed to be "a reasonable management request". I hadn't in fact refused to do anything, I had simply explained to the manager that the team was already 1 member of staff short on this particular day & therefore resources were such that I could not release another member of staff to him further depleting already depleted staff resources. Anyway, I don't do the whole smiling, stroking of others egos, showing interest in the banal personal information of others, fluttering my eyelashes & generally flirting... I just don't think to do any of these things, they don't occur to me, they seem tedious, pointless & exhausting... because of the wasted energy required just to hold these things in mind & all the planning as to how one is going to execute these things. Exhausting! A further outcome of the disciplinary was that I was demoted for 12 months & in effect lost £550 per month. It has been an immensely difficult time. I have always struggled to understand others & trying to understand this situation I was totally lost. My general day to day anxiety, which is always there, increased dramatically & I started to feel very low in mood. I started to see a very understanding & insightful female Dr in the occupational health department of my workplace over a period of initially about 8 months. She did the Myers Briggs Type Indicator with me & it defined me as an INTJ, of which only 0.3% of the population are apparently, & it also highly correlated with Aspergers. An INTJ = The Scientist. This wonderful Dr then thought it might be helpful for me to see the resident psychiatrist, who I have already referred to earlier in my post... & after just 2 meetings with him he reached agreed that my overall presentation seems to be that of Aspergers... & referred me on for specialist assessment to confirm his local diagnosis. Incidentally, I now believe my father was an Aspie, I think my brother is & I think his 4 year old son/my nephew is a high functioning Aspie. It's quite astounding. I didn't know anything very much about Autism/Aspergers until I started my BSC Psychology degree 2 years ago, then as soon as I started to read Baron-Cohen's work & Uta Frith's everything suddenly seemed to make sense & the missing jigsaw piece finally slotted into place. I have been very fortunate to have been able to meet with 2 very gentle, sensitive, supportive, insightful & understanding Dr's over the last 18 months. They have helped me to think about me & explore my difficulties & my strengths. One of the last things the female Dr said to me was that in months to come I'll be able to laugh at the fact that I am "a geek"! Both her & the Prof made recommendations to the service director that I no longer remain in front line clinical work but rather move into Research & Audit, & the service director just informed me that there's a 6 month national piece of audit work (a qualitative comparative analysis) for the women's services that he wants me to do. Incidentally, this service director is the person that disciplined me not quite a year ago! So, I should very soon be moving into an office possibly with just one other, instead of having to be in & around & constantly interacting with a team of 10 people, & I will have my own work station & space & peace to think & process & focus just on the project that I've been given to complete. I'm thoroughly pleased & relieved. At last people in my organisation are seeing who I am & where my differences, difficulties & strengths. As for the assessment at the Bethlem - I saw my GP today & we spoke about the difficulty surrounding the referral. The Bethlem had initially written to my GP explaining that the referral had come from a tertiary service (the Prof in occupational health) rather than primary care. So my GP had then written a letter to the Bethlem in support of the Prof's referral. I then, months later, I think in Feb this year, contacted the Bethlem & they confirmed that they were happy to accept the tertiary referral because they had received the supporting letter from my GP (primary care) & that it is now 'just' a matter of my GP obtaining funding so that they can proceed. The administrator lady I talked to told me that once they had received confirmation of funding they would push me to the top of the list being as I've been waiting so long. The today my GP again brought up the matter of the psych referral being from tertiary services rather than primary - I had to be quite firm with her in my explanations that I am unable to see a psych from my local primary care services because I know them all & so for me there would be issues surrounding confidentiality... that the Bethlem have confirmed they are happy with what they already have... & that it is now just a matter of her (my GP) making an application to the Mental Health Commissioner of the Primary Care Team for funding. At last she said she will get a letter off to him today along with copies of the letters from the Prof. So... hopefully I should be having the specialist assessment in the next month or 2. I realise I have written quite a lot... but its been a convoluted process getting the assessment... & I wanted to share some historical information leading up to it so that its possible to put it in some context. I hope its not been too tedious to read. And I hope it might be helpful. Please feel free to ask any Q's at all... I am happy to share.