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Hi Carol, My Partner works for the Tribuneral service. In all honesty the panel members really won’t care one way or another – it will be local or district officer who is nagging you for details on your rep – it is entirely up to you on what you wish to disclose. It is that officers job to try and ensure that the panel members have as many accurate facts about your case as possible beforehand. The Panel members are basically paid professional volunteers. They will receive paperwork about your case approximately two weeks beforehand, they will read it through and follow procedure to the letter – based on legislation, they really won’t mind or care if your rep is a friend, neighbour or paid solicitor. Without wishing to create or cause any offence, yours will just be another case like the five or six others they will deal with that day.

I'm sure it has, it is the hormone that actually induces sleep. However the side affects do need to be considered. Other problems it can cause include changes to the immune system, retina damage and changes to the reproductive system, especially in pubescent children. All in all hormonal therapies for children are a bad idea; the consequences can be very unpredictable.

Hi Noeleen, I'm not entirely sure how you can get it, but you do need to be very careful here. Increasing Melatonin artificially can cause a tolerance build up over time, meaning that you grandson will require higher and higher dosages, it can also affect natural Serotonin (Melatonin is created by the body breaking down Serotonin), which can cause serious problems like depression. For many – myself included, Insomnia is a natural part of Aspergers Syndrome, and it is always better to find non medical alternative to overcome or control the problem. Often managing to focus the mind on one task, such as reading helps the situation a lot.

Both are tough situations to be in. Personally I advocate being as open as possible about Aspergers, at least with family and friends. Support is extremely important with AS and proper support can certainly help improve things. Perhaps the most important thing you can do to help yourself with AS is to be very introspective. The more you learn about yourself, the more easily you can learn to adapt to situations you find uncomfortable and the proper support certainly can help with that. It is extremely important that you are very open and honest with your family, especially your parents. Tell them about your concerns; discuss everything you have learned about AS and how it applies to you. Tell them how you feel in social situations and try to give those examples of things that other people seem to take for granted that you sometimes miss. You are right; people don’t understand Aspergers and many people don’t acknowledge it. The truth is it is very difficult problem, but not insurmountable. Over time a lot of the symptoms of AS do lessen slightly, especially between the ages of 25-35, because we learn from our experiences and it is important to do so. There are always going to be those people who don’t acknowledge it. They vary from people who are outright rude, to those well meaning souls who occasionally come along and attempt to “bring you out of yourself”. Unfortunately you need to accept that and move on. In the end, I suppose what it all boils down to, is that you can’t let Aspergers define you. Aspergers is a part of you, but it doesn’t define what kind of person you are deep inside or what kind of per you will be ten years from now. Only you can know that. Your AS will never go away, but with the right help and the right attitude it will get easier and in the end, you may even find that AS has some positive aspects too.

The lack of a sense of smell is called Anosmia and it has many causes. I have Aspergers and complete Anosmia (so I have no sense of smell at all), but I have never heard of a link between the two. Anosmia is often caused by head injury or childhood illness - one of the key causes appears to be Pertussis (whooping cough) in children under 4 years of age. In some cases where Anosmia is not complete, a nasal steriod spray can help improve things. Edit: And to clarify for the sake of posts above - smell and taste are seperate senses, although having no sense of smell can affect the way taste is perceived.

Hi, You need to get in touch with the Equalities & Human Rights Commission and you need to do so as quickly as possible - http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/ you can find them at and they will give you free advice on how to proceed. Your son is protected under the Equality Act 2010 and under the act one of the Protected Characteristics is the perception of disability. In this case it seems that this company has blatantly refused to either employ or train your son purely on the basis of having a disability, which is in contravenes The Equality Act 2010 (more info).

It is possible that this could be a sensory issue. Personally I find bathing extremely unpleasant (it is actually painful) and I need to shower instead, which to be honest is only a little better but bearable. If that is the case, it will be difficult for her to put into words or describe, because for her, it may be the norm. Also if it is a sensory issue, they can and often do change over time for better or worse.

I have Aspergers and have always suffered from insomnia. I have never found a cure for it as such, even pharmaceuticals don't work. I have learned to manage it somewhat though. Basically it helps to give the mind something very specific to focus on, rather than allowing it to wonder. In my case reading helps, I am sure others on here find different things help.

NAS have been recommending private alternatives for several years. They have a list of NAS Approved therapists based on an interview and a basic NAS recommended training package. It is exceptionally difficult to get an NHS refferal as an adult at the moment and even if you do manage to get one, there is often a waiting list which can range from nine months to several years depending on your location in the UK. NAS felt a list of private professionals capable of reaching a diagnosis was necessary to address this problem. Unfortunately, although the list exists, it is actually very short, and even private consultation on ASD's have a fairly long waiting list at the moment.

One other thing I should like to point out is that that for people with ASD's the accuracy of these tests is questionable anyway, depending entirely on the context and environment under which the tests themselves are done. If you were to take a someone with Aspergers for a diagnosis for example and one of these tests was suddenly pulled out of a drawer and they were expected to do it out of the blue, the likelyhood that they could concentrate enough to get anything like a relaible result is so small as to invalidate the test anyway. In my opinion, any test like this during the diagnostic process is a waste of time and a source of unecessary stress.

Actually, it is entirely possible to have a low IQ and Aspergers, in general and when combined with other conditions - Anencephaly is one that instantly springs to mind. Although IQ tests are commonly given during diagnosis, they really aren't relavent, they are used more as a way to illiminate various learning disabilities, most of which are known to cause social anxiety. Actually IQ is irrelevent to ASD's, other than the curiosty that they usually are at least of average intelligence. It is also important to recognise the fundemental flaws in IQ tests. There are many forms of intelligence, emotional, spacial, social, logical and deductive just to name a few. Most IQ tests focus either on spatial reasoning or logic and excelling at them in real terms means very little. Different forms of intelligence tend to play against each other too - most people with Aspergers excel for the first few years at school for example, but when social intleeigence becomes more important and the child becomes more aware of their own short comings in this area, their academic performance tends to suffer as a result. Personally I never put much faith in IQ tests. Certainly a diagnosis should never hinge on the results of an IQ test.

Not very. It is true that people with Aspergers are usually of average intelligence or above, but IQ isn't diagnostic criteria.

It could well be a sensory issue. I shower rather than bathe and the water has to be luke warm. If the water is hotter or cooler, or if I have a bath I find the whole thing incredibly painful to the point where I literally can't breathe. Similarly when washing my hands, I use anti-bacterial soap because I cannot run the water too warm or my hands hurt for ten minutes afterwards, so it takes a while to get the temperature just right.

This isn't going to go down well with most parents I am sure, but gaming in general is very good for fine motor control and improved reaction time. With the invention of motion controllers and microsofts new kinnect system, a combination of fine motor control and genral excercise is now here. In my view it is excellent therapy for dyspraxia.

I think most Aspies have a sense of physical disassociation - it is quite a common symptom, especially combined with fatigue.

I am never sure if it is a Male thing or an Aspie thing, but whenever I put something down it may as well have vanished. Looking for the car keys for 10 minutes this morning - my GF spotted them within seconds right under my nose. I bought a small torch the other day because I take the dog for a walk through an unlit park at around 10pm every night and you can't see a thing in there. I keep this torch in my inside coat pocket - absolutely no reason for it to be anywhere else, when I get out of the park it goes straight back in there. Got to the park last night - no torch. Happens all the time.

1.When he says something very direct and seemingly hurtful to me, how is the best way to let him know I don't like what he's just said? Generally speaking if he says something that seems a little too direct it will more likely be a simply honest observation. In general we Aspies are not very good at self censoring and verbally we occasionally look before we leap. The truth is he probably won’t realise he has caused offense and will be surprised and upset by that knowledge. You DO need to tell him though and explain why precisely he has upset you. It is the only way he can learn not to do it again, but more importantly incidents like this and these kinds of interventions will help him improve his social and interpersonal skills. 2.How can I talk to him about our relationship and keep his attention on me,not his obsessions? Tell him in advance. Make it clear that you want to say your piece uninterrupted and that you want him to listen and think about what you have said. It may not seem like it at times, but I daresay his relationship with you is very important to him. We naturally struggle with relationships and they are a constant learning curve, but also tend to be very precious to us. 3. Is it ok, when he's obsessing, to bring him out of the obsession and how can I change the subject in the gentlest way? Sometimes it is simply better to let him talk about his interests, but not always. If he changes the subject or speaks over you – make the point of telling him that you hadn’t finished speaking. It is never an issue that will go away entirely, but as the relationship matures, you will probably find that his need to talk about his special interests, with you at least, will diminish. Special interests are difficult to explain, but I suppose it is subconsciously like that old public speaking trick – where you picture everyone in the audience naked. These interests are partly a way of coping with an unexpected or high pressure situation – and for an Aspie, nothing is quite so high pressure as a new relationship. 4. From the second date he was telling me he loved me-is this normal with someone with Aspergers? How do I tell him I want to slow things down without hurting his feelings? Last time I brought the subject up he turned it into "YOU only want to see me[whatever number of times]" even after we'd decided to go back to the old number of times. This is a bit of a tricky one to explain. You see we tend to be a little too honest to a fault. I daresay he does love you, but by admitting it so early on in the relationship, he is actually opening up to you, which is a difficult thing for any Aspie to do. Without meaning to, you probably pointed out that this isn’t normal behaviour. When that happens it is easy for him to feel a bit foolish and sensitive, so he will be defensive. I don’t think it is necessarily a question of slowing things down. He is most likely happy to follow your lead in this relationship – because it isn’t something he is going to have much natural understanding of. 6. Communication problems!!At the moment, when I bring up something that I want to talk about, he rubs his face, rolls his eyes and pretty much goes silent. Also, when he has stress in his life he tends to take it out on me by being moody and tense. He won't say what the problem is for days on end sometimes which is very stressful for me. Again, as I have said above – you need to be firm and point out that you want to talk. Sometimes, to be fair to the guy, it does look like we are not listening – when actually we are listening very intently – we just aren’t making eye contact of giving off the physical cues that people usually do when listening. Again not discussing issues that have upset him – it is a bit difficult to explain, partly because it is a combination of factors. Firstly when we get sad or angry – whereas most people can exercise a certain control over those emotions and after a few minutes they can calm down and move on, it takes a while for us to do the same. We simply don’t have the inbuilt tools to do cope with those emotions easily and we tend to feel them in extremes rather than appropriately to the situation. Also I suppose there is a certain amount of Pride? I am not sure if that is the right word – but we are often VERY aware that our reactions to something aren’t normal and it feels a bit foolish sometimes that XYZ happened and two days later we still feel a bit upset about it. That kind of thing can be very difficult to talk about for us. Give it time – your relationship is still very new and you still have a lot to learn about each other. Aspergers can be a pain in the backside and will be for both of you – but it does also bring a lot of beneficial traits too. Good luck

Bid, you seem to be missing the point here. The reassessments are a minor thing - as I have said, there is no point in reassessing life long conditions, it is a waste of money - as others have pointed out, if you loose a leg, it isn't going to grow back, and if you become paraplegic, that is unlikely to change - and indeed under the current system, conditions that are likely to change get awarded the benefit for a finite amount of time. As for campaigning for the appropriate professionals, follow the link above and submit a formal response to the proposal. The most insidious point here is the fact that the government is planning on using the Equality Act 2010 against the disabled with almost Machiavellian execution to remove benefits from at least 20% of people who currently have them, not only that but they are jeopardising the support that people with mental health problems rely on. Further to that, those with people physical disabilities will either loose their transport or become financially disadvantaged simply for being in hospital for more than 28 days. Those points are indisputable, they are there in black & white - and the bottom line is that simply isn't fair. I think it was Chris who commented above about the current government cutting the welfare state - and he is absolutely right. Given enough time and enough freedom, I have no doubt this government will dismantle the British welfare state to the point where we no longer provide any support to the vulnerable members of our society. I suppose the true irony here, is that the welfare state was a Conservative idea to begin with. Whatever your thoughts on the previous government, where disability is concerned, as a society, we made more progress towards equality and disability awareness in those 15 years than we ever have before, but unfortunately under a conservative government (and don't fool yourselves, that is exactly what this government is), we are already loosing site of that. Sure, they allowed the Equality Act to go through – well the parts that suited at any rate, but large parts of the disability policy approved by the previous government have yet to be enacted, indeed there is no timeline for those policies to be enacted – the social housing parts for example. Disability in general is not very high on the political agenda at the moment and with the help of a sympathetic media, ridiculous policy like this will be passed and will go largely unopposed.

In essence it is. You see the two tier system will be based on what are currently middle and higher rate care payments. As the majority of DLA claiments are actually on lower rate, that will ensure a much more stringent process for claiming and the loss of the benefit for an awful lot of people. The negative wording is a necessary evil, as DLA is there to focus on the things you need help with, but this reform is more subtle than that. The irony is that the reform actually uses the Equality Act 2010 to remove benefits from disabled people. The Equality Act for example means that public transport should be accessible for wheelchair users. The fact that the majority of public transport outside of major towns/cities aren't and the fact that to use a train, a wheelchair user needs to book assistance 24 hours in advance is not taken into consideration, nor is the fact that they are expected to sit at bus stops in the pooring rain, and then sit in a wet chair all day. It doesn't take into account the need to take someone shopping with you, or the required aid to get in and out of inaccessible buildings. The fact that such people will default on their motability payments if they go into hospital for more than 28 days has also been overlooked. Depite what it says in that document I have never heard anyone say that the current form is unfair. Difficult perhaps, and yes negative, but certainly not unfair. By its nature (trying to find out what your exact difficulties are), the form is going to have negative overtones, but freversing that and forgetting what your difficulties are and focusing purely on what you can do without giving your difficulties any consideration is absolute madness. For many conditions I agree, reassessment is an excellent idea, but not by the people proposed in that document, it is something that should be carried out by someone with a specialist knowledge of your disability. For certain conditions universal - life long disability benefots without need for reassessment is a no brainer. Under the current scheme if your condition changes you are legally obliged to inform the DWP, so if your life long condition becomes worse, simply inform the DWP with suitable medical documentation - why waste tax payers money on uneccessary reassessments? I am lucky and have never had to claim benefits, but the legislation here is simply another stepping stone on the way to dismantling the welfare state. It is probably the worst piece of proposed legislation I have read in the last 20 years. Anyway, on a happier sidenote - happy christmas all

I don't see how Occupational Therapists and Social Workers are qualified to comment on medical matters - but it seems the government thinks otherwise. I would also suggest that for life long conditions - paraplegia or quadraplegia for example, that regular reasssessments are a waste of tax payers money. Further I would also suggest that stopping the mobility component when people are in hospital will cause a severe financial disadvantage to those people who have motability vehicles, as they will default on payment and those who are in social care will also loose their entitlement to a vehicle. Perhaps more closely to home for this forum, people with Autism who do require DLA will have to face the prospect of an annual or bi-annual reassessment whereby their benefits could be removed based on the opinion of one indvidual, who in most likelyhood will be unfamiliar with their condition, symptomology and difficulties. Perhaps more important is the uneccessary stress that will be caused to these individuals, stress being something that most people with autism don't deal well with at all. I would also add that currently most autistic people who claim DLA currently recieve the lower care component - which is going to be scrapped entirely. An independent report in 2006 suggested that approximately 5% of DLA claims are either fraudulant or no longer necessary - the government aims to cut disability payments by at least 20% with a suggested target or 25% by 2016 according to the current judicial review newsletter. And Mumble, Perhaps it shouldn't be a question of whether it affects you, but more of a questions as to whether or not the proposed legislation is fair.

There are no "rumours", their are proposals. You can read the current proposals on the link in the first post, more importantly you can give feedback on them. Waiting to see what happens and then complaining about it seems like a stange descision to me. Read the document and give feedback in the recommended ways.

I recently got this email, it is Wales only for the moment, but hopefully will cause the appropriate waves with central government: Dear Members, Re: A Modern Blue Badge scheme for Wales: Action plan for key stakeholders. Please be aware that the second Blue Badge Eligibility consultation takes place from 8th December 2010 to 4th March 2011. This time Welsh Assembly Government are calling for evidence about extending eligibility of the Scheme to new groups of disabled people. The second consultation call for evidence focuses upon the challenges to mobility caused by Autistic Spectrum Disorders, Alzheimer’s, Dementia, Learning Disabilities and Mental Health Difficulties. Welsh Assembly Government are particularly interested in how and why disabled people with the above impairments have impact on their lives. At this stage Welsh Assembly Government requires statistical information which must be verifiable and preferably quantifiable therefore information gathered should provide a solid foundation which policy decisions can be made. A brief summary is as follows: Evidence is required on the mobility barriers experienced by an individual with ASD and their need for supervision or a chaperone when negotiating roads and traffic. Also, how ASD can be assessed to determine eligibility for the Scheme? Evidence is required on whether those with Alzheimer’s or dementia have barriers to their mobility that require extra assistance. Also at what point in this progressive illness would assistance be required and how would this be identified. Evidence is required to identify whether those with severe learning disabilities and/or mental health issues would require a Blue Badge. Also what eligibility criteria could be used and how this could be assessed. For more details of the A Modern Blue Badge scheme for Wales: Action plan for key stakeholders(December 2009): http://wales.gov.uk/topics/transport/?lang=en To respond directly http://wales.gov.uk/consultations/transport/?lang=en you can contact Welsh Assembly Government at the address below: Blue Badge Team Integrated Transport Unit Transport Wales Welsh Assembly Government Cathays Park CARDIFF CF10 3NQ By fax to: 029-2082-3712 Or by email to blue.badge@wales.gsi.gov.uk

This is without doubt the most disturbing piece of proposed legislation to come out of the Coalition yet. It is also something that is being completely ignored by the media. In essence this policy proposes complete removal of the lower rate care benefit, which at the moment is the "catch all" tier for mental health conditions. It further proposes that anyone who still manages to retain benefits will be regularly re-assessed by a "suitable person" - potentially including occupational therapists and social workers. These re-assessments are simply going to be a source of unecessary stress for those with life long conditions and for people with autism, that simply isn't fair. The policy will penalise disabled disabled people for what they can do while by and large ignoring what they can't. For those with physical disabilities, any adaptions they use will be taken into account and they will be financially penalised for using them - including the use of wheelchairs! They are actually using the equality act 2010 as justification "with it we are a much more equal society", to remove benefits from disabled people. Those are just some of many issues with this policy. I strongly urge you all to read this through and to follow the responce process for consulation. If anything I am underselling how bad this proposed legistlation is.

I would suggest that it is vital that he tries his best to find none ASD friends. He is at an age where he needs to start learning social rules if he is ever going to lead anything close to a normal life, and although this is obviously going to involve some embarressing mistakes and upset, it will also benefit him in the end. The earlier a child with AS begins to socialise with his/her NT peers the better.

It does appear to hang after you post though :/