tails1989

Cool! I much approve - German is definitely my favourite language.

Hi, welcome Out of interest, what languages are you learning?

No, I don't take any medication. Best, T

Your observations are quite correct...I am male and 21 years old and don't mind divulging this information at all. On the subject of age/alcohol, I quite agree that it can greatly influence how a person might react to a situation, and that the correlation between these factors and possible aggression is widely documented and accepted. To reiterate, the reason that I posted here is not that I claim any link between autism and outbursts of anger, but rather that I wondered whether this might be one of the factors that has a role to play. You name in your post in the form of youth/alcohol two very typical factors that might contribute to overly aggressive behaviour. In my opinion, however, neither of these things contributes to my anger - I have never become violent because of alcohol (I don't really drink that much and at the event in question I was sticking to juice by preference). As for age, I've had these sporadic flare-ups of anger since I was a very small child, but hopefully it might be that as I get older I'll grow out of it somehow... Thus, I made my original post purely to try and make sense of why I sometimes act as I do, some other explanations failing, in my mind, to provide definitive answers. In particular, I think it might be helpful at this point to post a link to the page I came across that finally convinced me to make this post in this particular forum. I accept that anger most likely arises out of a complex cocktail of conflicting factors, and that it would be absurd to say that I get angry solely because I have Aspergers, or that Aspergers is in any way an excuse for inappropriate behaviour, but I felt that I could certainly identify with and observe in my actions many of the 'Reasons for Anger Episodes' listed...I don't want to go on too long, but I felt that numbers 1,2,4,5,9,12,15 and 16 were particularly pertinent. Anyway, as promised, here's the link: http://www.aspergerfoundation.org.uk/infosheets/a_angermanagement.pdf Best wishes to all, T

Dear all, I am anxious to avoid any misunderstanding on this issue and feel that I may have formulated my initial post a little badly - I am not claiming that anger is a symptom of autism (which, as rightly pointed out, forms no part of the diagnostic criteria), but am rather attempting to broach the issue of why (as it appears to me from what I have read/experienced) sudden and extreme anger is so often a byproduct of the condition. As another post pointed out, anger is common to all human beings, but it seems to me that the way that anger is manifested could vary in autistic people. This is why I outlined my own experience, because it seems to me to illustrate that very difference. First, the build-up of anger is in my opinion different, as I feel that anger does not really build up at all for me, but rather explodes out of nowhere when nobody (myself included sometimes) expects it. Second, when I get angry, I feel my anger is different in that it is intense (to the point of being out of control) but equally brief. Finally, after an outburst I quickly regain equanimity and while others are shocked I just want to continue as normal. Now, I might be wrong, but I feel that this expression of anger is different to that of a 'normal' person. From what I have read, outbursts such as I have described can commonly be observed in those with autism, but I welcome any comments/experiences you might have had as to whether it can be said to be true that a contrasting relationship to anger as an emotion is (or can be) found in those with autism. Best wishes, T

Just wondered if anyone has any thoughts/advice on anger. I personally am calm the vast majority of the time, but find that I have very sudden bursts of anger where I become very agressive. Just to recount one story, a short time ago I had been persuaded to go to a social event that I had no desire to go to. I wasn't in the best of moods, and when I was there I got trapped by an annoying person who picked at my lack of social niceties, criticising my posture/lack of eye contact etc etc. These jabs kept winding me up but I made no comment until he claimed that I had got something wrong that I knew was in fact right, at which point I flared up, screaming across the fairly crowded room that he was a 'pretentious c**t' - apparently my brother also had to restrain me from hitting him although I was oblivious to this at the time. Thirty seconds later (probably less) I was completely back to normal, and wished I hadn't created such a stir... Anway, this sort of behaviour is obviously undesirable for several reasons: - I always end up looking like the trouble-maker...no one noticed the other guy's wounding comments, only me screaming insults at him. - I am out of control during this brief period of anger, and am worried about causing physical harm that I do not in any way intend. So, is this sort of behaviour typical in people with autism, or am I just a rude b*****d? What can I do to get my temper under control?

Thanks very much for the responses. Although I am still confused and far from certain as to whether I fit all the Asperger's criteria, I think that there are definitely things I have read about that I strongly identify with. Might I inquire, therefore, about the process for getting a diagnosis and what exactly the tests and screenings involve? Many thanks for your help, Tails

Hi everybody, I am a 20 year old male and am beginning to think that I may have Asperger's. This is due to the following things: 1) I have to have a routine and always do things the same way (e.g. I have to leave my bike in the same place each day, and walk a certain route) 2) I find social interactions rather challenging - for example, I'm not sure where/how to stand, or when to leave. My only strategem as regards 'small talk' is to ask a series of questions, and I find myself uninterested in the general chit-chat of my peers. I also have a habit of making comments at inappropriate times. However, on the other hand, I don't think that I have a problem with reading faces... 3) I am sensitive to loud noises in particular (I hate fireworks and loud pubs etc) 4) Especially when I am nervous, I take people somewhat literally (e.g. I had to get a lift with someone I didn't know very well and I shut the door rather too hard - he said 'Shut it a bit harder, why don't you?', so I did. 5) I'm not good at expressing myself verbally, though I find I can express myself fine in writing. 6) I don't like being touched, and can't really express my emotions - people think I am cold and aloof, but in fact the emotion is there, I just can't express it. I do find it easier to show affection to my dog, however, and have a (probably weird) habit of speaking as if I were him...my dog's name is Jip, so I'll often say: 'Jip says X' 7) I have some things that I really love doing - playing the piano and reading German books and doing German translations. Apologies for going on at length, but any advice would be much appreciated. I may be panicking because I've read too much about Asperger's - I've always thought that I was just a bit awkward. However, I got a score of 42 on the online test, so I thought I'd write this note, because obviously people in this forum are the most likely to know about this condition in detail. Thanks for reading if you made it thus far! All comments welcome!