Merry

I agree with all you've posted Sa Skimrande and Linnet. Having read a lot of one of A-S Warrior's old threads today, it has deepened my understanding of Aspergers, because i've actually never met anyone else who has it, apart from very young children. All i've really focused on here so far are people's similarities but i'm discovering that we also have a lot of differences, and definitely view our AS in different ways. There's no doubt that it has it's down sides, the biggest obstacle for me achieving anything great is that i always burn out before i make it and end up depressed...I can't escape myself, that's the problem...and i don't know if it's the struggle of living with aspergers which makes our brains compensate in other ways, or if we have those tendencies anyway. ...and quite clearly not everyone thinks they have any greatness in them but i'm with A-S Warrior on this subject. I don't know why, but I believe if people truly understood aspergers and allowed us to follow our natural interests from childhood, I suspect we'd make great teachers for others...as special talent said in another thread about knowing a lot about dolphins....knowing a lot about a few things but not being able to see the bigger picture is not necessarily a bad thing.

I love that website thanks for the link Sa Skimrande

bare with me A-S Warrior, I don't get a lot of time to myself but am getting through it...actually i'm finding it quite fascinating...has made me decide to spend more time looking through old posts before starting new ones!!! Particularly the responses from LancsLad, real food for thought, valid points all round. So far, i just think everyone's responses added a lot of depth to your original post. I agree with you totally by the way, obviously, as i've been writing similar stuff...! But it has all made me think. Deffinitely worth a read.

This thread is a lot of fun!

Why would this upset people A-S Warrior? I don't understand. Please explain why it was upsetting for people..... i'm very surprised by that. I personally feel that so much of my life was wasted by trying to fit into a world i didn't belong in, just to keep other people happy. The things which excited me had to be left behind because nobody understood. They didn't succeed in changing me anyway. All they did was push my real self deeper inside and i resent it. I don't want that to happen to the next generation. They might be the best hope our world has.

I can't help you i'm sorry i don't know the answers to any of these things but just wanted you to know that i read your post and hope someone can answer these questions for you. It sounds like a tricky situation. Best of luck.

Big thanks Sa Skimrande, I loved this! Goin to read the rest of the website but there's a lot to take in! People should stop trying to change us and let us change the world! Maybe our faults only appear as faults, because the society we live in is all wrong. Maybe people with autism are here for a reason...maybe if the rest of the world let us follow our own paths, we could help to make a brighter future for everyone.

Did anyone else see that river cottage episode about raw foods? They made a luxurious looking chocolate mouse using only pure cocoa and avocado, then used it for a cheese cake with a crushed pecan base...mmmm. I love avocado....but for me that's the real comfort food rather than chocolate. Good idea to find the recipe and give it a go if you're on a dairy-free diet but love chocolate! It didn't take long to make and looked so creamy!

I can relate to the `stick like glue` thing you said...so down lately and not even any reason for it...i know i can barely afford to feed my family, can't afford to have our heating on and we're stuck with a baby in a 1 bedroom flat and everybody always thinks that's depressing, but that's nothing new and doesn't usually get me down. Just can't seem to shift this low feeling. Get a good few hrs sometimes and think i've come out of it...but all it takes is one little thing and i realise i'm still in depression, as much as i try to hide it. When i'm with my baby you'd think i'm the happiest person ever....but as soon as she's having her nap i fill up with sadness....you know that feeling in your throat where you're pushing down the tears.....and there's no reason for it. I find myself making up reasons to tell my husband why i'm upset...but they're just excuses. I have no idea at all. Up and down and up and down....! But it most definitely will pass.

NO YOU WON'T FOOL THE CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUUUUTION NO WAY!!!

Thank you so much A-S Warrior...I've been thinking about this boy all night...couldn't sleep...made me think about so much.

Oh Sherbet, I really recommend you watch the video i just posted about Jacob Barnett. He is an amazing young lad with autism, of a similar age to yours who followed his own path. It might really help. I hope so.

Have any of you tried meditation? I used to do zen meditation for up to 10 hrs a day...was an obsession of mine when in my mid twenties. It's great therapy. I don't recomment the 10hr bit, i became too reliant on it and found it even harder to fit into the real world during that time, but i'd really recommend it...even 5 or 10 minutes a day makes a huge difference to my anxiety levels. Not only that, but you come out of it with a much clearer understanding of your problems, and the world in general. Meditation is for the soul what sleep is for the body. That's not my quote, i heard it at a meditation class i joined back then. But i've found it to be true for me...

He's a leg man....shame! We are very very similar...bit spooked!!! My lil one has a monkey drum that i'm quite obsessed with at the moment...when she's well and truly bored of her music session, i'm still in a transe-like state, hearing the beat echo within me like a Buddhist monk in a funeral meditation! P.S You're my first proper friend here woohoo i feel special!

I have been saying since i was at school myself, that there is a huge difference between intelligence and memory. The education system teaches you to `learn`.... This really just means to REMEMBER THINGS which have already been discovered...other people's ideas only. (And might i add, in a sequence, order and pace set for you by others). Intelligence, real intelligence, is the ability to think critically....to think for yourself...and the drive to want to discover and create in your own way. This is what i craved growing up...i wished for those around me to understand that what i was supposed to be doing with my time was far more important than the trivial things they expected me to take part in. This is what i was trying to explain to Sherbet. Just because the majority of people don't understand us, does not mean they should ever under estimate us....WE ARE the free thinkers of today. We are the revolutionists. We are the ones the majority should be paying attention to, instead of trying to make us fit into their world. We can never be like them...we simply have too many questions to find answers to and too little time to do it. If trusted to follow our own paths, just imagine what we might be capable of!!!

(Copied directly from Home Ed Magazine website...I'm sure they wouldn't mind): Jacob Barnett is an American mathematician and child prodigy. At 8 years old, Jacob began sneaking into the back of college lectures at IUPUI. After being diagnosed with autism since the age of two and placed in his school’s special ed. program, Jacob’s teachers and doctors were astonished to learn he was able to teach calculus to college students. At age nine, while playing with shapes, Jacob built a series of mathematical models that expanded Einstein’s field of relativity. A professor at Princeton reviewed his work and confirmed that it was groundbreaking and could someday result in a Nobel Prize. At age 10, Jacob was formally accepted to the University as a full-time college student and went straight into a paid research position in the field of condensed matter physics. For his original work in this field, Jacob set a record, becoming the world’s youngest astrophysics researcher. His paper was subsequently accepted for publication by Physical Review A, a scientific journal shared on sites such as NASA, the Smithsonian, and Harvard’s webpage. Jacob’s work aims to help improve the way light travels in technology. Jacob is also CEO and founder of Wheel LLC, a business he started in his mom’s garage, and is in the process of writing a book to help end “math phobia” in his generation. Jacob’s favorite pastime is playing basketball with the kids at his charity, Jacob’s Place. It is a place where kids with autism are inspired every day to be their true authentic selves…just like Jacob. . You will love Jacob! http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Uq-FOOQ1TpE# Let this boy be a lesson to us all. We are different for a reason. We are able to THINK in different ways to the majority. When you were little, do you remember thinking that you should have been the teacher and the adults should have been learning from you instead of the other way round? Maybe this is why. Maybe, if we were all allowed to be what we are naturally, we could accomplish unimaginable advances in human understanding, technology, the arts, science and mathematics, phylosophy, spirituality.....WE are the future. There's nothing wrong with us...we simply belong in a different world and need to be in a different world to the one ruled for us and imposed upon us by the majority. Love and blessings to all, Merry x

Robert7111a! As soon as i see your name attached to a thread i KNOW it's going to be an interesting read! I was only thinking today about starting something similar...i saw this thread last night but ran out of time and saved reading what it was about for tonight. I didn't even know what stimming is! I thought at first that it sounded like something rude but now i get it! You still take you cuddlies to bed!!! I'm telling my husband as we speak because he thought i must be the only adult in the world who still sleeps with my comforter!!! I have an incredible friend, known only as "MY teddy" who has not left my bedside in more years than i can remember. I have to take him with me if staying away from home. I can't sleep without him! I'm so glad i'm not the only one! You really wanna know what i get up to to ease anxiety and calm my mind for a while? I pluck. I can spend hours and hours during the night plucking the hairs on my legs with the same pair of tweezers i've had since the age of 15!!! Only my husband knows this. and i have to pretend to him that i do it less than i really do because he gets annoyed that it makes my legs sore and red!!! Is that called `stimming` then? I don't do it for the same reasons as an ocd suffere would. For me it's like a form of meditation. It just calms me down.

Haven't tried any other aspergers sites. I'm a creature of habit and very loyal. The people here have a lot of interesting things to say and are very supportive. I'm too sensitive to be in places where there are arguments/trolling as special talent pointed out. I find that too upsetting. It's my husband's computer anyway and he's usually using it once buba's is in bed. I'm only on it at the mo because he has new xmas games to play on x-box! However, i was recently taking part in an anti-vaccination site. Couldn't deal with the nastiness that got thown at me and other people. I also been posting responses on the home education website. (Current obsessions) But i don't think anyone really reads the comments as there are very few other responses to the articles posted. I don't need to look for a different autism site because i'm happy with this one.

I agree A-S Warrior...Spongebob92, you sound like me too. You may have managed so far, but it can't be easy...and if a diagnosis would help you and other people to understand yourself better, and maybe find some help to deal with life better, it's definately worth going through that process. These things you describe aren't faults...It's just the way you're made....and everybody needs different amounts of support in life. Good luck. You might find it's the best thing you ever did. It was for me.

Aw that's nice. So many of you have helped me too. It might not be easy to get the help we need in the outside world but at least we all have support from each other. It's amazing to find people who understand. Thank you all too.

So glad to help sherbet...it was really useful for me actually to reflect a little on how i felt growing up....i love the finger brush idea. Good luck with everything.

I agree. What a fantastic post Matzoball.

I agree A-S Warrior. You are doing us a service and i want to thank you for what you do.