Living with Asperger's Syndrome

being born, meeting all your milestones on time as an infant, but having less than proper social and behavioral skills. that's how my life had started.

granted, i look and sound like the average person without a disability but, as a child, i was angry and frustrated due to my misunderstanding of situations due to my lack of social skills. this led to outbursts of anger due to such frustration. i just didn't understand why things didn't make sense.

for years, i was sent from one psychiatric hospital to another due to my outbursts. each time i was treated with a varying degree of disorderly conduct, though there were those placements that were kind to me, not all were bad. nonetheless, i had the feeling of anger not only at myself for not being able to prevent myself from going to these places, but also at the word for treating me in such fashions.

it wasn't easy keeping me in a school either. i was in and out of schools due to the fact that the faculty would no longer deal with my antics. it would be a long time before i found a school that i would remain for several years.

i was thirteen when i was finally diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, an Autistic Spectrum Disorder. prior to this diagnosis, i had been diagnosed with ADD, ADHD, Bi-Polar Disorder, PDD, and Manic Dipression. of course, Asperger's Syndrome has several symptoms of many of these disorders thus making it hard to diagnose at that point and time. at the present, Asperger's Syndrome can be more accurately diagnosed than in earlier decades.

at that age, however, i still did not have very good social skills but had learned to control my anger for the most part. in school, i took classes to learn social skills and for several years i learned to become a productive member in society.

this post is not intended for the purpose of gaining pity or for people to feel bad for me. this is simply to grant a personal look into my head and see things as i see them, and hopefully to learn from me to better youselves by opening your minds to a world that few view as worth viewing.

thanks for reading:)

-Shaun
Grey Consular

thankyou for the post. thear is so maney difrent things that afect maney difrent pepeaill. just becos somwon has a disorder a disabelety or aney other thing dosnot make theam aneyless of a person.
thear is maney things that you canot see or tell somwon has just bay looking at theam. and how scosety reactes to theas pepeaill is not plesent grant you thow things have goten betear thear is more awareness and perhaps a bit more excptence but we still have a long long ways to go.
thankyou Arith Mar Kai i think it is inportint for pepeaill with the disabeletys to tell others whot it is like as to aposed a docter traying to explane it to others yes theay have a understanding but not a real understanding of whot it is like .

we nead more awarnes for disabeletys not just the ones we can see but the wones that are hiden to.

i think it's great post. we all have our difficulties to face and things to endure. us knowing now we can help as we can.

and it's good to see the world from your eyes brother.

MTFBWY

life well always throw somethin at u to
put u down put if u can stand up and work
through it then ur a strong person

as 4 myself i hav been diagnosed with
Bi-Polar Disorder and depression its hard
workin round them

Thank you so much for sharing your story Arith Mar Kai.
You are a very couragious and strong person.
Life can be difficult with a disability, but I think it is much harder for people to understand and accept someone's disability when it is something they cannot see.
I myself have Bipolar disorder. I know how tough things can be when you are wrongly diagnosed, and even when you are finally diagnosed correctly, a lot of time and effort is required to compensate for it.
It took me years to be where I am now, even to be able to hold a job was in all seriousness impossible for me until relatively recently. It took a lot of hard work.
It can make it hard for people to accept you because they do not understand. I have lost a lot of friends due to some lovely symptomatic \"episodes\".
Anyhoo, I just wanted to say what you said really spoke to me. I am sure what I went through wasn't even a fraction of what you did... but I do have some intresting experiences that can help me imagine somewhat...
I give you a lot of credit for sharing your story... and I thank you very much.
You are a good person, and a very strong one as well.
MTFBWY-A,
Christina

Thank you so much for sharing your story Arith Mar Kai.
You are a very couragious and strong person.
Life can be difficult with a disability, but I think it is much harder for people to understand and accept someone's disability when it is something they cannot see.
I myself have Bipolar disorder. I know how tough things can be when you are wrongly diagnosed, and even when you are finally diagnosed correctly, a lot of time and effort is required to compensate for it.
It took me years to be where I am now, even to be able to hold a job was in all seriousness impossible for me until relatively recently. It took a lot of hard work.
It can make it hard for people to accept you because they do not understand. I have lost a lot of friends due to some lovely symptomatic \"episodes\".
Anyhoo, I just wanted to say what you said really spoke to me. I am sure what I went through wasn't even a fraction of what you did... but I do have some intresting experiences that can help me imagine somewhat...
I give you a lot of credit for sharing your story... and I thank you very much.
You are a good person, and a very strong one as well.
MTFBWY-A,
Christina

Thank you so much for sharing your story Arith Mar Kai.
You are a very couragious and strong person.
Life can be difficult with a disability, but I think it is much harder for people to understand and accept someone's disability when it is something they cannot see.
I myself have Bipolar disorder. I know how tough things can be when you are wrongly diagnosed, and even when you are finally diagnosed correctly, a lot of time and effort is required to compensate for it.
It took me years to be where I am now, even to be able to hold a job was in all seriousness impossible for me until relatively recently. It took a lot of hard work.
It can make it hard for people to accept you because they do not understand. I have lost a lot of friends due to some lovely symptomatic \"episodes\".
Anyhoo, I just wanted to say what you said really spoke to me. I am sure what I went through wasn't even a fraction of what you did... but I do have some intresting experiences that can help me imagine somewhat...
I give you a lot of credit for sharing your story... and I thank you very much.
You are a good person, and a very strong one as well.
MTFBWY-A,
Christina

Thank you very much for your post, I too have Asperger's. it is refreshing to meet someone (even if it is online) who has learned to live with it. i am glad that you did find a school that would work with you.
i wish you sucsess on you path of enlightenment.

My nephew and Godson has Asperger's Syndrome. For the uninformed this has nothing to do with intelligence except that it tends to affect those with extremely high intelligence.

From my observation watching him from birth to now (he was 10 in December 2008) his mind is working so fast it's difficult for the input / output to get in sync.

I have bi-polar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and general anxiety disorder.

Every person who comes here and shares is an inspiration for so many others who don't realize they are far from alone. At TOTJO we are more than human beings - we are human becomings.

I understand your frustration. I myself have Aspergers. Even though I did not go through much rage about it-I figured that anger wouldn't change my situation-I still sometimes wonder why its always me who's usually friendless, and other kids can just chatter on about nothing. I didn't feel mad, maybe a little jelousy, but I got over it. We all do.
I'm glad you've got your AS issues all sorted out. Keep up the good work!