Awesome Moment ~ Had to Share

I had to share what was a great moment for me this morning....for everyone else they'll be like really? I have always had a gag reflex and been totally unable to swallow pills. We used to think it was because I accidentally swallowed a whole Luden's cherry cough drop in 1st grade and it scared the crap out of me....nope it's just part of being an Aspie! So over the years I've been given liquid meds...chewable meds...meltaways...shots...or I have to crush the pill and eat it in pudding (I hate applesauce!) which has resulted in some of the nastiest tastes ever to be experienced. My Adderall...I chew them! I know you're technically not supposed to chew the tablets but I chew it and it makes my tongue turn blue so it's kind of cool! My Xanax, yes I know they're tiny, I break them in half and I swallow each half alone...why? Because they're oblong shape and therefore will turn and get stuck, yes that's what my brain has made me believe. So today...I have a new antibiotic for a week....never taken this one before. Thursday night I crushed the first one and ate it in pudding...wasn't bad at all. This morning I got all brave and decided to swallow the sucker! So I turn the iPod on shuffle...and I get Psy's new song Gentlemen. Those who know me know that when I take even my little half a Xanax I have to dance a bit and flap my hands a bit...and we call it the Pill Dance. So today I was doing the dance to Gentlemen...and you know it went down in less than 45 seconds (which is really fast for me, usually stuff starts melting before I get it down). I was sooooo excited I posted on FB...I called my Mom...I texted a few people...most of whom were like um...really? seriously? And then tonight...time for dose two....in true Aspie fashion, since it worked well this morning...same song tonight...same dance...got it down in 20 seconds! I'm proud of me!! Now if I can just avoid the nausea/stomach upset it caused this morning I'll be all set! But I'm proud of me...I can now take something about the size of a regular aspirin. I might get adventurous and take my Adderall without chewing...it's not round...but it's smaller...but that's going to take a little more courage cause it's not round and....I like the way it tastes when I chew it lmaoo!!

Psy - Gentlemen - My Pill Taking Song

What Does It Really Mean? Part 3

Diagnostic Criteria for 299.80 Asperger's Disorder

3. The disturbance causes clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
4. There is no clinically significant general delay in language (e.g., single words used by age 2 years, communicative phrases used by age 3 years).
5. There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or in the development of age-appropriate self-help skills, adaptive behavior (other than in social interaction), and curiosity about the environment in childhood.
6. Criteria are not met for another specific Pervasive Developmental Disorder or Schizophrenia.

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Well...I think we can finish this up today. The rest of the DSM-IV criteria are a bit more vague and open to interpretation than the other two. Area C is a given...I hide it well, and to the outside world it might be hard to imagine there's anything wrong with me, but spend enough time with me and you'll see it. Socially...well I do prefer to stay home most times and interact online or play games. I will go out and hang out with specific people and generally in the same places or to do the same things. I hate going to Wal-Mart or the grocery store, just too many people and too much input. I don't mind Target for some odd reason and I love little stores. Otherwise, I much prefer to shop online. A lot of it has to do with the driving/parking, but it's about the crowds and the input too. Occupational....well, work has it's moments of just being too much, but I just keep swimming because I know my students need me to. Most of my issues come with my perceptions of what other people think/feel about me or my work and in how they interact with me, back to the whole tone of voice thing usually. I'm much happier working with small groups and much, much happier working with Special Needs children, thus, my push to get certified so I can one day do just that. Other Important Areas of Functioning...I can't organize, hands down that's the biggest problem in my life. I can't clean well because I can't figure out what to do or how to get it done. Organizing takes major work for my brain b/c my brain can't even organize it's own thoughts. Budgeting is a nightmare...I can't even balance the checkbook and I'm sure I must have an award at the bank for the most times overdrawn in one year! I just can't make the numbers add up right. I've tried computer programs, tracking it by hand, etc...nothing works! It's a constant struggle. Driving is fun...I'm ok usually in the day if I'm going somewhere familiar. If I'm out of town I must have my GPS. I hate driving in the rain and at night b/c I just can't see the lines on the road and I still think everyone's getting into my lane, even when they're not! And parking, well that's just not fun. I can only turn one way to get into a park...I prefer one I can drive out of b/c I hate backing up more than anything...and under no circumstances can I parallel park! And I will having a "flappy moment" right there behind the wheel and just stop and panic if I can't figure out where to go and what to do. Generally, my friends realize this and they drive lol!

Area D - Nope...I was advanced. And I find most Aspies are. I read a newspaper to my astonished Grandfather at 2...I ate words like a sponge and always used them in the correct context. I had a college reading level in 5th grade. I loved to write poems/stories. So yeah, all good there! And now I know I am hyperlexic so that explains the crazy abilities as such a young age. However, after I read a book...if I don't talk about it, think about it, reread it...within a few months, I'll forget parts, and after a year or so it's like I never read it. So there's always something good to read on my Kindle lol!

Area E - Same here...I did everything ontime if not early and at an advanced level. Curious doesn't begin to describe me as a child...I'd have driven Curious George nuts! My Daddy used to say that I could "piss off the Pope"....yeah...I was that curious and had to know about everything...and not later, but right then!

Area F - No...I'm not crazy and I don't fully meet the other criteria...being an Aspie is the best fit for me after having read all the other possible ASD criteria with my doctor. We decided this one was the most perfect fit for me.

Well...there you have it. That's Asperger's Syndrome in a nutshell. But please remember, we're like snowflakes...all very different, yet made of the same stuff. What tweaks one of us out won't even bother the next Aspie and what one does really well another may really struggle with. But then again...I think that's just being human. I just remind myself that we were programmed with a different operating system so it's like being a Mac in a PC world! Or probably more like being a Unix system in a Windows world!! LOL!

Made a Facebook Page

Made a FB page for my blog so I can share other cool stuff about Autism.

https://www.facebook.com/DelighfulPuzzleAspieMom

What does it really mean? Part 2

Diagnostic Criteria for 299.80 Asperger's Disorder

2. Restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests and activities, as manifested by at least one of the following:

1. 1. encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity of focus
   2. apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals

1. 3. stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g., hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements)

4. persistent preoccupation with parts of objects.

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This is where the majority of my issues that people can see show up. The first one is just me in a nutshell. When I get stuck onto something, I have to know absolutely everything about it and I will talk about it all the time! Sometimes it's a brief thing, maybe a few months or a year. Others, it lasts for years or even a lifetime. When I was a kid, it was baseball. I could quote you Braves stats for the current team at any time. I collected baseball cards, mostly Braves and mostly my favorite player Steve Avery. I read books about baseball and watched baseball movies. In 6th grade, to learn the research process, we were to write a 3-4 page paper on a topic of our choosing. Well, I'd just seen the Oliver Stone movie JFK. Yep, my 3-4 page paper turned into a 12 page paper with an appendix and I bet I'm the only 6th grader that has ever read the entire Warren Report. I went nuts over certain movies over the years...watching them over and over to the point I could quote them and driving everyone around me nuts. Music has stuck with me and always been an interest, so has reading and Disney stuff. This summer I got back into baseball, but thankfully it doesn't seem as intensely obsessive as it was when I was a kid. I've also become a crossword puzzle junkie. Number two is there, but not as intensely as number one. I don't like change...at all. If something is going to change, either small or large, I need notice and prep time. I need to know exactly what is changing and exactly how it's going to affect me. Then I can usually get on with it. I hate having routines changed. At work, I like being in my lab because I know which classes are coming and when...I hate fire drill days, testing schedule, and any other day where it just doesn't follow the schedule. Not being on schedule makes me nervous. My biggest trigger is being late. If I need to be somewhere and I have control over it, you can rest assured I'll be there 15-30 mins early. Some of the funnier routines (or nonfunctional ones) I have...I must go to Downtown Disney the first night of any Disney trip or I will pitch a 2 year old fit...I have routines in the shower for the order I do stuff and for the rest of my getting dressed and ready routine and if you mess it up, move something, or distract me...I will forget something. I drive the same way to places, even if it means 10-15 mins longer and having me go another way is asking for a panic attack. In stores, I start at the same side and go to the other end and having to backtrack only makes me angry. Number three exists too...I constantly move my foot or leg. It's usually my right but can sometimes be my left. If I'm sitting next to someone it will bother then and they'll ask me to stop, I don't even realize I was doing it! I will shake the whole table and have no clue! If I get really frustrated or upset or want something away from me I will do a bit of hand-flapping but it's not as often, only when I'm really stressed or frustrated. I do rock some when I'm nervous or really bored or upset. I've found a therapy toy called a Tangle helps with my movement issues as it puts a toy that looks like an old teething necklace, but it has twisty, textured parts into my hand and I can move it around. It keeps me calmer and actually helps me focus on whatever I'm doing. I never really showed much of Number 4. My son used to have a thing with wheels (still does) or he'll play with a part of a toy, just that part...nothing else. I used to like to break things down and take a look at their parts, but that's as close as I got to this one. 

So many of the quirky/odd things you see me do all day long and most often in stressful situations or when my routine has been altered...well I can't help them. Sometimes I'm aware of them and I try very hard to stop them, but it takes so much effort I can't stop them and focus on what I should be doing at the same time. Most of my friends/family have figured it out by now and they just let me do what I need to do and let me schedule stuff my way so I don't flip, but life isn't always easy to schedule so I still have a bad day sometimes when it doesn't work right...but hey, who doesn't!