I wanted to write about Aspergers. There are a few different parts as to why. I have a step-son that had this diagnosis hanging over his head for much of his life, as he is 21 now. I wanted to make him aware that the diagnosis did not make him the way he is now, but it is the hard work he has applied to defeat it. I also had not taken the time to truly educate myself of this diagnosis. I know, not a very good step-mom, but I did try initially.My problem is that he just didn't seem to fit the profile, so I guess I wasn't going to take the diagnosis as an excuse for everything. I want to know what else I could do as a supportive step-parent and how to help him adjust to the normalcy (if that's even a word) of life. I know that children diagnosed with Aspergers now a days are more understood, or maybe more accepted. Though it seems as if the diagnosis is more easily determined. It's amazing when you know of someone that has Aspergers, there seems to more and more people around you that know of someone also or has it themselves! Almost like it's in the water or something! Bottom line is that I want to understand the different types of Aspergers and to understand what it was like for my step-son growing up with it and what his thoughts are on it and even the differences of how society reacts now and how medical providers treat it differently.
1. What memories does an adult have being a child with Aspergers?
2. Is there ever a point in life when it gets better?
3. What are the differences of the treatments currently compared to the past?
4. What are the different types? How can we tell?
5. How does it happen? Best explanation to the parent.
6. How does someone get diagnosed?
7. Is it a clear diagnosis?
8. Does society accept or treat Aspergers better now than in the past?
9. How does a parent except the diagnosis?
10. What does a parent do to help support their child into adulthood? And does it stop there?
7 is particularly interesting--they talk about a spectrum with one end of it being autism and the other end basically from what I can see just being an ordinary insensitive typical male who lectures about his favorite topic to anyone in earshot, who has no idea what effect he has on people, and who doesn't 'do' emotions. Yep, cluelessness is sometimes part of the diagnosis
ReplyDeleteAnyway it was never diagnosed until, I think, 1944 when Dr A first described it. The huge numbers of people being diagnosed today might have something to do with the fact that the drug companies manufacture chemical agents that they say can treat Asperger's.
Good questions, worth exploring.