Top 10 Reasons For An Adult Diagnosis of ASD - Aspergers Central

hi guys this is andrew from asperger's central and today's video we're going to cover the top 10 reasons that people might want to go and get an adult diagnosis for Asperger's or autism spectrum disorder as it's been relabeled since 2013 now some people might begin to wonder why on earth would anybody want a diagnosis for autism spectrum disorder and there are some people out there who have a knee-jerk reaction when they hear the word autism and they run around screaming because they just don't understand what it really means usually that's because of not enough education and an acceptance but look autism spectrum disorder has its own qualities I guess you could say and it certainly has its limitations but we're going to cover the top ten reasons so you might be finding yourself struggling and and wonder whether or not you should get a diagnosis now the first main reason that comes to mind is usually with friendships we have trouble making friends with with people we don't quite understand how they go you know we try to try to be good friends but ultimately something's just not right the other people don't get us they might use the word quirky or something like that usually that's a good indicator the second one that you you may be looking at for an adult diagnosis as special interests now what special interests mean is it's alright to have hobbies and it's alright to have passions but a special interest is like a passion that's ramped up to the extreme where one one person who's a neurotypical or not on the autism spectrum might for instance be able to recall I don't know eight songs from their favorite artist typically somebody who has a special interest will know absolutely everything about them including meal and and clothing and all that sort of stuff if it was an artist if there was a particular technology that know everything about it and they'd go to the to the level that even makes an engineer blush the third reason for an adult diagnosis is similar to the first reason it's socialization it's having the ability to and get along with people in you know social atmosphere where you know it's often a bit quirky they have the little cliques and little groups and to somebody who's on the autism spectrum often they can feel completely detached from that completely excluded from any particular group or niche even if the people are making a genuine effort sometimes it can feel like they're not even there the fourth main reason for adult diagnosis is to be able to have trouble going out like going out to the shops it could be going out to down the street going out of anywhere that's comfortable and familiar for you can lead to an increased anxiety and and cause being on the autism spectrum you do have elements of anxiety and depression that are all often tied into that with a lot of people going out to the shops can also present as a problem because some people who are on the autism spectrum disorder some people who have that also have what's called sensory processing issues also sensory processing disorder in itself now what that means is essentially their brain is getting too much stimulation and it can literally the senses can overwhelm a person and you just really want to get out of there the fifth main reason is academic people on the autism spectrum are very with academics if their creative side you may find that they could write a novel without even thinking or they could paint a picture that would just leave you know Picasso breathless or on the other hand maybe they're technical maybe they don't have the the ability to draw but they can calculate numbers or they can really dig into the math and science sides to the nth degree the sixth reason is career perhaps you having a trouble with you know social politics or the office politics I should say you don't know how to communicate with people in the workplace now the statistic I think it was the United States Department of Labor Statistics has it at seventy eight point five percent of all people on the autism spectrum are currently unemployed simply because of the above issues that we've already mentioned a few that we're coming up really maintaining a job is quite a difficult thing for them to do the seventh reason is romance just don't understand the other gender don't understand anyone don't understand anything can lead to obviously communications issues how do you express when there's a social or an emotional restriction in play how can you really express how you're feeling and share romantic feelings now it is possible it's absolutely possible there are many many many many people happily married to people who are on the autism spectrum and it works it doesn't work for everyone but it works for a lot of people there are some people however I've met that are on the autism spectrum that aren't so great on the romance scale and look this this affects people who are neurotypical as well otherwise there wouldn't be so many dating guides out there or so there are so many dating ads on television now the problem with this is when you can't express how you feel in a way that's congruent sometimes that can also create massive issues in the romance side of things the eighth big reason for going and getting an adult diagnosis to find out whether or not you're on the autism spectrum is do you literally interpret things somebody says the old saying is pull your socks up and they look down and they try to pull the socks up they take it literally quite literal you know the glass is half-empty that sort of thing they will actually look for a glass rather than take it in to what it means now do understand that all of these points because it's a spectrum every single one of them there will be varying levels at which this may or may not apply you don't have to have all ten of these in order to to have autism spectrum disorder and you don't necessarily need to do one thing and not the other you know it's a mix and match which is why it's so hard to to not get a clear understanding without a formal diagnosis the ninth main reason is obsessive thinking this is a bit different to the special interest this comes into play where you can't stop thinking about certain things or can't stop and dredging up things even though other people seem to move on past things you find yourself stuck into it and again the mind can can really hone in on particular elements it doesn't with obsessive thinking it could be to distract to distract the mind or the mind just goes into that single black-and-white channel and that's it goes it goes just straight into that so if you've ever been again queried hey why are you always going back to that why are you always obsessing over that sort of thing then that's typically what we call obsessive thinking now the 10th one the 10th one some people could argue but at some stage anybody's on the autism spectrum is going to come in to experience with this and its self-esteem and depression now I'm not just saying that everybody who's on the autism spectrum has self-esteem issues and depression issues but having said that if you consider the above nine areas it's going to lead to issues with self-esteem if you can't express how you're feeling if everything you say is misinterpreted by others if you can't connect at a you know a meaningful level with people then you're going to apply to self and it's going to affect your self-esteem especially as you grow up and if this you see this in kids you know teenagers who are also on the spectrum as well self-esteem and depression are huge for them because they're going through school they're in this environment where they have to socialize and it's it's very much a fight everyday for a lot of them and of course if your self-esteem gets low enough that's when depression kicks in and you're just feeling you know completely trapped a lot of the time so if you have any of these 10 things I could say a number 11 is I have trouble understanding sarcasm and number 12 would be humor however that said sarcasm and humor the reason I didn't add them to this list is because I found that of all the qualities those are the two that are often misreported a lot by the organisation however I know quite a lot of people who who know how to be more sarcastic than anyone I've ever met or they know how to use humor and completely just you know pull it out of left went your left side so there are many things you can do to improve your situation so if you're finding yourself like you're feeling stuck like you're feeling you can't go anywhere and these particular issues are common themes in your life then it's probably worth you know looking into getting a formal diagnosis and it's not so that you've got a label it's never about the label it's about understanding a framework see if you are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder then what that means is you're on a spectrum and guess what everyone's on a spectrum the thing is though it's not about saying I've got this label it's about understanding more about yourself so you can improve your situation and that's what it comes down to so many ignorant people don't get that and I say ignorant people I'm not talking about people who are on the spectrum I'm talking about quite often it's neurotypical people who are just too pigheaded to understand that a lot of people need to understand how to help themselves because it can be quite debilitating when you try to do things and it just doesn't go anywhere and it doesn't go anywhere fast so if you've got any questions simply visit our facebook page and this our Facebook pages is rather new but you can certainly chime in there and we'll answer your questions it's facebook.com forward slash Asperger's central or you can visit our website Asperger's central calm now I like to thank you for watching and I want you to make sure that you share this video with your family and friends in anyone else that you might think could possibly be either on the spectrum or relate to somebody who's on the spectrum quite often it's children who get diagnosed and and the adults get missed but there are partners and Friends of partners who can certainly see these traits in action and I want you to share this video with them and hopefully help enlighten their world as well so this is Andrew from Asperger central thanks a lot and have a great day you

Channel: Aspergers Central

Views: 135,639

Rating: 4.9073515 out of 5

Keywords: Aspergers Central, Aspergers, Autism, ASD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Autistic Spectrum Disorders (Disease Or Medical Condition), Asperger Syndrome (Disease Or Medical Condition), Health (Industry)

Id: 9um419Xpz1U

Length: 11min 18sec (678 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 30 2015