whats your opinions on autism/anyone else here have it?

[Peter KG6LSE]

I'm a diagnosed Aspie, although if you met me in person, you might not be able to tell unless you know some of the signs real well.

Same . Theater * cough * cured me . If you can Deal with the folks in theatre then any one is a cakewalk \

Iam also a savant Yet I cant write by hand and Iam not very good at math ..

[Comrade Jenkens]

no, its more that my opinion of the state of mental health is at an all time low. im convinced that if everyone went to a shrink, that said shrink will find something wrong with everyone.

Yes but some people genuinely do have mental health problems. I do admit that the labels are thrown around too easily atm though.

With me this can be verified both by checking my DNA revealing faults and also doing fmri scans which show damaged areas of my brain development

[The Jedi Master]

I have it. I'm homeschooled, but the stories of kids who get sent to the 'Special Needs' classes because of autism make me want to punch something. Hard.

[Red Iron Crown]

no, its more that my opinion of the state of mental health is at an all time low. im convinced that if everyone went to a shrink, that said shrink will find something wrong with everyone.

So true. And the proposed solution is almost always medicate, medicate, medicate.

[kahlzun]

Diagnosed aspie here also. Learnt how to hide it, was able to get through school etc. Married, job for Federal Govt. Haven't let it slow me down

[MaverickSawyer]

Diagnosed aspie here also. Learnt how to hide it, was able to get through school etc. Married, job for Federal Govt. Haven't let it slow me down

Congrats, man.

[Duxwing]

I am not autistic and think autism mostly sucks. I can only imagine how my two autistic friends withstand social awkwardness that dwarfs mine. I am glad to see how well you all have persevered.

-Duxwing

[toric5]

I am not autistic and think autism mostly sucks. I can only imagine how my two autistic friends withstand social awkwardness that dwarfs mine. I am glad to see how well you all have persevered.

-Duxwing

thanks man! at first in you post i thought it was going to be negative about how we are ******ed or something like that, but thanks for the nice reply. as for how hard it is, it can be pretty overwhelming sometimes, (as in, i went scuicidal) but you just have go live through it. then there are moments where thats totally and utterly rewarded. (i love nitpicking errors in my textbook awnser keys and teachers lectures

[CaptainKipard]

Having ASD can be a mixed blessing, I'm surprised you guys haven't spoken more about the advantages.

[Sylandro]

I was diagnosed when i was three. And i'm a advocate for my autism, too! Without it, i wouldn't be the genius that i am today, and i also think as it as a gift. Oh, and here's a little fact 'bout me, i taught myself on how to read.

But one of the downsides of autism, you tend to get excited, alot. And usually, with me, i usually run around the room and/or jump on a trampoline.

Edited March 2, 2014 by Sylandro

[Nuke]

i have a fatal condition called mortality, turns out everyone has the same disorder.

no, its more that my opinion of the state of mental health is at an all time low. im convinced that if everyone went to a shrink, that said shrink will find something wrong with everyone.

thing is psychotherapy works. unfortunately no one can afford to pay a psychiatrist 250 an hour twice a week. you can go to a psychologist or worse a therapist, but they lack the neccisary skill to do anything useful. what the insurance companies have you do is go to the shrink long enough to get a prescription, then send you to some quack therapist. this is what happens when you let insurance adjusters run healthcare.

[Duxwing]

thanks man! at first in you post i thought it was going to be negative about how we are ******ed or something like that, but thanks for the nice reply. as for how hard it is, it can be pretty overwhelming sometimes, (as in, i went scuicidal) but you just have go live through it. then there are moments where thats totally and utterly rewarded. (i love nitpicking errors in my textbook awnser keys and teachers lectures

O_O Dang! I'm glad to see you here, then.

thing is psychotherapy works. unfortunately no one can afford to pay a psychiatrist 250 an hour twice a week. you can go to a psychologist or worse a therapist, but they lack the neccisary skill to do anything useful. what the insurance companies have you do is go to the shrink long enough to get a prescription, then send you to some quack therapist. this is what happens when you let insurance adjusters run healthcare.

That generalization seems hasty.

-Duxwing

[kahlzun]

I think this game, with its technical knowledge and meticulous detail, is very attractive to a certain kind of aspie/ASD. I was certainly obsessive about it for just over a year. Sadly, while i still love it, i've played it too much: gotten too good, and now I get bored or frustrated at simple things like long burns.

[toric5]

I think this game, with its technical knowledge and meticulous detail, is very attractive to a certain kind of aspie/ASD. I was certainly obsessive about it for just over a year. Sadly, while i still love it, i've played it too much: gotten too good, and now I get bored or frustrated at simple things like long burns.

same here. now I'm focusing on getting good at the next most challenging game: Dota 2. unfortunately, the community is nowhere near as helpful there, but at leas the report system weed out MOST or the trolls by their 100th game. (i think i have ~75 games played.)

[CaptainKipard]

thing is psychotherapy works. unfortunately no one can afford to pay a psychiatrist 250 an hour twice a week. you can go to a psychologist or worse a therapist, but they lack the neccisary skill to do anything useful. what the insurance companies have you do is go to the shrink long enough to get a prescription, then send you to some quack therapist. this is what happens when you let insurance adjusters run healthcare.

I think you're confused, or maybe definitions are different where you live. It's true that psychiatrists have psychology training but they are medical mostly. Pretty much all they do is push legal drugs. A decent psychologist or psychotherapist can give you some cognitive behaviour therapy which IMO is far more valuable in the long run than any amount of chemicals.

Also there is no medical cure for ASD, partly because it's not a psychiatric illness. It's a developmental condition.

I think this game, with its technical knowledge and meticulous detail, is very attractive to a certain kind of aspie/ASD. I was certainly obsessive about it for just over a year. Sadly, while i still love it, i've played it too much: gotten too good, and now I get bored or frustrated at simple things like long burns.

You can play with mods, or just take a long break from it. I haven't played KSP since .21 and only just got back to it.

[Nuke]

i can only speak of my experiences. like i said, while im pretty sure i have some form of asd (one therapist i had back in '99 had suggested aspergers), but its not one of the things ive been formally diagnosed with. so i dont know how treatment goes when that is official. the docs said i had things like depression, add, odd, bpd, asd, bipolar, mild schizophrenia, etc but i didnt really care about those things at the time. id have to go see a shrink every time they changed my meds, rest of the time played poker with the therapist. i was on disability. i suspected all this was a smoke screen so that my mom could live off the government. they were all quacks. at one point there were giving me a stimulant and a depressant simultaneously and i always wondered if the pills canceled each other out. after i turned 18 in 2000, disability was cut, all help ceased, med were cut and they've been that way ever since, and i dont miss em.

[MaverickSawyer]

i can only speak of my experiences. like i said, while im pretty sure i have some form of asd (one therapist i had back in '99 had suggested aspergers), but its not one of the things ive been formally diagnosed with. so i dont know how treatment goes when that is official.

Varies from person to person. I have a pair of meds I'm on, both mood stabilizers. It's enough for me, as it leaves me at a point where I can manage the rest of the aspects of being an Aspie myself.

[CaptainKipard]

It also varies between healthcare systems, but we can't talk about how different approaches favour different groups and organisations, because that's politics.

I'd like to hear from people how your ASD impacts you in a positive way, if it does at all.

Edited March 3, 2014 by Cpt. Kipard

[Spacewall]

Hi guys,

Aspies, i need your help please!

1. Aspies are game changers - they're likely going to be the saviors of the human race and our planet. I'm NT with an Aspie son. Enjoy the ride and surround yourself with people who can enjoy it with you.

2. Minecraft is little more than a gateway game to the likes of KSP. No slam against Minecraft but the apoapsis of the game is 12 year old.

3. I need some help here from you Aspies out there. My 13 year old son is addicted to Minecraft PVP but is beginning to get bored with it. This angers him because he needs to fill the void with something. It needs to be another game. This is where KSP comes in. All he does when I show him the game is want to time warp and crash. He's definitely ADD about it without the hyperfocusing, so he's not getting the finer challenges of the game. And I don't see him getting into stuff like creating perfect Delta-V's. So, here are my questions:

- How old were you when you transitioned from Minecraft to KPS. Am I starting too young at 13 (I think the answer is yes).

- How do you teach KSP so it's not to be overwhelming or boring.

- What activities do YOU like doing on KSP? Building an ISS? Science? Career? Flying the planes?

Thanks!

Edited March 8, 2015 by Spacewall

[lajoswinkler]

Having an opinion about a disorder? I don't understand the question. What should I say? "I'm sorry" ?

What annoys me is that some people are trying to force this meme that Mojang's bestseller is somehow indicative of it. That's one of the stupidest claims ever made by people who hate games where the goal is not to murder, conquer or destroy. It speaks volumes more about those people than anyone else so if anyone starts to connect KSP to autism, I'm gonna be very angry.

I don't have any form of autism (at least not detected) but I'd like to point out that anyone who has and is a minor should be cautious when presenting such private information online.

Aspies are game changers - they're likely going to be the saviors of the human race and our planet. I'm NT with an Aspie son. Enjoy the ride and surround yourself with people who can enjoy it with you.

Please don't feed us with your apologetic positive discrimination. It's immoral and against the rules.

Minecraft is little more than a gateway game to the likes of KSP. No slam against Minecraft but the apoapsis of the game is 12 year old.

No, it's not.

Edited March 8, 2015 by lajoswinkler

[EdFred]

I don't have it, although my cousin does. He's in his twenties now, but will never be able to live on his own. He is very smart about some things, but he has no concept of things like money. His social skills are pretty bad (everything is on his terms) and he has language issues. I think a lot of times the 'diagnoses' are a bit too liberal, because at least here, the more "special needs" children (he was a legitimate case) a school has, the more funding they get. They tried to diagnose my brother, even though he isn't. When I think autism, I think anger/tantrum issues, an inability to function on one's own, a difficult time dealing with change/when things don't go your way, etc... Basically someone that will not be able to live alone or without a caretaker. I see a lot of you that say "you'd never know I was" or "I'm high functioning" and while I have no idea how your brain actually works on things I often wonder when you are pretty much as 'normal' as the rest of society (whatever normal is) if you really are, or just got a liberal diagnosis. We all have things we are better at, or worse at, or are drawn to. I don't think it makes anyone better or worse as a person, it just makes them better or worse at those things.

[lajoswinkler]

EdFred, there are several degrees and subtypes of autism, although I do agree in certain cases diagnosis is wrong.

[Newt]

I have it. I'm homeschooled, but the stories of kids who get sent to the 'Special Needs' classes because of autism make me want to punch something. Hard.

I had fun when I (another aspergers forum goer is Newt) went to the 'Special Needs' class; I just helped everyone else with their homework. I was diagnosed relatively late compared to many people I know (late in grade 8), and I had learned to get on pretty well on my own. Generally no one suspected my being autistic, except for one friend who figured it out within a month or so. He was also an aspie.

I have generally not been harassed for it, partially because I have always gone to sort of weird little schools where most people do not really mind, and partially I fear that I was diagnosed (and so placed in special needs programs) so late that no one really knew to tease me before they already knew me to some degree, and therefore generally felt less inclined to do so.

In response to Kipard: It really is hard to tell, for me anyway, how exactly I have been impacted generally; I have always been autistic, and so the attributes that it may contribute are difficult to remove from background qualities of myself as a person, arguably they are the same, but that is for another discussion. However, I think that I have been greatly benefited by the sort of intense interest in particular topics that are usually applied to aspies. I am often able to tie my general interests (especially space travel/exploration) into most of my academics such that they all become interesting, although I may also have just a general interest in school as well. I am often amused by the fact that I, as a student with autism, contribute more in class discussion than do most of my peers, even in topics not related to my specific interests.

EdFred: That also I have seen. I certainly know people who I doubt would be able to get by without assistance, and it certainly is interesting to consider exactly what makes a person who would generally have had 'Apsergers' different from others with ASD. It seems like many of the issues you (and other) associate with Autism are generally best manifested in young children with Aspergers. As that person gets older they develop means to mask and get around the issues so as to function 'normally'. Of course, this happens to different degrees and through different means. When I talk to people who I do not know well, I often consciously make an effort to read and to convey facial expressions and intonation between myself and the other. When I do not do this I not infrequently cause confusion by speaking in monotone and appearing angry, while failing to quite get what the other person is intending to mean. This occasionally occurs even with my family when I am distracted. As far as I know, many people who have ASD/Aspergers do this sort of thing, most who are 'normal' do not.

By suggesting that generally I am able to function normally and circumvent my Autism related challenges, I by no means intend to suggest that all others with Autism should be able to do the same, and I doubt that is the intention of any of the other people here.

Welcome Spacewall! I must say that I myself had a lot of fun with Minecraft, when I was a a senior in highschool (I came to KSP in grade 10), and have quite strongly considered getting back into it more recently. I think that both KSP/Minecraft can cater to similar interests, and both are from my experience, open enough to allow one to engage at many different levels. As for getting your son into KSP, I think that it is entirely practical that they could get into it at thirteen (had I discovered it then I would have been intrigued certainly). But not if your son is not interested in it, and if you try to push something it probably will be more likely to get rejected. That is not an aspie thing as much as it is a thirteen year old thing, but I do not know your son. The best way to teach it would just be to let him at it, if he is interested, there are a plethora of sources for inspiration, here, from NASA, from reddit, the Wiki, ESA, Roskosmos et cetera. I have had a lot of fun sending small vehicles far away, and building stations. And Spaceplanes. And modding a little. If he is interested, he will find his own way to do it. If he is not, then maybe this is not the right game for him.

[Starwhip]

I believe those who mistreat others simply because they are autistic or have some other mental condition have a mental condition of their own.

I know many people with autism and/or ADHD/ADD; some of them are perfectly normal people, some of them are societal outcasts. And it is not only those with mental conditions who may be thrown out by society. There are always going to be those who despise individuals who stand out, who are different, who are better than them. The trick is learning to deal with them and move on.

If you can behave in society in such a way that you respect others and others can respect you, that is all that matters to me; whether you have a mental deficiency or not is merely superficial.

[GoSlash27]

Anyone else besides me notice that this thread is over a year old?

Best,

-Slashy