Let's see if an analogy will work

[TrogL]

I inherted an old TV from my parents. It had three idiosyncracies:

There was a problem with the design of the flyback transfomer that caused lines on the screen

There was a loose connection somewhere that would cause the entire screen to go blank, but if you pounded just the right spot on the side, it would come back. Every TV technician in the city had looked at it - it was unsolveable.

No way, no hell was it ever going to display colour. B&W TV's don't do that.


My brain is similar.

A section of my brain devoted to socialization is broken. It has always been broken. It always will be broken. You can't take it out and replace it - it's in the design.

Under stress, my brain cannot cope and it reacts with a meltdown. You can drug the hell out of me or send me to a dozen shrinks, put four people talking in my face for any length of time and bad things will happen - get over it. Have a cat handy just in case.

I am NOT going to remember who you are if I haven't seen you in the past week. I scare myself in the mirror. Yesterday I mistook my son for one of my daughters (he's got long hair). The section of my brain that does facial recognition has about as much hope remembering a blurry photo of your grandkid as my B&W TV does coping with Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Colour.

No amount of vitamins, hormones, iron lung therapy, chelation, fatty acids, magnetic fields, prayer, handwaving or screaming in my face is going to make my brain rewire itself. It can't. It doesn't know how. I don't own a copy of the genetic code to do it with.

[elleng]

1. Thanks, TrogL it should help a lot!

[Odin2005]

2. We're not defective, I'm just different.

Neurotypicals just think we are defective.

[SheilaT]

3. Very good.`

I like the part about the B&W TV won't show color, no matter what. An Aspie is never going to be like a neuro-typical, and if we can simply cope with each other, find ways to make sense of how the other behaves, that's good enough for me.

Speaking as the mother of a grown son with Asperger's.

[Kajsa]

4. That's an excellent analogy, Trogl.

My son had a major meltdown Saturday afternoon
that resurfaced yesterday, dealing with the same issue.

He will NOT be able to handle extreme stress, as when he
got a horrendous dental bill in the mail,AFTER the dental
office had TOLD HIM he paid his balance in full!!
That was the issue,here- apparently they didn't bother to fully
check what his insurance would and would not cover- telling us
that was our responsibility. How in the hell do we know everything
they cover? Do we work for the insurance company-do they spell
everything out?-NO!

I talked to the lady at the dental office yesterday and told her
that was one of the WORST things you could do to someone
with autism/Asperger's,i.e. when they think they have done
everything right,correctly, the way they are suppose to and
later have someone come and tell them the complete opposite-

MAJOR MELTDOWN TIME!

This will never change, and I don't blame him one bit for having
a meltdown- he can't help it, and I was upset with those clowns,too.

Damn it- is there ANYONE out there outside of our world who
UNDERSTANDS THIS!?!?

Rant off,

:rant:



Thanks for posting this, Trogl.

[Left coast liberal]

5. It actually does help me understand.

Thanks for taking the time to explain it.

And, even though you say your socialization is broken. It was mighty sociable of you to explain it so well.

:-)