Asperger Syndrome: Signs and Symptoms, Treatments, and Disabilities. Complex developmental disorder - how Asperger's syndrome manifests itself

Asperger's syndrome is considered a distinct form of autism. The disease is not characterized by mental retardation, but is dressed up in a clear lack of communication, disturbances in the perception of the surrounding world and adaptation to it, as well as in a significant limitation in interaction with society.

The main signs of Asperger's syndrome begin to appear in children after the age of five. An accurate diagnosis and a test confirming it contribute to timely psychological correction and improve the quality of life in adults.

Asperger Syndrome: What is it?

In 1944, the famous English psychologist, after whom Asperger's syndrome is named, called this disease autistic psychopathy. He observed children of different ages, from 6 to 18 years old. During the research, the doctor described the signs of behavior that distinguish these children from other peers.

Certain patterns were identified: children with the observed Asperger's syndrome have no interest in society, which, by the way, also seeks to oust these "hermits" from its ranks. Little outcasts live in their own inner world. In their mean speech and facial expressions, it is difficult to guess what they are thinking about and what exactly they are feeling. These characteristic symptoms became the basis for considering Asperger's syndrome as a special form of autism. Although to say exactly what Asperger's syndrome is - specific autistic behavior or a separate neurological disorder, scientists have not been able to.

The reason for such disagreement is an indisputable fact: observed children with Asperger's syndrome do not show a mental retardation. Later, psychologists developed a special test to determine the level of intelligence of young patients, which gave stunning results: more than ninety out of a hundred cases of Asperger's syndrome show high mental abilities, such as amazingly accurate memory and the ability to build undeniable logical chains. Strange as it may sound, but people with Asperger's syndrome have a great chance of becoming real geniuses, for example, the new Einstein or Newton.

But despite their unusual gift for logic, people with Asperger's syndrome lack creativity, imagination, a sense of humor, and the ability to understand other people's emotions. This creates serious communication problems and difficulties in interacting with society.

Causes

The exact mechanism that triggers Asperger's syndrome is still the subject of controversy among world scientists and psychologists. But most of them are inclined to the theory that the nature of the disease is the same as that of the pathology characteristic of autism. The main causes that cause neurological dysfunction called Asperger's syndrome can be as follows:

hereditary-genetic factor;
intoxication of the fetus while inside the uterus of the mother;
birth and traumatic brain injury.

Modern methods of computer diagnostics and a specially designed test help to identify the causes of Asperger's syndrome more accurately.

The classic triad of symptoms

In modern psychiatry, Asperger's syndrome is described through the prism of the so-called triad of symptoms:

communicative and social problems;
complexity of sensory and spatial perception of the world;
lack of emotions, creative thinking and imagination.

The very first symptoms can begin to appear at a fairly early age. For example, unexpected tears in young children cause a harsh light, sound, or strong smell. But such signs are still difficult to correlate with Asperger's syndrome. Many parents find it difficult to understand such a child's reactions to external stimuli. Although the increased sensitivity of children in itself indicates the presence of a neurological disorder.

With age, children may lose their violent reaction to loud sounds or too bright lights, but remain non-standard perception of the world around them. In some cases, this phenomenon manifests itself quite clearly. For example, a dish that seems normal to an ordinary person may stink unbearably to a person with Asperger's syndrome. Or objects that are sufficiently smooth and pleasant to the touch irritate people with AS, who feel that the surface is very "prickly and rough."

Children and adults with Asperger's Syndrome have a clumsy gait and physical awkwardness. They hit objects with their elbows, stumble on the jambs of doors, stumble on the steps. This is usually associated with absent-mindedness and self-absorption of patients. But often, when you need to focus, these people are able to control their body quite satisfactorily.

Signs of Asperger's Syndrome in Children

If young children notice nervousness due to external stimuli, specialists conduct a special test for photosensitivity and sound perception. The results of the modern method can reveal the first symptoms of Asperger's syndrome at a fairly early age.

Basically, in children under 6 years of age, the pathology does not manifest itself in any way. In contrast, Asperger's syndrome is characterized by the normal development of children in their early years. Parents are glad that the child starts talking early, easily memorizes new words and calmly plays with the same toys. The child also shows amazing abilities to count and memorize a large amount of foreign words.

The main problem of people with Asperger's syndrome is communication dysfunction. Symptoms of social disability begin to manifest themselves clearly in children from the age of 5-6 years. This usually coincides with the period when the child is sent to school or kindergarten, where he has to expand his social circle.

Vivid symptoms of Asperger's syndrome in children:

the child does not want to participate in active games, because due to clumsiness he does not manage to manipulate the ball and other objects;
often there is a strong passion for a specific calm hobby, for which the child can sit for hours and ask not to interrupt his favorite activity;
kids do not like funny cartoons, because they do not understand the jokes in them and are annoyed by too loud songs;
children react sharply to new strangers, may cry when a stranger comes into the house;
in a large company, the child often behaves unsocially, does not want to make contact and prefers to play alone.

A child with Asperger's Syndrome is strongly attached to the home and parents to whom he is accustomed from birth. And the new environment causes him the strongest anxiety and tangible discomfort.

People with Asperger's syndrome feel calm only when all personal items are in their places, and there are no surprises in the daily routine. If something changes in the usual course of events, children have tantrums. For example, if a mother picks up a child from school, but suddenly dad arrives, an attack of uncontrollable tears and screams may begin.

Signs of Asperger's Syndrome in Adults

If communication skills have not been corrected since childhood, adults with Asperger's syndrome experience acute social isolation:

a person cannot find common interests with other people;
cannot maintain friendly relations;
no personal life.

People with Asperger's Syndrome are unable to work as managers or leaders. They may know every detail about the enterprise, score high on IQ tests, but prefer to do simple, repetitive work. Such people do not care about career success at all.

Adults with Asperger's Syndrome have an almost complete lack of imagination:

they do not understand the hidden meaning of metaphors;
figurative expressions are taken literally;
do not distinguish between truth and falsehood;
devoid of a sense of humour.

Often, people with Asperger's Syndrome become social outcasts because of their perceived impoliteness:

they are used to saying what they think;
may make tactless remarks;
do not accept generally accepted rules of etiquette if they do not see the point in them;
can suddenly interrupt the conversation and leave, carried away by their own thoughts;
do not recognize the feelings of the interlocutor;
they don't care about the impression they make.

The passion for order in people with Asperger's syndrome only intensifies with age and often reaches the point of absurdity. For example, if a colleague accidentally drank from his mug, such a person can wash the dishes for half an hour or throw them out altogether.

In adults with Asperger's syndrome, there is an increased suspicion and permanent fear of illness. Being in the dentist's office, such a person will ask the doctor a hundred times whether all the instruments are disposable and safe for health. Because of this, it is quite difficult for others to contact people with Asperger's syndrome and seemingly petty "nerds".

Why is Asperger's syndrome dangerous?

Asperger's syndrome may not have a direct threat to a person's life and health. Many children who have undergone psychological correction in a timely manner adapt quite comfortably to the surrounding reality, study well and make progress in specific activities, for example, in science.

But there are frequent cases when Asperger's syndrome seriously interferes in adult life:

it is difficult for a person to find his place and purpose;
changes in life cause severe depression;
various phobias and obsessive states develop, which are difficult to psychologically correct.

The task of parents whose children have Asperger's syndrome is to instill in the child communication skills and adaptability to the variability of life, so that an adult, already deprived of his father's care, can fully coexist with the outside world, and not close tightly in his "inner shell".

Disease diagnosis

An experienced psychologist is able to make a diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome based on observation of the behavior of adults or children, as well as on the study of the patient's history of life. However, it is not always possible to determine the full depth of alienation from the world of a person with Asperger's syndrome only by external signs. Sometimes the symptoms of the disease are similar to the character traits of an ordinary introvert.

Various tests are used to diagnose Asperger's syndrome. They help to identify both the neurological disorders themselves and the degree of mental abnormalities.

The test designed to detect Asperger's syndrome in an adult, of course, differs from the test for children in the complexity of the questions. But all questionnaires are divided into groups according to their purpose:

tests that assess the level of intelligence;
tests to determine sensory sensitivity;
creativity test, etc.

There are specific tests specifically used to diagnose Asperger's syndrome:

1. ASSQ test. It is carried out in children from 6 years. Able to identify some of the autistic features of Asperger's syndrome in a child, based on his perception of various pictures and requests to describe the character of the depicted characters.

2. RAADS-R test. It reveals mental disorders in adults, such as social phobia, obsessive-compulsive anxiety, clinical depression, etc. During the survey, a person is asked to choose one of the options for his actions in specific life situations.

3. Questionnaire Aspie Quiz. The test consists of hundreds of questions that decipher the presence of autistic features of Asperger's syndrome in adults, as well as their possible causes.

4. Toronto scale. The test reveals the pathology characteristic of Asperger's syndrome, which is expressed by non-standard bodily sensations. In addition, the questionnaire shows a reduced ability to interpret symbols and metaphors.

5. TAS-20. The test is aimed at determining the deficit of emotions in adults and children, which is very characteristic of Asperger's syndrome. The subject is asked to describe the sensations that viewing certain pictures and photographs causes in him.

Modern testing methods with the help of questions and the interpretation of the displayed pictures help to identify the symptoms of Asperger's syndrome and even some of the causes of the disease, starting at an early age. Based on the results of the examination, observation and testing, the specialist doctor prescribes the treatment of Asperger's syndrome with psychotherapy sessions and, possibly, medication.

Treatment

People with Asperger's Syndrome need to consult a psychiatrist. The main treatment for Asperger's Syndrome is based on the adaptation of children and adults to society and the changing conditions of the surrounding world.

Sedative medications are prescribed to treat bouts of depression and nervous disorders in people with Asperger's syndrome. In some cases, it is not possible without a course of treatment with antidepressants.

It is impossible to completely change the perception of the world in people with Asperger's syndrome, but it is possible to correct their social behavior and develop skills to adapt to the changing ups and downs of life.

People with Asperger's Syndrome have extraordinary logic, they need to explain what is happening to them and how it can be changed, laying out the facts and arguments on the shelves. Then the person affected by Asperger's syndrome will tend to overcome their problems on their own.

Asperger's Syndrome is a congenital condition that accompanies a person throughout his life. The opinion is actively expressed that this is not a disease, but a feature of the functioning of the brain. Over time, the manifestations of Asperger's syndrome change, some of its symptoms are smoothed out, while others become more pronounced. Unfortunately, most studies are conducted with a limited number of patients and cover a short period of time. Long-term programs could help to understand which adaptation programs are more effective. Alas, now doctors get most of the information about the course of Asperger's syndrome from the stories of aspies themselves. However, some regularities were identified.

Most studies confirm that people with Asperger's Syndrome who had higher abilities in childhood to plan and then complete complex tasks later on adapted to the social environment more easily and understood others better. The situation is similar for children with whom parents or psychologists dealt with from an early age. All studies confirm that the majority of patients with Asperger's syndrome experience significant improvement in early school and adolescence, which in many is followed by regression after graduation. The general conclusion from most of these studies is that Asperger's syndrome is less severe in adults than in childhood and adolescence.

Symptoms

The manifestations of Asperger's Syndrome change somewhat over time. If in children the main manifestations were problems with learning and socialization, then in adults this area of symptoms softens and concomitant conditions come to the fore. Asperger's syndrome in adults is manifested by individual perception of reality, insufficient expression of emotions and their low intensity, high self-sufficiency, intolerance to uncertainty.

Most or all adults with Asperger's syndrome have the following comorbidities:

Changes in the emotional and motivational sphere;
Violations of the motor and sensitive spheres;
Violations of the cognitive sphere in the area responsible for social skills remain relevant;
There are stereotypes, obsessions;
All patients have features of behavior and thinking inherent in Asperger's syndrome.

In addition, Asperger's syndrome in adults is manifested by a number of conditions that occur with less frequency:

, which are characteristic of half of the patients;
Affective disturbances, which include both depressive changes and manic, and their combinations, occurring in total in two-thirds or more of patients;
Somatoform and hypochondriacal disorders are characteristic of a third of patients;
meet also at a third of patients;
Varies by adulthood develop in a fifth of people with Asperger's syndrome;
(beliefs in the presence of changes in individual parts of the body, their ugliness or disease) develops in almost half of the patients;
About a third of patients complain about depersonalization-derealization;
Approximately one sixth of patients develop transient psychotic disorders.

Dynamics of manifestations of Asperger's syndrome

The change in the symptoms of Asperger's syndrome over time occurs according to the periods of growing up of the individual. Compared to healthy children, children and adolescents with Asperger's syndrome have delayed and distorted social skills. By adolescence, signs of concomitant mental disorders appear. In kindergarten and the first grades of school, Asperger's syndrome is expressed to the maximum. The puberty period is characterized by the emergence of the first persistent social contacts. In parallel, various affective and obsessive disorders appear, up to psychotic symptoms. Adolescence is characterized by a decrease in autistic symptoms. Asperger's syndrome in adults is manifested to a greater extent by concomitant psychopathological symptoms with minimal manifestations. According to the patients themselves, these manifestations do not disappear, and patients learn to live with them in such a way that autism minimally affects everyday communication.

Variants of the course of Asperger's syndrome in adults

To consider the symptoms and their dynamics in adults with Asperger's syndrome, it is convenient to divide them into several types of course:

Treatment and prognosis

Important factors for the success of treatment are a warm family climate, comprehensive support for the patient, active participation of relatives in the socialization of patients, trust in the doctor. The early development of communication skills, education and training of patients is important. Physiotherapy is prescribed to compensate for motor underdevelopment.

Symptomatic treatment of Asperger's Syndrome

An autism spectrum disorder characterized by specific difficulties in social interaction. Children with Asperger's syndrome experience problems with non-verbal communication, making and maintaining friendships; prone to the same type of behavior and actions; have inhibited motor skills, stereotyped speech, narrowly focused and, at the same time, deep interests. The diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome is established on the basis of psychiatric, clinical, neurological examination data. Children with Asperger's syndrome need to develop social interaction skills, psychological and pedagogical support, medical correction of the main symptoms.

Likely risk factors for the development of Asperger's syndrome are called genetic predisposition, male sex, exposure to toxic substances on the developing fetus in the first months of pregnancy, intrauterine and postnatal viral infections (rubella, toxoplasmosis, cytomegaly, herpes, etc.).

Characteristics of Asperger's Syndrome

Social difficulties in children with Asperger's syndrome

Asperger's syndrome is a complex general (pervasive) disorder that affects all aspects of a child's personality. The structure of the disorder includes difficulties in socialization, narrowly focused but intense interests; features of speech profile and behavior. Unlike classical autism, children with Asperger's syndrome have an average (sometimes above average) intelligence and a certain lexicographic base.

Usually, the characteristic signs of Asperger's syndrome become noticeable by the age of 2-3 years and can vary from moderate to severe. In infancy, Asperger's syndrome can be manifested by increased calmness of the child or, on the contrary, irritability, mobility, sleep disturbance (difficulty falling asleep, frequent awakenings, sensitive sleep, etc.), selectivity in nutrition. Communication disorders specific to Asperger's syndrome appear early. Children attending kindergarten hardly part with their parents, do not adapt well to new conditions, do not play with other children, do not enter into friendly relations, preferring to stay apart.

Adjustment difficulties make the child vulnerable to infections, so children with Asperger's syndrome are often ill. In turn, this further limits the social interaction of children with peers, and by school age, the signs of Asperger's syndrome become pronounced.

Disorder of social behavior in children with Asperger's syndrome is manifested in insensitivity to the emotions and feelings of other people, expressed by facial expressions, gestures, shades of speech; inability to express one's own emotional state. Therefore, children with Asperger's syndrome often appear self-centered, callous, emotionally cold, tactless, unpredictable in their behavior. Many of them do not tolerate the touch of other people, practically do not look into the eyes of the interlocutor, or look with an unusual fixed gaze (as if at an inanimate object).

The greatest difficulty a child with Asperger's syndrome experiences when communicating with their peers, preferring the company of adults or young children. During interaction with other children (joint games, problem solving), a child with Asperger's syndrome tries to impose his own rules on others, does not compromise, cannot cooperate, does not accept other people's ideas. In turn, the children's collective also begins to reject such a child, which leads to even greater social isolation of children with Asperger's syndrome. Teenagers have a hard time enduring their loneliness, they may experience depression, suicidal tendencies, drug and alcohol addiction.

Features of intelligence and verbal communication in children with Asperger's syndrome

The intelligence quotient in children with Asperger's syndrome may be within the age range or even exceed it. However, when teaching children, an insufficient level of development of abstract thinking and the ability to comprehend is revealed, as well as the lack of the skill of independent problem solving. With a phenomenal memory and encyclopedic knowledge, children sometimes cannot adequately apply their knowledge in the right situations. However, Aspergers often excel in areas they are passionate about: usually history, philosophy, geography, mathematics, and programming.

The range of interests of a child with Asperger's syndrome is limited, but they give themselves passionately and fanatically to their hobbies. At the same time, they overly focus on details, concentrate on trifles, “go in cycles” in their hobby, constantly stay in the world of their thoughts and fantasies.

In children with Asperger's syndrome, there is no tempo delay in the development of speech, and by the age of 5-6, their speech development is significantly ahead of their peers. The speech of a child with Asperger's Syndrome is grammatically correct, but is characterized by a slow or accelerated pace, monotony and unnatural timbre of the voice. Excessive academic and bookish style of speech, the presence of speech patterns contribute to the fact that the child is often called the "little professor".

Children with Asperger's Syndrome can talk for a very long time and in detail about a subject of interest to them, without monitoring the reaction of the interlocutor. Often they are not able to be the first to start a conversation and maintain a conversation that goes beyond their area of interest. That is, despite potentially high speech skills, children are not able to use language as a means of communication. Semantic dyslexia, rote reading without reading comprehension, is common in children with Asperger's Syndrome. At the same time, children may have an increased ability to express their thoughts in writing.

Features of the sensory and motor sphere of children with Asperger's syndrome

Children with Asperger's syndrome are characterized by a disorder of sensory sensitivity, which manifests itself in increased susceptibility to various visual, sound, tactile stimuli (bright light, the sound of dripping water, street noise, touching the body, head, etc.). From childhood, Aspergers are distinguished by excessive pedantry and stereotyped behavior. Children follow routine rituals from day to day, and any change in conditions or procedures leads them to confusion, causes anxiety and anxiety. Very often, children with Asperger's syndrome have well-defined gastronomic preferences and categorically reject any new dishes.

A child with Asperger's syndrome may have unusual obsessive fears (fear of rain, wind, etc.) that are different from the fears of children their age. At the same time, in dangerous situations, they may lack the instinct of self-preservation and the necessary caution.

As a rule, a child with Asperger's syndrome has impaired motor skills and coordination of movements. They take longer than their peers to learn how to fasten buttons and tie shoelaces; at school they have uneven, sloppy handwriting, which is why they receive constant comments. Asperger children may have stereotypical compulsive movements, clumsiness, a "special" child at various stages of his life. Despite the fact that children with Asperger's syndrome can attend a general education school, they need individualized learning conditions (organization of a stable environment, creating motivation conducive to academic success, accompanying a tutor, etc.).

The developmental disability is not completely overcome, so a child with Asperger's syndrome grows into an adult with the same problems. In adulthood, a third of patients with Asperger's syndrome are able to live independently, create a family, and work at a regular job. In 5% of individuals, the problems of social adaptation are fully compensated and can only be detected with the help of neuropsychological testing. Particularly successful are people who have found themselves in areas of interest, where they show a high level of competence.

April 2 is World Autism Awareness Day. For Russia, it is especially important: in our country, little is known about various autism spectrum disorders, except, in fact, classical autism, also known as Kanner's autism. However, this is only one of the many manifestations of this disorder.

Often the word "autistic" is associated with the image of a child, more often a boy, who does not speak and spends all his time looking at one point and swaying from side to side. In reality, many people, regardless of age or gender, have autism spectrum disorders. They go to work, have families and lead quite an active social life. According to various estimates, up to two out of a hundred people have autism in one form or another.

These people are absolutely invisible in Russia - both for those around them and for doctors. They are excluded from the health care system, psychological assistance and psychiatry. From the point of view of official Russian medicine, they do not exist. Asperger's syndrome is one of the most common diagnoses of ASD, but in Russia it is not given to adults, only to children. The situation is absurd, since Asperger's syndrome is a congenital mental disorder that cannot be cured.

The root of the problem lies in the fact that it used to be believed that by the age of 18, mild forms of autism either disappear or flow into severe ones. Although this has long been refuted by doctors and scientists abroad. In Russia, however, no measures have been taken to change medical practice in this area: upon reaching the age of majority, a person is either removed from the diagnosis, or is recorded as a classic autist (in case of very poor social adaptation), or some conditionally similar diagnosis is chosen, for example, schizoid personality disorder to put a person on record and provide him with at least some help. Under such a system, the majority prefers not to have an official diagnosis at all and is left alone with their problems. This is a vicious circle, as a result of which the condition of a person left without help often worsens, and only he himself can pull himself out of it.

A woman living with Asperger's spoke to The Village about how such people learn to live in society, build a career, start a family, and what difficulties they face.

About the syndrome itself and its main symptoms

Asperger's Syndrome is one form of autism, the mildest, so to speak. This disorder affects a person's behavior, his perception of the world and the process of forming relationships with others. People with Asperger's syndrome experience difficulties in three areas: communication, interaction, and social imagination. Simply put, we do not understand social signs well, the decoding of which is a natural process for others: it is difficult for us to read the tone of voice, the facial expression of the interlocutor, to take hints. In addition, we experience difficulties in conveying our own emotions to the interlocutor non-verbally, we show emotions in a way that is not always clear to others, and we have reduced abilities for empathy. Symptoms can vary from person to person and vary in severity.

Carriers of Asperger's syndrome are people with intact intelligence, moreover, often their intellectual development is above average, especially in childhood. At the same time, however, there are often difficulties in learning: this is due to the inability to understand and accept the norms of behavior at school. In addition, autism is often accompanied by attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, dyslexia, and so on.

Personally, I have never been officially diagnosed with additional disorders, but I definitely have prosopagnosia - facial blindness. I hardly remember faces, I have difficulty recognizing even those people whom I see often. Once I did not recognize my own dad, who caught up with me on the way from the subway. I also have a hard time recognizing myself in photographs. Basically, I am guided by additional signs: clothes, hairstyle, specific gestures, voice. Here, the attention to detail characteristic of people with autism, a certain obsession with trifles, helps a lot. I automatically memorize the wardrobe of my colleagues, their hairstyles, their demeanor. Can you recognize a friend from the other side of the street without clearly seeing his face? So it is here: facial blindness is forgotten and compensated by other skills when you live with it all the time.

In the past, I also had signs of OCD - I calculated all my actions, repeated all the movements a certain number of times, counted the steps, stopping after a certain number. This is associated with increased levels of anxiety. The symptoms almost disappeared as I learned to live with my autism. But it was a long process.

Asperger's syndrome is a hidden dysfunction, that is, it is impossible to understand by the appearance of a person that he has autism. There is a good chance that aspies, as we usually call ourselves, are among your acquaintances. I do not hide my diagnosis from relatives and colleagues, and I am sometimes asked why Asperger's syndrome, despite its seeming harmlessness, is classified as autism. The thing is, me and other people with AS will never become like neurotypicals - that's what we call those who are not on the spectrum. That is, we will not be able to look at the world through your eyes - even on the best and calmest days. The usual perception of the world is not available to us. But we can reach the state characteristic of “classic autists”: due to stress and emotional overload, tantrums happen to us with a complete disconnection from reality, in the worst periods we can stop talking for a long time and sit in one place for hours, swaying from side to side looking at one point.

The world of a person with autism, even a highly functional one, is a hundred times louder than the world of an ordinary person, and we are talking not only and not so much about the auditory side. Imagine that you have increased the volume in the speakers to the maximum and the bass is buzzing right into your ear, while you are not at the Rabitsa rave at all, but are trying to brush your teeth and make tea before work. That's how it feels when you're on the autism spectrum. The brain needs more effort to process incoming information: sounds, smells, visual data, tactile sensations, even the simple ones - from clothes, movement and air temperature. In the process, as a rule, you need to talk with someone, interact and even resolve conflict situations. Unless, of course, you have chosen the path of complete solitude and withdrawal from the world.

Work, stress and superpowers

Now I'm 27, I have a good job, a family and a few friends that I try to keep in touch with to the best of my ability. By this point in my life, I don't stand out much, I blend in well with the crowd, and cause almost no problems for those around me. This, in general, is the essence of the success of an autistic person - to become like everyone else, to mimic and not to shine.

The life of a person with autism is associated with a high level of stress and emotional overload. Stress starts in the morning, and by the evening its level usually only increases and anxiety accumulates. Here is an example of my typical morning. It all depends on what mood and under what conditions you wake up - either you will have a more or less calm start to the day with the opportunity to swing and gain strength to leave the house, or everything will go according to a tough scenario right from bed.

I have a child, which means there is almost no chance of waking up in a calm environment. He'll get up when he gets up, and by that point I'm unlikely to have time to sleep. If I don't get enough sleep, the world around becomes louder once again in twenty. The son also cannot always wake up in a good mood, so, in addition to trying to force himself to act, you also have to persuade him. At the same time, the level of anxiety and stress naturally increases. On the only more or less sensible Russian site for people with Asperger's syndrome, I somehow stumbled upon a material translated from English about the scale of stress and sensory overload in autism. Feelings at each stage are classified starting with relative calm, the last stage is called meltdown. This is a sensory and emotional overload that makes you explode, and the result from the outside looks as ugly as possible, and sometimes just scary.

Before leaving the house, I need to imagine which way I will go, what sensations I will experience in the process, what can happen. I run multiple scenarios in my head that should prepare me for the fact that the world outside the apartment is much louder and much more unpredictable. At the same time, I am not a recluse - I like to walk, I like interesting events, sunny days and walks in parks. But everything, even pleasure, is given to me through the challenge, and I always have to evaluate whether the impressions received will be worth the effort that will have to be spent to achieve them, and the answer is not always obvious.

I try to walk the same routes, especially if I'm in a hurry, because it's easier and allows me to save the energy that I will spend on the perception of a new environment for some more important tasks. Compliance with this principle and the correct distribution of my resources in due time allowed me to begin a full-fledged adaptation to society, made it possible to study and work, as well as to have a personal life.

I ride the subway and usually read something related to work in the process, plus there is always music in my ears. It replaces unnecessary sounds and allows you to pay less attention to what is happening around. The heat, the crowd, talking people, unnecessary looks - all this takes strength, provokes panic, and I don’t need it at all. Of course, it’s impossible to completely isolate yourself - the situation catches up sooner or later, and when I was initially not in the best condition, I sometimes have to get out of the car to stand in the corner of the station and recover a little. I was lucky that the work is about 15 minutes walk from the nearest metro station. This makes it possible to relieve the stress received in transport and take a walk to the music. Music is truly a panacea for many types of overload and a way to take it down when needed.

Meltdown- a state in which a person with autism enters when he can no longer bear the volume of the world around him

A person with high functioning autism can work, and even work in a team. In fact it is easier for us to succeed at work than to build a happy family life

The secret is very simple - do what you love. That is, everyone, of course, should choose a job they like, but in the case of autism, this is really the cornerstone. People with Asperger's syndrome tend to have special interests - these are topics and activities that absorb us and to which we are ready to give all our time. Often these interests are related to systematization and cataloging. Everything that can be entered into a certain scheme is interesting, we are fascinated by the internal logic of processes. That is why there are so many highly qualified specialists in the IT industry among people with autism. An autistic programmer or a hacker who rarely leaves the house is not a stereotype from the series, but a quite common character. There are also quite a few mathematicians, physicists, philologists and lawyers among people with AS. Special interests give odds in narrow specialties - here we can turn around the best. Agree, it is not so easy to find an employee who, out of pure love for the cause, will sit at night behind a pile of books, maniacally looking for more and more new facts about the problem of interest to him.

My first passion was history, then it was replaced by languages. In addition to Russian and Ukrainian, I am fluent in French and English, and I can also maintain a conversation in Spanish, Portuguese and Hindi to varying degrees. I joined the Hindi group a month and a half after the start of the course, and the teacher treated me with skepticism - she doubted that I could catch up with the others, who by that time had mastered the entire alphabet, pronunciation and were learning to read. Two weeks later, I went far ahead - because I spent the night with textbooks, diagrams, grammar references. It was an incredible pleasure for me to look at a page full of strange squiggles and understand that I can read it all and, moreover, understand what is written there. I went to Hindi until the end of my studies at the university, after a couple of years I was the only person from that first group.

We can talk about our special interests for hours, and it is difficult for us to understand that the interlocutor, in general, did not care about such details and listens just out of politeness.

My second special interest is closely related to the first - texts in general and news in particular. Actually, I work in this area. I am ready to write news and read news at night, in the early morning, instead of lunch, in parallel with lunch, from a phone, tablet, slow computer - whatever. The only thing that limits me is having a child. At some point, I realized that I was starting to work to the detriment of him, and now I try to allocate resources more reasonably. Smart management of one's own life is the only thing that really gives a person with high-functioning autism a chance to fit into this world.

Childhood, diagnosis, and desire for communication

As a child, my mother took me to a psychologist, but I don’t remember how these trips ended. Kindergarten became a real hell for me, memories of this still bring me to tears. I sat for hours in one place, looking out the window, the touch of strangers caused panic and horror, misunderstanding of the rules and the need to obey them annoyed me. I did not understand the games of other children, what they laugh at, why they behave in one way or another.

I take jokes literally even now; I often laugh just for the company; I really don't like it when people try to play a joke on me. As a child, I read books with anecdotes avidly and told them to relatives and guests. I tried to remember what makes people laugh, trying to fit into the accepted scheme of communication.

It was in kindergarten that I first got the feeling that I was an alien who was abandoned on Earth. It feels like you understand the language, but you don’t know it well enough to understand what is happening, and the culture and customs of the new planet are completely unfamiliar to you. This feeling stayed with me for the rest of my life. Recently, I even got myself such a tattoo with a lonely little man on the planet. However, the word "lonely" is not entirely appropriate, in fact, I almost never felt lonely. The world inside has always been and remains more interesting than the world outside, I feel comfortable in it.

As a child, I told my mother that I didn’t want to grow up, because I was afraid of losing my special vision of the world, of not noticing beautiful details: a reflection on flowers, quiet spring smells. I was afraid that I would see the world more gray and flat, not noticing the little things. In a sense, I remained a child in the body of an adult and retained a child's perception.

Despite the obvious difficulties that I encountered in kindergarten and school, my autism remained undiagnosed until the very university. I studied in the evening, at the same time I went to additional classes in languages and worked. There were many new people around, the environment was unfamiliar and unexplored, and the situation began to deteriorate dramatically. If earlier I could sit silently on the sidelines or quietly leave a difficult situation, then adult life did not give such concessions. Meltdowns began to happen more and more often.

The average age at which a child is diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome is 6 years and 2 months

Meltdown completely loses control over yourself, the only desire and goal is to stop what is happening at the moment and causes this condition.

At such moments, a person becomes aggressive, says some things that he doesn’t really think, just to drive away people who provoke stress. We try our best to leave the place where we feel bad in order to get to the point where we can retire and calm down.

At the same time, there are outbursts of physical aggression towards people who, for example, are trying to keep you. However, more often we cause physical harm to ourselves, trying at least through these sensations to turn ourselves off from reality. At this point, the perception of pain is reduced and you can seriously injure yourself. Often a meltdown person talks to himself, uses self-stimulating behavior, or stimming. This is the well-known rocking from side to side, for example, although it can have many forms. I am kinesthetic, that is, I perceive the world primarily by touch, so many of my stimming habits are more related to this area. For example, even in a calm state, I make the same certain movements with my fingers.

I had tantrums regularly when I was a teenager, but then it was associated with problems of adolescence and this happened most often at home. When the tantrums were repeated several times in public, for the first time I thought that perhaps it was not in my character and that something was really wrong with me. It was a very terrible thought, which I tried to drive away from myself in every possible way. I even searched the Internet for signs of schizophrenia and calmed down a little when I realized that I definitely didn’t have it.

There is a stereotype that all people with autism are introverts, but this is a myth. Personally, I need to periodically get out somewhere, I need interaction with people. Another question is that this is not available to me in all forms.

While studying at the university, I had a company with which I often spent time. Usually it was about apartments or bars - clubs and concerts are almost a taboo topic for me. Then I developed a schema that allowed me to go to parties, get my dose of communication, but more or less avoid the discomfort associated with it.

First, at almost all meetings I used alcohol. For me, when I'm drunk, everything is muffled, rolled back a step down on my personal stress scale. I know it sounds so-so, but this is still my bridge in communicating with people, and I continue to use this method at crowded events. This, of course, is not about getting drunk to an insane state, but about a mild degree of intoxication. Secondly, even during communication, I learned to organize periods of loneliness - go to the bathroom for 15 minutes, go out for a walk for half an hour - usually I went to an empty playground to ride on a swing, this is my favorite form of stimming. Parties often dragged on into the night, and the person I was dating at the time was worried that I was walking alone through the streets in the dark. We had an agreement that he could go out with me and walk somewhere at a distance to see me, but not interfere.

All these things happened in front of my friends, who also paid attention to the fact that I literally understand jokes, react sharply to some things, begin to behave very awkwardly under stress, and do not perceive any generally accepted norms. At some point, friends began to ask questions. They offered me help: go with me to the doctor, figure it out together.

At some point, I accepted the fact that something was wrong and Googled my symptoms for the first time, and they all boiled down to Asperger's. From that moment on, I began to read all the articles on the topic, the stories of people with AS, to watch films with such heroes. The puzzle was folded, everything fell into place. It was absolutely incomprehensible what to do with this knowledge, but it made him surprisingly calm. It was possible to at least relax a little and not try so desperately to seem normal. Although, this, of course, is also a trap. Making a diagnosis should not be a reason to refuse to work on yourself. I passed every official self-diagnosis test available - all were average or below average for an adult with high functioning autism. For example, on that notorious empathy test that was recently heavily shared on Facebook, I have a score of 13 versus an average of 20 for people with AS.

At the stage of self-diagnosis, I stopped for a while, doing what I tried to build my life more efficiently with new knowledge. Then I worked in a place with a fairly strict corporate culture. It was very difficult for me to deal with a huge number of social conventions and all sorts of mandatory meetings to maintain team spirit. A couple of months after I got a job, I regularly cried in the toilet, waiting for the moment when I could return to my colleagues, so as not to throw tantrums right in front of them. At some point, I realized that I could not cope with all the difficulties myself, and decided to turn to a specialist. There was no point in going to a state clinic, and a private one was expensive, but I decided that the issue of money was the least important, and went to a paid psychiatrist. For several meetings, we again went through all the tests together, discussed my difficulties, perception of the world, and he confirmed my diagnosis.

Unfortunately, he was unable to help me in solving problems, and several specialists after him could not either. Everyone agreed that I had gotten pretty good at organizing my space and activities so that I was more comfortable, so the number of meltdowns was reduced to a few per year - instead of several times a week, as happened during the worst periods of life. For some deeper change in the situation, medicines are already needed. They cannot cure autism, but they can greatly simplify the life of a person with such a diagnosis. However, I have not decided on any serious drugs so far - I'm afraid of losing myself behind them.

How people with autism build relationships and start families

According to recent data, autism spectrum disorder is 1 child of school age out of 68

The question of recovery is generally very complex. I don't want to be treated. If you read the forums of people with autism spectrum disorders, you will understand that most of them do not want either. We do not consider ourselves sick. It is very difficult to understand where autism ends and you begin. Which of my actions is due to my character, and which - to the diagnosis. There are some obvious things, but otherwise the line is very thin. I wouldn't be myself without SA. It is as much a part of me as some character traits or beliefs. If you take away my diagnosis, I don’t know what exactly will remain, except for it. If I were given a magic pill for autism today, I would not take it. I know myself now: I have my own life, with incomprehensible surrounding difficulties, but also with my own joys that are inaccessible to others. I don't know what I will be without SA and what kind of life I will have. Assessing the risks, I just would not want to check.

My life, of course, changed a lot with the advent of the child. The very state of pregnancy and belonging to a small creature that depends entirely on you, probably, is perceived so hard, but this state literally killed me. My logic defied what was happening with my body, hormonal surges, mood swings, which I had already been quite serious without it. In general, something incredible and incomprehensible fell on me, and it was very hard to experience, despite the fact that the pregnancy was planned. As I now understand, I did not take enough time to think before making this very important decision. During pregnancy and in the first year of a child's life, there were periods when, due to stress, I completely retreated into myself and stopped talking. In some situations, I generally lose the ability to verbalize my thoughts, literally on a physical level. However, I do not regret anything and I think that, other things being equal, I am coping very well with the role of a mother, although sometimes it seems to me that there is no strength left at all.

As far as relationships in general, a person with AS can certainly have a relationship and a family if they need it. I will not speak for everyone, but living alone is still somewhat easier. The exception is when you meet a person who is ready to delve into your features and help you navigate this world.

I am always grateful for help when they tell me what to do in this or that social situation, how to react to certain events, what is customary to say and do in various conflict moments. Questions can be very basic - at the age of 20, a detailed story about how you should always say hello to acquaintances, ask how you are, even if you are not interested, was very useful to me. I've learned to answer when business is asked out of courtesy. For me it was strange, suspicious and not obvious. As well as many other small and big things that people just don't think about.

Living with someone with an autism spectrum disorder can be challenging, but we tend to be less preoccupied with conventions and tend to have a healthy indifference to life's difficulties. But it is very important to study the characteristics of a person well, talk to him about potentially problematic points and not have romanticized ideas about what awaits you. Yes, it may be very cool for you together, but it will also be difficult, no matter how much you love each other. Unfortunately, I didn't have much luck. Almost all of my close people chose to fence themselves off and pretend that nothing was happening. I think most members of my family will recognize this text from this text. a about people like me, more than during the entire period of life with me.

There is a stereotype that people with autism are often asexual, but I am not familiar with any scientific statistics about this. I think this is nothing more than a prejudice. Among my acquaintances from the spectrum there are people of different orientations and different marital status. Some of them are in long-term relationships with the same partner - in the end, it's easier purely functional. Personally, I don’t care if the person in front of me is a man or a woman, but I also haven’t seen any information that bisexuality is common among people with autism. Perhaps people with AS are just less likely to hide their preferences, simply because we don't understand what it's for and who cares. Strange social laws, damn them.

In the issue of relations there is another difficult moment - a difficult one for us. People with autism are quite naive compared to the average adult. We very often do not understand that we can be deceived, we believe everything in a word. In addition, we do not always understand what a socially acceptable norm is, and it is not difficult for us to inspire that everything is as it should be, even if the situation is somehow embarrassing. People on the autism spectrum are often victims of abusive relationships and are at risk of violence and other dangers. Even as adults, we can rarely understand that someone is capable of consciously wanting to harm another person or somehow manipulate them. This is especially true for girls - both I and a couple of my acquaintances with AS found themselves in very unpleasant situations in which, in the absence of a disorder, we would hardly have got into.

Gender stereotypes and other myths about people with autism

It is generally accepted that there are fewer girls and women on the spectrum than men. This is not entirely true. Girls are much less likely to be diagnosed. As children, girls have better mimicry abilities and are more successful in imitating conventional social actions. In addition, there is evidence that girls have more developed imagination, they are more often interested in role-playing games and thus are more easily included in the team of other children, from whom they can learn patterns of behavior and skills, and then reproduce them. Their speech more fully adapts to the speech of ordinary people - the conversation of a man with autism, and especially a boy, will often be saturated with complex phrases and overloaded with heavy constructions and specific terms beyond their age. Well, do not forget about social stereotypes: a quiet girl sitting alone in a corner in a kindergarten all day long will not raise questions - she will be considered modest, and a boy who does not communicate with anyone and makes imaginary friends is more likely to be considered strange. It is much more likely that he will be taken at least to a psychologist in order to begin the diagnosis.

I try to talk about myself in such a way that it is not so much a monologue about me, but about people with high-functioning autism in general, about whom very little is said in our country. But someone quite aptly said, "If you know one person with autism, then you know one person with autism." We are all different, which is why it is ridiculous to draw analogies with films and expect from us such behavior as the characters shown there. Seriously, a friend once expected me to count the toothpicks scattered across the floor in two seconds, like in Rain Man. And he was very surprised when he learned that I did not know how.

There are children and adults among us, some of us live in society, some have chosen seclusion, some have relationships, some prefer the company of themselves. We are united by a number of common characteristics that manifest themselves in different ways for everyone: some of us cry from the touch of scratchy woolen clothes, some cannot stand certain types of food, some always travel only in the fifth car, some cannot stand bright light, and someone over the years buys only one color of toothbrushes, because it’s calmer. But this is not the main thing that distinguishes us. We are just different people - with different characters, different principles and views. Each of us, making his way through his own difficulties, builds his own life, each of us is a separate person. We would like to be seen and seen in us as very different and special people in our own way, and not stereotypical heroes from films and books. And, of course, we want to be noticed first of all by those who can really help us, that is, public and state systems. So that children with mild forms of autism can go to a school where their diagnosis would be taken calmly, and not made the cause of harassment and ridicule, as is almost always the case. So that we have the opportunity to develop and adapt with the help of competent specialists, and not go all the way alone. Therefore, we must stop being invisible.

Developmental disorders of the individual, difficulties in social interaction, behavioral disorders are considered autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Relate to ASD autism and Asperger's syndrome in children. The latter disorder is named after the Austrian psychiatrist and pediatrician G. Asperger, who first described the condition. The doctor noticed that his little patients have limited interests, poor speech, do not know how to establish social contacts, and suffer from clumsiness.

Classic early childhood autism occurs in about 5-10 children out of 10,000 children, more often in boys than in girls. Asperger's Syndrome is a more common developmental disorder, but the affected child is sometimes misdiagnosed or not diagnosed with ASD. Official medical sources cite the following data on the frequency of Asperger's syndrome among schoolchildren: 30–70 cases per 10,000 healthy children.

Modern research on this condition began in 1981, and by 1990 standard diagnostic techniques had been developed. Discussions in the scientific and medical community resumed, and in 2013 psychiatrists proposed eliminating the controversial diagnosis, replacing it with an autism spectrum disorder entry with an assessment of the severity of specific cases.

Accurate the cause of the development of Asperger's syndrome is still not known, although research results indicate its genetic nature, concomitant neurological and biochemical disorders.

The study of the structure of DNA in children with developmental disorders did not reveal a mutation. Modern brain research also does not allow us to recognize pathological changes that would provoke a picture characteristic of this condition. Hans Asperger once noted the similarity of symptoms in children and fathers of families. The experts concluded that ASD is the result of the interaction of a complex of factors.

The probable causes of the development of Asperger's syndrome are heredity and the impact of an unfavorable environment on a woman during pregnancy (teratogenic effect). The greatest vulnerability of the fetus to toxins is noted in the first three months after the onset of pregnancy. The situation is aggravated by stress, unfavorable situation in the family. Parents among the hypotheses about the origin of Asperger's syndrome highlight the negative effect of vaccination of children, which has not been confirmed in scientific circles.

Symptoms and course of Asperger's syndrome

Many children with this diagnosis in adult life get a job and adapt in society. However, it is early diagnosis and therapy that can alleviate the condition of a child with an autism spectrum disorder. Child psychologists specialize in diagnosing ASD. The doctor studies social behavior, intelligence, physical data, using a test for Asperger's syndrome in children, assesses communication skills, the use of gestures and facial expressions, and the level of emotionality. Important guidelines are the medical reports of other specialists, the results of the study of the family.

The main symptoms of Asperger's syndrome in children are:

the desire to perform repetitive actions (shaking, rotation of the limbs);
lack of facial expression or limited use of facial expressions and gestures;
inability to make and maintain eye contact;
stereotyped repetition of behavior patterns;
playing the same sounds;
problems with the imagination;
communication difficulties.

Usually, the first symptoms in children become more noticeable in the third year of life, persist until puberty and weaken in adulthood.

People with Asperger's Syndrome often experience mood and behavioral fluctuations caused by disruption of the usual daily routine, changes in the environment. They resemble autists in their increased interest in a particular area of knowledge or activity, facial expressions, but differ from patients suffering from schizophrenia, a schizoid disorder.

Variety of manifestations of Asperger's syndrome

The behavior of people who have been diagnosed with ASD can be very different. There is a type close to autism, when there is a desire to avoid the presence of others, unwillingness to leave the room, insecurity and fear of people. A common feature of people with ASD is impaired coordination of the limbs and muscles. Children lag behind in physical development, do not achieve success in sports. Often there is a combination of autism spectrum disorders with hyperactivity.

Asperger's syndrome usually does not affect the intelligence of children, they study at school, they can read, write, count, but they require more attention from teachers and parents. There are “lyricists” and “physicists” among such guys who show interest in certain areas of knowledge, highly specialized information. The first case is a higher level of verbal thinking, in comparison with analytical and technical abilities. A rich vocabulary is formed, the ability to participate in discussions, express one's opinion and give arguments develops.

"Physicists" are able to understand and process large amounts of information, they excel in the field of mathematics and computer science. Abstract thinking is developed, but verbal skills are not formed at a sufficient level. Children with this type of Asperger's may find a solution, but may not be able to correctly explain the results in front of others.

Such problems of the child are assessed by his environment as eccentricity, shyness, sleepwalking. Peculiarities of behavior are considered defects of upbringing or character. For example, it seems strange the inability to determine by the appearance of a person his approximate age, mood. People with Asperger's Syndrome cannot recognize signals that others can easily "read". The main problems appear in establishing relationships, understanding other people, social behavior. There are fewer difficulties with speech, compared with classic autism.

Children with Asperger's Syndrome do not shun company, seek human contact, but often take everything literally. Irony and humor, metaphors, hyperbole are not accessible to their understanding. To others, they may seem arrogant, indifferent, although in reality this is not so. Sometimes children with this disorder have problems learning sciences that require advanced abstract thinking. The repetition of failures in interpersonal interaction, study and life situations leads to the emergence of insecurity in children, feelings of inferiority, self-condemnation.

Treatment of Asperger's Syndrome

Early and accurate diagnosis, timely treatment will help relieve the child of unnecessary stress, facilitate his growing up. In addition, it becomes possible to properly organize education and training. One of the directions of therapy is non-drug. The child is taught to recognize from a photograph or drawing what a person feels. They create different situations and encourage certain behavior in them. They conduct sessions of physiotherapy exercises, apply the Voight technique to improve motor coordination.

Starting in kindergarten, a child with Asperger's Syndrome should receive speech therapy.

Medications are used less frequently than in classic autism. If Asperger's syndrome is combined with hyperactivity, then the doctor prescribes appropriate medications. In addition, depending on the prevailing symptoms, antidepressants are prescribed, drugs to eliminate increased anxiety, aggression, and neuroses.