It's good to see you, too, Calloway.
Well in my case, I ended up meeting my speech pathologist from the University of Miami Asperger's support group. She was at some meetings for quite a while, but when I attended some meetings during the summer, we somehow got into a conversation about how she could help me improve in some areas like trying to push myself in a conversation while taking turns dialoguing while trying to communicate and understand the big picture (not the details) and how she could improve many other areas I'm weak in due to my processing delays and weak short-term working memory.
With all the work my speech pathologist does with me, I've been feeling changes gradually. I feel like my life is getting easier to deal with, but there's still more work to be done with me, and my parents don't know everything yet since the lack of help I've had explains a lot of issues in my life.
One thing I do with my speech pathologist is participate in group sessions where we practice conversations where the speech pathologist facilitates during the entire session. We also give tips and pointers to each other because we each share the same goal.
Then, of course, there's the individual sessions I have with my speech pathologist. When I first walk into the speech pathologist's office, we'll greet each other and ask how we're doing. Eventually I'll ask her to go over a certain topic, learn about it, and practice it a bit. Then as I go through the sessions, I gradually begin to feel changes as if I'm receiving neurofeedback- where you're connected with wires while you're playing video games and performing hand-eye coordination activities as your brain is receiving stimulus activity, so the deficits lesson.
An example of a topic I learned about last session after trying to explain to my speech pathologist how I struggled to give directions to a couple seniors visiting my school so they could get to a specific building was in delayed verbal processing. Like I knew what they were talking about but as I tried to explain how to get to their destination, they acted like they weren't sure whether to trust me. I was delayed in knowing which building they were talking about even though I knew the name and which building at my school it referred to. I could be caught up in details, thinking about some other related building nearby because I don't go there too often even though I've been at the university for 5 years (will be exactly 5 years when I graduate this semester). This is also the same reason as to why I have trouble locating where I parked my car at times. My thinking tends to get disorganized when I have short term memory tasks to perform and when trying to make a point when communicating in person, so this therapy is to help me work my way around these problems.
I'm developing self-advocacy skills as a result of the speech therapy. I had problems knowing how to deal with my brother when we'd play Nintendo together as children so if I did an autie or aspie thing and he didn't understand, I was out of luck and taken advantage of, lowering my self-esteem. We always got along and have had a complimentary relationship but there's things I'm getting resolved now. I just haven't explained any of this to my family. I'd really don't feel like talking about it but I'm sure there's many ASD folks out there who've been in my shoes.
Yeah, my autism has been a curse in some ways, not letting me show my true potential to others and forcing me to believe throughout my teen years of how inadequate I am, but I didn't feel it was the autism. I felt it was from being misunderstood and from lacking the help and support I'm getting currently. The truth is that I now understand my problems are a result from the autism (as well as my personality and a few other factors), not recognizing my limitations the way I do now. In fact, I'm continuing to learn more and will be on this learning curve for a long period of time. With the help I'm getting, I can now distinguish the difference between normal and abnormal when I get into a situation or conflict or whatever I'm experiencing in my life in the present moment with others, recognize my limitations, and focus on what I CAN achieve! One of the most positive aspects of being autistic is creativity. With the society we live in, especially for those who were diagnosed late in life, we need to recognize this ability we possess. Unfortunately, the educational system is geared for those who are left-brained. We tend to be right-brained.
Have you ever seen the movie, 'Napoleon Dynamite'? I grew up like Napoleon's older brother, Kip....somewhat but not exactly. I'm now overcoming my insecurity issues that he and the other characters experience in the movie.
I hope my answer and advice helps everyone out.
