Aspergers In Adults

The diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome has exploded in recent years. Considered by many to be a mild form of autism, it is now estimated to affect as many as 1 in every 250 people in the United States. Although a growing number of human resources professionals have heard of Asperger's Syndrome, most are not sure about how to respond to employees who disclose this disability and ask for accommodations.
Asperger's Syndrome is a neurobiological disorder that affects an individual's ability to understand and respond to social cues, communicate effectively, and organize tasks. Since many people who have Asperger's Syndrome are bright and college educated, it is usually not apparent that the individual has a disability unless they disclose it. Even then an employer may not understand how to mitigate challenges or may rely on standard interventions that do not address the specific needs of these individuals.
For example, employees with Asperger's Syndrome often have problems with communication and may alienate colleagues with blunt remarks, take instructions very literally, have trouble working on teams or not engage in small talk and other social niceties common to most corporate cultures. Frequently these communication deficits are assumed to be attitude or behavior problems.
Difficulties with executive function, which governs the ability to plan, prioritize, multi-task, change course and see the big picture, can also impact the performance of these employees. They often need specific assistance to manage time and tasks.
Accommodation needs vary depending on the individual employee and the nature of his or her job. However if someone discloses Asperger's Syndrome there are some general guidelines to follow when addressing communication and organizational issues.
First, it is important that the individual's manager provides specific, quantifiable expectations whenever possible ("the report is due in 3 days and should include year-to-date sales and revenue and at least 5 suggestions for reaching sales goals"). Regular feedback about performance is beneficial to any employee, but particularly to one with Asperger's Syndrome.
Organization is improved by the use of written instructions, check lists and electronic reminders. Since these individuals are often hypersensitive to noise, a quiet workstation will help them concentrate and stay on task.
Regarding the all-important area of social skills, it is critical to remember that people with Asperger's Syndrome often don't know what they have done to offend or anger someone. Avoid general statements like, "You're rude," "You are not a team player," or "How could you say that!" Use clarifying questions to understand the individual's intentions. Be specific, direct and matter-of-fact in pointing out inappropriate or unacceptable behavior ("When you tell people to 'be quiet' it's considered rude. Instead, ask them if they'd mind lowering their voices.")
Assign a "work buddy" or mentor (someone other than the employee's supervisor) to explain social norms, encourage social interaction and answer questions. People with Asperger's Syndrome may hesitate to ask questions out of fear that they will appear "stupid" (likely a by-product of being bullied or ostracized in school).
Be sure to educate human resources personnel, managers and employees about Asperger's Syndrome. Otherwise, legitimate accommodation requests may be brushed aside as bids for special treatment ("Everyone wants a quiet cubicle"), resulting in violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Provide a coach who is familiar with Asperger's Syndrome to with an employee and his or her manager. The pragmatic, goal-oriented nature of the coaching process combined with an action plan based on organizational needs assures that performance objectives are addressed along with skill development.
Here are some examples of low- and no-cost accommodations from actual client cases (names and identifying details have been changed to protect confidentiality).
For nearly 10 years, Cindy was a successful sales manager at a high-end vacation community. Despite having Asperger's Syndrome she did well working one-on-one with clients and training junior sales people in the organization. Her group often ranked number one or number two in quarterly sales.
After the company was acquired by a much larger firm, things changed. Cindy's job became less structured and she began receiving conflicting instructions from various executives in the organization. The new regional vice president said that Cindy asked too many questions and provided too much detail in her presentations. During weekly team meetings, Cindy appeared chronically unprepared to answer questions from senior executives.
Concerned about her performance, Cindy decided to disclose her Asperger's Syndrome to her supervisor and human resources representative. One of her accommodation requests was to receive a written agenda and list of questions one day in advance of the team meetings. She asked permission to respond in writing to questions within 24 hours of each meeting. These requests addressed sensory and processing problems that made it difficult for Cindy to hear and respond immediately to comments and questions and comments from several different people at once. After implementing the changes, she was able to provide the strategic responses the management team needed.
Tina works as a receptionist for a large financial firm. One of her job requirements is to make sure that visitors have the proper security clearance before leaving the lobby. On one particularly busy day, Tina issued a visitor badge to someone she thought she recognized who rushed through the checkpoint quickly flashing an ID. Concerned about the possible security breach, Tina reported the incident to her supervisor who then issued Tina a written warning.
Tina explained to human resources that Asperger's affects her short-term memory and her ability to recognize faces under stress. Her employer agreed to turn off the television in the lobby during Tina's shift because the sound is distracting to her. Employees have been instructed to send visitor requests in advance and in writing so that Tina has more time to process them. And signs are now posted in the lobby informing visitors that they must check in with the receptionist and show appropriate identification.
Todd contacted me at a crisis point. Employed in a director-level job for two years, his literal interpretation of instructions and difficulty seeing the big picture were frustrating his colleagues. Todd's supervisor expected him to assume "a leadership role," an open-ended, general directive that was completely bewildering to Todd. When we met Todd had been given two weeks to improve his performance or be fired.
Todd disclosed his Asperger's Syndrome and over the next three months Todd, his manager and a human resources representative worked out accommodations and clear performance expectations. Then an opportunity arose for Todd (at his own request) to give up the director role and become a senior manager instead. The new position allows Todd to use his considerable technical ability and off-load the troublesome "leadership" and people-management duties. With continued coaching he has learned techniques for clarifying expectations and communicating more clearly with co-workers.
As these examples illustrate, in the right job with the right support, individuals with Asperger's Syndrome are dedicated, productive employees.

Image via WikipediaDid Einstein have Asperger's? Recently, I found myself miffed at yet another conference on Autism. In this case, it was a day long seminar lead by an M.D. from the child study center of a major Connecticut medical university. What upset me was that he implied that only M.D.'s can correctly diagnose Asperger's; moreover, that diagnosing anyone in less than four days was simply people out to scam money out of the poor families.
That this man was narrow minded is clear. What upset me was that he implied that only M.D.'s can correctly diagnose Asperger's; moreover, that diagnosing anyone in less than four days was simply people out to scam money out of the poor families.
What is important to see here is why they did not need this medical assistance. Why didn't they? Because their "special interest" generalized to an interest in which the general population is also interested. According to Dr. Iknowbest, though, people who achieve public success cannot possibly suffer from Asperger's.
Here again, we see a case wherein symptoms, rather than personal suffering, drives the diagnosis. However, before I address this misnomer further, I need to first make a disclaimer. I want you to know that I, in no way, mean to imply that all medically minded folks are asses. In truth, I relish reading medical studies such as those Harvard recently did, wherein they used brain imaging to explore the physical identity of Asperger's.
In truth then, I am only railing against people who use these kinds of studies to depersonalize human suffering. Moreover, saying Einstein did not suffer socially ignores everything we know about him as a person. To me, this is profoundly sad, and ignorant, especially in light of that his social ineptitude is a matter of record. As is that of people like Thomas Jefferson, Socrates, Lincoln and Newton, and so many others just like them.
That these men had a hard time socially connecting to others is simply fact. Newton, for instance, spent most of his life shut away in his apartment. Doing what? Thinking and writing about his "special interest"; physics. In a way, then, it's a miracle we even know of his work, given his aversion toward social shallowness and people in general.
Whatever the case, we do know him. Asperger's and all.
What is Asperger's?
So how do I define, Asperger's? Let me first define the spectrum to which it belongs; autism. I define autism as, "a social impairment wherein a person suffers from a pervasive category of socially disconnecting distractions." Moreover, what I mean by "socially disconnecting distractions" is that the person has the very tendency to which I have been referring; a personality sized "special interest."
What, then, is the principle symptom of this suffering?
The profound inability to connect to socially normal people. Especially to social peers.
The principle behavior which drives this behavior?
Compulsively focusing on things other than personal relationships at the expense of personal relationships. Here again, the tendency to have "special interests."
So where does Asperger's fit into this spectrum? Asperger's is an autism. Thus Asperger's is "a personality sized, minority life focus wherein the person suffers from a significant inability to connect with socially normal peers. This is autism. And it certainly applies to people with Asperger's.
What qualifies someone as having Asperger's then? The focus of the person's "special interests." Here, I would describe this tendency; the person's special focus, as stemming almost entirely from the personal tendency to make information more important than people. This means the principle thing which distracts people with Asperger's is information and learning. Especially in and around their special interests. Moreover, without ever realizing it, they do this at the expense of their social relationships.
Okay. So I admit it. This way of defining Asperger's is a lot to digest. And requires a lot of letting go of old ways of thinking. Beginning with the idea that my focus here is not on some medical way in which to measure personal non conformity. Rather, my way of defining Asperger's focuses on how the person suffers personally. As a human being, and not as a lab rat.
Here then is step one in the journey toward treating people with Asperger's as human beings. Focus on their suffering. Not on their medical symptoms.
Where Does Asperger's Come From?
So where does Asperger's comes from? Before I tell you, allow me to describe a quality which underlies the whole of Emergence Personality Theory. This quality? Blamelessness; the idea that no one consciously causes their pain. This includes the parents of kids with Asperger's. Not one of them ever causes their child to get Asperger's.
Where does it come from then? Remember, I'm a personality theorist. Thus, I would never see logic alone as the proof my point of view is true. Logic is simply too cold and impersonal. To me then, either the ideas feel true to both my head and heart or they're not a condition of human personality.
So how do we find ideas that feel true to both the head and heart? Simple. Whatever condition we seek to describe must have once been normal. For instance, it was once normal for all of us to focus on sensation at the expense of our social relationships. When? In the first six months of life. Unfortunately, some babies never expand beyond this focus. Thus, they incur the condition we call, Kanner's Autism.
In the second six months of life, we all have another norm. We focus on learning how to use the ability we mastered in our first six months; sensation itself, to sense the things in our environment. Here again, some few babies unfortunately never focus beyond this point. In their case, we call what they have, OCPD; Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder. The compulsion to sense the things in their environment at the expense of connecting to people.
And Asperger's then? Asperger's comes into being sometime during a baby's second year of life. How? Well consider what is normal for babies to focus on during this stage in their lives. They focus on learning to understand the things they've learned to sense in the prior stage of their development. Thus, if babies do not move past this focus, they remain intensely interested in learning for learning's sake, even to the point wherein they never learn to connect to people.
Is there a fourth norm then? Absolutely. From age two to age four, kids normally rebel against any pressure put on them to simple parrot what other folks have learned. The "terrible two's," remember? So what does this turn out to be if the baby never loses this focus? ADD. Attention Deficit Disorder. And yes, I know medically minded folks now call this condition, ADHD. However, it seems incredibly silly to diagnose a kid as having ADHD without HD. Which happens to be the most common version of this lab rat label.
What Could We Be Doing To Better Help These Folks?
So what could we be doing to better help these folks? Well, in the case of Asperger's, we could be focusing our efforts on getting these folks to make "connecting" more important than "information."
Notice, I haven't simply said, teach them better social skills. In truth, teaching mouth readers to read eyes is a lot easier that you might imagine. In fact, given they believe you have something valid to say, folks with Asperger's are among the best folks of all to teach.
What else could we be doing? We could stop telling them they have a disease. They do not. They have a style of relating to the world which was once normal for all of us but no longer is. Even Dr. Iknowbest was once like this.
During this time, we all made learning the meaning of things our special interest. Moreover, in babies aged one to two, this focus is absolutely normal.
In people with Asperger's, however, this tendency never leaves them. Thus, what was once normal now impairs their very ability to see the beauty in people. And renders them unable to do much more than parrot authentic social connections. The very thing that ADD kids hate doing. Which in part explains why AS kids have the most difficult time with ADD kids.
What else could we be doing to help? For one thing, we could pay more attention to the way "focusing on information more than people" plays out in the very nature of peoples' language skills. In my work, I call this natural tendency, being "fussy" rather than "fuzzy."
For example, in one case, I taught the mom of a man with Asperger's why asking him to clean his room put him into a full blown panic attack. I explained to her that to her son, her requests for him to clean his room required he fully grasp the nature of cleaning rooms. Not just his room. All rooms. Moreover, that without this comprehensive level of understanding, he simply didn't know where to begin. Thus, his panic and resistance.
As I told this mother these things, I saw this man vigorously nodding his head in agreement. At which point, I turned to him and explained that when his mother said these things, she was merely asking him to "do something to make your room look a little better. Anything."
"Fuzzy" and "fussy." Two very different qualities. Especially when applied to language. The ability to help here would come from teaching both those with Asperger's, and those who do not have it, to speak to each other in the other's language. In effect, they both become bilingual, in that they both learn to speak "fussy" and they both learn to speak "fussy."
Learning this alone has changed my whole outlook on the world. As well as allowing me to socially connect to others for the first time in my life.
Lastly, one more thing we could be doing is we could stop reminding people with Asperger's that some few folks with Asperger's became world changers. Why stop saying this? Because this only makes them, and me, feel even more inept. And more like failures.
People with Asperger's are not failures. They are simply in the minority, both language wise and interest wise. Moreover, to see this as true, simply imagine our world were it not for people like them. Easier in some ways. Yes. Certainly. But without the special interests of those few who have changed the world? I doubt I'd even be writing on this computer, let alone have ever had a chance to become a somewhat normal human being.
Finally, to the Dr. Iknowbest's of the world, I sincerely pray you'll reconsider. I know that underneath it all, you too want to help these folks and make the world better. Please know, however, that no good can ever come from treating warm human beings like they are cold scientific data. And while this approach works fairly well on things like rocks and clouds, it downright stinks at helping people. We humans are just too complex. And too spiritually minded.

Image via WikipediaHow Mental illness can affect your Fathers Children?
Experts at Oxford University UK are saying that there has been too much attention on mother’s mental health and not enough on Fathers mental health issues.

According to an article published in ‘The Lancet’ – Children whose father suffered with a mental health disorder are more likely to develop psychiatric or even behavioral disorders.

Apparently the male role has been largely ‘underemphasized’ and that more influence came from the father than previously thought.

Fathers are more involved in the up bringing of their children than those of former generations.
Incidentally and also fascinating is that the peak age for men to suffer with a psychiatric disorder is around the same time as is the peak age for becoming a father. 18 – 35.

Image via WikipediaSleep deprivation can cause higher levels of psychological distress… even death.

According to a recent report by researchers from the George Institute in Sydney Australia. People who sleep for less than 5 hours a night are 3 times more susceptible of developing mental illness than those who sleep for 8 – 9 hours a night.

Researchers examined the sleeping habits of more than 20,000 teenagers aged between 17 and 24. Findings showed that those who got less than 6 hours sleep a night developed higher levels of psychological distress.

Professor Nick Glozier said that over the last few years young people have spent more time on electronic gadgets, game consoles and the internet instead of sleep. Sleep deprivation can cause serious effects often starting with anxiety and body clock difficulties leading to problems like bi-polar or major depression.
Sleep deprivation can have serious effects on your health in the form of physical and mental impairments.

Inadequate rest impairs our ability to think, handle stress, maintain a healthy immune system and moderate our emotions. In fact, sleep is so important to our overall health that total sleep deprivation has been proven to be fatal: lab rats denied the chance to rest die within two to three weeks.

Dramatic weight changes, especially weight gain, are also common effects of sleep deprivation. Because the amount and quality of the sleep we get affects our hormone levels, namely our levels of leptin and ghrelin, many physiological processes that depend on these hormone levels to function properly, including appetite, are affected by our sleep. Leptin is a hormone that affects our feelings of fullness and satisfaction after a meal, and ghrelin is the hormone that stimulates our appetites. When you suffer from sleep deprivation, your body’s levels of leptin fall and ghrelin levels increase. This means that you end up feeling hungrier without really feeling satisfied by what you eat, causing you to eat more and, consequently, gain weight.

Symptoms Of Aspergers

Symptoms Of Aspergers are similar to those of the other Austism Spectrum Disorders (ASD's) together with Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) and High-Functioning Autism (HFA).

Aspergers Syndrome is at the higher-functioning point of the autism spectrum and, inside this degree, a person's symptoms can range from moderate to serious.

Generally speaking, people with Symptoms Of Aspergers and related problems lack cruelly in social and communication abilities regardless of the truth that their IQs usually vary from normal to very high and their rote memory (associated with strict memorization) often is superior to the rest of us.

Symptoms Of Aspergers vary from individual to individual and may include 1 or more of the following traits:

It's fairly typical for somebody with Aspergers Symptoms to be extraordinarily finely tuned to the environment, loud noises, clothes and food textures, and odors.

An obvious lack of nonverbal behaviors like eye contact or gaze, facial expression, body posture, and social gestures like waving are additionally frequent as is a later than usual development in language. When individuals with Aspergers Symptoms communicate, it could possibly be in a monotone-like drone, lacking in volume, intonation, inflection and rhythm. It is also quite common for Aspergers Symptoms youngsters to talk in a formally scientific way - this has been dubbed "little professor" verbose.

Determined by the severity of the ailment, the person will take everything that they hear literally. They've a tough time with indirect meanings and humorousness or sarcasm. Then again, a vast vocabulary is common in As individuals as is the fact that they begin reading at an early age (hyperlexia).

In various social settings, individuals who suffer the pain of Aspergers Symptoms often exhibit socially and emotionally inappropriate behaviors. It is often difficult for them to partake in the natural "give and take" of a conversation. Quite a lot of this has to do with their possible and unwavering obsession with only one specific area of interest. They may not have an actual idea of personal space and often stand too close. Symptoms Of Aspergers individuals probably find it especially troublesome to read and figure out social cues and perceive the emotions of other people.

Unfortunately, As individuals additionally struggle in relation to developing interactions with folks their own age. (for example, one Aspergers symptom frequent in kids is that they're more relaxed with adults than with other kids).

"Unnatural" repetition is one other frequent trait and this shows up in the shape of inflexible obedience to strict routines and involuntary, continuous, repetitive behavior, speech, or thoughts, and stereotyped or repetitive motor mannerisms. A rather specific symptom worth mentioning is that persons with Aspergers Symptoms are sometimes fascinated with maps, globes and routes.

Although people with Aspergers Symptoms do wish to fit in socially and have friends, the disorder causes them quite a lot of trouble making what we consider normal social connections. It's partially because of this that, unfortunately, many are at risk for developing mood problems, anxiousness or depressive disorders, especially in adolescence.

Fortunately, the remedies at the moment are more advanced and effectual for Aspergers Symptoms.