HSP = Autism?

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The Woman Who Thinks Like a Cow

Is this really what autism is, because I was under the impression I was an HSP? There was a time in my life when I couldn't handle being touched lightly. This was when I was married and about a year after vaccinations I may have gotten to get into college. It seems like all the symptoms she describes applies to me. =s

Last edited by madthumbs on Fri Jun 22, 2012 8:35 am; edited 1 time in total

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The original video I posted of Carly has been removed. It was much better imo as a person who identifies with the symptoms. This one appears to be more on the PR / awareness side than teaching understanding unfortunately. Carly had been able to describe why children with Autism head thrash, have trouble looking at faces, etc.

Quote:

Carly Fleischmann's blog link: http://carlysvoice.com/

2nd website link: http://twitter.com/Carlysvoice

Carly also has uploaded video footage of herself typing. To check out this video footage on Youtube, click this link:

Last edited by madthumbs on Fri Jul 22, 2011 2:03 pm; edited 3 times in total

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Interesting point about HSP. I was thinking that I was slightly autistic, but maybe I am HSP now that I've read the description. Or maybe they are the same and we don't know it yet.

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I've read some descriptions of symptoms from mainstream sites, but felt they were written by someone observing rather than dealing. They ignored the sensory overload aspect of it, which to me is extremely important to understand. Carly hit the nail on the head in her video when she explained her behavior. For people who can't hear, I found this:

From:
http://www.aspergerinfo.com/asdescription.htm

Quote:

by Kate Goldfield

When I was a freshman in college, someone asked a friend of mine if I was autistic. Having almost no knowledge about what autism was other than a dim memory of a "Rain Man"-like character rocking in the corner and nonverbal, I was appalled. How could anyone possibly think I was like that?

Two years later, I rediscovered the subject of autism after seeing a Lifetime movie about it. I was intrigued by some of the concepts in it and began reading everything I could find about autism, purely out of intellectual interest.

I awakened to the notion that a lot of what I was reading sounded like me. I learned that autism is actually a spectrum disorder, which means that there are people who are affected by it on different levels. I discovered something called Asperger's Syndrome, which is high-functioning autism and markedly different in its presentation from what we could call classic autism.

People with Asperger's Syndrome, or AS, I learned, have trouble reading social cues and understanding nonverbal language. They have trouble knowing what to say in conversations, when to start speaking and when to stop speaking. They fail to notice subtle conversational cues like change in tone of voice or body posture. In fact, they have trouble with social language in general.

They are often highly intelligent, especially with special interests that they pursue, but have trouble conversing. Because of this, they have trouble making friends and many will go through all of high school and college without having ever really made a good friend.

Sensory issues are very prevalent in people with AS. They can hear the sound of a person tapping their pencil from across the room. The smell of cigarette smoke or cleaning agents will drive them crazy. Lights are either too bright or too dim and they often have a difficult time finding clothes that they can bear wearing because of the way they feel on their skin. Often, they will have sensory overloads and need some time out from an activity to process all that is happening to them.

For this reason, eye contact can hurt. Social interactions for someone with AS can be like trying to put together a 500-piece puzzle before the time is up. We even speak differently; our conversational manner tends to be quite genuine. We say what we're thinking.

It is this genuineness, though, that endears us to many people. We don't play guessing games with people; we say what we mean. As employees and friends, we are loyal. We have the ability to focus completely on tasks of interest for hours at a time and also to remember huge amounts of facts related to our interests quite easily.

When I was diagnosed with AS last summer, it came as an enormous relief. I finally knew why I had always hovered on the outside of social life, always wanting to join in but somehow never being able to figure out quite how. I could find other people who understood me and were like me.

Unfortunately, many people are not as fortunate as I was to gain this understanding about myself. There is comparatively little information available about AS. It was put into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Disorders (the official handbook of what is and what is not a psychological disorder) in 1994. There are many people out there who wonder why they are different, who are desperate to find the missing piece, but have never heard of AS.

I explain all of this just to give the average person an idea of what it is like to live on the autistic spectrum. I feel that it is only by learning about others' struggles and truly trying to understand them that we can build a world that is safe for everyone - a world where we can grow and improve because we are taking advantage of everyone's strengths, not just the strengths of a selective few. That's the kind of world I want to live in. It's the kind of world we all want to live in.

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I'm not sure how accurate this article is, but it attempts to make a distinction between Asperger's and HSP.

An excerpt:

Quote:

Both a person affected by Asperger syndrome and a highly sensitive person may appear socially disinterested, awkward, and avoidant. However, whereas the autistic person withdraws from social situations due to disinterest, the highly sensitive person withdraws due to overstimulation. In the same environment, the autistic person senses less due to neurological dysfunction, whereas the highly sensitive person senses more due to an innate heightened neurological sensitivity and awareness.

- http://www.suite101.com/content/asperger-syndrome-or-highly-sensitive-temperament-a225283

The problem for me is I withdraw for both reasons. I've also seen evidence that people with Autism or more severe cases of Asperger's seek a degree of socializing. I've noticed I have more interest in information sharing, while neuro-typical people have more interest in non verbal communication and small talk. I very much lack the strong photo graphic memory of Temple Grandin, however I've stood out from neuro-typicals in my ability to remember things I see.

Here's an interesting video which presents us with some hope:

Jenny McCarthy talks to CNN on how she cured her sons Autism caused by VACCINATIONS!

Despite seeming to have major advantages over others like with visual memory and problem solving; this disorder comes with a major payload. Temple Grandin's HBO movie exhibits some of the horrors Aspie's face in a neurotypical world. While some will no doubt cling to their need to feel special; others may just yearn for happiness, stability and the ability to not only want to socialize but not offend people with our blunt honesty, or bore them with our monotone voice or repetition.

There are some precautions to take here with the advice she gives. It works for some, but not all. It's also commercialized (someone's making money off this advice). There are also detrimental health effects associated with taking pills as well: http://www.opposingdigits.com/forums/about4345.html . With digestive issues: It shouldn't be a bad idea to try a Gluten / Casein free diet. Both lead to excess mucus anyway and affect some people differently than others.

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I've been very sick for months with a bad cough and associated issues. Finally did some food elimination testing and discovered a food sensitivity to what I'm guessing would be gluten (breads / some cereals). Did a little search on it and found an interesting article.

From: http://www.yourlittleprofessor.com/eaters.html

Quote:

They are susceptible to celiac disease, which is caused by poor absorption of certain nutrients. The danger is that celiac disease damages the digestive system. Aspies frequently suffer from Dermatitis herpetiformis, which causes skin rashes and tissue damage in the intestine. It has also been shown that gluten can aggravate behavioral symptoms in those with Asperger's that are sensitive to these foods.

Quote:

One promising food therapy is the "Gluten-Free Casein-Free Diet" or GFCF diet. The theory behind it is that a child with Asperger Syndrome cannot digest casein (found in dairy) or gluten (found in grains). It is true that undigested molecules of these substances frequently show up in their urine samples. These amino acid chains (called peptides) affect neurological function and can worsen a child's symptoms. Peptides may have an opiate effect on some children.

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http://www.celiac.com/articles/798/1/A-Word-on-Gluten-and-Beer/Page1.html

Quote:

Gluten is an umbrella term used to describe a mixture of individual proteins found in many grains. Celiac disease (celiac sprue or gluten intolerance, gluten sensitivity) is an autoimmune disorder that is triggered by the ingestion of some of these glutens. People with classic celiac disease are intolerant to the gluten proteins found in wheat, barley, rye, spelt and a couple other lesser known grains. All these grains have a relative of the gluten protein. Interestingly, corn, rice and sorghum also have gluten proteins but are not toxic to celiacs. Herein lies one of the fundamental problems; the use of the term gluten intolerance to cover only certain gluten containing grains is confusing for consumers and food manufacturers alike. Unfortunately, it seems that the inertia for using celiac disease and gluten intolerance as synonyms is unstoppable. Therefore, it becomes the responsibility of both consumers and manufacturers to make sure the terms being discussed are defined and understood.

The article goes on to explain that beer is not free of gluten that is toxic to people with Celiacs. My symptoms from drinking beer aren't near as bad as from eating pizza though.

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Jenny Mcarthy's son may have had Landau-Kleffner syndrome.