The Disorders and Character Flaws Thread

[Guybrush]

Yes, but I think controlling the actions made it easier to also control the fear mentally. It gives you some kind of edge and it changes your situation as a victim of your fears into something else which probably has important mental ramifications. I think actively choosing to do things which are scary has the power to break that negative feedback loop you mention.

Anyways, I agree that fear is a natural reaction and not always "wrong". I don't like great heights either. I mentioned I am a bit of a worry wart still and I think that also has to do with me learning that there are consequences for actions. I no longer feel a great need to endanger my health. I'm now the sort of person who would get scared if I ever ate fugu fish sushi for example.

If I think it's irrational, I try to do it anyways and then deal with the fear. If I think the fear is justified, I listen to it so my relationship with it has sobered up and become a bit more balanced since those 10 years ago. The important thing to me is it's not a major feature of my life anymore. I expect that will change when I have children one day, though.

[Freebase Dali]

Hehe... Yea I suspect children are going to turn things upside down.


P.S...
Check the reported posts.

[Burning Down]

Originally Posted by Seltzer

The thing with autism is that it's more a spectrum than a specific disorder and people can be affected to different degrees. Low functioning autistics are undoubtedly communicatively dysfunctional whereas high functioning autistics will often speak with perfect grammar, syntax and (possibly) delivery and excel in most lingual tests, but may struggle a bit with figurative language and comprehension. One theory regarding the poor comprehension is that they obsess over small scale details and have trouble seeing the bigger picture. Some autistics may be introverted or anti-social... high functioning autistics might even be sociable and function relatively normally in social situations but exhibit a few odd traits such as lack of eye contact, lack of empathy, or one-sidedness. One possible explanation is that they are initially socially dysfunctional but over time, learn to (or are capable of learning to) emulate the 'normal' social behaviour which is naturally built into other people.

Yes, exactly! A lot of people still think that autistic people just flap their arms, click their tongues and are savants who can play a Mozart piece on the piano after hearing only once. Yes, there are autistic people like that, but it is a very small percentage of the total population of people with Autism Spectrum Disorders. My brother, who is 11, is on the higher-functioning end, almost Asperger's. He is 3 years ahead of kids his age when it comes to reading and writing. He knows how to pronounce difficult words correctly and he is a good speller and he uses the correct syntax most of the time. He is several years behind his classmates with conprehension, though. If you got him to read a Harry Potter book, for example, he would have difficulty summarizing the story if you asked him to do so.

I remember last year, my grandpa was saying all kinds of stuff to my mother about autistic people and "how he (my brother) will never, ever even go to high school and you can forget about university. He will just end up living on the street or something like that." Those were his exact words, and I know he comes from a different generation when they didn't understand autism so those people just ended up in institutions and hospital psych wards and the like. But it upset my parents terribly and they didn't speak to him again for a few months until my grandma passed away last fall.

Tore, I'm happy that you have been able to control your anxiety. I have the same general anxiety disorder (I think I posted that early in the thread) and am working on ways to control my anxious feelings. They were much worse when I was younger, because I didn't know how or where to channel those feelings, but now that I'm older the onset of symptoms has greatly decreased. I sometimes go for days or even weeks at a time where the anxiety is gone and it's such a liberating feeling. I was never on psych drugs, and I don't ever want to be. Yes, they can help a little but they're not the "miracle cure" that most people think they are.

[NumberNineDream]

Originally Posted by Lateralus

Aww, I'd call you anything but autistic. All the autistic kids I work with are completely mathematically/logically obsessed with the world. You on the other hand are (I think, from what I've read ) very creative and imaginative! Which is a marvelous thing by the way.

I just have some tendencies.
But I have been getting somehow further from it with time.
When I was young, I didn't talk till I was 5.
In school they would think I was mute and deaf, as I wouldn't react with the teachers'.

Plus, I was totally obsessed with Maths, and logical explanations (which would make me lose track of time, trying to realise why the human skin gets red at times, and blue at others -an example).
I have gotten a perfect score in Maths since the age of 7, and on my weekends I used to wake up at 7 AM to do some extra maths exercises.

Then it hit me at the age of 17, I realised that Mathematics are very constricting, and got myself interested in Literature and Philosophy (Too many events related to the number 7).

[Guybrush]

^Let me know if you're really good with statistics too. I might need your help.

[NumberNineDream]

Originally Posted by tore

^Let me know if you're really good with statistics too. I might need your help.

I LOVE statistics and I love graphs (and of course lists)!
I got one, showing the evolution of books read by year / time

As for maths, I haven't done much ever since I left school. Although I miss it at times, I just keep myself busy trying to work out some easy equations in my head.

[Seltzer]

Originally Posted by Burning Down

I remember last year, my grandpa was saying all kinds of stuff to my mother about autistic people and "how he (my brother) will never, ever even go to high school and you can forget about university. He will just end up living on the street or something like that." Those were his exact words, and I know he comes from a different generation when they didn't understand autism so those people just ended up in institutions and hospital psych wards and the like. But it upset my parents terribly and they didn't speak to him again for a few months until my grandma passed away last fall.

Wow, that's horrible but I wouldn't resent him for saying those things. Like you said, it's just the generational gap... disabled people in the past were basically locked away from public.

Originally Posted by tore

^Let me know if you're really good with statistics too. I might need your help.

I've done my share of stats but mostly in stochastic modelling and decision analysis which probably isn't terribly useful to you. You should ask Vanilla - it's her major

[VEGANGELICA]

Originally Posted by Lateralus

As for disorders... as a late teenager I started becoming very impulsive, aggressive, and physically self destructive. In most people the condition is provoked by an extreme trauma which occurs in childhood or teenagehood, and yeah when I was 17 something pretty extreme and traumatic happened to me so I guess that would explain it.

I had a similar reaction when I was 18, in my case after I was raped. It took me several years to stop being angry with myself, stop feeling worthless, and instead feel stable again. The experience and my reaction made me much more empathetic with others who have been violated in some way, resulting in them feeling self-loathing and choosing risky behaviors.

Originally Posted by Paloma

I have bipolar I, I was diagnosed with it when I was probably 14/15, it didn't really manifest itself until I was 19. I take a combo of meds to deal with it now.

Someone I love is dealing with bipolar disorder, as well as psychosis (losing touch with reality, kind of like living in a dream, I think). The drugs have bad side effects, but living without them produces worse results. Luckily nothing like the Parkinson's disease reaction has happened...that must have been horribly scary, Paloma! I didn't know such a severe side effect was possible.

One area of recent research on depression and bipolar disorder that I've been reading about is whether increasing one's intake of the fatty acid DHA helps reduce symptoms. DHA is a fatty acid found in large amounts in the brain (and retina). Some studies find DHA helps. You can buy DHA that has been purified from algae, which is nice. Our bodies synthesize DHA from the essential fatty acid alpha-linolenic acid, an omega-3 fatty acid (in ground flaxseeds and canola oil)...but some people's bodies are not able to do this conversion well so may benefit from eating DHA supplements.

Originally Posted by Tea Supremacist

I suffer from depression, always have done since I can remember, it runs in the family (Christmas dinner is just a barrell of laughs... ) and a lot of my worry is what I'm doing to my family and friends.
I'm a pretty frank, open person and the type that hates those head-tilting, sympathetic looks, but my depression totally hit a new low this year when my other half and I lost a baby due to anencephaly

I'm sorry, Tea Supremacist, about your baby. I had a cousin whose fetal baby died at 5 months in utero...she was a little girl...and her death was very hard for my cousin to handle.

Depression...I've got quite a few friends who deal with depression. One self-medicated for a while by smoking marijuana. Others took Paxil or Prozac and tried cognitive therapy to help practice altering their thoughts. I think it really is hard to imagine what depression or anxiety are like unless you experience them. I think people sometimes don't understand that our thoughts and feelings aren't always "under our own control."

The only disorder I've had...that is, a troubling psychological state that didn't result from a life event...is some mild anxiety attacks. I had the first one a couple years ago, and have had one or two per year. Knowing what they are helps.

The first time I had an anxiety attack was at night: I woke up, my heart racing, feeling like I had to breathe in deeply but couldn't catch my breath. I didn't know what was wrong. I thought maybe I was going to die...I felt light-headed and not normal. Fearing I might fall if I walked, I crawled out of the room to find someone to tap awake so that I wouldn't have to die alone, in case I did die.

The second time this happened, I had done some research and suspected an anxiety attack, but I called an on-call nurse to discuss symptoms, and she said it did sound like an anxiety attack and I should tell my doctor, which I did. Now I know to remind myself that no one dies from anxiety attacks, take relaxed breaths, and remember that it will pass.

[90'sMusicKid]

Im REEEEEEEALLY mentally unstable. And I think too much..I could probably win a nobel peace prize for my theories..

[Dom]

I have fairly poor social skills. Also I think I might be bipolar (although I can't say I know too much about it) because often during the space of a day I will be really happy and hyper in like the afternoon but feel really depressed in the evening, for no apparant reason.