Thank you

[skyhawk]

Can I just say thank you to everyone

Being Autistic (NOT stupid) I have aspergers and co morbid ADHD (62) as has my 23 year old son who lives with me.

We are good weather cyclists in places like green belt, NON road cycleways etc, so unlike people here who are real cyclists we are not.

I can not read magazines or topics, yes I can read but you need to know aspergers to know I for example will not read instruction manuals etc.

I have asked a few questions here that have been asked so many times you must be sick of them and yet I have been greeted with help, advice and kindness.

Thank you

[Bonefishblues]

That's very kind feedback

[Mick F]

I too am on the AQ spectrum. Probably Aspergers.
I'm obsessive mainly and love detail and facts. Mechanics and clocks are brilliant for me.
The repetitive nature of cycling is good and the mechanics involved keep me amused for hours.
Routine is what I like and have difficulties if that routine is interrupted.

I rarely read anything printed on paper. Bores me rigid. It must be ten years since I read a book, and magazines get leafed through and discarded. Instruction manuals aren't too bad but I detest them when they don't give me enough information or they're poorly illustrated.

There are a couple more of us on this forum to my knowledge - could be more - and the AQ spectrum has been discussed a few times.

Have a read about Archie.
https://theoraah.tumblr.com/post/142300 ... e-spectrum

[Tangled Metal]

I find reading about ASD and ADHD / ADD very interesting. A former friend has aspergers. My first contact (that I know) with ASD. His only problems that you could spot were to do with humour (especially timing laughter), lack of confidence and his habit of needing to explain or notify people of having aspergers. BTW that's not intended as having a go at you, he played it up a lot that's all and people that knew him well used to tell him that.

Personally I could have ADD/ADHD but haven't gone for a diagnosis. Certainly got a lot of the traits right back to childhood. Try to get a diagnosis as an adult, well that's hard. I gave up after an hour phone consult that was with a service not related to it in any way. Then got told there's no suitable service in the whole county.

ASD and ADHD is often running on families I believe. I looked at my dad and wondered about him. Currently the best candidate in our family for ADHD I reckon (apart from me).

One more thing. I appreciate reading people being open about their issues and especially mental health. It has caused me to come out and talk about my belief that I have something very much like ADHD. I've never felt comfortable in the past except on forums dedicated to ADHD. On those I've had support and advice. Including experienced people agreeing with my suspicions about ADHD.

So basically your open approach is very good IMHO. The positive approach to your posting on here should certainly get a positive response. Certainly deserves it. I suspect you're helping to normalise such conditions (is it a condition, disorder or syndrome and what is the difference?).

[Tangled Metal]

I never suspected you mick. Makes sense now though. Your ticking of cycling lists, could that be a symptom too?

One of my symptoms is best shown by obsessive evening phone based Internet use while thoroughly enjoying high pace TV programmes and films. Years ago when I was still reading books I watched TV, listened to a CD and read a book. Impossible? It was my way of concentrating on the book of that makes sense.

BTW a preference for high tempo music is also common in ADHD. When I read that I checked my cds. Punk, punk, my school punk and hip hop/rock fusion. Rolling stones, Bob Dylan and the blues were side interests. All my cycling / gym playlists were very high tempo. Plus I last about 30 seconds on any voice podcast I've ever downloaded. Of course these are my trivial symptoms, main ones come straight from ADHD checklists.

[Mick F]

Some ways that non-ASD people talk about it gets up my nose.

They often say - for instance - that he/she has got autism. It's as if they have got a cold or got a broken arm. They say it like someone will get better eventually. Also, they say that he/she suffers from autism. Some may suffer, but many many millions do not. It's just the way their brains are wired, and I personally wouldn't want to be re-wired to be boringly normal!

Have a go at the AQ questionnaire.
Mrs Mick F scores 4 and did it once.
I score 47 and have done it many times. Sometimes as low as 42, but on average it's 47.

Note that I've done it many times.
This is me being obsessive.

http://aqtest.net
It's a bit slow to load, but it'll get there.

[Tangled Metal]

One thing mick, and the op, at what age were you diagnosed? I'm just curious because I've never been diagnosed got ADHD and at mid forties doubt I ever will (not just because it takes an average of at least 2 years of persistence to get referred to someone to get a diagnosis on adhd. Plus I've not got use patience).

Another thought, perhaps not diplomatic, but are there any regular posters on here that you think could be ASD or adhd but not diagnosed or gone public? Don't answer that.

[Mick F]

I never suspected you mick. Makes sense now though. Your ticking of cycling lists, could that be a symptom too?

When I've finished cycling to all the parish churches in Cornwall later this year, I'll be at a loose end and will need another task to aim at. The task has to light my candle though.

I was in my late 50s when Mrs Mick F did a course on AQ to do with her job at the local school. She came back from the course knowing that I was way into the spectrum. She told me nicely and gently, and from that moment on, my life made sense. I became more relaxed and more content.

It's wonderful and enlightening to KNOW.
I don't need a professional diagnosis, because it's damned obvious now it's been pointed out to me.

[Tangled Metal]

Some ways that non-ASD people talk about it gets up my nose.

They often say - for instance - that he/she has got autism. It's as if they have got a cold or got a broken arm. They say it like someone will get better eventually. Also, they say that he/she suffers from autism. Some may suffer, but many many millions do not. It's just the way their brains are wired, and I personally wouldn't want to be re-wired to be boringly normal!

Have a go at the AQ questionnaire.
Mrs Mick F scores 4 and did it once.
I score 47 and have done it many times. Sometimes as low as 42, but on average it's 47.

Note that I've done it many times.
This is me being obsessive.

http://aqtest.net
It's a bit slow to load, but it'll get there.

Do I do that?

If I am NT (neuro-typical) then among other descriptions I would be lazy, disorganised and weird. Plus many other things perceived as negative.

Perhaps I should do that test. There's a lot of co-morbidity between ASD and adhd. I don't think I'm ASD though. If I do get diagnosed I'm not even sure I need fixing. Well, it's like to try being organised in case I like it. Not sure a drug could manage that. The cloud is getting worse though. My description for my negative habits such as confidence issues and inability to work out how to get things done (unless on crisis, panic mode with a deadline in a impossible to achieve timescale).

Anyone know a good adhd online test, for indicative purposes only. I did one once and scored highly.

+1 for open talk on these matters.

[Mick F]

Yes, plus one from me!

No, you don't say it. I was really talking about the radio and the way interviews are scripted. Even the great John Humphries has said someone had "got autism".

[Tangled Metal]

I never suspected you mick. Makes sense now though. Your ticking of cycling lists, could that be a symptom too?

When I've finished cycling to all the parish churches in Cornwall later this year, I'll be at a loose end and will need another task to aim at. The task has to light my candle though.

I was in my late 50s when Mrs Mick F did a course on AQ to do with her job at the local school. She came back from the course knowing that I was way into the spectrum. She told me nicely and gently, and from that moment on, my life made sense. I became more relaxed and more content.

It's wonderful and enlightening to KNOW.
I don't need a professional diagnosis, because it's damned obvious now it's been pointed out to me.

Similar thing. Well on impulse I used adhd as an excuse for looking out of the window when on a date. Well I was still in the conversation but I needed stimuli. I said it in my joking style and forgot I said it. Said female stopped getting angry with me and later told me I must be adhd. That got me reading up on it and a light came on. Explains so much about my life. Right back to pre-school!

Sometimes it's your significant other who gets up know you better than anyone else, including yourself.

PS my wider family don't know I think I have adhd. Although I suspect my. Mum knows. Pre-school psych tests showed a few things apparently but adhd didn't exist then. The others see me as weird but harmless.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
I see the mick thing and i share some of his traits.
Not to obvious if at all meeting him.
My 21puts me at normal but i could do better.

A slightly nervous non socialite I see as a high scorer with those questions..........

[661-Pete]

Welcome Skyhawk.

I have one criticism of your post:

... so unlike people here who are real cyclists we are not.

You and your son are just as much 'real' cyclists as any of us. There is no need to be so modest! Anyone who cycles (unless they do so in an anti-social manner) deserves the distinction of being a "cyclist".

And long may you continue cycling! On- or off-road.

[Tangled Metal]

There was a thing on TV this year about ASD I think. There's been a lot of research into it. Now they're able to identify people with a very mild form of the spectrum. I reckon one day the spectrum will become so wide that everyone is on it somewhere.

The programme was about how ASD and other this like it can be very positive. It could give people abilities above the non-ASD population. Also majority haven't been diagnosed. For example a sensitivity to a particular sense is a sign of ASD. Some people with ASD can hear or feel electricity in cables or gas in pipes underground. Indeed it came across that some ASD people who were previously undiagnosed and living a normal life practically had a kind of super power.

Signs of ASD included the tendency some have of getting home each day and screaming their head off because they've not coped with the day because of their add (undiagnosed).

I can't remember the details of the programme but it was impressive.

BTW a customer of my old employers had an enlightened policy towards employing people with disabilities. They took one guy on as an industrial cleaner who was ASD in a barely functional way. He was spotted looking at control software the engineers were working on with interest. So the engineers started to talk him through it. Within a year it two he was the guy who wrote almost all the control software for the company. Bearing in mind this software was for power stations, it shows clearly that ASD isn't always a problem but an asset.

It's why iirc there's a fast growing Canadian company that is employed to debug masses of code for software houses. They employ mostly people on the autistic spectrum for that job because they have this ability to hyper concentrate for long periods of time and not miss out on the detail that wrong in pages and pages of coding.

[Tangled Metal]

Welcome Skyhawk.

I have one criticism of your post:

... so unlike people here who are real cyclists we are not.

You and your son are just as much 'real' cyclists as any of us. There is no need to be so modest! Anyone who cycles (unless they do so in an anti-social manner) deserves the distinction of being a "cyclist".

And long may you continue cycling! On- or off-road.

It's like the running forum where some called others joggers not runners to much criticism from the more encouraging on the forum. You're a cyclist or a runner of you cycle or run. Simples.