In society, there are many people struggling with problems throughout their entire life. One in every hundred people deal with the struggle called Asperger’s Syndrome (Members of the National Autistic Society). Asperger’s Syndrome is a disorder on the autism spectrum, and is associated with many other disorders. Asperger’s Syndrome is one of the most common mental disorders, but is the one of the hardest to deal with socially and mentally for the person diagnosed with it and even harder for others to understand.
Children with Asperger’s Syndrome may talk at a more sophisticated level or be vastly than their peers, and who will often reject the child with Asperger’s Syndrome for it. A child with Asperger’s Syndrome is bullied often for being a little different; "In some areas, there have been reports of 90 percent of kids with Asperger's are getting bullied on a daily basis,"(Donvan). This is making them self-conscious; and why paranoia and being an introvert are issues with Asperger’s Syndrome. “A regression analysis highlighted private self-consciousness as the only predictor of paranoia”(Blackshaw).When children are bullied and feel they don’t have a friend in the world, they start thinking that everyone is out to hurt them, and refuse to become close with many people. There is an onset fear that not a single person will truly like them, therefore ,they tend not to talk to people and even push people away who try talking to them.
Asperger’s Syndrome patients have to deal with hyper sensitivity, which is considered sensory sensitivity. “People with sensory integration difficulties - including many people with an ASD - have difficulty processing everyday sensory information”(Members of the National Autistic Society). Their senses are heightened. For example, wearing stiff fabric can make a person with Asperger’s Syndrome tense and uncomfortable. This becomes a major annoyance that they just can’t handle anymore; it is the same feeling as someone poking someone repeatedly when already asked to stop. The same goes for smell, hearing, taste, and even sight. “People who have Asperger's Syndrome are REALLLLLLLY sensitive to everything. This can be a good thing sometimes, because they are more aware of things. (Like, they can tell you if the phone is ringing, and you may not have known!) The downside is that it's very very distracting. I feel like the princess and the pea sometimes. Yes, I CAN feel that pea underneath all those mattresses, and I CAN'T SLEEP!” says Erin Clems a girl with Asperger’s Syndrome who writes about her experiences with it. This can end up causing melt downs can be an angry outburst, crying, swearing, throwing, running away from the annoyance, and many other ways to express the frustration, which is understandable for all the stress it causes them. “A good example of experiencing hypersensitivity, for an average person would be: You're driving down a multi-lane highway at 75 mph with lots of intersections, all the windows down, it's pouring rain, the radio is on full blast, there are crazy drivers all around you, you are running late, you are lost, the sun is in your eyes, you just passed a truck that kicked up dust all around, and there are sirens coming from somewhere you can't tell. With a passenger talking to you” (Clems). A common way to combat a meltdown is try not to overpower their senses or remove them from that area. When the hypersensitivity has taken its toll, most will have a meltdown.
A recent study done on Pervasive Child Development Disorders was “To investigate whether there are global white matter (WM) differences between autistic and healthy adults. The results showed people with Asperger’s Syndrome had a higher level of fractional anisotropy values, is a scalar value between zero and one that describes the degree of anisotropy of a diffusion process, than the control group, which cannot be explained, for there was no difference in planar diffusion coefficient when they were looking for how the white matter of the brain worked differently.(Mental Health Weekly Digest). This is a start to help the professionals understand Asperger’s Syndromes and why those diagnosed with it, do things differently.
The most stressful thing about Asperger’s Syndrome for most is that it has so many aspects of other mental illness such as anxiety, face blindness, mood disorder, manic depression, and many others. “Medical conditions are often related to other diseases and conditions. The confusion with these disorders leads to many people being misdiagnosed and not treated for every aspect of Asperger’s syndrome. Our doctors have compiled a list of ailments related to the topic of Asperger Syndrome” (Stöppler). Which have been listed below: Most people with Asperger’s Syndrome get misdiagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which is treated with pills that only covers a part of their Asperger’s disorder. My little brother is one who was put on pills for ADHD, and has Asperger’s Syndrome. He gets rather frustrated because people in his grade don’t understand his intellect or why he likes to do things his own way. It was a lot easier for him once he started learning about Asperger’s on how to handle himself. This misdiagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome also leaves many untreated. When one with Asperger’s Syndrome is treated for a different disorder like ADHD, then learn they have Asperger’s Syndrome which is entirely different, can be a shock to the patient. The patient will feel their time has been wasted and also will have to change their ways of dealing with their disorders. Once professionals have a better understanding of it they will be able to help and better diagnose Asperger’s Syndrome.
Asperger’s Syndrome is a hard disorder to live with, even more so when adding stressful facts like misdiagnoses and bullying. The depression is hard to get through, because the patient feels that no one understands. The meltdowns can’t be stopped, and people don’t understand how to react when they have one. Paranoia surrounds them because bullies have taught them distrust. They are treated for the wrong disorder and aren’t getting the true help they need. Experts are still barely grasping the concepts of how Asperger’s Syndrome works. Living with Asperger’s Syndrome when thought it’s so common is one of the hardest struggles for those who face it, whether they are the patient or the loved ones trying to understand it.
