messymarsh said:
can aspergers form later on in life say when u started having seizures? as that is one of the "calling cards" of it, i display almost all of this behavior but not intell i just recently began having seizurs and what i hate even more, taking the medicin i also have something else id like to post. about how someone else was talking about thinking to fast to follow but not tell i get an answer on this.
With Aspergers and also with seizures there is the important and confusing issue of what they call "co-morbidity" to sort out. Some authorities believe that 60-70% of people with Asperger's
also have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. In this case we would say the person has Asperger's
co-morbid with ADHD. ADHD is not Asperger's, but seems often to come
with Asperger's. This creates confusion. What part of the person's behavior is Asperger's and what part is ADHD? A really careful expert, trained in both, can sort one symptom from another but some "experts" cannot:
Some authors estimate that 60% to 70% of Aspies also have Attention Deficit Disorder, which they consider a common comorbidity of Asperger Syndrome. Other authors say that the two cannot exist together. Still others insist doctors have it all wrong and that the two disorders are the same. The real problem is that there is no hard science. No one knows exactly how slight imperfections in brain structure and chemistry cause such problems.
http://www.yourlittleprofessor.com/adhd.html
You should read that whole article at the link. It points out there is additional confusion when a person has Asperger's co-morbid with Obsessive-Compusive Disorder, and it gives a description of the
qualitative differences you should look for in trying to separate Asperger's behaviors from ADHD behaviors.
I think GreatEscapist is actually describing an ADD type symptom when she talks about the fast thoughts. At any rate, it's not a "calling card" Asperger's trait at all. I've read blogs by a lot of Aspies, and met a few in real life, who write and speak very deliberately and coherently.
The same thing, fast, pressured thinking, often also shows up extremely often in Bipolar Disorder. If you read the posts of some bipolar people you might get equally exited about the fast thinking and feel you fit in well with that diagnosis. I'm going to guess that if you were to research Asperger's in depth, and actually meet at least a few people properly diagnosed with Asperger's, you'd start to see you're not actually like them in essence. The same with bipolar. The more you become familiar with it the more aware you'd be of how you only resemble it in one or two aspects.
People with Temporal Lobe Seizures often, but not always, experience personality changes after the seizures.
http://professionals.epilepsy.com/page/behavioral_temporallobe.html
I found that by googling "Epileptic Interictal Personality". There are lots of papers and articles, lots of arguments pro and con. Many experts agree there are changes in the personality after seizures but it's hard to find two who agree on the exact sorts of changes. One thing I think it's always safe to say is that we become "enthusiastic thinkers", as I told you in the thread you started. Suddenly, after the seizures start, the person becomes involved in a world of thinking.
But, with seizures, there is also the problem of co-morbidity to sort out. There is nothing to prevent someone with seizures from also having some other problem. One reference I read stated that something as high as 48% of people with seizures also have clear cut cases of clinical depression. This is true of me, I got that diagnosis. So when I'm feeling especially depressed and my self esteem is at rock bottom I also completely avoid eye contact. I won't hold someone's gaze for longer than a split second and my eyes dart away.
There can be anyone of a number of things causing you to avoid eye contact at this point and the superficial resemblance of that to a common Asperger's trait is really neither here nor there. When I'm not feeling depressed I love eye contact, and seek it out. One of the reasons I try to ask Aspies the exact nature of their dislike for eye contact is because I'm trying to sort out the qualitative difference between their dislike for it and other cases where it might occur. Rhody mentioned a friend who doesn't seem to have Aspie traits, but who avoids eye contact. I have to wonder why.
So, I think the changes you notice in your thinking are the direct aftermath of the seizures, and the eye contact thing is circumstantially related somehow. I very much doubt you developed Asperger's.