So I was wondering, do you have one? Do you know someone who has one? I'm rather fascinated by the different ways the brain is designed, and disorders have interested me since I met someone with Asperger's Syndrome 5 or so years ago.

Personally, I know one person with Asperger's Syndrome and I used to know someone with ADD but am no longer friends with them.

Myself, I am quite certain I have a social disorder of some sort, as while I "thrive" (if you can call it that) online, I utterly fail at social interaction in person.

What about you?

I've never been diagnosed, but I imagine I'd be given a diagnosis of some sort of anxiety disorder(s) if I ever went in for treatment.

Most likely social anxiety and plain old anxiety. I can function quite well in real life situations, but I have had horrible trouble trusting people or feeling comfortable in social situations since I was very young. I don't like it when I feel like people know too much about me, never have, so I'm not close to more than a handful of people.

I gotta agree there... it doesn't help that most people (from my experiences) tend to stab in the back... part of the initial reasons I didn't really learn to socialize growing up.

Head wise I have two issues I guess.
Anosmia - no sense of smell
Barometric headaches - Upside: it predicts changes in weather. Downside: They can be so bad some days I can't see and can't get out of bed.

Anosmia is a bit of an annoying 'disability'. I get food poisoning sometimes since I can't smell when certain foods are expired. After years of being with me, family and friends still ask me to 'smell this, it's amazing!' only for me to glare at them in response since they keep forgetting. I also live in a house with a gas cooker so it's potentially deadly for me if there's a gas leak.

They say that smell is strongly associated with memories. I barely have emotions linked to memories granted I can remember things at all.

@Poet: Lots of things just led me to not trust people, and eventually it just ended up turning into anxiety problems. The sad fact that a lot of people back stab and just generally are untrustworthy doesn't help either. XP I also had hard ass parents as a kid, so I'm always waiting for somebody to yell at me for something I didn't do, or overreact to a little mistake.

But, oh well. My parents are better now that I'm older, and I do know some good people.

@Pa-chinko: Oh man. It's crazy that you can't smell. It never even occurred to me that was possible.

My mom suffered from barometric headaches for many years. Now she takes a medicine that made them almost entirely disappear. She has to carry around water like a camel, though, because it dehydrates her so badly.

@ Pa-chinko - No sense of smell? That is a strange one for me. I have a very strong sense of smell. Some days I'd envy you.
Headaches are no fun... I get those all the time...
Well there are a lot of other ways to tell, though to tell you the truth... >.>" smelling foods to see if it's bad is risky... some of that stuff is vile...

Just wondering... if you can't smell... can you still taste? It's a myth as far as I know... but... if you can taste... then the world of smells isn't impossible to experience.

@ Elys - Quite possible, plug your nose XD
I can totally relate to getting blamed for stuff I didn't do.

I can taste but at a very basic level. I can taste saltiness, sweetness and so on but those more complex and deep flavours people talk about are completely unknown to me nowadays. I can smell on some occasions but on a very minimal degree that I can't tell what it is I'm smelling. For some scents in the air I can also 'taste' it in the back of my throat similar to if you spray perfume and you breathe in some of those particles. They're never pleasant though.

I've had the condition for 10 years now so I do remember some flavours and smells and do sometimes get 'phantom smells'. Often it's strawberries for some reason. I could be anywhere, even in a dirty bathroom and the smell of strawberries pervade me as if I'm in a room filled with them. @_@

Though it makes changing diapers a lot easier. xD

@Elysium o.o What drug is this? I am interested.

I am in no way being a cranky lurker, but I am just curious as to why the title has disabilities in speech marks. I wonder whether you see disorders as not being part of the category of disabilities? Or it had a different meaning entirely?

@ Pa-chinko - No... perfume is never pleasant... from my experiences I think the taste of things is very similar to the smell...
Haha!! Diapers... now THAT is where the true benefit is!

@ Luna - Because a disability is never truly a complete disability. I learned that from a girl who can't work, can barely hold conversation, and can barely go outside alone without being in danger of getting lost or hurt. While people call this "disabled", her brain focuses more on what she DOES have, which enhances her ability to draw, paint, write, etc.

It's the same as if you lose your sense of sight. Your other senses pick up for the loss of sight to let you "see" your environment. I mean heck, there's a guy who is blind, deaf, and has a very heavy "deaf" accent that's hard to understand, but this dude rides the bus every day going around the city only needing help crossing the streets (because idiots never pay enough attention to people like him).

So really it's mostly that I'm fascinated by how people develop and overcome the different obstacles the body can put in our path. When I look at a disabled person I don't think "Oh that sucks they lost X", I think "I wonder how their body changed to accommodate this obstacle"

Hehe... wall of text... hope that answers your question. I know I think weird XD

I have ADD, bipolar, and anxiety. I don't take any medications or anything because I don't think I really need them since I rarely have bad episodes.

I'm very socially awkward too but I'm trying to get better with that. I used to not say a word to anyone I didn't know. Like I'd just clam up and not talk. Thankfully, I overcame that.

@ Mystic - Well so long as you don't have manic episodes medication isn't really needed... those are the ones that are dangerous. I've seen quite a few of them... they're scary...

The public bus system here has a community that is very relaxing... that's really what helped me get "out of my shell" a bit to talk to strangers. Still very hard to do offline though o.o

Yeah, my sister gets really bad manic episodes where she'll actually go into a psychotic state and not remember anything from it. It's scary because she'll start hallucinating and stuff like that too. The doctors all just keep telling her it's due to bipolar disorder though everyone else I know that has it never got that bad.

I've gotten better with knowing when manic episodes are going to happen with me so I'm not horribly bad. I got rid of my credit cards and bank cards so I can't spend like I used to which is good. There were times though where I just didn't care and just wanted to do whatever I wanted at the time, which does get scary.

A friend of mine, her mother is manic. While visiting her I saw quite a few manic episodes. She has them likely as bad as your sister. They're never pleasant. My dad actually worked with a bipolar lady who I'm quite sure hit a manic episode because she started throwing office chairs @_@

For some reason though... people who are manic seem from my experiences to not want to take their medication... is that the same for your sister?

Well everyone has spending sprees... I see that everywhere nowadays XD even my brother will go on a spending spree sometimes. I think credit cards create a manic like effect when it comes to money >.<"

Originally Posted by The Wandering Poet

@ Luna - Because a disability is never truly a complete disability. I learned that from a girl who can't work, can barely hold conversation, and can barely go outside alone without being in danger of getting lost or hurt. While people call this "disabled", her brain focuses more on what she DOES have, which enhances her ability to draw, paint, write, etc.

It's the same as if you lose your sense of sight. Your other senses pick up for the loss of sight to let you "see" your environment. I mean heck, there's a guy who is blind, deaf, and has a very heavy "deaf" accent that's hard to understand, but this dude rides the bus every day going around the city only needing help crossing the streets (because idiots never pay enough attention to people like him).

So really it's mostly that I'm fascinated by how people develop and overcome the different obstacles the body can put in our path. When I look at a disabled person I don't think "Oh that sucks they lost X", I think "I wonder how their body changed to accommodate this obstacle"

Oh! I totally agree with you. I was just wondering as sometimes people disregard mental disorders and don't see them as a disability, which I think is silly since they are under the disability act and they can dis-able someone more than some physical disabilities.

I completely see what you mean, and to be honest, I haven't come across someone with the same view before.

To be honest, I hung out with the disabled kids in middle school because they were the only ones who weren't total and complete losers. XD

I absolutely love trying to help someone overcome their disability as well. It's such a thrilling experience watching them take those baby steps =3

nothing diagnosed, and I refuse to speak to anyone to get anythign diagnosed, I mean they can find anything no one seems to be without a problem. So I'd rather be oblivious and if it was obvious then I would know about it and sort it out but Im not worried about minor problems. I know i do get a little down if i=there's not much sun for a long time and I know thats a real thing, but eh.
My brother and my best friends brother both have autism/aspergas.

@Keo: Meh, that's not a disorder. It's just you're low on Vitamin D because of the lack of sun. Most people get that.

Good psychologists won't diagnose people for just anything. There is actually an extremely long and detailed list of things that people have to be experiencing to be diagnosed with a mental disorder.

But, you're right, most people have something abnormal even if it's not bad enough to be diagnosable.

Pa-chinko: Had to find an obscure way of asking about what it is, but the medicine she takes is called Amitriptyline.

I think depression from no sunlight is human nature... some of us just turn into half-vampires and stop caring about the sunlight... o.o

Originally Posted by The Wandering Poet

A friend of mine, her mother is manic. While visiting her I saw quite a few manic episodes. She has them likely as bad as your sister. They're never pleasant. My dad actually worked with a bipolar lady who I'm quite sure hit a manic episode because she started throwing office chairs @_@

For some reason though... people who are manic seem from my experiences to not want to take their medication... is that the same for your sister?

Well everyone has spending sprees... I see that everywhere nowadays XD even my brother will go on a spending spree sometimes. I think credit cards create a manic like effect when it comes to money >.<"

Yeah, she doesn't think she needs them most the time when she really should be on something. She's gotten so bad to the point where we've had to take her to the hospital a few times. Not fun trying to get someone a lot bigger into a car when they don't want to and are combative.

I agree with the credit cards. It's easier to spend money that you can't really see.

Originally Posted by ElysiumFate

Good psychologists won't diagnose people for just anything.

Yet they still have to diagnose all the same. It gets tricky when licensed clinicians have to diagnose in order for insurance companies to reimburse, thus allowing the individual to continue services. :(

Just wanted to gripe a bit about the way the US system works, heheh. It's frustrating, especially for diagnoses like Borderline Personality Disorder, where the client is referred elsewhere before a clinician even tries to help them. Labeling exists even within the "helping" profession.

/rant over

As for my own opinion over diagnoses, I think if everyone sat down for an evaluation, everyone would have something to diagnose, be it big or small. When I work with people, I try to view them as just that--people. It becomes a dangerous trap when you view diagnoses, as you often miss out on so much more.

I have a year to go before I'm conditionally licensed, but I've been getting my feet wet working with individuals with mild to severe mental retardation, often with co-occurring disorders such as Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Mood Disorder, Autism (varying forms), Anxiety, etc. It's been interesting.

@ Chi - I think a diagnosis should really only be used to understand, not label. I've seen so many people call those with asperger's some pretty nasty and cruel things by making it a label... yet I use it to understand them because if they have that "label", I can research the diagnosis to learn how to interact with them. Most people just throw them into a stereotype though and it's so sad...

It's always so funny to me when the term "mental retardation" is used for the disabled... because I see a lot of full functioning people who need that label so much more... like the guy just today that jumped over a lady in a wheelchair because he wanted off the bus before she could get on (she was on the lift).
The people who end up with the "mental retardation" title are always great fun people to talk to. >.>" those were the guys I hung out with in school because they actually had a working brain.

@Chi: That's exactly why I said "good" psychologists. :) One of my past professors absolutely refuses to take insurance because she doesn't want to have to diagnose her patients with something in order to get insurance money, yet she still wants to help them.

But yeah, the psych field is a bit of a mess...but then again, I believe that every last one of the health care fields in the U.S. is extremely screwed up at this point.

And considering the massive rates of anxiety and depression in today's society, I'm sure most people would go away with at least a warning.

Haha... my psych professor had so many issues he could probably diagnose people through personal experience...
You know class will be entertaining when the teacher argues with the markers for 5 minutes a day...

I miss that class...

Psych professors are the best. XD They're always a tad nuts, themselves.

I had one once that worked my living ass off but I didn't mind because every time I went into his class he'd go off on some story about how he uses his mastery of psychology to parent his children. It was great.

Children of psychologists are very poor screwed little people.

Mine thought love was a disorder of some sort, saying it was all just chemical misfires... he's single... XD
He said he would lecture anytime someone would go anywhere near psychology... I guess one doesn't have to be autistic to be able to talk nonstop about a passion ^.^