Individuals with Asperger Syndrome (AS) can be particularly at risk of developing mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. In this book, adults with Asperger Syndrome talk about their own experiences of mental health issues, offering sound advice for other Aspies and providing valuable insights for mental health professionals.Touching on everything from difficulties at work and college to coping with low self-confidence, self-harm, alcohol, misdiagnosis, sectioning, counselling, medication and battles with mental health services, the book provides a window into how people with AS experience mental health issues, and what can be done to help. The individual accounts contain innovative coping methods and strategies for maintaining emotional and psychological wellbeing as well as practical advice on things like how to stay positive and deal with day-to-day stress and meltdowns.This is core reading for adults with Asperger Syndrome, and their families and friends, and will be essential to psychologists, psychiatrists, mental health service providers and other professionals who support adults with Asperger Syndrome.
Introduction.; 1. Mental Health Services and Me: What Worked, and What Didn't. Janet Christmas.; 2. Coping with Depression: Positive Advice for Aspies. Debbie Allen.; 3. My Fur-lined Bucket: Alternative Methods of Dealing with Mental Health Issues. E Veronica Bliss.; 4. This Aspie Life: The Undiagnosed Aspie Experience. 8ball.; 5. A Colourful Rainbow: Embracing Autism as a Neurological Difference, Rather than a Mental Health Disorder. Melanie Smith.; 6. Getting the Right Diagnosis, and its Impact on Mental Health: Is this the Best the NHS Can Do? Cornish.; 7. Positive Mental Attitude: Coping with Setbacks, Knowing Your Own Strengths, and Finding Happiness Any Way You Can. Dean Worton.; 8. ''It's all in your head'': The Dangers of Misdiagnosis. Neil Shepherd.; 9. A Fairytale Life It Isn't (AKA Chapter 9): Alcohol, Self-harm, and the Benefits of Exercise. Alexandra Brown.; 10. ''Getting My Life Back'': A Mother's Struggle to Get Mental Health Services for Herself and Her Son. Anne Henderson.; 11. A Week in the Life Of: Strategies for Maintaining Mental Health as an Aspie. Steve Jarvis.; 12. My Plastic Bubble: Dealing with Depression, Anxiety, and Low Self-confidence. Wendy Lim.; 13. The Art of Being Content: Asperger Syndrome, Buddhism, and Me. Chris Mitchell.; 14. A Journey Looking for Answers About the Way I Am. Anthony Sclafani.; 15. A Label that Fits: Diagnoses, Self-harm, and Mental Health. Natasha Goldthorpe.; 16. Through the Looking Glass into Lynette Land: Making Humour Work. Lynette Marshall.; 17. Mental Health and the Workplace: Dealing with Criticism, Coping with Stress, and Taking Control of Your Environment. Dr. Christopher Wilson.
I found this book hard to put down and in fact read it in one sitting, only pausing to replenish my tea mug... I enjoy every account and found many to be both painful, informative and sometimes seriously funny with an enormous amount of self-deprecating humour and exceptional awareness of their own differences. Many of the contributors offered their own solutions, either revealed as part of their story or laid out in bullet points. The accounts are well written, each with their own style and character, all having needlessly suffered through the ignorance of those around them. A recurring theme is that trying to make someone on the spectrum into a neuro-typical person is harmful and damaging... It is an interesting read in its own right simply as a human interest book but is a must for anyone dealing with Aspergers professionally or personally, particularly mental health professionals. Anyone on the spectrum would probably relate to most of the accounts and feel comforted to hear their own experiences mirrored, particularly those with anxiety and depression. I also feel that it has much to offer all professionals who work with or may encounter those on the spectrum, helping them to understand why someone may react in a particular way. This book is a gem and has much to teach us all however experienced we might feel ourselves to be, in an easy to assimilate format. All the accounts are well-written and all have a purpose. Buy it, enjoy it and pass it on, particularly to mental health professionals.
