Similarities between Asperger's and other disorders.

What does Asperger's have in common with other disorders?
Asperger's and Autism are frequently misdiagnosed and confused with other disorders, including:
ADHD
OCD
Schizophrenia
Just to name a few.
A few things these disorders have in common with Asperger's include:
ADHD:
Fidgeting.
Having trouble sitting quietly or sitting still.
Having trouble taking turns or waiting for their turn.
Frequently interrupting others.
Act or speak without thinking.
Struggle with following instructions.
Problems with being forgetful.
Ability to hyperfocus (often getting distracted and hyperfocusing on the wrong thing).
People with ADHD are more than 2x more likely to attempt suicide. People with Asperger's are more than 20 times more likely to attempt suicide than people without the disorder!
People often don't trust people with ADHD or Asperger's and people with these disorders have a hard time trusting other people.
Poor organization skills. Frequently losing things.
Not good at time management.
Anger outbursts.
A lot of people with either one of the disorders really love cats.

OCD:
Unwanted, intrusive thoughts.
Following a routine.
Obsessive hand washing.
Checking doors repeatedly to make sure they are locked.
Checking the stove to make sure it's off.

Schizophrenia:
Delusional thinking.
Easily agitated.
Lack of emotional expressions.
Phobias.
Acting inappropriately for the current situation. (Ex: Feeling sad, but smiling. Laughing at a funeral or showing no emotion or facial expression.)
Lack of pleasure or interest in things.
Little desire for social interactions.
Much higher risk of attempting suicide (About 10% of Schizophrenics attempt suicide).
People with Paranoid Schizophrenia often act aggressive and impulsive (Those traits are not as common in other types of Schizophrenia).
Stimming (Ex. Hand flapping, rocking back and forth, etc).

Asperger's:
Lack of social awareness (Not picking up on nonverbal cues. Not showing normal body language, facial expressions or tone of voice.
Also, not being able to pick up on other people's nonverbal body language, facial expressions, etc).
Unusual speech patterns.
(Monotone voice, speaking too loudly, more advanced vocabulary than most people their age,trouble comprehending figurative language, literal interpretation of things. "For example: Raining cats and dogs." They might think there is literally animals falling out of the sky.)
One sided conversations. (They don't let the other person talk as much as they do. Only want to talk about things they like.)
Resistance to change.
They appear to lack empathy. Sometimes they are truly not very empathetic. But, usually they are very empathetic, they just don't show it very well, because, they don't show facial expressions and body language very well. They also don't show the normal tone of voice for the situation. They often have monotone voices.
Easily overstimulated by noise, light, heat and cold).
Limited, intense interests on only a few subjects. Like, Outer Space, Dinosaurs, Math or cars.
Lack of eye contact. They have a very hard time looking people in the eyes. It is a phobia for them.
Sometimes staring at people or objects.
Difficulty making friends and keeping them.
A lot of kids have delayed motor skill development.
Isolation or minimal interaction in social situations.
Inability to understand and recognize: Humor, jokes, irony and sarcasm.
Problems expressing empathy, controlling emotions and communicating feelings.
Meltdowns.
Sometimes hyperactive.
Overstimulated senses.
A lot of people on the Autism spectrum love cats and dogs.
Have problems multitasking.
Often very smart with high IQ scores.
(Einstein and Bill Gates are suspected of having Asperger's. Bill Gates went to Harvard. Both of them had IQ scores of: 160, geniuses.)
Detail oriented. They notice fine details and not the big picture.
Can recognize patterns in things.
More than 20 times more likely to attempt suicide.
Clumsiness.
Stimming.
Able to hyperfocus on things.
Not big on team sports. Really not big fans of any sports at all. However, they'd rather play individual sports, that don't involve a team, like Golf.
Suffer from Depression and Anxiety.
Less trusting of people.
Have serious problems driving a manual transmission vehicle. They need to get an automatic transmission.
They often have problems finding and keeping a job.

More boys are diagnosed with Asperger's and Autism than girls.
It is difficult for Psychologists to test for Autism.
Most people are diagnosed when they are much older. (I was diagnosed with Asperger's at age 40.)
Someone who has Asperger's is often called an "Aspie".
Fidget Spinners are good for people with Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Asperger's is now referred to as an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Asperger's is no longer listed in the DSM manual.
People often have Two or more psychological disorders, such as: Asperger's and ADHD. This is known as: "Comorbid disorders".
Autism is represented by a puzzle. Because, it is a "puzzling disorder". There are so many symptoms. Nobody has literally all the symptoms. No Two people with the disorder are exactly alike. It is very puzzling and confusing to both people who have it and people that don't. It's usually a Blue puzzle. Blue is the color chosen to represent Autism.

What if you were the only person left on Earth?

(My reason for writing this is: To explain what life would be like if you lived forever and never died, but, you were also the only human left on Earth.
I've often wondered what that would be like. I wanted to write a book about it. But, that proved to be harder than I thought I'd be. So I just posted a short story on my blog, rather than an entire novel.)

Imagine what it would be like if one day you made a wish that you would live forever. Then one day something strange happens and every human gets really sick and dies all over the world in one day, that is, all except you! Now you will learn that, sometimes, you have to be careful what you wish for, because you just might get your wish!
Since every person on Earth just died at the same time, strange and catastrophic things instantly start to happen all around you. You were just walking around town in New York City with 5 of your close friends at the time it happened. Suddenly, your friends all start complaining of having chest pain. You look around and see everyone else walking down the sidewalk or driving their car is having chest pain to. You're confused, because you feel fine. About one minute later, every person you see just falls down dead!
Thousands of cars crash all over the road.
There is almost no electricity, except for places that have their own generators, solar power or other sources of electricity. So 99% of all the lights go out around town.
Now you are getting scared and lonely.
It only takes about a minute for airplanes to start falling out of the sky and crashing into the ground and buildings. The pilots and everyone else are already dead, so nobody's left to fly the plane.
You think, "Since everybody's dead, I might as well take all their money." That's actually a good idea, because, you may need it to start a fire to keep warm.
Now that you're the only person left, money is worthless!
While you're stealing everyone's money, you also steal other things: Guns, keys, jewelry, tools, medical supplies and anything else you can get.
Since the illness only affected people, not plants or other animals, most of the zoo animals escape from the zoo. They are scared, hungry and mad. They start wandering around the city, searching for food and shelter. Most of them start eating dead people. But a few Pythons, Elephants, Lions, wild dogs, Monkeys and large birds start chasing you. The animals back you into a corner of a building. You can't run, because vicious animals are blocking your way!
You quickly grab one of the guns you stole from a dead guy. Instinctively, you point the 357 Magnum at the largest bully, in this case, it's the Elephant. You cap off one bullet into its head. But, that doesn't stop the beast. He's even angrier now. You pull the trigger again, but the gun jams! You throw it on the ground and grab another gun, this time, it's a 9 mm. You manage to kill all the hungry animals.
But, now you have more problems. Satellites are crashing into the atmosphere from space. They explode when they hit the Earth's Ionosphere. Chunks of metal and other debris are raining in all around you. You run into a building. Some pieces of the satellites crash through the roof at 100 MPH, almost hitting your head!
Because of all the things happening at the moment, most of the buildings have caught on fire!
Without thinking, you grab your cellphone and call the fire department. Then, you realize that there is no phone service! All the firefighters and people at the phone company are probably all dead to!
You quickly run down to the Subway to take shelter.
You notice there's no light down there. You grab a lighter out of your pocket. But you smell a strong oder of natural gas and dead bodies! Realizing that it would be a bad idea to use it, you put the lighter away, so you don't blow the place up. You continue walking through the dark and stepping on dead bodies. You hear strange noises, then something is biting your ankle. With no people around, the rats are free to run all around and one of them just chose you for its next meal!
Continuing to feel your way around in the dark, you notice the Subway train has jumped off the tracks and tipped over,after having run over about 50 dead people!
You are starting to go crazy with anxiety and scream for help because there's nothing else to do! "I can't stay here." you think. But, if you go upstairs, the zoo animals will eat you alive!
You stop and think for a minute and remember that you were a Green Beret in the US Army for 10 years. Utilizing your Special Forces training, you manage to hide and evade the ferocious animals. You walk quietly up the stairs and find a car that is not wrecked. You drive home with hopes that your family's still there. You soon get home and find that your entire family is dead!
Now you just get more depressed and scared.
You jump back in the car that you just acquired and drive to the grocery store. When you get a mile down the road, you find a case of beer and a large bag of Marijuana. Realizing that there's no cops around to stop you, you start drinking the beer and smoking weed. It calms your mind for a while.
When you arrive at the local Walmart, you walk around in the dark, trying not to step on all the dead bodies! You grab all the food and beer that will fit in your car. Then you realize that all the perishable food will be moldy and rotten soon and nobody is around to restock it.
When you leave the store, you drive around to clear your mind and look for any other human survivor. But, you drove 250 miles and now you are low on gas. You get to the nearest gas station and the pumps don't work! You find another car, hotwire it and drive away. This car was not the best choice, because when you hit the brakes, they don't work! The car won't stop! Since you didn't use the seatbelt, the vehicle crashed into a truck that was hauling dynamite and you go flying through the windshield! You were driving as fast as the car could go (about 300 MPH). You suffer several broken bones and other traumatic injuries. Then the dynamite blows up. You are severely burned in the worst pain you've ever felt. But, you are a former Green Beret, so you remember what the Army taught you about pain: "Suck it up and drive on!" You try your best to ignore the pain, like your Sergeants taught you in Special Forces.
You manage to keep walking despite the pain, broken bones and major blood loss.
You realize that there's not a single doctor that can help you now. But, you find a needle and thread, stich yourself up and force your bones back into place.
As you keep walking, you decide the pain is just too much for you to take. You find some rat poison and eat a whole box of it. Then you shoot yourself in the head with a 44 magnum.
The gun knocked you to the ground and put a big hole in your head, but you didn't die! Remember your wish: "I wish to live forever!"
This is just day ONE of the rest of your life! Things will only get much worse from here!
For example: Eventually all the buildings will collapse. There will be severe rain and snow storms. Meteors will hit the Earth. Nuclear power plants will meltdown. You'll get old and sick, but nobody can help you. There will be another ice age that might last 1,000 years or more. Cars and other modern things we have today won't work forever.
The Sun will swell up to become a Red Giant. It will completely swallow up Mercury and Venus. It will get so close to Earth that it will be to hot for anything (except you) to survive here. Then it will collapse into a very densely packed, very heavy, small and cold, White Dwarf star.
The Moon will either float away, crash into Earth or explode. Whatever happens to the Moon won't be good. Without the Moon, life would not be possible on Earth! But, I'll write a blog about that later.
In about two or three Million years, the Milky Way Galaxy will crash violently into the Andromeda Galaxy. The two galaxies will merge and become one giant galaxy called the "Milkomeda Galaxy".
The entire Universe will eventually die out. Everything will fall apart. The atoms of literally everything will start to separate and all that will be left is a mysterious substance that Scientists don't understand, they've never actually seen it and they don't know exactly what it is, it's called: "Dark Matter".
The Dark Matter will will disappear eventually to. Leaving nothing absolutely nothing behind in the Universe.
You will be left floating around in a place that used to be known as "outer space. But, you will have no air to breath, no food or water and no human or or other living companions left!
Of course you will still be alive, because, remember, you asked for it!
Eventually, you get lucky though, a wormhole opens up and transports you to another dimension. A world that is really strange. Nothing is the same as it was in your old Universe. All the laws of Physics, Chemistry and other forms of Science and Math are completely different in the new. Universe.
Even though you do meet some new friends, they are aliens from the new world and they don't even speak your same language. Now, all your English and any other human language you speak is totally useless, however, within a few years, you learn the new alien language.
But, in a few Million years, everybody will die off there to, everyone except you and you will end up in the same situation again!

 I can't explain what Dark Matter is, because even Scientists don't know what it is. However,Scientists do know that something exists that we can't see. Most of what we call "Empty space" might not be empty, it might be full of Dark Matter. Scientists even think that Dark Matter, whatever it is, could the most common substance in the Universe and outer space along with the space between planets and Everything right in front of your eyes that is not a solid or liquid object that you can see, the space between you and that visible object might be full of Dark Matter. If that's true, then about 99% of the Universe is all Dark Matter!