My post to the Aspie Hangout

Hey there,

I'm still not sure if I have Asperger's but I think, if what I read in this thread is true, a lot of labels overlap. There is UCLA led group or organization called MATRICS (Measurement and Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia.) Until now, cognition has been ignored as a problem in shizophrenia (probably because no drug companies have treatments for it.) The work is so new that they had to come up with a list of probable cognitive domains which cause problems. I found the list quite interesting.

• Working memory
• Attention/vigilance
• Verbal learning and memory
• Visual learning and memory
• Speed of processing
• Reasoning and problem-solving
• Social cognition

For me, 1- working memory, 2- speed of processing and 3- social cognition are difficulities. But I don't have schizophrenia.

So, for me and where I'm at now and what I've learned over the years, I just have questions. If I have a mild type of Asperger's, how does knowing that help any of those problems and since Asperger's is so ill-defined, which of my problems spring from that. I have depression (mostly in remission with medication.) That can also cause the three deficits mentioned above. So maybe that is cause of my probs. I also have hypersomnia. (I'd be very drowsy most of the time without stimulants.) Maybe my sleep stages are unusual and don't refresh my body. But here is where I start to go in circles because I read a study done on the sleeping patterns of individuals with Asperger's and it (I can't remember the details) said people with Asperger's have very unusual and erratic sleep patterns.

So, I'm at a loss of what causes what and which problem goes with which diagnosis. It is very confusing.

And, even if I knew, there don't seem to be any treatments.

There is no point to this ramble. I just wanted to get this out of my system. Thanks for listening people. ; ) River.

PS: I feel really dense here but what are LFA's and HFA's and huffies? The Kanner study?