Prepare to enter the wild and wooly world of an adult with Aspergers Syndrome, a form of autism characterized by intellignce, quirks, social difficulties and downright strange and oddish behaviours.

People with Aspergers generally are high functioning in everyday life but have great difficulty connecting with others due to the inability to read faces, body language and subtle verbal clues. They also tend to take words literally and have a hard time multi-tasking.

Oversensitivity to touch (clothing has to be soft and often the tags removed), light (do not leave home without the sunglasses), sound (loud noises and noisey places are avoided), taste (many Aspies have quite a limited diet and are frequently very picky eaters) and smells makes the everyday existence more of a challenge.

Fasten your seatbelts and come on in...
To find out more about what Aspergers is..please check out my earliest blog entries

Thursday, December 1, 2016

Corvallis Community Acupuncture

I haven't had an acupuncture treatment since I arrived here 4 months ago or so. I asked my housing helper, CC, if she would go with me to check out the Corvallis Community Acupuncture Clinic. My doctor had recommended it. Researching on the line, the Clinic was the cheapest and only affordable place in town. They didn't charge as they operated strictly on donations of whatever you could afford. I was majorly excited to see this place.
CC and I located the building. We went in and talked with the receptionist. The first thing I did was mention that I was autistic and that I was wondering if I could see the treatment room. The receptionist kinda lit up when I said "autistic", as if she had some idea of what the word meant.
She gladly walked us down the hall and showed us the treatment room. Omg, I couldn't even walk in the place...I couldn't believe my eyes...I did keep the tears in because my dreams of getting acupuncture were suddenly dashed against the rocks.
It truly was a Community clinic in that all clients were treated in one large room. There were 10 cot-like seats, beds and 8 were occupied with semi-slumbering clients in a wide variety of ages. I knew I'd never be a client in that room. I could never close my eyes in a room with ten others. The only time I'm not distressed is when I'm the only one in the room and my anxiety rises with each additional breathing body.
No, no, no, this girl would never be a victim, client in that big room. No, no, no, nope.
Maybe it's just not time for acupuncture. I mean, I've only had three meetings with New Potential Therapist. Maybe I need to focus there first.
The Acupuncture Clinic probably works really well for most, just not this Aspie.