Asperges

pipsy
Community Member

Hi guys.  Does anyone out there know anything about Asperges?  Where I work we have an adult male with this illness.  I haven't noticed anything, but he was working with another guy who was driving a coach.  The person he was with didn't know and he told me the Asperges sufferer 'twitched', muttered and frightened this other person.   How do you look after someone with this problem, what are the signs that he's having these seizures.  I presume the chap with the illness is on meds, but don't know enough about it. 

Can anyone enlighten me.

3 Replies 3

Hypatia
Community Member

I am by no means an expert, so someone else may want to correct me here - I have collegues and nephews with Asbergers.

Seizures, I believe, are a frequently occuring co-morbid condition with Asbergers, rather than considered part of the disease. So around a quarter of people with Asbergers will have some kind of seizures, which can vary a lot from shaking or staring through to blacking out. It varies too much to give you any kind of useful answer though - if in doubt, I would politely ask your co-worker if there are things that people working him should know about his health.

In general, people with Asbergers often miss social cues that we take for granted - they can find it hard to read body language or tone of voice to understand when someone is happy, upset, frustrated etc. Sometimes, sarcasm can be totally baffling. In a workplace, it can help, we've found, for people to know that, as otherwise the person can seem quite rude (e.g. Aspergers Bob gives Alice a long list of things he needs fixed in his PC. Alice good-naturedly says "is that all? Sure you don't want me to rebuild your computer?" Bob, missing the cues, says "Yes, I do.") The condition also often comes with a strong drive to keep everything in order, love of routine, big struggles with change etc. In some people, it will also come with sensory disturbances, so noise problems or air con problems can be difficult. Of course, a lot of people with Asbergers have great strategies for dealing with all this, and no-one would ever know they are on the spectrum.

Some of my favourite people have Asbergers, but that could be coincidence 🙂

Hope this helps,

Alison

pipsy
Community Member

Thanks Hypatia.  What you've said certainly explains a lot.  The only thing I've really noticed (since I posted, I've thought about it).  This person tends to laugh at the most inappropriate times.  You're right in that he takes what you say as a joke, seriously.  He works with the elderly, which I think could be not the right job for him.  The reason I believe that is because quite often, he's inclined to just walk away, leaving someone else to finish the job.  I don't think he's dangerous, he just appears to be in a world of his own.  He's extremely well mannered, obviously his mother has raised him to be this way.  I think he's actually rather gentle.   Next time I'm working with him, I think I will choose the moment and just ask him what to do if anything (a seizure) should occur.  Are they aware they 'blackout' for lack of another word.  When he started 'twitching' and 'muttering' with this other worker, the worker asked him what he'd said, he didn't seem to understand he'd spoken.  I take it twitching and muttering is a form of blackout, so I wonder if he'd be aware of this.  If you're not expecting it, it can be scary.  I knew he had the problem, but I didn't know others didn't know.

I think fellow workers should be made aware as quietly as possible, so that if anything does happen, we have the knowledge how to deal with it.

BKYTH
Community Member
I was diagnosed with Aspergers recently. I have never heard of people with Aspergers having seizures. Most of what Hypatia says is consistent with my understanding of some of the issues people with Aspergers confront. It is a developmental condition first recognized by Hans Asperger.                                                                                              Many psychological difficulties can arise with people with this condition due to the difficulties they confront in dealing with social situations and in the past has been misdiagnosed as schizoid personality disorder (as it was in my case over 40yrs ago). People with Aspergers are not dangerous and I think this person needs to seek medical advise to be assessed in regard to this behaviour. Perhaps seizure is not the appropriate term to call this behaviour as in all my research on the subject I have never heard of seizures being an aspect of those with this condition.               Philip.