Hi, michellemac1! I think it is so interesting that you said the EXACT same words that my mother told me yesterday! About how other parents thought that you couldn't control your kid, that the kid was a "brat", and that s/he was out of control in general...My mom called me yesterday just to talk, and it turns out that my adopted father's (long story there...) nephew has a niece that has just been diagnosed with Asperger's. She was talking to my dad's sister, and the reason the subject was brought up was because the sister wanted to know how I was doing at college. After hearing some of the tales that the sister told about her granddaughter, I think my mom was just plain astounded; I know that she believes me 100% now about both my OCD and Asperger's. For awhile, she just thought that I had some sort of anxiety disorder but that I was over-diagnosing myself or something, especially in the case of OCD. Now, however, after seeing others with the exact same thing, she knows. I think she feels relief that so much of my childhood and odd behavior/tantrums can be easily explained now, but she also feels guilty because she says so much of our fighting could have been avoided. True, but when I was a kid growing up in the early 90's, Asperger's didn't exist. Sure, Hans Asperger noted the disorder in 1944, but only recently have doctors been diagnosing it...As far as the OCD goes, this is a tricky subject, and is actually the reason why I just figured out a few months ago with the help of my therapist that I do indeed have both disorders. The two mimic each other in many ways, but for us OCD'ers, the rituals we do are all out of fear. I've read many descriptions of people that have both OCD and Asperger's who say that they have two completely different types of obsessions and compulsions: those that they do out of fear that "something bad will happen" and those that they do because they derive pleasure from it. All Asperger's kids will be anxious and want to cope with their environment, so they might do some repetitive action, but the obsession is not behind it. To give you an example of the difference, I'll use schoolwork, which both disorders tend to inhibit at times: for my OCD, procrastination due to compulsive avoidance, extreme perfectionism, and fear of doing the assignment wrong or not understanding what I read is truly obsessive-compulsive. On the other hand, when I get stuck on the minute details and have to analyze everything I read and connect it to something I already know, this is probably the Asperger's; I actually enjoy doing this- the perfectionism, though, is not enjoyable...Also, for actual obsessions, my OCD gives me blasphemous, sexual, and aggressive images, thoughts, and phrases that I can't wait to get rid of. It also gets songs constantly stuck in my head, and while this isn't anxiety-provoking, it is definitely obsessive-compulsive because it plays in my head in an endless loop. Now, for the Asperger's, all of the things my friends know that I'm "obsessed" with, meaning special interests, is the Asperger's. FDR, "I Love Lucy", anatomy, neuropsychology, the 1920's, WWII- I could talk about these all day and know very minute facts. I don't know anyone else in my circle of friends who can say that FDR died on April 12, 1945, the same day on which Fort Sumter was fired upon in 1861 and started the Civil War, that episode #123/179 of "I Love Lucy" is entitled "In Palm Springs", or that the proper term for a blood pressure cuff is a syphgmomanometer...
I know that my strange memory and photographic memory is the Asperger's: I'm a freshman in college, but I can still see pages of my ninth grade textbooks, and remember the day, where I was, and what the page of my not***** looked like when I was in eighth grade studying for an American history test- the list of the things that the Townshend Acts outlawed were lead, paper, paint, glass, and tea...And last year in my anatomy class, my teacher put up ten words, and we were supposed to memorize as many as we could in ten seconds. I got the most in the class with nine, but the sick thing is that I can still remember them a year later, in the order that I memorized them, which was different than the order that they were listed: into, complete, function, food, road, girl, sky, throat, baseball, flower...I hope this helped you see the difference, and if you have any more questions, feel free to ask! I'd appreciate it actually, as hearing from parents whose kids have been officially diagnosed helps me see even more similarities in me that I missed. God bless, and write back soon!
-GatsbyLuvr1920-
Aspergers syndrome-mum not coping! 
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