Adults with spergers - coping and helping

[BigSnoopy]

I wanted to add to the comment in another forum topic about one poster's father-in-law who may have Asperger's. It sounds like my great uncle, who is in his early 80s, except that he was a mail carrier for several decades. It was a great routine, and he didn't have to do much more than just exchange "hello"s and just, well, not necessarily be friendly. He's always had trouble making friends or being in large groups, and almost never answers his phone or calls. He has a set routine he seems to follow of exercising and driving to visit friends. So, it's more than the "very private" personality of his generation.

I don't know how literal he is, or other things, but I can be quite literal at times, and have a hard time reading others. The thing is, I tend to have a lot of friends - though maybe not many close ones - and don't mind large crowds. But, I'm also legally blind and hae a hearing impairment. Therefore, since a few other symptims also apply to me (precision, wordiness, etc.) I may have a tiny bit of it.

I've managed ways to cope over the years, with whatever I have, AS or not. But, I was wondering if you have any advice for helping my great uncle. He never married, lives alone in the house he grew up in, and while he's in good health (he drives his older brother to appointments and such), I just worry about him becuase of that tendency to shun interaction with others. One older sister passed away last year, and he told me she was always calling him up to go to lunch and other stuff; I get the sense she understood more about him than any of us can know. But, he  doesn't seem depressed, the few times we've talked since.

He's rarely home during the day, though, so maybe I should't worry. He has a number of friends he visits in nursing homes and such, still, so perhaps that pattern of going around to others would cause some to notice if he doens't leave the house one day or something. He also has a cell phone, so as long as he keeps track of it, maybe it won't be so bad, even if I can't call him every morning to make sure he's okay. He's got a sharp mind yet, it seems, in talking about family history with him, one thing that perhaps helped him keep going after her death, as it's when I started looking into some stuff he'd always wondered about, and found some answers. And, maybe I just needed to get that into the open. :-)

That possible Asperger's is just one more thng that makes me concerned for if there wshould be a problem someday. So, if anyone has any ideas for how to help someone like this, let me know. I agree with the other poster, though - it might be hard to bring up the idea now, at his age.




This discussion is related to Adult asperger disorder.