"Autistic and proud of it", article from "New Scientist Print Edition"

I think this article defines more than one point of view. One from the autistic adult and another from some parents. I found it very interesting. enjoy. .

Autistic and proud of it

• 18 June 2005
• From New Scientist Print Edition.
• Bijal Trivedi
• Bijal Trivedi is a science writer based in Washington DC

ROY,a high-functioning 28-year-old autistic with a blond military buzz cut and a wide disarming grin, lives on society's edge. At his dojo in Takoma Park, Maryland, where he has lived for the past six-and-a-half years, he leads an essentially monastic existence immersed in his two passions: martial arts and Buddhism. For Roy, who didn't reveal his last name, contact with the outside world has to have a purpose. He agreed to an interview only because he felt his message might be helpful to others. "It's OK not to be interested in socializing, to live quietly on the borders of society," he says. "It's OK to be alone."

Roy has good reason to want his voice heard. With autism diagnoses rising steadily, talk of an "epidemic" and a growing search for a cure, Roy feels threatened. "I feel stabbed when it comes to 'curing' or 'treating' autism," he says. "It's like society doesn't need us."

Many autistic people are starting to agree. They have had enough of being treated as a medical problem, arguing that autism is not a disease that needs to be cured but just a normal part of human diversity. This emerging "autistic rights" movement hopes to launch an international campaign akin to Gay Pride, encouraging autistic people everywhere to embrace their "neurodiversity", and persuading wider society to accept them as they are.

You might be an aspie if. . . . .

I know these are old news but I find them so funny.

From this website: http://www.geocities.com/autistry/YMBAAI.html

"Do you know Jeff Foxworthy's running gag, "You might be a redneck if..."
Let's see,"

* ...you find yourself using phrases that you are pretty sure are playing directly from audio tape in your head.

...when someone says, "Now take a minute and picture -in your head- something or other", you wonder why it would be necessary to suggest it, because you always have pictures in your head.

...you want to sky-dive or bungee jump, but you wouldn't do it if you had to drive through traffic to get there.

...you automatically mirror other people's voices and even their whole persona, so that you are not sure who you would be today if you had had different people around you.

...you have passed many a happy minute watching a fan spin.

...on the one hand you think you are the most interesting person you know, but not too many other people are trying to get to know you.

...your boss says, "Do such and such", and you can't do it until you know "why", because you are not going to waste your time on doing something that doesn't make sense.

...you get extremely disappointed in yourself if you don't know something when you need to know it because you really *SHOULD* know that.

..you choose the grocery aisle that you go down based on whether or not there are any other people in that aisle.

...you will go many extra steps and take lots of extra time to figure out the answer to something rather than taking 30 seconds to ask someone. (10 extra points if your heart pounds if you finally do decide to ask an actual person, 25 extra points if you can hear your heart pounding)

...one of your instinctive reactions is, "I didn't do anything wrong!".

...you know exactly who Temple Grandin is (and Donna Williams and Tony Attwood and Michelle Dawson)

..the word "Hallmark" makes you think "When you care enough to send the very best", and you can remember tons of those kinds of "ad" lines and you use them in everyday speech.

...you are middle aged and going to college and petrified by the question "what is your major" because you don't know if it should be, English, Russian, Art, Art History, Psychology or whatever your next interest will be, OR if you should pursue your own personalized major program in Eremitic Studies or Anti-Social Science

..if you ever stayed with a hobby so long and with such intensity that you hurt yourself. (can you say "carpal tunnel syndrome"?)

..if the word "logic" goes right to your heart but the word "love" usually bounces off of it.

...if you been driving a car with someone in the passenger seat who's voice was too quiet and you reached for the volume control on the radio to turn up the the sound of their voice. (OK, that's just strange....but true)

...if you talk back to the people on the TV and radio and call them idiots or say sarcastic things to commercials.

...if it takes you 3 times as long to decide if it's safe drive through an intersection as it does a normal person.


...if you are a 43 year old woman and you just can't make hair-spray work for you.

...if you wanted to minimize the psychic damage done to oneself by contact with other humans and try to plan a walking route that involves the least amount of human contact, which, on a map, looks rather chaotic, especially if one notes where you pause behind a bush or building corner, waiting for someone to pass on the sidewalk.

--one of your favorite hobbies is "autie spotting".

- You don't know if you should be grateful or aggravated that the receptionist at the mental health department of the student health services clinic at the university you are going to attend had never heard of Asperger's syndrome. (the university classifies AS as a mental health disorder, rather than a learning disability, they don't have an appropriate category like "neurodevelopmental disabilities", yet)

You get irritated when people come up to talk to you when you are doing something important like; staring at a wall, trying to find a space in your mind that is not overwhelmed by noise and imposing people with their desire to converse.

...your teacher commands every one in the room to pair-off to discuss a topic and you are extremely relieved that no one wants to be your partner.

..you tell people you have a "neurodevelopmental disorder" and you kind of hope that they don't ask what that means.

..you think "Cure Autism Now" ought to be called "Eliminate Autistics Now" and it makes you mad.

You find it extraordinarily annoying to hear someone say the same thing multiple times, but you do that same thing yourself, that is, say things multiple times. Did I tell you that I hate hearing other people say things multiple times, but that I do the very same thing? Multiple times?

…you're late for a meeting (aaarrrrgh!) because you intended to go the grocery store afterward, but misplaced the shopping list and spent five minutes handflapping while trying to remember where you put it.

…you've given up reading the newspaper (magazine) because you know you can never get through to all the articles you want to read, and you'd rather not collect back issues till you run out of space to put them.

…you not only line things up, you always line them up in a symmetrical arrangement.

You're friends with the church secretary, but can't recognize her when you run into her in the store.

- you write down things on a forum and mean them totally honest and serious, and the recipient cracks up laughing badly and telling you you are funny.

- if you are told you are funny (without having intended) you ruminate about it for weeks, replay your writings in your head and try to find the parts, you might find funny, is you would not know they were not meant funny.

...you insist on your view on fairness even when anyone else thinks you have gone mad.

...your get told not to step on someone's toes at work so you start looking at the floor while you walk because you took it literally.

...you keep bumping into people but the only time you actually remember to apologize is when you bump into a tree.

...you forget to eat or drink for a few days because you are working on an interesting project.

...someone wants to get past you and says "excuse me" and you reply "sure" without moving a bit.

..you get told the juice is out when you are about to go shopping, but you don't buy new one because you did not explicitly get told to.

...you constantly forget taking the trash out even if you walk past it all the time because it isn't on your mental agenda of things to do.

..if you spend hours trying to figure out how someone could find a meaning in your words that was not there.

...if you do your walks and exercises at night because it is quiet then and hardly anyone else around.

...you sit around trying to decide what to work on today, and by the time you are done deciding the day is over.

...you follow rules to the letter - but only if they make sense to you.

Someone asks you how you are and you give an honest answer about what a rotten day you had and go on for 5 minutes about it. Then they get insulted or bored and you get confused 'cause after all, they DID ask.

you've lived all your life stateside yet prefer Recieved Standard spellings [UK] over General American ones. [e.g., "colour" over "color"]

You play 'Name That Bruise!' in the bath, because you have no idea where you got them.

You gave up on ever convincing people that you are not odd ages ago. You now just live your life and to hell with anyone who thinks it strange.

It took you, your parents, a friend, and 4 movers 3 days to move all your stuff, and you were only moving out of a 2 bedroom apartment!

You're the only person around who will decline an invite to a big party to stay at home to watch 'Daily Planet' (science news show on Discovery channel).

if "that`s just the way it is ..." does not compute...

"Psych groups' fury over 'ransom' ads" - not all attention is good

Yeah, these adds piss me off too. All they do is add to the stigma that we already have to deal with on a daily basis and promotes useless pity. In this case, I don't agree that negative attention is better than no attention. Here is the link: Unnecessary Negative publicity about Autism and ADHD.

"These "ransom notes" are being plastered all over town as part of a new ad campaign about the dangers of psychiatric disorders like autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and Asperger's syndrome. They are causing outrage among many of the groups they are designed to represent - prompting parents and disability advocates to demand they be taken down. "The child has not been 'taken,' they just need a little extra help," said Melissa Ramirez, 26, who has a cousin with autism. "It's basically showing [parents] they have no control over their child. It's inappropriate." The ad campaign is being rolled out over the next four months by the NYU Child Study Center, which says the posters are designed to highlight the plight of children who suffer from undiagnosed or untreated psychiatric problems.
(This aspect I can agree with but there are better ways to get your point across. Being undiagnosed all of your life SUCKS! But people are not going to take it that way)"

"Disability advocates including Not Dead Yet and the Autism Acceptance Project have united in protest. "There needs to be recognition that not all attention is good attention," said Ari Ne'eman, president of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network who suffers from Asperger's syndrome. "The message that this campaign is sending, specifically that children with disabilities are shells, that somehow we have had our true selves stolen away or kidnapped ... is one that has a lot of terrible consequences."

regarding Asperger/Nuerotypical relationships:

I'm just going to post a few since there are so many. Here is the link if anyone is interested: http://www.angelfire.com/journal/shwankie2/ASquotes.html

From the point of view of the Nuerotypical (Person without Aspergers) spouse:

* Day-to-day life has gotten smoother since I've stopped defining his reactions to sensory overload (noise, confusion, crowds, emotional discussions) as personal rejection, and since he's realized that his experience of the world is not the same as mine - that it is helpful if he can stop and explain to me what he IS reacting to, and how I can help rather than just shutting me out. He is learning that sometimes I need to hear the words and be brought the flowers, and feel the small touches of closeness and appreciation. I am learning that, emotions are there, even if deeply buried, and difficult to access and to understand." - in reply to an AS husband.

*"My dh's meltdowns can take any number of forms; chewing out the kids, arguing with no sense to it, or going and zombie-ing out in the hammock or in front of the TV. I guess it is maybe good that some of his meltdowns are also his coping strategies...He can just shut down...or he can dig in his heels and fight something or someone long past its usefulness..." This sounds alot like my ex too. Not daily, but maybe monthly. He would totally VEG in front of the TV for HOURS on a daily basis. But about once a month he would just EXPLODE and pick something to just babble and yell about that made no sense. It didn't matter how many facts I had to show that it was not the way he was portraying it, he just kept twisting every lil detail to just argue. And then bam, after he was done, it was literally like he forgot it all ever happened." --C

From the view point of the spouse with Aspergers:

* "First off, Helen, I have AS, and I DO have feelings and emotions...
I do not intentionaly Ignore my wife & kids; and as far as acting different in public-- AS folk's tend to mimic others as we notice their behaviors, and believe this is the way we should act, even though it may feel awkward.

We try to be what others want us to be, and truely do not understand at times our behavior is inapropriate (until it is to late and pointed out).

Living with us must be very frustrating!! I wont deny that Fact!
But please realize this: we live in a world which we find hard to understand. People have teased and harassed us as children because of our differences and lack of social skills. We struggle day after day knowing we are different but are unable to change. Yes we can learn how to mimic people! But we can never be totaly succesful with this, as it is very uncomfortable even painfully frustating, filled with high anxiety, stress and and chronic depression." -Dg

* "Also, my feelings (and probably his, too) are much more intense due to this since we hardly are able to live them out. I don't know if you ever watched Star Trek. The Vulcans there supress their emotions because would they not, they would become violent, impredictable, selfish and unable to progress in their developement. I've always identified with this. In fact, ST has educated me in how to keep my intense and sometimes violent emotions in check.

People told me to "open up" more and show I have emotions. I did and was hated, shunned and feared for it and lost my friends. So I decided that it's best to act the part of the Vulcan again in most situations. If I show emotions in public other than with my family or partner (which I really had a hard time learning) then it is mostly fake, displaying what I assume would be the appropriate reaction. I make less and less mistakes in this, so I usually don't get looked at as a freak anymore." -L.W.

Article on ADD and Non Verbal Learning Disorder

Not only have I been doing research on Asperger's syndrome but I have also come across a condition called Non Verbal Learning Disorder which seems to be related or similar.
I have, in the past, been diagnosed with ADD. I always had the feeling that the diagnoses was not exactly correct.


~ Here is the link to the article (To my friends with ADD, this article is from a magazine called ADDitude. It's created especially for people with ADD/ADHD.):

Maybe It’s Not ADD After All

Here are a few highlights from the magazine:

Marci did well academically in grades one and two, although she didn't have many friends. Her third-grade teachers said she seemed inattentive in class, blurted out inappropriate comments, and bumped into classmates clumsily when they lined up for recess. Later that year, Marci was diagnosed with ADD. But Ritalin didn't help. Neither did Adderall.

Given her obvious intelligence, her teachers considered her C average evidence of laziness or defiance.

Nonverbal learning disorder (NLD) is a constellation of brain-based difficulties. Once considered rare, NLD is now thought to be as prevalent as dyslexia. Strongly genetic in origin, NLD affects girls as freqently as boys and is characterized by poor visual, spatial, and organizational skills, poor motor performance, and difficulty recognizing and processing nonverbal cues - body language, facial expression, and the nuances of conversation.

* Despite their facility with language, kids with NLD often have poor reading comprehension. A child with NLD may miss the forest and the trees because of his intense focus on the leaves. After reading a book about the Civil War, for instance, the child might be able to name and describe each battlefield - yet fail to recognize that the conflict was about slavery and federalism.

At first glance, children with NLD seem to behave like those with ADD, but the appropriate interventions are not the same. A child with NLD may have trouble sitting still and may bump into people. But this isn't due to hyperactivity - it's due to his poor balance and coordination, and trouble with visuospatial relationships.

NLD varies from child to child, and is not defined as a separate entity in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. For diagnosis, a child must undergo neuropsychological testing, speech and language assessment, and educational and occupational therapy evaluations.

kids with NLD usually demonstrate a verbal I.Q. that's 20 or more points higher than their performance I.Q. (Verbal I.Q. is a measure of a child's language ability. Performance I.Q. measures how well he makes use of what he knows.) Another test, the Brown ADD Scales, can help differentiate NLD from ADD.

"The Girl With a Boy's Brain"

Interesting article. Here is the link from psychology today: The Girl With a Boy's Brain

I will copy and paste some of the parts that I feel apply to me or that I find important since the article is so long:

AS is a condition on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum. Its sufferers are successful in many realms of life but tend to have obsessive interests. They have trouble reading people and connecting with them. And they can have faulty sensory processing systems that leave them confused in hectic or unfamiliar settings. Researchers agree that girls with AS tend to be more anxious and less aggressive than the boys. And during their teenage years, they are at an increased risk for awkward sexual situations and even date rape because of their inability to interpret social cues and their tendency to take statements literally. In school, Kiriana barely spoke at all. One teacher feared she was deaf. "She pretty much refused to interact with other kids," says Melissa. She was often distracted—but not in the ricocheting manner of a kid with an attention-deficit disorder. "When the teacher called on me, I was frozen," recalls Kiriana. "I was often accused of not paying attention or of being on a different planet, but I was actually paying close attention to something else." At the behest of a teacher at her private elementary school, Kiriana finally did get tested for disabilities. The results were inconclusive, and no one suspected autism in any form. "I knew she felt a little different," says Melissa. "But I never really thought anything was wrong with her." Girls are generally recognized as superior mimics, says Tony Attwood, a pioneering Asperger's researcher. Those with AS hold back and observe until they learn the "rules," then imitate their way through social situations. "Girls can fake it quite well," says Liane Willey, a psycholinguist with AS who describes how she assumes different personalities when switching social gears in her autobiography, Pretending to Be Normal. Listening comprehension is still a source of strife for Kiriana. "When I watch a movie, I have to turn the volume way up to understand dialogue, but way down whenever there is background noise or music," she says. "When I go to hear a lecture on a subject, it's like I'm listening to a foreign language." Last summer, Kiriana went several weeks without speaking to anyone she knew. "I feel most comfortable being alone," she says. "I don't feel lonely very often, and when I do, it's usually not a general feeling of loneliness as much as a wish to be with a certain person or people." Parties tire her, and when she meets someone new she fears she'll come off as boring. "The things most people think of as fun are work to me," she says, citing the complicated dynamics of relationships and social interaction. "To me, fun would be reading a textbook." Kiriana gets rushes of happiness, pride, and guilt, but abstract concepts—patriotism, for example, or spirituality—don't rouse her. "I do cry," she says, "but it's usually out of anger or frustration. Rarely do I feel true sadness." "There are so many situations where I'm talking to somebody and I can tell they've lost interest," she says. "A lot of times I'm not sure what I did."