Answer, but No Cure, for a Social Disorder That Isolates Many

NY Times ^ | April 29, 2004 | AMY HARMON

[Choose Ye This Day]

Bill Gates and possibly Einstein had Asperger's. It's on the very, very mild end of the autism spectrum. My son, however, is on the other end. He has severe limitations and will probably never speak, and will always live with my wife and me. I wouldn't wish either condition on anyone's child, but Aspies are usually able to function in society.

[woofie]

AL Gore and Kerry both suffer from this...dont laugh

[neverdem]

Interesting, whether searching by "post time" or "relevance", "match all words" or "match exact phrase", your post isn't found when I tried it. Maybe it's related to the recent crash at FR?

[Teacher317]

(also posted on the Rush thread)

I had one student whose parents and therapist were adamant about labelling with Asperger. He was an unmotivated C student, and didn't seem "different" at all. He was moderately unresponsive to social situations (not laughing when the class laughed, etc). That was about it. He had friends, and liked to laugh and talk with them privately.

Why that called for an entire battery of tests, specialists, and scholastic perks (tesing in separate room with a "helper", more time for tests, more time for homework, two periods per day with specialists, etc) was self-evident... the school got more money, the specialists justified their own existence (while the student body grew by over 200 over 5 years, we got only 1 new teacher position added... and 6 new specialists), and the mother (whom I would've had tested for Munchausen by Proxy, personally) had her hysteria assuaged (temporarily).

The child's grades did not imporove, he said he didn't want to be "different" and put in special classes, and the staff got more paperwork. *sigh*

[PurVirgo]

fascinating article...

Like the "awkward genius syndrome" (my name for it)

[Numbers Guy]

Ah yes, another syndrome. Just one more excuse in the "I'm not responsible" file!

Count your blessings and hope you never have to be the parent of an autistic child.

[AntiGuv]

That is at best a tangential comment on Asperger's, if you get my meaning. It is a definitive comment on (a) this child & his family; (b) the contemporary school system...

[Ohioan from Florida]

If it's any comfort to you, this article reminds me exactly of how I felt when my son (now 18) was diagnosed with ADD. When I first began to understand it, I realized it was what I had struggled with (undiagnosed) for so many years. I learned some coping mechanisms, but they didn't always work for me. Now, ten years later, I still have trouble with it, but I don't let it get the best of me. When I screw up, I screw up. I try to learn from it, forgive myself, and move on, always trying to improve. Isn't that how life is for everybody else anyway? We all have our own little imperfections. My best to you!

[68skylark]

Duplicates aren't a big problem -- don't sweat it.

(When I do a search, I just put one key word from the headline into the search box, and search by post time. Try it with the word "Disorder" and I think it will work just fine.)

[BunnySlippers]

Hmmm ...

[RobRoy]

>>IT IS A TYPE OF AUTISM. I HAVE THIS DISABILITY. dont make fun of it!<<

I don't think you get it. 8^>

Hmmm. Maybe I don't get it...

[Rytwyng]

If this is the story Rush was talking about, no wonder he made fun of it, it is begging to be made fun of

You sound like the swine that made my gradeschool years a hell on earth, not only tormenting me for my relative social ineptness but also having the unmitigated gall to "blame the victim".

Instead of mocking, why don't you educate yourself about the social effects of the milder (and much more common) manifestations of Asperger syndrome:

Kids Called Nerds

I'm surprised at Rush, though. He of all people should recognize that "conservatives are the nerds of politics", and that, conversely, Aspies (= 'geeks', 'nerds', etc), being much more analytical and less driven by fashion, emotion, and social pressures, are far more likely to be conservatives.

[aimhigh]

Vitamin B-6 has a side effect of making people talkative. (in some cases very talkative.) It is also useful in some early cases of children with autism symptoms (my daughter).

[annyokie]

Not trying to one up you, but try having grand mal epilepsy. I have scared the bejeezus out of many co-workers over the years.

BTW, my cousin's son has autism and I certainly have empathy for you.

[syriacus]

Wonderful article. Thanks for posting it.

[cyborg]

It's not funny. Watching how people used to react to people with 'ticking' illnesses,etc. I'm still amazed at how insensitive people can be.

[Renegade]

The DISEASE of being a liberal which has infected many of my co-workers ,has isolated them from me ..

[tiamat]

i don't appreciate that comment.

My daughter is mildly autistc. She comes off as awkward and geeky and doesn't have many friends.

She's a solid B student. wins ribbons in 4-H., and has a strong work-ethic.

She has her problems, but she works very hard to overcome them.

[AntiGuv]

Well, no argument there, grand mal epilepsy is certainly one of the more unpleasant things one can have as well.

The severity of Asperger's can of course vary quite a bit (as with just about any malady). Few people seem to understand it all that well and I don't anything can genuinely understand it who hasn't dealt with it.

My circumstances are somewhat on the more severe end of the Asperger's spectrum; I have always been extremely oblivious to social cues. For lengthy stretches, I've been quite reclusive since it seems as if I screw up with even the most casual social interactions (say something dumb; make a dumb gesture; etc).

Anyhow, here are a few examples of how dense I can be:

I was quite stunned when it dawned on me at about age 14 that people actually believed in religion. Prior to that, I thought it was some kind of curious charade that people went through the motions. Like some kind of game.

I was 17 when I figured out what racism was, and what the word ni**er meant. In fact, that was when I really figured out what race was period. I realized by example that a boy I'd been best friends with in 1st grade was black; and why people had an issue with that (I grew up in the South). Before that, I'd just thought skin color varied randomly - like they were really tan or whatever.

I was in college when I figured out what fa**ot meant and what homophobia was, which was also rather perplexing to me (then again, homosexuality was also rather perplexing to me at that time). I've still to this day never quite figured out what the big deal is (on any of these three things, from an emotional, non-intellectual standpoint).

But again, there's a lot of variation in severity and some people will of course abuse the 'label' like happens with ADD and whatever (to make excuses for other things). It's not a pleasant thing to have. I didn't figure out what the problem was until well into adulthood. A lot of it was masked because of my relatively high intelligence; schooling was effortless for me, so no one had any reason to get concerned even if I was totally walled off socially in my own little mental world until I was 18/19..

[tiamat]

vpintheak wrote:

There is a lack of tolerance for "wierd" kids? You wouldn't know it by what you see in today's society.

---

Yeah. There is.

My daughter is mildy autistic. Geeky, and kind of on her own planet.

She doesn't care about "What's cool", doesn't want to chase boys, does her own sweetly weird thing and hurts no-one. She is gentle with animals and she draws... She can cook, and use tools and memorizes lyrics with one hearing.

AND if I am not on it, she gets beaten up and has always been called names and made fun of. She never gets invited to the sleep-over or the birthday party.

Why?

Because she's different. She says odd, strange things. She doesn't follow the crowd.



Breaks my heart.