Under normal circumstances, I try not to reveal too much of my own life on the internet, but today's, for lack of a better word, special. It's World Autism Awareness Day (#AutismAwareness & #WAAD on Twitter) and, for reasons described below, I decided to type up this post. I'll try to keep it short, but no guarantees.
While I was browsing Twitter on the bus to college this morning, I came across a link that Cloudhunter had tweeted that led to his own blog and a post titled "Autism and me" (Link: http://cloudhunter.co.uk/post/70732371271/autism-and-me). It gave me the inspiration and final push to write this as I have been trying to formulate something in my head for the past while now. As I type this, I have his blog post open in another tab as there's a few points that I want to echo.
In case you haven't figured it out, I have autism, but more specifically, I have Asperger Syndrome (I'll abbreviate it as AS). AS is a form of autism that give the "afflicted" (I loathe negative labels) a form of "hyper-intelligence" in a certain field. If you need a frame of reference, think of the character Sheldon Cooper from the TV show "The Big Bang Theory," although, personally, I'm nowhere near as neurotic. On the other hand though, AS can severely diminish a person's ability to perform at a social level. I am riddled with social anxieties as I am not aware of the proper "social protocols," this tends to mess with me to the point where I am a recluse. Not fun.
I was diagnosed with not only AS, but also ADHD about two years ago. I won't go into too much detail on ADHD, but it was a part of the reason why I remained undiagnosed for 18 years of my life.
Like anything in life, AS, for me, comes as a double-edged knife (my favourite metaphor/simile; I can never remember which). On the one hand, there's the intelligence I possess plus the other multitude of nuances. On the other, there's the social anxiety, very slight and mild OCDs and a whole bunch of other things.
Even though it may seem that AS is more negative than positive, it has been a huge boon to me. Throughout my entire life, I've known that I was different, but never knew why. Now that I know why, it has quelled a good number of demons that I had and brought me a semblance of peace.
Over time, even before I got the diagnosis, I managed to retrain myself and my brain to figure out social matters to a degree with the help of my parents, but it's still extremely stressful and draining on my emotions. And so, making friends for me is difficult and I have to be careful how I spend my energy. However, like Cloudy said in his blog post, the internet REALLY is a wonderful invention. It's allowed me to make friends and talk to people from all over the globe without having to deal with the anxiety of face-to-face interaction. If it weren't for the internet, I would've never been able to become friends with Max Firestorm and Pandora (awesome guys).
I think I've rambled enough. Suffice to say that this is no where near what I want to say on the matter, but I promised myself to limit this post and not let my long-winded tendencies run rampant.
For anyone looking to get, or are unsure whether or not to get tested, I say do it. Speaking from experience, it can bring a great deal of peace, even if it does raise a few other issues.
If you have an Autism Spectrum Disorder, don't give up. The whole of the world is still "your oyster," but you'll have to go about it a little differently. It can, and will, still work out.
Fun fact: If people like Einstein, Da Vinci, Alan Turing, HP Lovecraft, Nikola Tesla and even Beethoven were alive today, there is an extremely good chance of them being diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome. Here's a link to a page that lists a bunch of famous people that are confirmed to have AS or are speculated to have it: http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/article_2086.shtml. Point is, success is very much possible.
Love you all,
Geo Terra
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