Re: CHAT: OT CHAT: Asperger's syndrome

John Cowan wrote:

> Don't be deceived: Asperger's is no joke.  Think of
> it as autism without the usually associated low IQ.
> Asperger's people typically don't have a clue that
> other people are *people*, and if they do learn
> this later in life, they have to conduct their
> social relations in a purely conscious and
> artificial manner.
If your experience is that asperger's people don't usually
understand humanity as such, then your experience is with
the severe end of the spectrum, not the typical. An essay I
once read in "The Autiser" was closer the mark: it said that
autistic people (and sufferers of autism-spectrum disorders)
learn very early on that there is a difference between
people and things, and they quickly learn to prefer things,
because people are far too complicated and unpredictable.
That's typically how an asperger's person starts off, but
we typically do learn, piece by piece, how to interact
with the social complexity that is the human race.

Again, whether an asperger's person has to "conduct their
social relations in a purely conscious and artificial
manner", well, yes, we do all have to pass through that
phase but many sufferers are mild enough that this does not
remain true in their adult life, or at least it's an
exaggeration. On the other hand, many others do not, as
you'd expect with a spectrum disorder. Here at Flinders
University there are hand-made posters all over the place,
which are replaced regularly, asking that people who wish to
make a new friend should email an individual who suffers
from a somewhat more severe case of asperger's syndrome than
I do.

There *are* things that I can't do naturally. For example I
_cannot_ fake a smile for a camera, nor can I blend in well
for a group photograph, so pictures typically show me
looking somewhat aloof. (As a child I remember being told to
stop making funny faces and being genuinely bewildered
because I was _convinced_ that what I was doing was smiling.
These days at least I _know_ that I can't do it.) And I find
it much easier to make friends on the Internet than in real
life - social interactions are just far too _dynamic_.
(There's an essay on my website, which I wrote for a
university English topic, titled : "Is the internet
destructive to human relationships?"). I cannot participate
effectively in conversations between more than about three
people (unless it's a slow thoughtful philosophical
discussion which I can handle just fine) because I just
can't get a word in edgeways and not for lack of trying!
Somehow people just don't seem to notice that I'm trying to
speak! And put me in a room with lots of people talking to
each other all over the place and I just gotta escape.
Sensory overload has all sorts of nasty effects on my brain,
and all I can do is withdraw into a corner.

However, the world is full of people with the same
difficulties who are not sufferers from any disorder. They
are typically described simply as "not the social type".
They interact with the world in ways that are a little
eccentric but which avoid those areas they find troublesome.
Most of them have relatively few friends in total but are
very sincere about the friendships they have. That's what an
asperger's person like me
becomes in their adult life, given the ongoing support of
family and friends.

Insistence on routine is a big part of asperger's, and one
that I have always been very conscious of. When I was young
I adopted the word "trick" to mean an obsessive or
compulsive action. Like _always_ following a complex ritual
for turning the shower taps on, or for making breakfast, or
_always_ giving Dad a hug before he went on the hockey
field, or _always_ drawing a particular design with tomato
sauce to be sure of having exactly the right amount. I
called these tricks; psychiatrists call them patterns. The
difference is that psychiatrists are describing them from
an observer's perspective, whereas I know what they're
really for. I believe my term "trick" derived from the idea
of a disappearing trick, because the whole point of
compulsive behaviour is to get rid of (make disappear) that
intolerable nagging yucky anxious sensation that comes from
_not_ following the preformulated routine. (As an adult I
have relatively few obsessions or compulsions - checking
email first thing in the morning might be one - but I do
still have a few routines that I have to either follow or
turn the rest of the day into a complete waste. I won't go
into examples here and now, which are a lot more subtle than
the very concrete examples I gave from my childhood.)

There's a myth that asperger's people typically "take things
literally". That's a half-truth. Better to say that
"asperger's people typically do not respond to the same cues
as other people when deciding whether a statement is meant
literally or not. Therefore they will often take a statement
literally when it is not intended so, and when a statement
_is_ intended literally, they will often take it some other
way." The myth arises for the following reason, which is
obvious with just a little imagination. If your statement is
_not_ intended literally and it _is_ _taken_ literally, then
it is obvious to you what has happened : your statement was
taken literally. So the impression that asperger's people
take things literally is easily reenforced. But if your
statement _is_ intended to be taken literally but your
audience does _not_ do so, then it is far from obvious what
has happened (typically you will assume that your audience
ignored your statement all together) so the fact that
asperger's people fail to recognise statements that are
_intended_ literally is _not_ reenforced. You see? When two
people are responding to different cues about what is
literal and what is not, eachwill perceive that the other
tends to take them literally. Speaking very much from
experience I can tell you that asperger's people often get
irritated with the way others take *us* literally all the
time.

The reason that asperger's syndrome - even at my very mild
end of the spectrum - is a problem, is that in our society
social competence is assumed. I'm repeating almost every
subject I do at university for reasons I'm not going to go
into here, but if I had confronted these problems before
they grew to monstrous proportions by talking to my
lecturers about them right at the start, then it would have
made it much easier to manage my study difficulties. But
such a confrontation is _painful_ to an asperger's person.
Much easier to withdraw from the world, and believe me I
know! And think how many things in life require such a
confrontation to be made. Job interviews come to mind;
fortunately I'm still a student so I can put them off for a
while.

That's about all I can think of to say right now.

Adrian.