Wrong Planet

Running
None, rest day. Exercise consisted of shopping and housework, YAWN.

So what is Asberger's Syndrome
Beakus mentioned a book on her blog the other day called Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet. Daniel is a savant but he also suffers from Asberger's Syndrome, he is unique in that most savants are severely autistic and can not lead independent lives, his gift is believed to have been acquired when he had a serious epileptic fit as a child.

So, what is Asberger's Syndrome and why am I writing a post on it? I went out and bought Daniels book and it has got me thinking over the last couple of days. My younger brother, Rhys, who turned 16 this year was diagnosed with Asberger's about 7 years ago. Asberger's has been known about for a while, but was only categorised as a form of high functioning autism in 1994. I won't go into all the details, the link above takes you to the Wikipedia entry which is pretty informative.

Unlike most autistics Asberger's suffers generally can lead independent lives. Aspies have some very quirky personality traits and when my brother was first diagnosed and we learned more about it we all started thinking Aha, yes, that explains alot. For example, AS is often categorised by
Limited interests or preoccupation with a subject to the exclusion of other activities
Repetitive behaviors or rituals
Peculiarities in speech and language
Socially and emotionally inappropriate behavior and interpersonal interaction
Problems with nonverbal communication
Clumsy and uncoordinated motor movements.

So you can see from this list that sufferers often find themselves isolated and on the fringes of social groups. Have a think back to school, maybe the "weird" kid that you all teased was an Aspie. Then think about the torment of a young boy, only about 8 or 9 who feels so confused and isolated by what he feels that he attempts suicide. This happened to my gorgeous little brother and not just once either, he was constantly teased and bullied at school and he simply did not understand what made him feel so different. No one should ever feel like suicide is the only option, but especially not a child.

Now to the positives, Aspies tend to be high achievers within their particular field of interest, perhaps partly due to the preoccupation described above. It has been suggested that Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton and Stanley Kubrick were sufferers. My brothers area of preoccupation is music, he has played guitar for years and is very good, he learns mostly by ear. He has also been playing double bass for 18 months, both classical and jazz. His tutor is a bassist for the MSO and his biggest challenge is getting Rhys to learn to sight read music because he has been learning by ear for so long. A few weeks ago Rhys successfully audtioned for the Percy Grainger junior orchestra, obviously I am pretty damn proud!

Now, we have never thought of Rhys as being in anyway disadvantaged, in fact many aspects of his Asbergers make for a very unique and likeable personality. One particularly quickly trait is his tendency to take things literally. Last Xmas I was putting together a cheese plate and I gave him a box of mixed crackers and asked him to arrange them on a plate for me, when I checked on his progress he had taken them out of the box and put them on the plate exactly as they were in the box. When he had his first bass tutorial his tutor told him to "toss his bow over there", poor Rhys was mortified, bows to a bass player are like sneakers to a runner, very personal and very expensive and this guy was telling him to toss it!!! Lucky mum was there to reassure him that the tutor just wanted him to put it down. Now he has a habit when meeting new people to say "I have Asbergers, sometimes I take things literally", a little disarming I know but it helps him to set expectations.

Finally, many AS sufferers often say that life for them is like landing on another planet and not knowing the language, customers or social rights and wrongs, the support website is www.wrongplanet.com

So if you got to the end of this post just remember, it takes many different personalities to make up the human race, next time you encounter someone you think is a bit left of the middle, cut them some slack, they might think you are just as weird, perhaps even from another planet.