There is a certain mentality in medical circles to slap some kind of label on just about everything under the sun. To give an example, Say you didn’t exercise all day and can’t stop wriggling in bed? Congratulations! you now have “restless leg syndrome” It’s almost as if your legs were designed to be used or something? Maybe i’m taking the idea out of context but it just seems silly to me. But this is the culture we have been raised in. Even if I feel that way, I can’t deny It’s influence.
With that in mind, I was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome quite young. Experts tried to impress upon my parents fixed notions from academia. I can recall on one occasion my mother said they told her she shouldn’t even “bother” to teach me anything and just give up! Thank god she was stubborn! Mind you, i’m not.doubting that I’m a breed apart most people. It’s just that I used to LOVE going to new places, seeing people I’d never seen before, Expressed my emotions wonderfully and all the rest of it. But I started to decline when school started and I started to believe I was different. Now I think of it, much the same thing happens with depression. Anyway, for reasons still unclear to me, I was shunned. I also started acting out. As I had no body awareness I would often kick people in class by accident. But you know how people are- Outraged parents demanded I was medicated. They got their wish. They seemed to be of the opinion I was violent.
Like I said, I’m not denying I needed assistance in this neurotypical world. What they don’t tell you is that after going through all of that I can therapy I can they could never dream of doing!
There were these drunk goggles a few months ago that people were trying on somewhere and they put them on and couldn’t even walk in a straight line. So I stuck them on. I just started walking to the other side of the room. They started freaking out! No! Slow down! I don’t get it. Do people need to use their eyes to see where they are going or something? Your legs are constanty sending all these signals about where it is and what it is doing Maybe try listening to them? When you walk are you aware of the sensation of your feet pressing into the earth?
Anyway, I’m getting off topic. As I was saying earlier, I’ve found that impressing the notion that one is “different”, defective can be incrediy damaging on a young and impressionable mind. (not so much for adults)
What scares me even further is that for almost my entire life I’ve suffered from poor co-ordination, ADHD, dysphraxia etc but after going gluten free my disorder has practically vanished. I can’t believe it! I can still remember one time watching my mother briskly stir a hot drink without touching the sides or make a terrible racket. How! I used to wonder. But now I can do it too. My fingers now move at the speed of thought. I feel like I’ve been lied to.
If These things were really “disabilities “then they shouldn’t just vanish (it takes weeks/months) when I change my diet. What I do think is that people with aspergers have some kind of metabolic or genetic variation thar distinguishes them from the rest of the population. (pitta/fire dosha in auyrveda, or metabolic type)
Why more research isn’t done into this area as it seems to run in families is beyond me. What I do know.Is that I love being spontneous,meeting new people, understand sarcasm, and all the rest of it. To be honest I’m tired of playing the label game. I’m just me. Why don’t we just sit and have a nice cup of tea and forget about it all?
Anyway, thanks for reading
The Snacking Sage 
I have poor coordination, too. Didn’t know you were supposed to turn your hand sideways in order to brush your back teeth, so I only brushed the front ones. Can’t ride a bike and struggle to light a match to this day.
I’m not disabled. I work in the same job for years, and I’m one of their best workers. I live alone. Asperger is not a disability. Most aspies are independent.
I also suffer from general anxiety, insomnia, ocd, and whatnot. But if society makes a child feel he’s disabled, he might start feeling and acting as if he is. I was told by my mother I could never learn self-defense, but I’ve learned martial arts and excelled. The right way is to look for ways a person can achieve his goals, such as telling an aspie he should look for a job that doesn’t involve too much interaction, like sales. A job that doesn’t have so much noise, a job that involves his special interests, instead of telling him he can’t work.
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Interesting indeed. As a fellow aspie myself; i find this post incredible; thank you
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I’m glad you found it interesting. 🙂
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