It's been suggested I do a blog post on my opinions of things like Squag, a social network for young people with autism, and as I haven't done any posts about autism for a while I decided to go with it. After thinking about it for a while I realised I couldn't get an angle on it, not because it's not something worth forming an opinion on, but because I'm not sure I'm the one who should be getting these opinions. The fact is my autism doesn't really affect me much any more, I'm pretty much the same as any other socially awkward, extremely good looking and awesome guy on the street, excluding a few personality quirks/borderline personality disorders. So honestly, I don't know I could say anything on the issue.
Sorry about another non-post, I do have an idea for a post I've been wanting to do for a long, long time but it requires quite a bit of research, but hopefully I'll get that done in the next few weeks. Until then see if you can make any entertaining anagrams out of my posts.
Showing posts with label autism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label autism. Show all posts
Sunday, 29 January 2012
Sunday, 28 August 2011
English Autism
During my time as an English aspie (which is, to be fair, my entire life) I have come to realise that the two afflictions, if you will, are actually very similar. So much so that I believe anyone with what we shall call "Classic" or (slightly less politically correctly) "Lower functioning" Englishness would almost certainly meet the diagnostic criteria for Asperger's. Let's take a look at that criteria:
- Social difficulties. Anyone who can go a whole conversation and leave with neither of the parties knowing the name of the other because they didn't see an appropriate time to ask can hardly be described as socially competent. The English tradition of trying hard to get a sentence out and ending up with a series of urms and wells is very much in line with an aspergic attempting communication.
- Restricted and repetitive interests and behaviour: The amount the English talk about the weather is obsessive. Furthermore, any country which has the demand to support several bus meets and train gawps cannot really be healthy.
- Speech and Language issues: Urm, er, well, see, the thing is, hmmph, that, in a way, a series of nonsensical sounds, so to speak, and meaningless statements, some might say, don't actually count as a proper sentence. If you catch my drift.
- Other: Tea drinking has to be autistic in some way, right?
So, there you have it, why Englishness is the same as autistic. I propose we create an English Spectrum Disorder right away.
Sunday, 24 April 2011
Autism Awareness Month. Yay.
You might have noticed my blog posts have been exceptionally bad recently, even by my low standards. Or you might not have and just feel it's always this bad. But if the former applies I feel I should use the revision excuse, what with all the exams and stuff I've got to do. Also, I'm not really very good at writing blog posts, so that might play into it.
But now I have something very special, just for you, my readers (unless that website takes my blog post, mangles it and uses it to sell lamps again. That was strange, but it's a story for a different time. Actually, what I just said was the story.). Anyway, the super special thing I promised: A blog post about autism! I feel I should do these every six or so months, so that I can pretend this is an awareness blog and not just some self obsessed teen telling you about how dull his life is, though we both know it is the latter.
As some of you might know, April is Autism Awareness Month. But you probably didn't know that. I didn't know that until a couple of weeks ago. Maybe they should have made last month Autism Awareness Month Awareness Month, then we'd all be expecting it. So yeah, awareness. Awareness is important. You're aware, right? I mean, at least vaguely aware of autism? It'd be quite difficult to read the title of my blog without getting a bit of awareness. And for those of you who know me, I just want you to be aware that not everyone with autism is as much of a prick as me. Apparently.
So, in conclusion, if you want more information about autism, google it or something.
There, I've raised awareness, does this count as me being charitable? My heartfelt awareness blog post. Remember when I used to be sincere about autism awareness? Those where the days.
Join me next week as I continue to poke apathetic fun at disabilities. If I can be bothered.
But now I have something very special, just for you, my readers (unless that website takes my blog post, mangles it and uses it to sell lamps again. That was strange, but it's a story for a different time. Actually, what I just said was the story.). Anyway, the super special thing I promised: A blog post about autism! I feel I should do these every six or so months, so that I can pretend this is an awareness blog and not just some self obsessed teen telling you about how dull his life is, though we both know it is the latter.
As some of you might know, April is Autism Awareness Month. But you probably didn't know that. I didn't know that until a couple of weeks ago. Maybe they should have made last month Autism Awareness Month Awareness Month, then we'd all be expecting it. So yeah, awareness. Awareness is important. You're aware, right? I mean, at least vaguely aware of autism? It'd be quite difficult to read the title of my blog without getting a bit of awareness. And for those of you who know me, I just want you to be aware that not everyone with autism is as much of a prick as me. Apparently.
So, in conclusion, if you want more information about autism, google it or something.
There, I've raised awareness, does this count as me being charitable? My heartfelt awareness blog post. Remember when I used to be sincere about autism awareness? Those where the days.
Join me next week as I continue to poke apathetic fun at disabilities. If I can be bothered.
Sunday, 20 March 2011
Strangers
So I've realised that I haven't written any posts about autism for a few months, which is strange as according to the title of this blog one third of posts should be about it. So here is one related to autism, and the issues of living with it.
One of those issues is strangers. You see, once I know someone I come off as a confident prick, who obviously has some sort of problems but it seems more likely to be narcissistic personality disorder than Asperger's. But before I get to know someone I come off less as someone with stone cold wit and more just stoned. A combination of not responding and lack of eye contact gives many people the impression that I'm high. The hair probably doesn't help either. But for the most part I don't come into contact with people I don't know so it's not that much of a problem. But when I do the physical sensation is one of near panic. My heart rate shoots up, I lose focus and become so self aware that I often forget to respond. When I do respond I tend to murmle my words which never form anything longer than a sentence, while often relying more on head movements to convey meaning. Once the brief encounter ends I can usually hear my voice playing back in my head as I watch the confused person who had the misfortune to speak to me attempt to work out what I just said while wondering whether I am suitable person to ask advice from. After this I tend to resume staring into middle distance while thinking about the mysteries of the universe. Or shoelaces.
After that barely structured drivel you have just read, I leave you with this: http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=474
One of those issues is strangers. You see, once I know someone I come off as a confident prick, who obviously has some sort of problems but it seems more likely to be narcissistic personality disorder than Asperger's. But before I get to know someone I come off less as someone with stone cold wit and more just stoned. A combination of not responding and lack of eye contact gives many people the impression that I'm high. The hair probably doesn't help either. But for the most part I don't come into contact with people I don't know so it's not that much of a problem. But when I do the physical sensation is one of near panic. My heart rate shoots up, I lose focus and become so self aware that I often forget to respond. When I do respond I tend to murmle my words which never form anything longer than a sentence, while often relying more on head movements to convey meaning. Once the brief encounter ends I can usually hear my voice playing back in my head as I watch the confused person who had the misfortune to speak to me attempt to work out what I just said while wondering whether I am suitable person to ask advice from. After this I tend to resume staring into middle distance while thinking about the mysteries of the universe. Or shoelaces.
After that barely structured drivel you have just read, I leave you with this: http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=474
Sunday, 18 July 2010
Self aware?
I hope you all remembered that Be 'Nice to your Liver Day' was today.
Recently I've been thinking about knowledge. In particular self knowledge and awareness. There are some (mentally) disabled people who although being quite severely affected are under the impression that they are not very disabled at all. This got me to thinking, how can I measure how disabled I come across as, as if I'm more disabled than I think I am, I'd be unable to know how disabled I am. Most people can judge themselves using what is known as a human mirror, where we base our self image on how other people react to us. However, people on the autistic spectrum aren't very good at doing this. Personally I believe I'm not too bad at it, but I can't really tell because the only reason I think I'm reliable at seeing my 'human reflection' is based on what I see in said reflection, so if I'm worse at reading it than I thought, I wouldn't know. This extends to all points of reference to how socially and emotionally able I am, as I can't trust my own judgement when trying to work out if I can trust my own judgement. It even means I can't necessarily accept it if someone tells me I seem relatively (I use that word to an extreme here) normal, as I wouldn't be able to tell if they were merely being condescending.
However, what is more interesting is that this also applies to you. You might reason that you have no reason to think you are any less than average, but that's just what someone who is deluded would think, isn't it?
Recently I've been thinking about knowledge. In particular self knowledge and awareness. There are some (mentally) disabled people who although being quite severely affected are under the impression that they are not very disabled at all. This got me to thinking, how can I measure how disabled I come across as, as if I'm more disabled than I think I am, I'd be unable to know how disabled I am. Most people can judge themselves using what is known as a human mirror, where we base our self image on how other people react to us. However, people on the autistic spectrum aren't very good at doing this. Personally I believe I'm not too bad at it, but I can't really tell because the only reason I think I'm reliable at seeing my 'human reflection' is based on what I see in said reflection, so if I'm worse at reading it than I thought, I wouldn't know. This extends to all points of reference to how socially and emotionally able I am, as I can't trust my own judgement when trying to work out if I can trust my own judgement. It even means I can't necessarily accept it if someone tells me I seem relatively (I use that word to an extreme here) normal, as I wouldn't be able to tell if they were merely being condescending.
However, what is more interesting is that this also applies to you. You might reason that you have no reason to think you are any less than average, but that's just what someone who is deluded would think, isn't it?
Sunday, 16 May 2010
Autistic vogue
First of all I'd like to say a big thank you to Livvy, who has saved me having to do any work for several weeks. Let's have a round of applause for her. Go on, wherever you are, give her a big clap. Unless you're in a library or at a funeral. But if you're at a funeral stop reading my blog, you terrible person. Have some respect. Even if you didn't like the person. I mean I know my blog is good, but it's not that good. You're a horrible person and I'm not talking to you again.
Anyway, once you've clapped and once that terrible person who was reading a blog during a funeral has left, leave a comment telling the world that you clapped. Also consider if you'd like to do a guest spot on my blog, because I really don't like working.
So, onto today's post. I've decided to do something different today and actually write about autism for a change. According to the title of my blog one third should be dedicated to it, with the remaining two thirds about me and myself.
So I'm going to write about the apparent vogue of autism that has appeared in recent months, especially on T.V. It seems that they will now put on anything to do with autism. There's been "Young, autistic and stage struck"; "Disco, autism and me"; "Autistic superstar" and of course who could forget, "Autistic driving school". That last one really scrapes the bottom of the barrel as an idea. So now might be the time for me to pitch an idea to the BBC, perhaps "Sex, drugs and autism", "Autism, google and me" or how about "Big brother: Autism".
To be honest I can't actually be bothered to go into the ethics of the portrayal of autism on T.V. right now, although I would love to normally, it is late and I should revise. I probably won't revise, but I like to give myself the chance.
So I will leave you with one final statement: the increased publicity of autism has not yet increased the number of girls that want me. Damn it.
Sunday, 20 July 2008
World of autistic majority
On yahoo answers a person was interested to know what people thought would happen to the world if autistics outnumbered NT's. My answer got chose as best answer. As it is easier than actually writing a new post I'm just going to post my answer.
"Having autism myself I have thought about this a lot. Essentially I believe that NT's (neurotypicals, "normal people") would be thought of as disabled.
Education would improve for autistics as their needs are more fully understood, but NT's may start slipping without being able to cope with a predominately autistic class.
Relationships would become much easier for autistics as they would be living with people who understand them, and would be more compatible.
Due to the obsessiveness and specific interest's of autism, jobs would become much more streamlined and filled by people who want the jobs. Unemployment could become a problem due to people who would work purely to make businesses more efficient. NT's would probably mostly end up in physical work as many would be able to compete with the very acute abilities of some autistics.
The military is quite a tough one, but in the event of a war there would be many problems due to sensory difficulties. Wars could be started because of an inability to see others point of view (so just like modern leaders then).
Laws could change, though I can't personally think of any specific ones right now.
The economy would probably grow fast, fueled by technological advances, but may leave the severely autistic behind. There may be a large rich poor divide between the highs (high functioning and aspergers" and the lows (low functioning and NT's). This may even create a class system based on ability as opposed to lineage. In the most extreme this may erupt into a race war of types, Auties versus NT's.
I hope this is useful. Good luck with the story, it sounds very interesting.
(PS. would you mind if I used my post on my blog?)"
"Having autism myself I have thought about this a lot. Essentially I believe that NT's (neurotypicals, "normal people") would be thought of as disabled.
Education would improve for autistics as their needs are more fully understood, but NT's may start slipping without being able to cope with a predominately autistic class.
Relationships would become much easier for autistics as they would be living with people who understand them, and would be more compatible.
Due to the obsessiveness and specific interest's of autism, jobs would become much more streamlined and filled by people who want the jobs. Unemployment could become a problem due to people who would work purely to make businesses more efficient. NT's would probably mostly end up in physical work as many would be able to compete with the very acute abilities of some autistics.
The military is quite a tough one, but in the event of a war there would be many problems due to sensory difficulties. Wars could be started because of an inability to see others point of view (so just like modern leaders then).
Laws could change, though I can't personally think of any specific ones right now.
The economy would probably grow fast, fueled by technological advances, but may leave the severely autistic behind. There may be a large rich poor divide between the highs (high functioning and aspergers" and the lows (low functioning and NT's). This may even create a class system based on ability as opposed to lineage. In the most extreme this may erupt into a race war of types, Auties versus NT's.
I hope this is useful. Good luck with the story, it sounds very interesting.
(PS. would you mind if I used my post on my blog?)"
Wednesday, 16 July 2008
Sex, drugs and autism
Social disconnection, appearing to be in a world of their own, thinking they're the centre of the universe, lack of understanding of social norms and unpredictable behaviour are just some of the main symptoms of a rock star. If you consider your typical cliche of a rock-star, then consider traits of autism you find that they're surprisingly similar. It's probably in a large part due to heavy drug use. Which brings me to my next point (not really, I'm just making this up as I go), that heavy drug use can create someone who has many parallels to an autistic. I originally planned this post to be about a rock n' roll lifestyle with autism, but now that I've mentioned drugs I may as well mention sex. After trying to think of what to say here for about ten minutes I decided to try some research. So I typed "sex autism" into Google and was shocked at the results: no porn. As I am desperate to think of something to write about I am going to roll with this idea, Aspie porn. Why isn't there any? The internet caters for every other philia or fetish, so why not autism? If the answer isn't immediately obvious then you should consider getting checked out by a psychiatrist.
It's half twelve at night and this post proves that I shouldn't write this late. To be honest, I only started this post because I came up with what I thought was a cool name (which I may use if I ever write an autobiography). If nothing else this post should have given you an idea of what my half asleep mind thinks of. Unfortunately, after heavy analysis, it appears that all I think of is porn.
It's half twelve at night and this post proves that I shouldn't write this late. To be honest, I only started this post because I came up with what I thought was a cool name (which I may use if I ever write an autobiography). If nothing else this post should have given you an idea of what my half asleep mind thinks of. Unfortunately, after heavy analysis, it appears that all I think of is porn.
Monday, 5 May 2008
People
I have decided show what the world would be like without autism. People with autism include Gary Numan, British singer and songwriter, Craig Nicholls, frontman of the Australian garage rock band The Vines, Vernon L. Smith, Nobel Laureate in economics, Heather Kuzmich, fashion model and reality show contestant on America's Next Top Model (pictured, because I really should have a picture of someone, so why not make it a model?) , Satoshi Tajiri, creator and designer of Pokémon Pocket Monsters,Daryl Hannah, American actress best known for her roles in Splash, Blade Runner and Kill Bill.
People who may be autistic but where it is hard to find a diagnosis include Steven Spielberg, Dan Aykroyd, Syd Barret, Michael Palin, Bill Gates (they can't all be winners) and many others.
People from history who are speculated to have been autistic include Mozart, Michelangelo, Newton, Darwin, Orwell, Einstein, and anyone else who was ever important ever. However, how many of them actually were is a matter of dispute i.e. a couple of people look at everyone important in history and say "hey, look, this guy was shy, he must have been autistic" and no one takes them seriously.
The two to be taken most seriously are probably Newton and Einstein as their personality traits closely mirror those of autism. A case against Einstein being on the spectrum states that he had a good sense of humour, which he couldn't possibly have had if he were autistic, as we all don't understand humor, and we all see in just ones and zeros. Also, we don't understand sarcasm.
(due to several NT's inability to understand sarcasm I have decided to put a mention of the fact that some of the above text is humorous and should not be taken internally or literally. (that was also intended to be humorous, as I was using word play. OK Kenny?))(so just to clarify, some aspies can understand sarcasm and humor. NT's on the other hand, i'm not to sure about anymore.)
Autism Speaks
I thought I'd start my blog with a post about a group I don't like. Autism Speaks. Autism speaks was set up by, and is run by, exclusively non autistics who feel they have a right to decide what is best for autistics. They talk of "curing" autism, and do research into genetic screening. In short, eugenics maniacs with the goal of the complete genocide of anyone who doesn't fit into the "normal" brain mould. Trying to cure autism is like Hitler trying to cure Jews, blacks, homosexuals, people too short, people too tall, people with the wrong hair colour, people with the wrong eye colour, and anyone else who wasn't Aryan. Not only do they try to kill us, people listen to them. The two founders are listed as two of the of the most influential people in the world by TIME magazine. They're hailed as heroes. Governments shape policies based on what they say. Yet they have never thought of taking into account the actual opinions of any autistics.
they don't listen.
Me and my blog
I am 14. I am British. I have asperger's. I am not a stereotype.
The purpose of this blog is to write about my life and opinions, and to let people know the truth about autism.
Autism is a difference in the thought process, not a set of thoughts, so my opinions won't be the same as all aspies (people with asperger's), auties (people with autism) or speckies (anyone on the spectrum), in the same way not all nt's (neurotypicals, people with a "normal" mind) will have the same opinions on things.
The purpose of this blog is to write about my life and opinions, and to let people know the truth about autism.
Autism is a difference in the thought process, not a set of thoughts, so my opinions won't be the same as all aspies (people with asperger's), auties (people with autism) or speckies (anyone on the spectrum), in the same way not all nt's (neurotypicals, people with a "normal" mind) will have the same opinions on things.
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