(I’ll do my best to explain it in common terms. Sorry for the lengthy-ness.)
Asperger’s syndrome is, in the words of mayoclinic.com, :
…a developmental disorder that affects a person’s ability to socialize and communicate effectively with others.
That means tendencies to be socially akward and such. When I was a kid, I didn’t start speaking correctly until I was four years old, suffering from echolalia before I was able to talk. At first, the doctors thought I had the actual disorder, autism, but was diagnosed as ADHD (which threw my mom a curveball because I was the calmest kid in class). It was properly diagnosed as Asperger’s syndrome with inattentive ADHD when I was twelve. I took medicine until sophmore year of high school, starting with the classic Ritalin to Stratera (HATED it), and Adderall. (As of late, I’ve been on and off a patch called Daytrana.)
When I was younger, I did not like looking people in the eye because I found it really intimidating and I was intensely interested in all things artistic and creative, such as singing or drawing. I would be in my own world, not paying attention to whatever was around me. My mom would have to pull my chin and force me to look at her just to get my attention. I was also socially akward at times and wasn’t able to read “social cues” properly.
Even with all that going on, I was friendly and well-liked by my peers. As I got older, the symptoms were less obvious, almost invisible to the naked eye unless it was pointed out by me or someone else. I took Communication classes (“Speech” was what it was called) during school, often being called out of regular classes to go to these classes. I was able to learn the proper social cues quickly with these classes, much more faster than my fellow classmates taking these Speech classes. I acted almost like a normal kid with “accomodations applied”. My intense love for the arts flourished, as well, and I became intersted in anime and manga and became a member of the high school choir.
There were some major problems that have stayed with me, even to this day: poor time management, poor organization skills, not being able to focus, and trouble completing assignments. It’s been a constant struggle that I have to deal with on a daily basis. Sometimes, with the ADHD, I feel my mind goes one hundred miles an hour, as if someone is changing the channel every ten seconds and I can’t stop it. Not only is the sugar-high kid in my head doing five yard dashes back and forth, the sugar-high kid is also a spoiled brat that doesn’t want to do any form of work, especially anything that’s school related. It’s a pain the ass most of the time.
But I’ve grown to accept that’s a part of the Asperger’s syndrome with inattentive ADHD. With those flaws, there are incredible strenghts. I’m more sensitive than the average person in all senses of the word and my artistic eye helps me a lot with acting and all the other artistic abilities I have spewing out of me. I am very in tune with my whole being and have complete confidence in myself. I am proud to be an “Aspergian”.
P.S.: The famous writer, Jane Austen, was said to have Asperger’s syndrome. Along with Albert Einstein…who was said to have many things.
