What Is Autism Like?
Specifically, I’m dedicating this section to describing Aspergers Syndrome and what it is like to have it, mostly from the perspective of knowing what it’s like to be free of it.
If you want to read a good book on the subject from a well-known specialist in the medical profession, the I recommend Tony Attwood’s book “Aspergers’ Syndrome” (ISBN 1-85302-577-1).
The way I am tackling this is by stories and individual analogies which you will find in the sub-pages off this one. But first, he is the (or at least my) definition:
Aspergers Syndrome is an impairment in the ability to read non-verbal communication.
Examples of non-verbal communication are: body language, tone of voice, facial expression, eye contact and so on. We know that non-verbal communication makes up some 90% of communication, which puts an autistic person at quite a disadvantage when it comes to relating to people. I like to make the analogy with physical deafness. Our oldest daughter (who has never had any signs of autism) had so-called glue ear when she was little. This meant she had slightly impaired hearing when she was at nursery school (until she had grommets fitted). But that meant she hardly spoke at all, and when she eventually did she had a speech impediment. We had to put her through speech therapy to fix this (which she later told us she hated). The point I’m making is that even a slight loss of a sense has a profound effect, and so it is with autism. Note also, that just as deafness affects speech, so autism affects the person’s body language, tone of voice, etc., typically causing the person the be misinterpreted. The most common misinterpretation is to see the aloofness as arrogance, whereas usually what is going on is that the autistic person is doing mental gymnastics trying to work out what is going on. Either that or he is just far away thinking of something else.
Now, I don’t subscribe to the notion that nothing exists beyond what you can see and touch, but modern medical science is largely based on that supposition. Unsurprisingly, therefore, I don’t see genes, DNA and neural pathways as being a cause, but rather the effects of something much deeper. So, except in the case of demonstrable brain damage, I do not view autism as being a physical medical condition. From the perspective of how God created us, each of us is a spirit, we have a soul (defined as mind will and emotions in Protestant theology) and live in a body. I like to think of the brain an central nervous system as being the interface between our spirit and our body (although I suspect we are more tightly integrated than that). And so our spiritual condition right from early on affects how our brain develops. With autism being primarily a spiritual condition, its roots are therefore spiritual even though you can point to parts of the brain that have failed to develop normally.
Regarding the medical diagnosis of Aspergers Syndrome, this is quite difficult. There is no blood test or such like that can be taken to show it up. Unlike dyslexia (which is closely related, and often a symptom of autism) there is no psychometric test that can be taken (not for Aspergers at least). Diagnosis is primarily based on the verbal evidence of relatives, and most often the greater proportion of this is the mother describing the behaviour of her suspected autistic child. And so it is measured largely by its secondary effects – the wounded behaviour and personality disorders – rather than by any objective test of communication skills: it’s too intangible to measure like this. And so diagnosis depends on the skill and training of psychologists, and unfortunately also politics: on what funding policies exist in the local area for assistance, both in the medical system and schooling.
The widespread recognition of Aspergers Syndrome only really came about in the 1990’s in the UK, so there are vast numbers of undiagnosed adults, most of whom seem to work in the same profession as me.