When I was 7 I was different from the other kids. Different from the other kids on the street, in class, and in my own family. My parents said I quit going to school mentally In class I was always reading and studying things that I wanted to learn, rather than what was being taught, I would stare out the windows, daydream all day. I had difficulty establishing relationships, and, began obsessing over things (airplanes were the first). I wouldnt talk to anyone, or join in the other kids games. I hated sports and teams. I once missed a flyball hit to me in a game because I was watching airplanes instead.. Then I started making lists. Lists of books. Lists of airplanes. Lists of cars. Lists of baseball cards. Lists of chores. Lists of all different kinds. I was in my own world. My parents and my teachers were concerned. I spent second through fifth grade shuffling between psychologists and psychiatrists. I underwent a battery of tests and examinations of all kinds. I have no idea what the diagnosis the doctors gave my parents at the time was, and still do not. I do know that they did what was standard at the time, fed me Ridilin, ground up in apple sauce, every morning. Traditionally that is a treatment for ADD/HD, but my symptomology didnt fit the diagnosis. I did the Ridilin thing for about 4 years, from 7 to 11, but it didnt help. I hated it and my parents hated it because they said it made me dopey and even less social and noncommunicative. It never got better. I never enjoyed school like I should have. I always ALWAYS marched off in a different direction from everyone else. I had trouble making friends, having a social life, dating. I made endless numbers of meaningless lists. I collected large numbers of anything I was interested in, books, records, model kits. I ended up going to 7 (yes that is right 7) different colleges and schools before I eeked out a degree. Looking back it is likely that I suffered then, and suffer now, from either a mild form of ASD, or Aspbergers (once considered a form of ASD), that went unrecognized for what it was. You can see a lot of this in the things I have done online. The internet was my godsend. I have made so many lists and organized things (like forums and classified sections and car and band photo galleries) that it was the natural expression of whatever this is. I have over 100,000 car photos, 200,000 band photos and I see no end to it. It is likely that there are MANY people walking around with milder forms of ASD that went unrecognized for what it is/was and are just now being brought under the diagnosis that is ASD. And it is likely that THAT is what has caused the jump in Autisim cases over the last 20 years. And I imagine that if I were to be screened now it would be flagged,
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 13:16:14 +0000
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