DREWspective

I scored a 23 on an AQ test just now.

This morning I woke up to a message from someone who had been reading some of my stuff on another site. They suggested that my writing showed signs of having autism: namely Asperger’s Syndrome.

I wasn’t sure how to take it, to be honest.

On the one hand, people have been claiming that a lot of things I say, both online and offline, is one or all of: offensive, arrogant, bigoted, racist and sexist. This time seemed to be no exception; apparently I’d made this person “miffed” by what I’d been writing.

But on the other hand, I’ve always known there was something different about me and how I see things. Maybe this is the diagnosis I’ve been looking for?
It had been suggested a long time ago (behind my back, naturally) by one of my teachers that I’d had Asperger’s Syndrome, but—as with depression— nothing was done to find out for sure. Whether they decided to ignore it, or had no idea what to do, I’ll never know.

So I did a tiny bit of research on Asperger’s Syndrome over the Internet. The bad news is that there is no cure or treatment for it. But apparently there are things that people with it can do so that it doesn’t become so much of a problem.

Whether or not I have autism, I would like to state that I’ve made more than my share of mistakes. But there is no excuse for the way I’ve been treated and dismissed by people over the years. (If people are going to throw that around, I will too.)

We should be helping each other to live fulfilled lives; not making fun of, ignoring or otherwise abusing people, just because they don’t have what so many people take for granted.

The story continues…