Been told you might have Asperger’s?
This mom, author of Storkdok-NOS, remembers not quite fitting in as a kid and being bullied by her classmates. Still she was shocked by Temple Grandin’s suggestion that she may have Asperger’s.
“I always knew I was different. I always felt like I was on the outside looking in at a party that I could never join. Even my so called best friend would turn against me and make fun of me with the other kids at times. I was actually considered very pretty, dressed nice, had nice/fun toys, but I could never make real friends.”
The taunting of the kids became so torturous at one point, her parents had to remove her and change schools. Read more about Karen’s discovery here.
People are people, even with stereotyping
“When I meet someone new, it really is meeting someone completely new.”
Meet Anna. She is a woman with autism and the author of Veiled Glory.
“As an autistic, every human I meet starts off on a more or less equal grounding. The fact that they are female/male, rich/poor, ignorant/highly over-educated, tall/short, fat/skinny really doesn’t shade my first acceptance of them. I’m being completely honest here. If I will put forth the effort of getting to know someone (a very significant task), I will learn as much as I can about them as possible.”
Does this mean she lives completely without stereotypes?
“Actually, I am plagued by stereotypes. On the one hand I face each person as an individual species, on the other, I try to figure them out according to all the other individual species I know.”
Read more about her process of relating to new people here.
The Thimerosal Generation: Are the children safe now?
The first time this blogger, author of Endangered Spaces Blog, heard about the danger of mercury in vaccines was on the Daily Show in 2007.
“Watching the show and listening to RFK, Jr. talk about mercury in vaccines, I felt as if I had been hit in the stomach. Then, after considering that the pharmaceutical industry is every bit as powerful as the oil and gas industry in the USA, I was physically ill. I did not want to believe that pharmaceutical companies would poison our young, but I knew that, in all probability, our young were being sacrificed to the god of pharma, just like our wilderness areas are currently being sacrificed to the god of oil and gas.”
This blogger’s son was born in 1989, during the years called The Thimerosal Generation. He has struggled with learning difficulties from birth and, at one time, was diagnosed as deaf. Read more of this post here and the blogger’s answer to “Are the children safe now?”
These are only a few of the posts by those blogging for autism awareness. There many, many great posts being written that aren’t shown here. Check the right rail to find more.
Related posts:
- Autism Reads: From the financial strains of autism to bad parenting as the cause
- Autism Reads: From preemies at risk to financial and emotional bankruptcy
- Autism Reads: From 'not another word for jerk' to blessing or curse?
- Autism Reads: From hiding in the closet to converting bullies
- Autism Reads: From blocked autism bill to dedicated teachers
Genevieve Hinson is a social media coordinator for Children's Hospital Central California. She's also a writer, wife and mom to two boys and a girl. The opinions she expresses here are her own, as is her obsession for coffee.
