Singer Susan Boyle Diagnosed with Aspergers

[jtur88]

Originally Posted by in_newengland

Adam Lanza, the kid who killed all those school children in Newtown CT, had Aspergers too. That's what they called it. I don't know if that's what made him kill people.

Some famous criminals were left handed. Left-handedness did not make them kill anybody.

Most Aspergers do not want to be like everyone else. They call normal people "neurotypical", and are often disgusted by the social behavior of such people, who seem to them to be affected land artificially play-acting in order to conform with social norms. Aspergers would rather remain alone by themselves than to pretend they are someone they are not in order to be socially accepted. They do not know how to be successful phonies, because they don't know how to read body language or guess what other people think or want, and this makes them conspicuous. Look around you in a social setting and think about how phony everybody is. Aspergers see it from that perspective all the time.

That's not because they like being alone, but because they feel uncomfortable in social situations. The have the same need and desire as anyone else, and want to be loved and desired and respected and admired. But it takes a lot of tiring effort to navigate among neurotypicals. Think of it as being a foreigner who doesn't understand English very well. The foreigner still wants to be admitted to society, but it is very hard and tiring to function in a language that is not known well, among others who can use it effortlessly, and after a while you just want to go away by yourself and relax with your thoughts in your own language. Conforming to social norms requires a constant mental effort, just like conversing in a foreign language, and it's tiring.

[Coney]

There are different "symptoms" for people with PDD or with Aspergers and not everyone has the same ones. One problem that is common with people with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (but not everyone has this, of course) is difficutly processing a lot of environmental sensory stimulation. That is, they are super-sensitive to any sensory stimulation such as a lot of bright lighting or those strobe lights, high noise level, strong ordors, etc. and just the way in fibromyalgia, the nerves are over-active, the sensory system in the brain is overactive. People with ASD often have trouble coping with sudden changes, such as a change in their routine. I can imagine this can pose certain problems for Suan Boyd touring or performing in public. If Adam Lanza had Aspergers that was the least of his problems. It has been revealed that he was one sick kid with probably mutlple mental disorders.

[Escort Rider]

According to what I have read, people with Asperger's have trouble reading other people's social and emotional cues; they may fail to realize that the person they are talking to is trying politely to change the subject, for example.

Actually, Asperger's sufferers can be very verbal. They often have an area of interest which they totally obsess about; they talk on and on about it to others, failing to pick up on the lack of interest on the other end of the conversation.

Many tend to be rather literal and do not follow social niceties. "How are you?" might bring, "I'm so disgusted by this party that I have a stomach ache." Whether the honesty is refreshing would depend on the context, I'm sure.

People who have Asperger's but who are motivated can learn to conform better to societal expectations through coaching and practice.

I have a female cousin, age 68, whom all the rest of us (cousins and her own siblings) think has Asperger's, but she denies it vehemently. No learning how to get along better with others in her case! She remains an "in your face" type of person then wonders why others react negatively to her. It is very sad.