There are several cases of non-autistic adults who have also had conditions like ABIs, MS, CFS, who have developed significant information processing challenges as to resemble autism-related issues.

I have also known of a young man dx’d with Asperger’s but after a brain injury (due to infection) developed highly autistic behaviours and challenges. I know of another man with Asperger’s who after drug related ABI, developed severely disabling co-morbids and ultimately presented as more ‘autistic’.

Certainly, co-morbids like Selective Mutism can relapse in later years, requiring augmented communication, and those with ASD can develop co-morbid psychoses which may involve word salad closely resembling Semantic Pragmatic Disorder in autism (in fact many with SPD are mistaken this way for schizophrenic) and the end result for either may be that augmented communication may help them manage.

So, I am not judge nor jury. I don’t believe in public lynchings, virtual or otherwise. I feel human stories are complex and that diversity teaches us the boxes are not as neat as we’d imagine. I don’t expect people to be ’sorted’ because some who present the most ’sorted’ are actually the most messed up so I’d rather presume all people are messed up in their own way. I am an impossible egalitarian.

Appears she is intentionally adopting autism as a way to deal with her life, it makes her feel better, and also due to Malingering Disorder.

Look at your interview with her, her statement in her first reply to you:

“More and more need to use the autistic strategies I’d been using all along” ….

Looks like she adopted autism, autistic strategies, intentionally.

Please do a thorough investigation into this, it appears well established she is not autistic.

What I miss is having someone around to spend time with where words aren’t the main mode of interaction. I have a friend who is now all the way across the country from me, we’ve known each other since we were kids. She kept up her end of the friendship long before I was able to keep up mine. But at any rate, what’s interesting, is… she’s generally a very word-oriented person and very intellectually sophisticated and so forth, and I’d always felt a little beneath her because of that (because of the fingernail-hanging effect even when I could appear to keep up, and the amount of time I just couldn’t follow). But when we got together later, we always did things like, rolling down hills, or playing with shiny things, or whatever, that didn’t require a whole lot of words and stuff, and around her I never felt inferior or left out or behind or whatever. And that continues to be the case. I miss having someone nearby to do that stuff with.

I’d love to be interviewed by you! That would be great! Also, I remember back in 1992 that Isocoles, Jim’s dog sat in my chair. Also, we talked alot and we looked at different things, you slept with Travel Dog, and teaching how to count to 10 in Indonesian. When Obie, my big black cat, jumped on your lap, you didn’t realize it was a cat. I learned on that weekend in ‘92 about the great variety of autism from you and Jim. And back in ‘92, before the internet, I typed letters (never wrote because of my nasty handwriting) and ANI spread. And we looked through the kaladescope and you taught me about balancing on the table without falling off and when you told me go to sleep, I went to sleep. Then I learned from you that you had to watch me fall asleep so you could. What a great coping mechanism! The night Donna came to St. Louis was the night that Kristi Yamaguchi won the gold medal in figure skating in the Lillehammer Winter Olympics. By the way the 2014 Winter Olympics will be in Sochi, Russia. And when you and Jim went away in ‘92, I didn’t like it at all. It was great to be among comrades.

Amanda, I assume you have the world and the US map on your wall still? I still get excited about countries, states, and cities. And I wonder if VT got more or less snow than Denver this year. And I still squeal with delight when I see stuff I like. Maps and flags especially. How often do you go to NY state? If I go to Burlington again, I want to go across the state to NY state. Also, I like VT politics.

You guys are so fun and cute!

Kathy Grant

When Nobody Nowhere was about to be published I was told of Temple Grandin and wrote to her saying I was really scared of the whole publication thing (I was told my book would help many people so felt it’d be nice if something I did was of use to others). I got no reply, perhaps she was too famous, who knows. But in those days her book was not mainstream. It was in the educational book world. It went mainstream after Nobody Nowhere came out.

But I heard of Kathy through MAAP and she was the first other female autistic adult I ever met. I was so pleased that I flew to her house in the US to meet her and Jim Sinclair came from his state and we three had a wild few days in Kathy’s apartment which was where we began ANI, seriously, we began it in Kathy’s place.

What I loved about meeting Kathy was she was fun and cheery, a lovely sparkly spirit. I think if I’d met Temple I’d have been less ‘found’ because Kathy and I were far more similar than me and Temple. And Jim was like the other half of me. Where Kathy was sunny and sparkly, Jim was deeply into equality, humanity and very highly sensing. So, again, when I met Temple, she wasn’t like Jim or Kathy, and I found much I could resonate with with Jim and Kathy. I am always grateful to the wonderful reception Jim and Kathy gave me in the autism world. This was back in 1992, before all the online groups, forums, websites. All we had back then was a paper pen pal list started through MAAP.

Of course these days I’ve met over 1000 people on the spectrum and worked with over 600, so I’ve seen diversity in all its glory, good, bad, ugly, often poignant.

Donna *)

yes, I remember the wind was blowing the shuttle thingy everywhere and we were laughing and could hardly hit it.

Fancy being interviewed by me?

It’s only for the brave

I think the high and low functioning thing is pretty useless unless people realise its not a category, just a description of how one is managing at a given phase in life or under particular circumstances.

For example some very ‘low functioning’ people are not at all so when ARTing or in a highly structured situation in which they are used to a rote learned, patterned set of roles/activities or when using a form of communication that best suits them.

Vice versa, a ‘high functioning’ person may be reduced to a mess in a highly unstructured, unpredictable environment they are completely unfamiliar with if a quick succession of struggles occur before they can process or respond to them.

But I think we do need to keep the capacity to discuss which and when people have severe functioning challenges and when they don’t, without defining THE WHOLE PERSON by a presumption their functioning defines some mythical group. When we do that people around them behave accordingly and it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Just look at what happened to Sue Rubin. A highly articulate, deep, intelligent woman who also presumed her own incompetence until someone helped her consider the possibility she had far more capacity.

… Donna Williams *)

Also, both Australia and Vermont have their own beauty.

Kathy Grant