13/11/2020
#WorldAutismAwarenessDay
My name is Neville and I am autistic! I didn't always know that. When I was at school, they hadn't yet invented it. I simply knew that I was different. At 4 years old I could perform mental calculations bigger and faster than any of my teachers. I had a tape-recorder memory. I couldn't relate to my classmates; they weren't interested in numbers. I had no intuition. I had no sense of an atmosphere in a room.
There were advantages. My threshold of embarrassment is set at a very high level and no-one can ever lay a guilt trip on me.
By the time I worked out that I was autistic I was over 60. I spoke to a few psychiatrist friends who said "well of course you are". I said "how come you never mentioned it." "We assumed you knew".
#WorldAutismAwarenessDay is probably a good time to revisit your assumptions on the subject. We do not belong to a different species to the rest of you. We don't even belong to the same community as one another. Most of us function reasonably well and lead fulfilling lives. I have been widowed once and very happily married twice. Just think of autistic people as rather like you only marching to the beat of a slightly different drum.
