brotherandrew wrote:
I put this in the "parent's discussion" not to frighten or scare, but to express my own feelings, and because I wonder if my family has a responsibility to make this syndrome and its associated strengths and weaknesses more widely known. How could we have never heard of it?
As one of the other posters said, AS was not listed in the DSM IV until the 1990's, so it is unlikely most people would have heard of it until a few years after it's publication in North America when people were more widely diagnosed than previously.
However, and this is not to criticize you...maybe this is just an Aspie thing...but it seems to me that most Aspies are people who know a little something about everything (which is one of the many reasons why people dislike them). But, interestingly enough, I have found that in crisis situations, peope tend to turn for me for leadership BECAUSE I know a little something about everything.
I suppose it is in my nature to know a little something about everything, but gee whiz, if everyone else remembered things the same way I do, then no one could blame themselves or be blamed for being ignorant, you know?
I know that before I was diagnosed, I knew what AS was. I just did not know that I personally had it.
Maybe it is the way I file facts in my head. I know that it's said that around 95% (the percentage varies depending who you talk to) of the facts we learn the brain tends to forget after a while, and it forgets the facts faster once the principle behind the facts has been understood, retrained, and ingrained. In addition to principles, I tend to retain most of the facts, and correctly too. So if I happen to hear "87.5 percent of all adults (fill in the blank)" today, I can accurately regurgitate that fact six, sixteen, twenty six years later if required to do so. (I'd postulate longer than that, but I have no reached 40 yet.)
But I know that most other people can hear the fact this very second and forget it three minutes later.
When I was in school, I always noticed what happened when I and thirty other people could hear a bunch of facts and then take a pop quiz on what we had learned three days later. I consistently got 100% on everything (and so did a few others) but the AVERAGE scores for the class were down around 80%, which mean that quite a few people had to get bad grades to come up with that average.
But here, finally, after all this rambling, is the point: Most people CAN commit to memory many of the random facts that pass across their perceptual range if they will themselves to.
I tend to be of the mindset that some seemingly useless fact that cross my path now might prove out to be very useful at some future critical juncture, so I try to store away anything that I hear to avoid the type of experience you have encountered.
You might try doing the same in the future.
Sorry for your loss.
_________________
From 2 Peter 1:10 So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Doing this, you will never stumble or fall away.
26 Nov 2007, 10:06 am
