Census of people in the spectrum

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I don’mean a headcount, but to have, as a first goal, some approximate evaluation by way of extrapolations. If, where there is good knowledge of the problem, let’s say Silicon Valley or Cambridge (UK) where the team of Baron Cohen works, you have x per cent of the population in some area of the spectrum, you can make some guess about 1) young people misDXed or ignored and for what reasons in other regions, 2) older people totally ignored and living as bums, or on welfare. I know of bums who don’t want to be assisted because they don’t want any kind of relations with welfare officials and they don’t even ask for alms (bag ladies). They prefer to look in the garbage and sleep on the benchs or in some entrail of the cities.

It’s not easy to find a place for people with autism. But sometime it might be easy. In my experience, for example, I made many translation and editorial work, I think quite well and to the satisfaction of publishers. But I lost an enormous amount of energies in trying to do other activities where I was totally inept because of my condition. In manual jobs it’s perhaps even easier to find protected situations. A good repairman in some fields may live in sheltered environments. A computer expert (there are many here) is also protected in his work.

Anyhow: can there be place for AS etc.? The answer should be yes I think, with knowledge of the problem and respect for people.

But there is another question. Is there a place for old people in our society? Here the answer is generally a big no. This is complex and can’t be treated here. It has to do with the disappearing request for traditional knowledge and wisdom. Kowledge is now supplied only by experts. And wisdom?

Is there a place for an old person in the autistic spectrum? Here things overlap dramatically.

I believe Roger Bannister has some AS traits, and he will be 78 on March 23. He was also very successful in many different fields, and defeated many of the AS stereotypes (unathletic, unsuccessul in forming friendships, etc.) He not only became a physician, but has been married to his wife, Moyra, for over 50 years. I think they should study successful people like him who overcame the odds.

Thank you Rjaye.

As a premise I would like that there is here some “Senior’s quiet corner” where to channel this kind of posts which should have a higher durability on WP as they are characterized by slower rythms and more articulate reasonings then polls and other more ephemeral threads. It would be useful if you could discuss both scientific literature on autism and narrative with some chance to receive the feedbacks about books read, which may take some time. No gettoing no snobbishness implied: it’s a a technical need and I propose it formally to moderators (Alex). Perhaps posts should also be allowed in repetition, because sometime we would like to complete a reasoning before a new post arrives.

For us in more advanced age the problems may be different, and survival, survival of our bubbles becomes more har, and the exchanges with the external world rarefy. When I understood that autism was the key to understand my action and my life nearly two years ago, I sent a thirty pages memo about this to the six or seven persons that I still considered of some relevance to me. There was not one preceptive reaction, and I understand that. But even if there are more frailties and vulnerabilities coming from biological decay, which by the way nobody wants to hear about much, I still see the time to come, brief as it might be, as something new and, in an understated way, somehow passionating.

I invite anybody who shares this view to support the proposal.

Often I see Asperger and HF described as mild form of autism. This is deceptive, because, while Asperger is perhaps less dramatic in its manifestations than those forms of autism resulting in mutism and nearly total absence of relationships, Asperger can bring havoc to the existantial quality of people affected. People becoming famous (possibly after they died, like Kafka) lived real hells as is witnessed by their fiction (but was it fiction, or was it not the most accurate description of the hell they lived?).

I was hoping that there might be more support for the seniors forum. (I'm just bumping the thread in the hope that more people see it)

My experience of being on the spectrum has been that often people think there is something 'not quite right' about me, but they can't quite understand what it is. I think this makes them feel a little uneasy. This doesn't happen with friends, I think they are used to my eccentricities, but colleagues, when I worked in a large office, I would see 'the look' of puzzlement. I longed to put them at their ease but I was never sure how to, nor understood quite what I'd said, or not said, which caused them to feel uneasy. I unconsciously modelled my behaviour on theirs, but it was never 100% convincing. I longed for someone to say 'it is this which is odd'. Even now, when I don't care so much, I would be interested to know what it was.

I am 38, clearly not 'senior', but also as clearly do not belong in the teenie section. I would support a section on WP for seniors.

I received this from alex:

“what are you asking for exactly? A separate forum for seniors?”

I answered Alex with this:


“It’s not so much a matter of age, as one of pace and helping in some sort of research and documentation on the matter of autism. We might do also with a thread, but threads after some time fade into oblivion and fragmentation. Sometime I see here very perceptive comments that might have some more durability in the site. I copy them in a file but they get lost for WP followers. Interest for the problems of autism is growing because it is a submerged huge continent. Proof is the great success of many recent books and articles appearing in newspapers. Today I quoted ne NYT on Daniel Tammet’s “Born in a blue day”. In a few days there will be no trace of this.
Would it be possible to open a new “chapter” like “Discussion, research, books”? after General discussion” and have somewhere a stable and adjournable bibliography? There already is one in "books", we might add other books and articles with some comment for each.
Thank you – paolo”

Personally I would like this and I would like an age group as well. There are times when I'm 56yo and silly. It matters to me when I realize that I'm talking to people who don't remember JFK - I start to feel like maybe I'm odd. Again. Sometimes I'd like to be with people who remember Soupy Sales.

Sorry, I think I've confused the issue here, Paolo is suggesting a slower-moving discussion forum, why I called it a senior's forum I don't know. Let's just call it an Aspie moment

I'm all for silliness too. Like Mr Spud (my kitty) I have a daft half hour at least once a day