Yesterday I was looking for a definition of Aspergers Syndrome to add to my website. What I found during my search was site after site reporting on the;
- Problems
- Difficulties
- Struggles
of living with Aspergers and NOTHING at all about the rewards, the gift of having Aspergers! I felt compelled to write this blog to show a good side of Aspergers that nobody else seems to be telling you.
If you have Aspergers Syndrome, let me tell you…it IS a gift!
When people talk about problems, difficulties and struggles faced by those of us with Aspergers Syndrome, what they are actually saying is that we have struggles, difficulties and problems being mainstream. They are telling you that YOU have to make all the effort to be the same as THEM…or in other words, neuro typical ‘normal’ people.
If you run a business you’ll know that we’re constantly being told we need to establish our niche of one. Not to just follow your competitors but to find your Unique Selling Point (USP) so you can actually be different from everyone else. Yet most of the resources available on Aspergers Syndrome centre on ‘fitting in’ so you can be the same as everyone else! Confusing or what?
So come on, who wants to be one of a crowd? I certainly don’t! Why should we have to adapt to fit some perceptions of ‘normal’ when we have been gifted with skills, abilities and insights that ‘normal’ people would…and do…pay to experience? Let’s celebrate these differences!
The definition I have chosen to represent myself and my business is;
“Enhanced visual perception with an intense understanding of subjects that interest”
If you are parenting a child with Aspergers you may recognise “intense” as “obsessive” and it is certainly true that people with Aspergers Syndrome do enjoy an obsessive interest in topics and develop a huge databank of knowledge on their favourite subjects. I don’t like the word ‘obsessive’ though as it is another way of saying ‘abnormally interested’ so I prefer to call it ‘very knowledgeable’.
You see, I have built a business around my passion. My work with local business owners training them on social media has grown from a love of social media into my clients benefitting from my intense understanding.
The enhanced visual perception has gifted me the ability to see much more deeply into what I am reading. I only actually realised that I interpreted written communication differently about a year ago when other people started asking me how I could gather so much information from a few tweets or posts when they hadn’t been able to identify the same level of information themselves.
What this means is that unlike other Twitter training on the market, I don’t only teach my clients the mechanics of using Twitter…which buttons to press and what to type where etc. What they learn from me is how to recognise the patterns in tweets that I see, and then they learn how to apply these patterns to find their targeted prospects too.
I regularly receive emails from clients telling me they were amazed that even though they have been using Twitter already, they would never have spotted what I have taught them. They are also really enjoying the results it has brought them! If you’d like to check Social Media Prospector for Twitter out for yourself, click here.
One of my goals for 2012 is to raise awareness of the positives of having Aspergers Syndrome. I am a positive person by nature and will always find a positive to any negative but for those of you who have Aspergers Syndrome, know someone with Aspergers or are parenting a child with Aspergers Syndrome, I want you to stop seeing AS as a ‘syndrome’ and start recognising the gift you or they have been given.
Hans Asperger
Hans Aspergers who gave his name to the syndrome said that people with Aspergers are “little professors”. Some of us aren’t so little anymore but we are all a professor in something. Identify your specialist subject, nurture it and when the time is right, share it with the world.
We’re different certainly and that alone is worth celebrating…but do you know what? Every single one of us can make a difference somewhere! After all, we’re not like everyone else…we were born with a USP!
I’d love to hear your experiences of Aspergers…do you know or parent someone with Aspergers Syndrome or are you an Aspie yourself? I’d be honoured if you’d leave me a comment sharing your story.
Christ said of his followers that I have used what the world would call foolish to baffle the wise. I have Dyselixa/dyspraxia/ADDH/Aspergers Syndrome and an allergy to alcohol and my identical twin has the same conditions as we share 100% of our Genes. If two identical twins share the same medical conditions it is usually heritary so I am not totally responsible for my specific learning difficulties I just look at the world with a different pair of glasses not superior or inferior just different. I was 48 when I was diagnosed by top Medical people with these neurological disorders it only means that I recieve information and that I process information differenty which can be vey stressful at times. I have had help and support and I dont have to fully understand why I am wired up differenty than others onlt try to accept that I am a person of worth and a unique flawed dameged human being. As Samuel Beckett wrote “ever tried ever failed no matter try again fail again fail better. I have not come into this world to live up to others expectations and others have not come into this world to live up to mine. I hope this may help others with similiar difficulties as now I have more inner compassion for myself and with the company of my indigo brother I may live a reasonable ok life. All the Best.
Great that you have posted this Veronica, well done you! Both myself and my daughter are Dyspraxic.
Again there is usually a deficit model applied when looking at this and similar conditions, however I think we have a wonderful view of the world and I am constantly delighted by my daughter’s analysis of things.
It can mean we seem out of step, but neither of us would swap our wiring just to fit in better! If it’s good enough for David bailey it’s good enough for me!