Wake up, go to the bathroom and brush teeth very quickly and half assed, get dressed very quickly and get ready for school and wait. For 20 minutes, wait. Go to school, and go through every day routine and not understand a thing about the world around me except for my studies. Talk to my one and only friend that I have in the entire universe once, maybe twice the entire day. Come home, eat a snack, do homework, play video games, eat dinner while continuing to play video games and have to be reminded twice to finish dinner, shower in under two minutes, go to bed, all with the TV on all day long except while at school.
Welcome to a day in the life of my son who has been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. Asperger's Syndrome is under the Autism umbrella. If you don't know what Autism is, then I am about to explain it as simple as I possibly can. Take the average day that my son has, and take out the "do homework, play video games and eat dinner" part and put in any kind of event or activity that you want. Now, imagine the biggest temper tantrum that you have ever seen in your life from a young child and multiply it by a billion. THAT is how someone with Asperger's or Autism reacts when a wrench is thrown into their day. Now, this isn't the way my son reacts to every or any situation. BUT, it has the potential to be. My son has been taught coping skills. That's something that not everyone under the Autism umbrella can say. Most of them will implode and have a meltdown on a nuclear scale.
I don't expect you to understand it. I don't expect you to sympathize with any person who does understand it. But what I hope you do is educate yourself. Educate yourself enough so that you aren't the person in a restaurant acting a fool whenever a child with autism has a meltdown. Educate yourself so that when you encounter someone with autism who is not a child, you don't do or say something that you might regret later, or that might send that person into a meltdown and hurt themselves or someone else in the process.
My son is a normal, average looking person. You would never know by looking at him that he has Asperger's Syndrome. But if you watch him closely, if you really keep an eye on him and watch his mannerisms, you'll see it. You'll see him swaying softly back and forth as he is trying to stand still. You'll observe him not looking you in the eye, even if you're trying to talk to him. He doesn't trust you enough to look you in the eye. He is afraid you'll make fun of him because of his Asperger's. But looking at him, you would never know he has a form of autism. My son, like so many other people in this world that has been diagnosed with any form of autism, just wants you to accept them for who they are. Those same people want you to tolerate the behaviors that they most of the time cannot help. They don't want their behavior to be acceptable to the world, they just want you to understand that they can't and never will act in a way that the world deems as "normal".
I have written this line and deleted it three times. Every time I start to write something, it comes across as me being arrogant or like I am better than you because I understand and I sympathize. But that isn't the case at all. Most parents will never know the pain that they feel when their son or daughter tells them that they only have one friend and that no one at school likes them. Most people will never experience that pain in their entire life. But an Aspie, someone with Autism, they feel it every day. They feel it all the time.
The reason I wrote this is so that the next time you meet someone and they say or do something that might piss you off, you don't respond in a hateful or mean manner. Don't start bullying them, being mean to them, saying mean, hurtful and hateful words to them. If a person says or does something that offends you or makes you angry, please, take a step back and think. Don't fly off the handle and be a jerk. Remember, the person could have a form of Autism. By treating them with respect and letting them know in a mild tone that what they did to hurt you, could change their life and yours as well.
All too often in this world, someone will say or do something that makes our blood boil. I know I am guilty of it just as much as everyone else. However, I have been blessed with a great son who has been diagnosed with something that has made me stop and think about things before I do them or say them. There is only one thing anymore that makes me lose my mind without thinking about it first and that is treating my son in a rude, hateful, disrespectful, mean, pissy, jerky, angry, and douchey way. If you disrespect my son because of something he does or says that he can't control, you will most likely be sorry for doing so. So just think about things before you spout off at the mouth to someone. That person could be my son.
