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Questions posted in the
Neurology and Neurosurgery Forum have been answered by doctors from The Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
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Subject: Re: Autism: self prottection vs. personal space I have Asperger's syndrome. A year ago and a half I came to Brina Siegel because of my Aspergers. She asked me a basic questions regarding understanding of personal boundaries. For instance, she told me the story where a person was going to the interview. He brushed his hair throughly. On the elevator he found out that his hair was not brushed that well. So he asked the other person in the elevator for the brush. What was wrong? I was able to answer it: brush is a personal possesion, and it is unappropriate to use other people's brushes. However, since I was asked this question, I infer that some autistics do not have a concept of privacy. Then how comes Donna Williams in her book 'Nobody Nowhere' describes how she tries to protect herseelf from outside intruders: this implies that she has overly strong concept of privacy, which contradicts my privious assumption that outistics lack concept of privacy. Please explain to me how can those two contradictory things possibly go together. I am also wondering about how can weird autistic behaviors be possibly connected to self protection. I am regularly visiting MGH Neurology web forum. There, I've seen Ken mcGuffey in autism and schizophrenia forums giving out whole bunch of his life story (being hospitalised, etc, which he ones claimed he was going to write a book about, and what he put in the forum is merely a practice for the book; yah, what he writes is pretty interesting, you may as well go to MGH Neurology and read it. I especially enjoyed reading his article 'I remember like a moment ago' posted on schizophrenia forum) in many articles, each was few pages long. He was hospitalised for schizophrenia because of apparent stuppers, and only later his diagnosis was changed to Asperger's. His simptoms were that, though he didn't mind changes, he wanted all the changes to be reversed backwards. For instance, he went to school looking forward, so he had to go back home backward. Sometimes people teased him on his way home, so he took different root. He didn't mind that as long as he can walk it backwards: he would go this very root backwards; then, ones he is back to school, he would go his original way home backwards. It was very difficuti for him to drive car (psychologically) because when he drives back home he has to drive on the opposite side of the road forward, while he prefer to drive on the same side of the road backward. He also had similar problems with people. For instance, if he comes to the room, then somebody else comes after him, he would stay still untill that other person leaves the room, ond only then Ken would leave the room himself, so the process of Ken comming first and then other person comming after him can be reversed backwards. Somebody suggested that Ken should get treatment for OCD. But Ken responded that his psychiatrist thinks it is Asperger's rather than OCD because it has to do with self protection. However, he never made it clear how does reversal has to do with self prottection. On that article he also said that he liked to rock, and brock a rocking chair because of his intense rocking. Does rocking has anything to do with self prottection? And, if he is so self prottecting, why is he such a jerk in the forums, writing about his personal life all over the place? I know revercing changes is not a typicle autistic behavior. Resistance to changes is more typical. Does resistance to changes has anything to do with self-prottection? I am sorry, but, despite my Asperger's, I don't have any repetitive behaviors, such as rocking, and resistance or reversal of changes. So please explain why are those things so important to autistics, so I can actually understand it, as opposed to just knowing that they are. I also wondering to know how do they related to self prottection. And, if autistics are so self prottecting, why do they lack concept of personal space? = Isuspect that we may not be able to give you many answers through this forum as we are geared toward answering factual esquires rather than interpretation of the various complex variations within these syndromes. The questions you ask are fascinating but are probably more suited to a discussion-forum type site rather than a straight question-and-answer format such as we have here, for instance we really cannot answer questions as to why someone is a jerk on another discussion site. As regards some of your questions the rocking and repetitive behaviors are not thought to be protective mechanisms, resistance to changes may well contribute to a feeling of security and thereby be more related to the concept of self protection. The concept of privacy may be due to the fact that autistics while having a strong concept of their own privacy may not be able extend this to the personal space of others and so tend to invade anthers personal space while avidly preservimhg their own. I admire your ambition to understand why things exist rather than just knowing they are but unfortunately there are no cut and dried answers to most of the questions you have, it is simply not possible to get inside the mind of a person with autism to understand their motives. I am sorry we may not have been able to answer all of your questions but as I said we are more suited to the more factual type of query. ihope you can find a discussion group type site where you can resolve these issues
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