Asperger’s syndrome

I have thought myself to suffer from this mild form of autism ever since 2006. Now, having read about it in the Oxford Concise Colour Medical Dictionary, I remain as convinced as ever.

The symptoms listed in the dictionary speak for themselves.

Is not that just me? Do I not favour stilted and pedantic styles of speech? Am I not socially aloof? And, unable to interact with real people, I interact with virtual personages on the Internet – and then what? Do I not edit others’ posts without their permission in forums where I have moderator powers, not caring how they would feel about it? If someone makes a gaffe in a post, do I not spread it all over the Web, not caring how the person making the gaffe would feel if he or she noticed what I had done? Is not he or she a stilted and pedantic expression for “they”? And, as for specialized interests, did not Jeff Phillips point out at about this time last year that I so expect things to be perfect for me all the time that I get not a little upset when the slightest thing is out of place?

The only thing the dictionary has got wrong is that people with Asperger’s syndrome usually have low-average intelligence. Mine is definitely toweringly higher than average.

I have just read the story entitled “Healthy weight, healthy mind to balance motions” in the Evening Standard.

“PEOPLE who are obese or underweight are less in touch with their emotions than those at a healthy weight, London academics claimed today,” writes Ross Lydall, the paper’s health editor.

The condition in which one has “difficulty identifying and expressing emotions” is called alexithymia. Lydall says that it “is a key factor in autism, which shares several genetic causes with obesity”.

I myself have never had any problems with obesity; on the contrary, I used to be underweight (and much ashamed of myself for being so). And I was autistic. But as my BMI improved, so, in parallel fashion, did my ability to recognize, understand and describe emotions.