How common are people with Asperger syndrome?

Although I didn’t think that I’d make a post so soon after my last post, it so happened that I do have something new to write about. Before I found out that I have autism at the end of July of 2023, I had been observing what effects probiotics have on my health. I reached some important conclusions, but then the discovery that I have autism completely shifted my attention. By that time, my supply of probiotics had run out and I didn’t acquire more probiotics until December of 2023. Therefore, since my attention had been on something else, I kind of forgot a few important things that I managed to determine about the effects of the probiotics on me. Even before I found out that I have autism, I reached the conclusion that probiotics can be very salutary for me. I order two types of probiotics on eBay. One type helps me with another health problem that I have because autism isn’t the only serious health condition that I have. The other type of probiotics reduces the severity of my autism problems. So, I take three capsules every day in order to feel better. Before the end of January, I had been taking two capsules, one of each type of probiotics. But it turns out that I need to take a minimum of three capsules every day because two isn’t enough. Fortunately, it didn’t take long for me to rediscover this fact. So, how do probiotics help me with my autism? They do this by giving me more energy. It turns out that I have chronic fatigue. I don’t know if this is caused by my autism or by that other health problem that I have. Perhaps both of these health problems contribute to my weariness. Therefore, I pretty much always feel tired and sleepy. This leads me to seriously underperform in whatever it is that I do if I don’t put in extra effort. Because of this lack of energy and strength, I usually can’t think well, I usually can’t speak well, I am usually inattentive, and physical activities are usually almost like torture for me. So, the probiotics provide me with at least some of the energy that I need. I don’t know if this problem, the chronic fatigue and lack of energy, affects a minority of autistics, a majority of autistics, or if it’s uncommon even among autistics. For me, however, it’s one of the most important problems. Perhaps it’s my most important problem. But, as I pointed out in one of my earlier posts, not all probiotics are helpful. My probiotics, which actually do help me, are from Slovakia and the Russian Federation. For example, the probiotics that I received that are made by a company in the United Kingdom didn’t help me. Anyway, as it turns out, I have some serious health problems, and it’s amazing that I’ve been able to do anything with all of these problems affecting me. Since I recently acquired another one of Michael Fitzgerald’s books, ‘Unstoppable Brilliance: Irish Geniuses and Asperger’s Syndrome’ (2014), it’s worth pointing out that this book too is worth getting for anyone who has Asperger syndrome. In this book, Fitzgerald selected nine famous people (Robert Emmet, Patrick Pearse, Eamon de Valera, Robert Boyle, William Rowan Hamilton, Daisy Bates, William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, and Samuel Beckett) and explained why they had autism. For me, Unstoppable Brilliance has been just as useful as Fitzgerald’s first two books, perhaps more so. In the book, he wrote, “So what exactly does it mean to have Asperger’s syndrome? In 1944, the Austrian paediatrician Hans Asperger described the condition which we now call Asperger’s syndrome. The condition was fundamentally based on a problem with social interactions, as he saw it. In practice, people with this condition have problems with the to and fro of conversation and social interaction. In speech, they often use a high-pitched tone of voice or a monotonous one. They have problems reading non-verbal behaviour, or body language. They frequently engage in monologues which do not require the listener to interact with them, or else do not give listeners sufficient context on what they are speaking about – much to the confusion and consternation of listeners. Much of this is related to difficulties in seeing things from other people’s perspectives and in understanding social and emotional relationships. People with Asperger’s syndrome are often described as enigmatic, odd or eccentric. In reality, they are severely puzzled about the social world and social interactions. At times they can feel like an alien, living on a different planet from other people. As a consequence, they spend their lifetime trying to work out the pattern in the chaos around them. The interests of people with Asperger’s syndrome are frequently very narrow and specialised. Because of their enormous capacities for work, their phenomenal energy, their persistence, and their tendency to have a very narrow focus, they are usually successful in life. Essentially, they are driven more by their internal worlds and their internal ideas than by the social environment. As a result, they tend to be apolitical or take little interest in world affairs unless these things directly impinge on their consciousness. By and large, people with Asperger’s syndrome are very rigid, controlling and dominating. Characteristically, they develop rigid routines and rituals. They dislike change and strive for what is called ‘preservation of sameness’. In terms of sensory perception, they can be oversensitive or hypersensitive to touch, noise, smell and other stimuli, and they are often fussy eaters. Their motor co-ordination can be poor, and they are frequently clumsy. At times, they have difficulty separating fact from fiction – something which often earns them a reputation for lying and deceit. Contrary to popular belief, they can have massively creative imaginations, though as children they tend not to engage in pretend play and take all meanings literally. It is not uncommon for people to perceive them as being narrow, eccentric, narcissistic and grandiose. Because of their social difficulties, they can suffer from depression and indeed often exhibit a great deal of anxiety. In the past it was not uncommon, given their difficulties with separating fact from fiction, for them to be misdiagnosed as having schizophrenia and being inappropriately placed in services for persons with schizophrenia or similar institutions. Indeed, adults with Asperger’s syndrome are still commonly misdiagnosed as schizophrenic. Depending on the severity of depression and the difficulties they experience in terms of social interaction, they can develop suicidal ideas, and indeed suicide is not rare among members of this group. Some people with Asperger’s syndrome can also be plagued by poor health in general. In school, their poor social interaction can give rise to difficulties, and they are often misdiagnosed by teachers as having ‘conduct disorder’ due to behaviour problems. They may show little interest in formal education and be daydreamers in class. In the past, many people with autistic spectrum disorders were only diagnosed as having learning disability – the ‘slow learners’ – or were misdiagnosed as having learning disability and confined to the learning-disability services. We now know that a dual diagnosis of autism and learning disability is not uncommon. These people therefore require special interventions for both autism and learning disability. Furthermore, they require special speech and language programmes, special communication skills programmes and special help with reading non-verbal behaviour. At secondary school, people with Asperger’s syndrome often drop out due to bullying or depression, or because of their difficulties in managing social interaction. As they are seen as odd, different or peculiar, they are often a target for bullying. Indeed Yeats, Joyce and Beckett were all bullied at various stages of their schooling. At university – if they get there – they have an extremely high drop-out rate in their first year because of problems with social interaction, organisation and social awareness. Feeling lonely and isolated, they can experience the world as being against them, and they often show paranoid traits in early adulthood and later.”

So, how common are people with Asperger syndrome? They make up about 0.5% of the population. Therefore, they are not common. But famous people with Asperger syndrome are very common. In the words of the psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen, “They have made remarkable contributions to human history.” I can mention that the astronomer Carl Sagan, the musician Prince, the singer Dusty Springfield, the mathematician Victor Glushkov, the philosopher Alexander Zinoviev, the writer Isaac Asimov, the writer Arthur C. Clarke, the polymath Leonardo da Vinci, the writer Mary Shelley, and the painter Edward Hopper had autism. Since I have autism, it’s much easier for me to recognize autistics than for a normal (neurotypical) person. But I’m mentioning these names only because they’ve been on my mind recently for one reason or another, because I know enough about them in order to point out that they were autistics, and because they are no longer alive. As I’ve mentioned already, famous people with autism are very common. Moreover, since I’ve had more time to think about my past, I can say that I did come across other autistics when I attended high school. I can say for certain that there were two students with autism from Iran at the high school that I attended. One of them was a year or two older than me, and I never got to speak to him. The other was a classmate of mine, Ashkan Mohammadi, and I got to speak to him on a number of occasions. Like most other autistics, Ashkan didn’t know that he’s autistic, and he believed that his problems come from a head injury that he suffered as a child. He even showed me the small scar on his head from this injury. In reality, however, it’s now obvious to me that he’s autistic, and I think that he inherited his autism from his mother. He also mentioned that his mother’s father or grandfather (I don’t remember which one) was a Russian when I was at his home. I think that his mother was the originator of the theory about him being not normal because of his head injury, and she was very protective of him. So, whenever Ashkan got insulted or made fun of at school, he’d tell his mother, and his mother would go to the home of the person who mocked him and sort things out with the parents there. I’m autistic too, but I never got such special treatment. I was bullied a lot when I attended school, but I never told my parents about this and they almost never did anything about my problems. Well, my parents are Russians, and Russians are the most idiotic people in the world. Anyway, me and Ashkan didn’t really get along. Like just about every other person with autism, he was generally unfriendly, rude, resentful, and he couldn’t engage in conversations. I think that his autistic behavior was more obvious than mine and that it was also worse than mine. He had a little brother, and I think that his brother had autism too. Still, Ashkan was a little easier to talk to than, for example, my father, who has the mentality of an impudent and aggressive child and who has no feelings. Don’t believe me? Fine, I’ll mention, for example, that when his wife was pregnant with his daughter, he made her help him to push his car out of the snow during winter. As a result, his wife gave birth two months prematurely, and this probably resulted in his daughter having a number of health problems. Another example – he’s such a hothead that it’s pretty much impossible to talk to him because whenever you say something to him that he doesn’t like he attacks you like a psychopath and says that he will physically hurt you. Think I’m exaggerating? Fine, I’ll mention that his aggression got him beaten up so badly by some other recruits when he was in the army that he fainted as a result. By the way, I’m glad that this happened because this shows that there’s at least a little justice in the world. If you still don’t believe me, your head must be filled with straw. Fine. Another example – he has never said anything nice to me, and, if he did, this happened so rarely that I have to think very hard in order to remember anything. In fact, he has always mocked and insulted me and tried to do nasty things to me. When I was little, he viciously beat me whenever I did something that he didn’t like. And he doesn’t only beat and attack children and insult them with the worst insults imaginable. He also beats and attacks pets, and even sexually assaults them. When I called him a bully once, his reply to me was, “Yes I am, and you’re the victim.” Anyway, it seems that I got a little carried away and began writing about some kind of monster and psychopath. Well, I think that Tom Cruise knows what it’s like to have a similar father. It is worth wondering, however, if the woman that married such a “man” is a masochist or not. Perhaps she liked it when he squeezed the butts and boobs of her sisters. By the way, I can mention a lot more about this seemingly mentally ill subject, but my post can’t be pages long and I really don’t like to think about him. Of course, there are reasons why he’s like this. For example, he was neglected and abused by his parents. Let’s get back on track. I had another classmate in high school, a Canadian, who probably had autism. He sat at the desk behind me in Spanish class, and he sometimes annoyed me by unexpectedly poking me in the ribs from behind, although it’s worth mentioning that my relations with him weren’t hostile and I got to speak to him a number of times on normal terms. At least one, possibly three, of my teachers in high school had autism. One was a Chemistry teacher, another one was a Math teacher, and another one was a Social Studies teacher. The Chemistry teacher, in particular, was disliked by many of his students because of his unpleasant behavior and because he always attempted to give his students the lowest grades possible. The Math teacher was a woman who openly insulted me once for no good reason. Perhaps she disliked or even hated me because I’m from a certain country. Autistic people can have strong, sometimes irrational likes or dislikes. So, although intelligent autistics are uncommon, I wouldn’t say that they are very rare.