Prepare to enter the wild and wooly world of an adult with Aspergers Syndrome, a form of autism characterized by intellignce, quirks, social difficulties and downright strange and oddish behaviours.

People with Aspergers generally are high functioning in everyday life but have great difficulty connecting with others due to the inability to read faces, body language and subtle verbal clues. They also tend to take words literally and have a hard time multi-tasking.

Oversensitivity to touch (clothing has to be soft and often the tags removed), light (do not leave home without the sunglasses), sound (loud noises and noisey places are avoided), taste (many Aspies have quite a limited diet and are frequently very picky eaters) and smells makes the everyday existence more of a challenge.

Fasten your seatbelts and come on in...
To find out more about what Aspergers is..please check out my earliest blog entries

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Temple Grandin..An Aspie Movie Review


I watched the movie "Temple Grandin" last evening. "Excellent" "This makes perfect sense" and "I love this" were my unfiltered reactions. I very much enjoyed this movie and would recommend it.
The movie tells the story of Temple and how she perceives the world. The special effects allow the viewer to, in a sense, get inside Temples head in an easy-to-understand way.
I loved how the movie brought out all the signs, symptoms and issues associated with having aspergers. Some of my favorite scenes were when she was at school and endured the incessant teasing and taunting of others. This is the first movie, that I have seen, that accurately depicts the painfully problematic school scene and the true, profound discomfort of being at parties and in the social environment.
As Temple navigates the neuro-typical world, all the little things that make our lives challenging, from just getting through a school day, walking through automatic doors, going to the grocery store, navigating a cafeteria line, eating a very limited diet, wearing the right clothes, etc...A vast majority of the Aspie trials and tribulations are accurately spelled out and portrayed for all to see.
I was amazed at Temples sheer strength, perseverance and determination. When she came up against an obstacle in her path, she simply figured out a way to plow through it.
Claire Danes, studied tapes and videos of Temple and portrays her most accurately. I remember Claire from her days back on "My So-Called Life" as a teenager in perpetual angst. She played that part well and she plays Temple even better.
Another large, looming aspect of the movie for me, was how meeting and being befriended by one very special person (a high school teacher) hugely and positively impacted Temples life.
How often have I felt...how to say this right...There were many times in my life where one person said or did one little thing that pulled me from the brink of imminent self-destruction. Those very rare occasions where I have met a single individual who showed care, concern and/ or understanding that enriched me so very much that it gave me the strength and the will to continue and to be more comfortable and accepting of who I am.
The most moving and emotional scene for me, and for my partner who was watching with me, was when Temple stood up at a gathering and started talking about her autism. It deeply moved me in that she was able to succinctly say all the things that I wish I could...in front of a group of strangers no less...and the audience wanted to know about her and how she thought and felt. Amazing.
I was quite impressed. This movie explored the inner workings of my mind...no easy feat.