Well [laughs] just before I got diagnosed, I was incredibly obsessed with Asperger’s Syndrome. I read all the books, and I was just a kind of, because I knew I had it, I mean that was just confirmation, just reading about it. You know, made me more and more yes, yes, that’s me, that’s me. There’s no doubt about it. But it’s just also you know, you trying, there was still that sort of nagging doubt in mind that well I could have a personality disorder because some of the symptoms are quite similar to some personality disorders [laughs] and they have actually done research on this and they’ve shown that many people whove been diagnosed with some personality disorders like schizoid personality disorder, which has got nothing to do with schizophrenia but it’s just a personality disorder schizoid which kind of makes you, kind of socially, a bit socially aloof. Many people, and I think it was first, I can’t remember. It was some, it was a Russian person at the beginning of the 20th, 1920s I think, who first coined it, but it’s, because the symptoms are really similar to Asperger’s so it’s possible that people whove been diagnosed with that in the past actually have Asperger’s.

Okay, what about reading about Asperger’s Syndrome or autism. Are you interested in reading about it?

I’ve tried, but then my mum pointed me out to, my, my peculiar tendency to mimic what people are saying. Because as I said before it’s unique for each and every person, so, if I mimicked someone else from a book then I end up changing my whole behaviour and that’s kind of throws off everybody else. So I’ve kind of steered away from the literature, certain things because it ends up putting ideas into my head.

Is there anything, any website or anything that you’ve been on that you’d recommend to other people as particularly interesting or helpful?

No. The reason being is to understand autism alone, it requires, it requires first of all that I can understand it, so that other people can understand it. And even if you get up to the big names like the National Autistic Society that is not autism friendly, a lot of people, a lot of autistic people in my group have said, it’s not autistic friendly. I’ve read through it and it’s unpalatable, you can’t make head or tail of it. And, in my mind, I wouldn’t want to wish it on anybody else. Other people might be able to handle it. I don’t know. I’m quite possibly thinking from experience but it doesn’t represent us as we would like to represent us.

I think probably for schools because that is an area as well that concerns me a little bit, is the fact, it is the lack of knowledge, still in mainstream school with the teachers, although it is getting slowly better, but it is still a big problem. There is a book called One thousand and one things’ by Helen Rothbaughan but she has done ten things that an autistic child wishes that you would know about them. That is good. I think most teachers should have that pinned to their chest I think for a school day. Although there are some good teachers out there – I don’t want to offend any teachers – but I would like to wake some up as well though.

There is some good books. Luke Jackson’s got a good couple of books, that are good that will give, there is an insight. I think Luke does a few good things anyway. And I think he thinks that. I think Luke thinks Jackie is on the practice as well is one thing. I think my wife is on the spectrum but there you go. There is lots of things really. It depends on what context really but there is lots of good material out there. And it is like a lot of it needs collating I suppose and putting out to the general public. There is lots of good practice in lots of areas in the country. Lots of LEAs within our county for a start there is lots of really good information out there. Lots of knowledgeable people but its not utilised right. So, that is one thing, but as I say it depends on when you say have you read some good things. I have read lots of good things. Yes, lots.

The book that I got first that, I read first, just the very title of it made me want to read it, because I just, it is like picking up, finding a diamond in the dust. I just saw that is exactly what it is like and it is by Leanne Holiday Willy and it is called Pretending to be Normal’ and just the title of the book, Pretending to be Normal’ I am going that is exactly it. You would spend your whole life trying to do what you think other people are doing. Or you try and behave the way you think other people are behaving just so that you can kind of get through. I spent so many years of my life, trying to do this and trying and to do that, just so that, you know, perhaps my Mum would like me. And the things like that don’t work. You know.

You treat yourself like an ill person. If I do this I will feel better. If I do that I will feel better. If I do this, you now, everything will be fine. And it isn’t. And that was such a good book. AndDonna Williams had a good book as well.I can’t remember the title of the book, but I think I have read two of hers. I haven’t read disappointingly very many by men. ButI am reading a book at the moment, slowly, called, Managing with Asperger’s’ and it is by a guy called, sorry, Michael I have forgotten your name. Michael… and we email each other now and again.But those yes, Donna Williams was good.Leanne Holiday Willy was good. I have read two of her books.I have to say that I haven’t read any for ages. I just went on this big obsession reading as much as I possibly could and they were the ones I found most helpful.

What else is good reading? The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. I know it’s completely fiction and everything, but I think it gives, it’s not a great one. it’s not the best by any stretch of the imagination, but it kind of like gives you an insight into little things that people with autism might do, like the boy in it add red food colouring to his food, because he doesn’t like it being yellow and little things like that I think are really, really important for people to understand. So I always tell people to read that and not to take it too seriously. Anna Kennedy’s book Not Stupid, about the school she set up, because her two sons got like expelled from or not accepted into like 27 schools between them. So she built her own. That’s really good on like a parent’s perspective of education.

For adults on the spectrum, I think it really depends where you are on the spectrum to be perfectly honest. There’s various books about high functioning autism. Various books about Asperger’s. Obviously people lower down the spectrum possibly wouldn’t be reading books about that type of thing.
But I think with it, as with anything it’s very much an individual choice. I mean I’ve read stuff that has really offended me, but I know people with autism whove read it who think it’s amazing.

And what about information. Do you read much about autism or not?

I do, there’s a really good website, you might have heard of it Wikipedia? I do occasionally have a look on there and see all the new stuff they come up with involving scientists because obviously it’s like a big encyclopaedia, and people find out more stuff, they fill it in it a bit more. So, yes. I do occasionally read some stuff and that, but that’s another thing that took me time to be able to do, because obviously I wasn’t able to read at first. It took me a while to sort of understand, you know, how to read and stuff and a lot of the time I had to associate the words with a picture or something. Physically see the word to then be able to understand what it means, and then be able to read it then. And I found it easier to read comics at first, rather than books. I started off with comics because obviously you’ve got pictures and stuff like that. A bit of colour, stuff we like. And you know, it’s a bit, one in particular I did read a lot was the Beano, which was really, really good. It helped a lot actually, because a lot of the stuff in the Beano is over expressed like the emotions are over expressed, so they’ve got someone screaming, their mouth’s really wide open and stuff like that. So that sort of helped me associate things and stuff as well, which helped.