Asparagus syndrome....

I have recently discovered (via a daughter currently completing her medical degree), that I have a mild form of Asperger Syndrome, this was confirmed to me when I read ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’, by Mark Haddon. It explains my weird sense of humour which sometimes intrudes on my posts on DG.

It occurs to me that my Asperger could contribute (in a negative sense) to the joy I get in gardening. Plants are not threatening and they do not demand eye contact. They do not demand that I think in a way that is alien to me, accept everything that you do to them as for their own good (which mainly it is), and do not argue against one’s own infallible logic.[;o)]

I love making lists of my plants and the botanical naming of plants allows my super-ordered mind (my LIFE is super-disordered!) to draw imaginary links between the plants.

Are there any other Asperger gardeners out there? (At the current moment, I do not regard myself as ‘suffering’ from the condition, but maybe my family are….)


This message was edited Jul 19, 2004 11:02 PM

Here is a great link on "what is it?":

http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/aswhatisit.html

As usual, I find myself exhibiting each symptom of any disorder brought to my attention... Imagine what fun I had in Psychology 101...

Gee whiz Cinemike, thank's for the information. I've wondered why dealing with my dogs, plants and inanimate objects is more enervating than with people. Maybe Im an AS'peer too. ;)

I have an uncle with Asperger and I sooo relate to him. He doesn't always make sense to everyone else but I get it.

Paracanda's site is the one that confirmed from an 'objective' source for me that I had the condition. The 'repetitive motor mechanisms' I have are drawing ½ signs, ladders and Ts on one set of fingers with the other.

(Perhaps) interestingly, my work for all my adult life has been in the cinema -an art for which I have an all-encompassing passion. It only occurred to me last night that films are a way of sharing the company of others without threatening eye-contact...

Many famous people are thought to have had the syndrome, most natably Isaac Newton. My guess is that Alfred Hitchcock probably had it as well.
(Sorry to go so far from gardening...).

I know what you are talking about Daisy. It is suspected that my 17 year old cousin has it. Some people in the family (my mom being one) just don't get his humor, but I have always been comfortable with him. He has always had that typical all-encompaning passion in something inanimate. For him it was being a policemen when very young and developed in to Firefighting. He collects fire department patches and gear and was in the Dallas Junior Fireman program. Well, he was until he made the mistake of telling a cop he was a Dallas fireman after he and some friends stopped at a dumpster fire in his suburb. The people that run the program did not take that lightly and he was devestated about being kicked out. It was his life.

Good to hear that you are okay with this potential diagnosis Mike. There are probably quite a few people out there that don't know about it, because it is fairly new.

My uncle's is more severe I think. He is 60 and was only diagnosed a couple of years ago (as it is relatively newly recognized). Before he was just seen as 'slow' although outside of the speech difficulties, he is very capable. He has lived his entire life like this and has an absolute genius with his woodworking talents. (he constructed a bridge without plans from toothpicks and can tell you how many toothpicks are in it exactly) He does stunning work. But he does have coordination problems which says to me that there is more involved here than plain old Aspergers. He recently retired from working at a large Texas university and is buying his first house right now. He has always lived with his mother and more recently with my parents.

Interestingly (to me at least) is this ability to associate with inanimate objects better- he has a very difficult time with social skills, manners, etc (although he is sweet as the day is long!) and consequently has developed severe alcoholism. Fortunately he has a brilliant sponsor who has helped him but I would suspect that it is related to a social phobia of some sort.

"A tree that stands in the moonlight reflects the light, yet also casts a shadow. People are the same. They have gifts that let them shine, yet they also have disabilities, shadows that obscure the light."
Samantha Abeel, author, aged 15, with severe dyscalculia

This message was edited Jul 20, 2004 1:24 PM

That is a lovely quote. I will remember it.

Your uncle's case seems very analogous to mine. I have an IQ over 140, first degree in Maths, postgrad MBA, and something of a national authority in a completely unrelated field (cinema exhibition). However, I never achieved at the level expected in my career in the cinema because of my (Aspergers driven) unwillingness to accept the sloppy thinking that characterises debate in the subject.

Now I have retired, I intend to write a book that with simply annihilate the basis on which this sloppy thinking has dominated the agenda in cinema and put the study of cinema on a logical footing.

I like to talk to animals as a means of expressing (through tone, etc) an empathy that will, I hope, discourage them from thinking of me as a threat.

When I'm in France, I talk to them in French, not because I think they understand the language, but because they are more likely to be familiar with the tonality it.

I thought that I was the only crazy who spoke to animals in foreign languages.

Do you mean cinema criticism?

Eeek, I speak to my Chihuahua in Spanish and my Shepherd in German...

I think they communicate via mental telepathy of pictures/images, although I got them a Spanish-German dictionary.

You laugh, pards, but I got my Jack Russel when I lived in Wales and her first owner was Welsh thru & thru so I always spoke my broken Welsh to her to comfort her. She was 3 when I got her so English was not her first language.

My chi/jack/doxie was found in a highly Latino 'hood (I put up posters for 3 weeks and no one claimed her) and we call her Salchicha (hot dog en espanol) and Sally for short. I speak to her in Spanish ALOT and she responds happily.

So maybe its the tone but all language tones are not the same.

I speak to my perennials from Bluestone with a flat mid-Western accent. ; P

Yup, Daisyave,
I mean cinema criticism that goes beyond plot analysis and approaches the way that films communicate. At the end of the day, such a methodology of criticism has to arrive 'a posteriori' at the great monumental masterpieces of cinema...
(and not be too highfalutin').

One of the things about talking to animals is that we cannot be sure that they are not trying to talk to us - certainly dogs and cats seem to...

My lovely former cat, Pepper, would always clearly say 'Me out' when he wanted to go out :o).

But I don't see why the songs of birds cannot be directed at us, or the lowing of cattle. So why shouldn't we talk back....

Gotcha. One of my mentors here was a Pauline Kale friend and follower. She wasn't highfalutin other than her outstanding credits but she could cut to it like I prefer. Miss her writing.

Why would anyone question that they talk to us? Every animal I have ever met certainly has tried.

A former Shepherd of mine used to ask to go out "go out"; if I delayed the outing, he as "go out NOW". Once I looked at the clock by the bed and told him it was too early. He pulled the clock out of the wall by the electric cord. ..