Aspie is an affectionate name for people with Asperger’s Syndrome, a developmental disorder closely linked to Autism. The syndrome is named after Hans Asperger, a Viennese pediatrician who first described it in the 1940’s. Generally speaking, Asperger’s has similar symptoms to Autism minus the delays in language development during childhood. The most commonly described symptom is the inability to read non-verbal social cues without careful practice. With the publication of the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) in 2013, Asperger’s Syndrome was formally folded into the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder. That’s the clinical way of putting it, anyway!
I won’t be trying to define what exactly Autism is here, because I find any time someone tries to do that it ends up getting very impersonal and dehumanizing, and that’s not the goal of this blog. The minutia of Autism and Asperger’s research can be fascinating, but in this post I’d like to focus on, socially and professionally, what the term Aspie means to me. The Autism Spectrum is astonishingly diverse and the differences in experiences, abilities, interests, personalities, and modes of communication between individuals on the spectrum are huge! I won’t pretend to be an expert on ASD, but I can lay out the basics and offer links to other resources. Most importantly, if you’re reading about Autism/Asperger’s and are starting to think you might be on the spectrum, I would, if circumstances allow, encourage you to seek a professional diagnosis. This can get you access to all kinds of support and accommodations, and it’s absolutely something you should consider.
My understanding of Autism and Asperger’s comes primarily from my own experiences as an Aspie. I was diagnosed in about 3rd grade; looking back the signs were obvious. I had a set of toy vehicles that came in a rainbow of colors, and absolutely loved to arrange them into their “proper” patterns. I had a series of “patterns” that heavily governed my movement within a space, the steps that I took, things in the room that I touched, etc. These were all forms of stimming, although not necessarily healthy ones.
As I grew up, I started to hear a lot of “high-functioning” and “low-functioning” labels being thrown around. These days those labels are considered outdated and rude, but at the time I let them undermine my experiences because I was labeled “high-functioning.” Sure, I had difficulty picking up on non-verbal social cues. I struggled with transitions from one activity to another, and my time-management skills were lacking. But I was able to interact with people a little, and I was good at school. For the longest time, I wouldn’t have called myself “really autistic,” because there were people out there who were entirely non-verbal, who couldn’t handle a school environment due to sensory overload, or who in other ways seemed to have it a lot worse than me.
While in college I read Steve Silberman’s Neurotribes, and it introduced me to the concept of neurodiversity: the idea that people of different neurological makeups aren’t broken or lesser, just different. This is the concept that now informs how I deal with other people on the spectrum, as well as how I treat myself mentally. Embracing neurodiversity led me to accept one of what I call my “specialist subjects” and to pursue it as a career. A common facet of Aspies is a fixation on one or more specific subjects, often involving categories or lists of things (think species of birds, or car models). Silberman’s book, in part, motivated me to push my career in the direction of my developing obsession with fish biology, and to see my specialist subject not as a weird obsession, but as a career asset.
In short, an Aspie is a person who has probably spent a lot of time confused about other people. Although many of us do learn to pick up non-verbal social signals, that ability isn’t usually present from the beginning for us. Aspies have a variety of talents, interests, methods of stimming, and ways of thinking about the world. We have personal struggles just like everybody else. We have good days and bad days, and we doubt ourselves a lot. I have learned to see my Asperger’s as an asset, and one of the aims of this blog is to help other Aspies do the same thing.
If you have an Aspie in your life or have recently discovered that you are an Aspie, I HEAVILY recommend that you read more than this blog post to get a better grasp on Asperger’s. The best places to start that come to mind are-
Underwater Aspie 