Carolann - Interview 36  

Carolann - Interview 36

Sex: Female
Background: Carolann, a teacher, lives with her husband and daughter, Nita, who is 19 years old. Ethnic background/nationality: White British.

Brief outline:Carolann’s daughter, Nita, was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome when she was 14. Nita has written a book about her experiences, had some unsuccessful experiences at university and is currently teaching herself Russian, Japanese, Spanish and Chinese.

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Carolann describes how her friends from her ‘old life’ faded away because they had no point of contact.

 



But it is quite lonely at times. But I do have people to talk to, I mean I am not sort of shut off from it, it is just sometimes I feel I would like a soul mate I could talk to. I did used to have one before my daughter was diagnosed, but one of the things that happened to me, may have happened to others that when you get involved in the world autism, all your friends from the old life fade away, because we have no point of contact. I mean, for instance, the worst that could happen to, I will call my friend Elizabeth, that is not her name, Elizabeth the worst that could happen to her daughter is if she has a row with her boyfriend and that is like the troughs of despair. Now if my daughter had a boyfriend to have a row with it would be wonderful. So the levels of anxiety and parental worry are at a much higher level with Asperger's, than with ordinary families and to try to convey that to people and of course Asperger's is all encompassing because it affects every single area of your life from cleaning the floor to going to bed at night, it is there the whole time. They don’t understand so a lot of Asperger's people, like me, find themselves isolated and quite lonely.

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