Russell – Interview 07b  

Russell – Interview 07b

Age at Interview: 21
Sex: Male
Age at Diagnosis: 12
Background: He has a degree in accountancy and is looking to get an apprenticeship in business administration. Ethnic background/nationality: White/British

Brief outline:Russell was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome when he was 12 years old. His awareness of potential difficulties is increasing as he grows older and more aware. Russell describes himself as being prone to outbursts and is taking anti-depressants.

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Russell mimics people from books so avoids reading them. He doesn’t feel the NAS represents people as they would want to be represented.

 



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.
 

People on the autism spectrum
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