What is Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)?
Autism is a lifelong neurodevelopmental disorder commonly referred to as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Autism Spectrum Disorder includes Asperger Syndrome and childhood autism. Some people prefer to use Autism, or the word ‘condition’ rather than ‘disorder’.
ASD affects people differently with some individuals being able to live independently, while other will need a lifetime of specialist support. ASD affects how people communicate with, and relate to, other people. It also affects how they make sense of the world around them.
It makes me more of a loner. I am antisocial; I can’t easily cope with too many human-to-human integrations. I find it difficult to process all that verbal and non-verbal information. It’s a bit like a PC, you can run your OC under Windows and you select four applications to use. Then you spend ages waiting while your computer is trying to sort out which of these tasks it is going to work on and for how long. Then, it shares out the processor time on a basis that cannot prioritise. The upshot is that I can only cope with things on a one-to-one or small group basis, and I don’t know how to evaluate and prioritise things”