Sheldon
Sheldon
Today I was watching an American television show called “The Big Bang Theory.” The character named Sheldon has Asperger’s Syndrome. Aspergers Syndrome is a part of the Autism Spectrum and if you haven’t met someone with this “disorder” (in quotes on purpose because I don’t like to think of it as a disorder, just a different way of looking at and experiencing the world). People on “the spectrum” as we in the business call it, are some of my favorite people to be around.
I like sometimes that they have no filter, and they say flat out what they feel. Sheldon is an excellent model of someone on the spectrum who is, called high functioning. He is brilliant at physics, but often has problems navigating relationships with other people and the world in general. He doesn’t like change (who does?), he has a set way of doing things and routines (so do I). Perseverations (being stuck on a certain subject and bringing it up over and over again, additionally, the persons’ behavior may also be highly ritualized (such as head banging or picking at their skin or knocking on the door a certain number of times) while this can be annoying at times their behavior has a purpose:
- Have a feeling of security.
- Understand what other people expect of them.
- Understanding what might happen next.
- What they should do.
When this happens, boundaries need to be set, such as “You can ask about this 3 more times and then it’s finished.” Or “I will set a timer for two minutes and then, no more talk of______.” The latter is good because the timer is the “bad guy” not you.
This was a short blog to get you thinking about understanding people who don’t always take in the world in the way that other people do. While we all live in different realities us neurotypicals are in the majority and we have similarities, that people who are “wired” differently do not always have. I plan to do two more posts this week on people who find themselves on “the ASD spectrum”.
As always, Be safe, kind and well!