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Date:         Mon, 28 Sep 1992 22:02:46 +1000
              <AUTISM@SJUVM.BITNET>
From:         LNCJB@CC.NEWCASTLE.EDU.AU
Subject:      Re: Poetic Gifts

James wrote in reponse to my post:-

>> What happened to that introductory post you said you were writing?
>
>Uh, my dog ate it?

That would be right! Poor dog gets blamed for everything! :-)

>Instead of a long drawn out intro I thought I'd just sort of slip in :-)
>As a short intro though, I'm 24 (well, I *will* be on Monday) and a
>graduate student at the University of Illinois in Computers Science. I've
>been reading this list for quite awhile (a few months at least), and
>have come to strongly suspect I'm a high-functioning autistic.  I've
>never been tested for this though so it's possible I'm just imagining
>things.  I don't think so though-- it's one thing to read about a
>condition and notice one or two symptoms in yourself, but it's something
>else to read about a condition and see all the different pieces of your
>life that didn't make sense suddenly fall into place.

>(how's that, Carolyn? :-):-)

Just fine...... and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! (xxxxxoooooxxxxx) :-) :-) :-)......
Oh, to be 24 again.... come to think of it, I will be in 18 months time. :-(

>I can get really nervous when I have to call someone I don't know on the phone.
>If I don't have to say much ("Hi, could you tell me how late you're open?")
>it's not too bad-- in that case I just work out what to say beforehand
>and memorize it.  If I expect I'll have to say a bit more than that, I'll
>write what to say on paper beforehand, then when I call I just read what I've
>written.  If I have to say so much that even this isn't feasible, I'll write
>:-)

Most of the time I'm all right on the phone these days, but it still takes
quite a bit of 'gearing up' and 'mental practice' working out what I'm going
to say beforehand. When I was your age I had the same problems and Chris
always asks me help him work out what to say (and he writes it down) if he has
any 'official' calls to make.

>Getting to what you say above, I find *answering* the phone no problem at all
>usually.  I think there's a connection here between this and not being
>able to make the first approach (I'm like that too btw).  I can't really put
>my finger on *why* either-- I'll have to think about this some.

I always like to hear that they are busy and will ring me back (that's if they
do) because then I find it much easier to get to the point of the call.
There's only one problem that often crops up doing it this way (apart from
them not ringing back) and that's when they are the type of people that speak
very quickly and won't allow me time to respond and butt in at every pause.
(Bernie, my computer 'mechanic', once told me that I had a very distinctive
and unusual pattern of pausing in my speech.... he picked Kevin as being 'my
better half', the first time Kevin rang him and left a message on his answering
machine..... Bernie said he sounded just like me and thought at first it must
have been one of my sons.) When the person on the other end of the phone keeps
butting in, I invariably lose my train of thought and wind up having to ring
them back because I have forgotten to ask the question that was the initial
reason for the call. :-(

Some days, for no apparent reason, I can't make or receive any phone calls
because my voice gets the shakes and my stomach muscles try to turn themselves
inside out.... the same feeling I get when I am unprepared to speak in public
and it is forced upon me on the spur of the moment. Why I should get these
'nerve attacks' in the security of my own home is beyond my comprehension.

Carolyn
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