Missionary for Health and Sanity

I don't like to say that I have "autism" because to me that's pretty severe and comes with major language difficulties. My younger brother has this kind of autism, "classic" autism. I've always felt like the main difference between us is that I learned how to talk and he never did, but it was only a few years ago that I seriously looked at Asperger's syndrome and figured out that I must be on the autism spectrum too.

Since then, I've adjusted my diet (no wheat, no dairy, lots of magnesium), and I'm sure I wouldn't get any kind of diagnosis now. I still have some anxiety, but it's nothing like before. I learned how to control my panic attacks pretty well while teaching in Japan, but these days I don't even seem to have them (unless I go off my diet or something). I still don't understand people's nonverbal communication very well, but I'm learning tricks all the time.

I know there are a lot of people who don't want Aspergians to be called autistic at all because they're so different from people like my brother, but I think those differences are just a matter of degree. It really is all just different shades of autism. The only problem is that there are a lot more people on my end of the spectrum, and those people are much more visible (since they can blog for example). That makes everyone think autism is no big deal, just a bunch of whiners.

I'd just like to say as clearly as I can that the growing epidemic of autism in this country and around the world is a huge deal. I'm just lucky because somehow I figured out how to take care of myself and function OK in society early on. I want to help everybody else with what I've learned, but that's a bit like being a missionary. You go around telling people to do a lot of work and give up things they love because it's for their own good in the long run. That's generally not well received. Oh well, at least I can point people to my blogs.