OT Our very own Damo in tonight's YEP

Quote: BaldRick "Well done young man . I really hope some of the people that have abused you on here hang their heads in shame and dig deep in their pockets when they read the bit about the Aspergers diagnosis . There are a lot of people on these boards that think you are a bit special(needs) . You may or may not be , but if you are , you are our special person .

DAMO .... We love him because he is special .'"

Cheers for the support Rick

With regards to Aspergers it’s a very misunderstood condition. The worse aspects of the condition tends to come out when people who are diagnosed are facing too much crap in their lives like unemployment in my case.

However having coming across various people with Aspergers (including those in jobs) I’ve concluded (this isn’t a professional opinion) that the condition becomes pretty much non-existent if the person diagnosed are living a reasonable life. For example I can go months on end without even thinking about the condition because I’m not surrounded by people and things that constantly remind me that I’ve got it a majority of the time.

Last week I popped along to Leeds Asperger Adults and some of the stuff they were suggesting adults should do was insulting. The first suggestion was that we could go to an Autism friendly cinema screening to see Happy Feet 2. Now everyone in the meeting has done fine (I’m the youngest there by far) going to the cinema in the past. Besides isn’t Happy Feet a kids film? Also I wouldn't want to watch a film where people are allowed to make as much noise as their want and move around all they want. It's as if these things encourage people with disabilitys to act like that rather than civilised.

Then they suggest we go on ‘autism friendly’ day trips like bowling and whatever. It’s as if we’re totally incapable of organising these things ourselves. I only went back to the group because it was hard to keep in touch with people since I decided to leave last year. I’ve met some great mates there and I hope to keep in touch. But as I said in the meeting I don’t want to get involved with autism politics.

I feel that overall there’s a vested financial interest for some people to treat adults with Aspergers like kids. There’s big funding like the big lottery fund to encourage this. A majority of people I’ve met with Aspergers don’t really use the services on offer because there shoddy and unsuitable. When I raised these points in the meeting I was faced with dramatics by the powers that be and those who are mollycoddled by the powers that be. There was only around 10 of us at that meeting and that’s in a city full of people with Aspergers.

Finally I’ve learnt in life you’ve got to choose the right battles to fight at the right time. At Present I don’t have the resources or the right support to take on the vested interests in the Aspergers community.

On the other hand I’ve got the right skills, resources and support to carry out what I’m carrying out with regards to the unemployment stuff. Plus I’ve got the personal backing of the deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to round it all off. I acknowledge that I’m only one person and I can’t do everything at once!