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+--- Thread: Living with the opposite of autism (/thread-4628.html)
Living with the opposite of autism - Magical Realist - Dec 10, 2017
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-26888280
"I get so anxious if I want to go out to things. I live with my Mum because I don't want to live on my own. I can't do money. I wish I could."
"Chris Steel is 40 years old. He is remarkably friendly and engaging, and is happiest when he is on stage acting in plays such as George Orwell's Animal Farm.
As a child, his caring nature led him to take to the bedside of a victim of the Hillsborough disaster, with such compassion and diligence he was given an award by former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
"Chris is great to take to parties... but he is too trusting"
Judy Steel, Chris's mother
But he is unable to go out alone - once, when he did, his openness towards strangers and difficulty in understanding when he is in danger meant he lent his phone to a stranger, who stole it.
He has severe anxiety, and needs constant reassurance from the people around him.
'Reeling people in'
Chris has Williams Syndrome (WS), a rare genetic disorder affecting around one in 18,000 people in Britain. It has often been dubbed the 'opposite of autism'.
People with WS are empathetic, social, friendly and endearing but they tend to have a low IQ, making tasks such as counting money difficult.
They can feel anxious over stimuli such as the buzzing of a bee, or the texture of food.
Williams Syndrome: psychological features
Attention-seeking behaviour, particularly at parties
Extremely sensitive hearing, to everything from sirens, cars, hoovers, hand-driers, fireworks, to buzzing bees
Attention deficit disorder
Affinity for music
Difficulty with spatial relations, numbers and abstract reasoning
Desire to please and be helpful
Ability to gauge and react to social situations without understanding them
Late to learn to walk, talk and use the toilet
The need for reassurance in some cases can leave children of loving households calling 999 and feigning an emergency, as they crave adult attention so much.
WS, first identified in 1961, can also cause heart problems, developmental delays, and learning disabilities.
For the psychological side of the disorder, acting can play to the strengths of people with WS. Chris says: "I am good at reeling people in and being a character in different things."
He acts with a charity called Mind the Gap, based in Bradford, near his home town of Bingley in West Yorkshire, and cites the time he was a pirate in a play called Treasure Island as amongst his favourites."
RE: Living with the opposite of autism - C C - Dec 11, 2017
Nine year old girl of 2010, who has no social fear... Meet the nine year old girl of 2014 who feels no pain.
Speaking of which... I can't even recall what decade it was that I first learned about William's syndrome -- back in the '90s? (Well before the one above, anyway.) But at least I remember that -- you guessed it -- it was a segment on some science show which concerned an unbelievably outgoing and amiable nine year old girl.
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RE: Living with the opposite of autism - RainbowUnicorn - Dec 11, 2017
Quote:Ability to gauge and react to social situations without understanding them
i have observed this on several occasions over the years and wondered how it connects to the front lobes & the self awarenes parts of the brain & mind.
i have a suspiscion(a guess of a potential probability rather than an opinion, belief or expectation) that understanding this may help unravel parts of understanding around motivational issues like drug addiction and violent and compulsive behaviours.
feel the fear and do it anyway(variantly styled sales pitches)
just do it
go hard or go home
loser
chicken
Girl
coward
spoilsport
kill-joy
all the same word, same emotion same projective bully metaphour used as a proxy as the individual develops in society...