Writing and Aspergers

Since writing about the church is getting kind of depressing, I wanted to focus a bit on writing and aspergers.  While writing is something I like doing, I have to admit it has always been difficult.  Back in college, writing news stories was an arduous task for me.  I was constantly wanting to make sure I got everything right and correct- meaning it took hours to write a news story.  It was hard to take notes for the story to begin with and then to try to put those notes into words was impossible.

I’ve wondered if there was a connection between the writing and aspergers and it looks like there is.  You need to read the whole post, but the writer brings up a few issues that I’ve dealt with over the years including short term memory and the problem of putting what’s in your head into clear, written words:

It is my observation that Aspies, especially children, consider anything that is written down to be much, much more serious, important and permanent than what is spoken.  Even when practicing forming letters, some of these kids will be extremely anxious about not being able to get the shape just perfect.  Not Aspies are this extreme, but I certainly was, and so was one of my sons.  He was so terrified to commit an imperfect letter onto paper, we ended up getting him to practice writing onto clear plastic sheets (of the type you can put through the printer, to use for overhead presentations) with easy-wipe-off markers.  And even thought he could wipe off any letter he did not like, before anyone else could see it (and at first, he wiped off all of them), it was still hard for him.

It is my suspicion that in a similar way, it is difficult for Aspies to write ideas down because they are not sure if their idea is good enough to be commited to paper.  And even if they get over that, and judge the idea worthy – and this is the key here – it is next to impossible to express their idea accurately, using everyday language.

This explains why writing has been both a blessing and a curse to me: it’s a good way to express myself, but the words never seem to do justice to what I’m thinking, which frustrates me to no end.