My name is Joshua Frampton. I'm 19 years old. I'm originally
from Dorset but I currently live in Hampshire. I'm 20 in July. I have an
obsession with Doctor Who, Queen and Wales. And I have something wonderful that
you'd never have known unless I told you.
I may have mentioned it before, I may not have. But I have
something called Asperger's Syndrome. Which is a form of Autism. I was
diagnosed with it when I was 7 after being initially diagnosed with ADHD. My
mum told me about it as early as she could, even though I didn't really
understand until many years afterwards. But, as far as I was concerned back
then, I was different. And, at the time, I thought that was wrong.
Well, you know what it's like when you're a kid. You get picked on and you think of the only reason you can. In my case, it's because I was different. And if you're told something often enough it starts to become the truth in your mind. So I believed it for many years. Naturally.
When I joined secondary school, I did try and keep quiet about what I had. Because of the mentality I'd brought with me from primary school. I mean, how could you explain Asperger's to a bunch of 11 year olds? So I let them think I was a bit weird for running around all the time thinking I was Doctor Who. And I let them think I was a bit weird for talking to the gym doors every lunchtime. (Well, I was the Doctor and that was my Tardis console! I had to talk to my Tardis! Perfect sense!) I got a bit bullied for it, yeah, but that all passed very quickly. A few people from my old school came to my defence and everything was resolved!
When we were in Year 9, the book we read for that part of our course was 'The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time'. Which, if you don't know, is about a boy with Autism. Much more severe than me but the signs were there. And people started to notice. Until, eventually, I was confronted about it by a colleague. He said that I fitted many of the traditional symptoms of Autism and he forced me to admit that I was indeed Autistic. Surprisingly, he was totally fine with it. I wasn't expecting that reaction. Very few people knew the truth and he was the first person outside my closest friend group that knew.
After that, people started to accept me for who I was. Except for one or two but there's always a few. Anyway, everything carried on as normal. The world didn't end, there wasn't insurrection and I wasn't mobbed for being different. People made my life a lot easier but nothing bad happened. As I'm sure you can imagine I was very glad!
As the years went on, I was the go to guy for all things Autism in my year group. People wanted to know something, I was your guy. And that was good because people accepted me for who I am. Something which, for the most part, has continued.
With this constant openness of my Aspergers, people have worked out one way or another that this is my weak point. Want to get me angry? Call Autism a disease or tell me it can be cured. I have lashed out at people for saying that before and I don't like being violent. but still, some people persist.
Sometimes I'll see things on Facebook that claim that people with Autism are "a punishment from God" or that Autism is curable.
I've never sworn on my blog before, but I have to now.
BULLSHIT.
Can you cure Down's Syndrome? Can you cure homosexuality? Or race? Or Spina-bifida? No. You can't cure these and you can't cure Autism. Because there's nothing to cure! Autism is where the brain's wired differently. That's all. It doesn't mean we're robots or sub-human like some people make us out to be! And we're not a punishment from God either.
I don't believe in God personally but, even if I did, why would he use Autism as a punishment for something? I don't get that. But my Aspergers is who I am. It's my whole personality and it dictates everything I think, most things I see and how I view things. And, thanks to the endless help of my mum, I've managed to cope with it in such a way that people don't even realise I have it unless I tell them!
People are always surprised because of how articulate I can be. I'm also rather good at empathy thanks to endless lessons by mother and I've learnt that I can care for friends and family. Well, I could anyway. I just managed to channel it better. A lot of people claim that people with Autism have no capacity for caring. But we can. And I know we can! I've seen it happen!
So am I ashamed of having Asperger's Syndrome? Hell no! If it's wrong to have what I've got then I don't want to be right. Why change everything you are just to fit in with what the world expects of you? Why should I be the same as everyone else? Why should I view everything in the same way and why should I think what I have is wrong? Beats me. But tell me, people actually think that. I've even heard people talk about 'eradicating' people with ASDs off the planet.
Remind you of something?
Just saying.
But why should I be ashamed of having Asperger's? It's who I am. And I like who I am for the most part! (At least I do now...)
Sometimes I'll see things on Facebook that claim that people with Autism are "a punishment from God" or that Autism is curable.
I've never sworn on my blog before, but I have to now.
BULLSHIT.
Can you cure Down's Syndrome? Can you cure homosexuality? Or race? Or Spina-bifida? No. You can't cure these and you can't cure Autism. Because there's nothing to cure! Autism is where the brain's wired differently. That's all. It doesn't mean we're robots or sub-human like some people make us out to be! And we're not a punishment from God either.
I don't believe in God personally but, even if I did, why would he use Autism as a punishment for something? I don't get that. But my Aspergers is who I am. It's my whole personality and it dictates everything I think, most things I see and how I view things. And, thanks to the endless help of my mum, I've managed to cope with it in such a way that people don't even realise I have it unless I tell them!
People are always surprised because of how articulate I can be. I'm also rather good at empathy thanks to endless lessons by mother and I've learnt that I can care for friends and family. Well, I could anyway. I just managed to channel it better. A lot of people claim that people with Autism have no capacity for caring. But we can. And I know we can! I've seen it happen!
So am I ashamed of having Asperger's Syndrome? Hell no! If it's wrong to have what I've got then I don't want to be right. Why change everything you are just to fit in with what the world expects of you? Why should I be the same as everyone else? Why should I view everything in the same way and why should I think what I have is wrong? Beats me. But tell me, people actually think that. I've even heard people talk about 'eradicating' people with ASDs off the planet.
Remind you of something?
Just saying.
But why should I be ashamed of having Asperger's? It's who I am. And I like who I am for the most part! (At least I do now...)
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