The Missing Piece
Growing up, I always knew there was something different about me compared to others my age. My mind was missing an important piece to the puzzle it held within my brain. The feelings of being an outcast were not just there because I was teased and called awkward. I realized the way I thought and comprehended was different early on. There was no way I could open up to adults or even children my age because I did not know how to express myself and part of me felt ashamed. Although I grew up with so much chaos in my head, I gained a deeper understanding of myself by being diagnosed with autism later in life because I now understand the characteristics of my condition and how to manage them.
During my elementary years I believed I might have had special powers. I was immersing myself in a fantasy that I was a fairy, a wizard, a witch, or maybe an alien. Of course I was okay with these thoughts, comforted if you will. Comforted by the idea that I had an explanation for being this shy, uncomfortable, and peculiar kid. In the second grade I tested into the gifted program and held in the classes up until the 8th grade. I was always considered to be bright, but not known to be a social butterfly like the other children. I could never really wrap my mind around people,
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After weeding out the doctors I knew didn’t click with me, I finally found the perfect therapist/psychiatrist/psychologist combination. My whole world brighten up because I finally got a break and I got treated for my symptoms that I had been bothered by. When Dr. Mayer had the epiphany I was most likely autistic, she had me see a psychologist where he had my personality tested. It turned out that I indeed have High Functioning Asperger’s Syndrome and it was the piece of the puzzle that finally fit. I can now better understand myself and why I’ve always felt incredibly different, confused, and
I had the opportunity to join over 200 other participants at the day-long Asperger's Conference. Participants came from as far away as Africa to assist with organizational tasks and to listen to Dr. Attwood's presentation, as well as his answers to questions from the audience. Dr. Attwood, who has worked with Asperger's patients and lectured around the world, commented, "I have always been impressed by their patience and ingenuity in achieving abilities others acquire without a second thought."
I affected by what people have thought of me. I let the fear of one person in high school keep me from doing what I loved which is theater. I was afraid of Kayla because I was bullied by her. In 8th grade I was afraid to speak out because I thought I was wrong. During presentations three guys who thought they were “all that” the “jock type” the muscular guys who thought they could get any girl were mean to me. They probably had to be mean on the outside to hide some hurt on the inside. They would call me names and throw spitballs when the teacher was not looking .I looked around the room and saw the kids faces all laughing. I couldn’t speak after that. I felt like I had a lump in my throat that was preventing me to talk. After that day I felt like a ghost wandering the halls, that everyone ignored. I felt that everyone was out trying to get me for something I didn’t do. I was an easy target. I was too sensitive. I was self conscious about my body. People where telling me I was fat, I wasn’t pretty, I will never get a guy because I was a “looking like a
Though my symptoms for agoraphobia started well before my first grade year, that day in particular gave me a glimpse of what my life was going to be like. I was able to see for a short moment in time what sort of struggles I was going to face as I grew older. Through everyone’s perspective I was considered lazy. I always had a terrible excuse as to why I could not go outside and play with the other children, be it at school or home.It appeared as though I wanted to stay in the house and do nothing, but what the adults were not seeing is the sad child that sat in the window and cried while she watched the other children play. These little instances got worse throughout my life and I seldom wanted to play with the other children. In high school I missed a lot of days and because of this my grades suffered immensely. It seemed like my teachers and counselors knew what was happening, but non reached out. This created another hardship and hurdle for me to overcome. Some teachers would ask me why I would fail my tests, but yet when asked the very same questions 1 on 1, I would pass. The reason for this is because my peers caused me a great deal of
Growing up I never really felt that I could speak up in class and show my friendly personality, for fear of people making fun of me and rejecting my ideas because I was a minority in a predominantly white schools in a small town in Iowa. I always kenned I was unique and did not want to do anything that could cause others to draw their attention to that difference. For any projects in school, I would always take the assignment that required little to no speaking so that I would not have to speak in front of the dominant group because the minorities were outnumbered in the classrooms. Although, I got along with almost everybody in my elementary and middle schools, but I was not truly myself until I set foot in my home which is where I felt most comfortable. At home, I could get loose and do anything without any fear of exclusion and rejection by
Many people across the world are unfamiliar with disorders associated with autism. Some people do not even know what autism actually is. Asperger’s Syndrome is one perplexing disorder, of countless, that needs to be acknowledged. Although it is one of the more well-known disorders, an understanding of Asperger’s is far from common knowledge. There is an abundance of misconceptions and people unaware of what Asperger Syndrome actually is. Being uncertain about the characteristics of a person with Asperger’s allows people to go through life not understanding the disorder itself and people who have it.
After reading case study 7 “The Case of The Missing Member” I understand how learning the stages of group development would have assisted Christine in her situation. First, during the forming stage ( introductory stage where group members get to know each other ) it would have been more beneficial for Christine to find out, in detail, what each member can contribute to the group, as well as what are their specific limitations. At the group’s initial meeting, when they decided to meet before class, it was evident that Mike’s priorities were in his early morning show rather than meeting with the group to discuss the assignment for the day. This is evidenced by his response to the group's decision to meet before class when he said “I’ll miss my Happy Harry show on television” (Mary Uhl-Bien, John R. Schermerhorn, jr, Richard N. Osborn). During the next two stages of team development, Storming (individuals become tense and emotional due to the demands placed on team members) and preforming (the teams become a functional unit and advancements towards the task at hand improves) Mike was inattentive and submitted lack-luster contributions towards the project. Had Christine been familiar with the stages of team development she would have noticed that
I am thankful to have been raised in a large, happy, dysfunctional family. As one of six children (through two multiple-child pregnancies, fraternal quadruplets and identical twins) in a household of conditions like Asperger’s Syndrome (an autistic, social disorder), PDD-NOS (an autistic, behavioral disorder), ADHD, and epilepsy, you can deduce that I haven’t had the normal upbringing. Of the Parker children, I was born the responsible one, therefore earned the unofficial title as President of the Parker quads.
I was born as Henry Wyatt Gogolin on July 8, 2001 to Jessica Webster and Hank Gogolin in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Although I do not recall all 5,403 days of my life thus far, I will likely always recall several events that have distinguished my personality and struggles from other people; the involuntary experiences have occurred as a result of my low placement on the autism spectrum. While this mental disorder has improved my academic performance, it also results in extensive perfectionism and causes generally simple social skills to serve as difficult to maneuver. I have also displayed autistic characteristics during events I held minimal control over, such as divorce, loss of family
The obstacles we face in life have ways of shaping and molding us into the people we become in the future. Depression and anxiety are issues that I still continue to deal with to this day. Yet, through years of self healing, I have been able to reveal a tenacious side of myself that I had no idea even existed. These issues stem from relentless bullying I experienced throughout middle school. I felt as if I was not worthy of respect like everyone else around me. Going to school day after day with people who detested my existence was unbearable. It was like walking into a lion's den wearing a necklace constructed of nothing more than meat. On many occasions walked in on conversations that I was the topic of. Eighth grade brought me the most turmoil. I would
It all started in elementary school about 5th grade. I felt very lonely and indeed was. I had a number friends here and there, but I never really had any true friends. I just felt like there wasn't an association for myself. I would see movies where kids would get super powers or have like a great talent and I would become very jealous. I didn't know what to do. I would try and find something I was good at but always ended up empty handed because I would be judge and it would put me down.
Growing up, I always felt out of place. When everyone else was running around in the hot, sun, thinking of nothing, but the logistics of the game they were playing. I would be sat on the curb, wondering what it was that made them so much different from me. To me, it was if they all knew something that I didn’t know, like they were all apart of some inside joke that I just didn’t get. I would sit, each day when my mind wasn’t being filled with the incessant chatter of my teachers mindlessly sharing what they were told to, in the hot, humid air of the late spring and wonder what I was doing wrong. See, my discontent
How do people go missing? Well, there are many explanations to this question. Kidnappings, disappearing by choice, death at sea, running away, and so many more things can answer how people go missing. However, maybe there is a more important question. Why do people go missing? A child goes missing in the United States every 40 seconds. With adults and children together just in the United States that equals about 2,300 every day and over 800,000 every year. The worldwide estimate is that over 8,000,000 people go missing annually. Most of the cases are resolved, but not all of them. “So at the end of 2012, of those 661,000 minus the canceled, we had 2,079 cases that remained at the end of the year unresolved.” explained Todd Matthews, the director of communications of the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.
As a young child I was a non social person, and did not like to participate in anything. I liked to be an individual person, and do things on my own. I was shy and not outgoing like all my other friends were. When I enter a situation for the first time, I have a hard time speaking up until I feel comfortable. As being as shy as I was, my school work was affected a lot because I would not raise my hand to ask questions if I did not understand something, or go to the teacher for help. It was hard to transition from that stage to being more outgoing and talk more with my peers. It was difficult to communicate with others becuase of this as well, i was not able to be the perosn that i really am.
The past few months ... actually years ... have been a lesson in weathering trials. As I have stated before, I suffer from anxiety and battled postpartum depression. I was misdiagnosed with bi-polar, but my therapist discovered that it isn't bi-polar, it is simply massive anxiety attacks that I was having.
As a child I was bullied at school by my classmates and for this reason I dreaded going to school. At a very young age I made myself believe that I was ugly and overweight, I would hear it so much in school that soon enough that is what I would tell myself. I was a very depressed child, with parents that could not understand what was happening. Therefore I kept it to myself. Until one day I ...