Spectrums: Not Just in Rainbows!

April is Autism Awareness Month. Since I’ve been researching autistic spectrum disorders the past couple of years to write my Mnevermind series, the concept of “autism awareness” has me reflecting: have I always been aware of autism? No, not really. Although autism was first described in 1943, people in my social circles weren’t aware of the condition until autism was portrayed in pop culture media. Rain Man is my first exposure to autism, or at least the first exposure that I’m aware of.

Looking deeper, I think that I was actually exposed to autism much earlier than that.

Remember the “weird kids” in school? The kids in which others sensed a difference, and either avoided, or relentlessly taunted and teased? I have a strong suspicion now that some of those “weird kids” were on the spectrum. While I wasn't a mean kid, I don't think I stood up for the underdogs and probably avoided them. If adult-me could go back in time and cut those kids some slack, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Instead I can only sit with my remorse and try to use it to be more compassionate now.

So, what’s this spectrum? The idea of an autism spectrum was first introduced by Lorna Wing and Judith Gould in 1979. Autism isn’t a single disorder, but rather a group of closely-related disorders that share a core of symptoms that affect communication, social skills and behavior. However, there’s a high level of variation in how each individual is affected. Some people with autism are so profoundly impacted that they may be unable to live independently. Others are less affected, and are considered to be “high-functioning.”

Elijah Crowe from Mnevermind falls on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum. He’s well educated and strikingly intelligent. He’s particularly gifted in the field of mnemography, which deals with implanted recreational memories. Despite his intelligence in certain areas, he sees other aspects of the world as operating on some mysterious rules he can never quite figure out.

Here’s a snippet from Mnevermind 2: Forget Me Not that shows how overwhelming the world can be for people on the spectrum. Elijah trying to back out of a date with Daniel, but when Daniel persists and says he was really looking forward to it, Elijah changes his mind.

I wasn’t sure anyone had “looked forward” to doing anything with me lately. Knowing that Daniel had been anticipating our time together made my mood shift, just a little at first, but then with more momentum as it lightened, and my hopeless resignation gave way to curious neutrality, and then, as I mentally reiterated that he was “looking forward” to our date, optimism. “Anyway, I’ll go.”

“To the expo. With me.”

“Yes.” I thought for a moment, until I remembered the cause of my recent slide into discouragement. “But the oil light on my dash is lit.”

“There’s a Quick Lube down the street. We can hit that on our way to the Alliant Center, unless you think it’s something more serious…or I could pick you up.”

Choices—and I liked both of them. If Daniel picked me up, it would feel more like a “real” date…by which, I suppose I meant a date between a man and a woman, which I should probably reassess, since dates shouldn’t need to be gender-specific to be objective. Then I thought of being able to tell Tod I’d handled the oil change myself, which was even more appealing. “I think I’d like to stop at the Quick Lube. Is it quick, really, or is that just the name? Do they service Hondas? Will they need to see my title and registration? Do I need an appointment? Can I pay with my debit card?”

“I think you just, uh…it’s really no big deal.”

Maybe not to Daniel, who understood how things worked by discerning seemingly invisible signals. To me, it was a very big deal.

Leave a comment on LiveJournal if you’d like to win a Mnevermind ebook (The Persistence of Memory or Forget Me Not, winner’s choice!) I’ll pick a winner April 30.

IMPORTANT LINKS

Read more posts on autism and win more prizes at RJ Scott’s April Autism Blog Hop.

Find out more about Mnevermind at JCP Books.