978-1572305441

A Sharon Mind Apart
Chapter 5
Sharon
Seeing Other Minds Darkly
The mail comes to the office in the afternoon, and I usually
search through it quickly, hoping for a letter or two among the notices
and requests. Sometimes the mail I receive is sad and poignant. Parents
will write about delays in getting a diagnosis for their child or ask for
another assessment, unsatisfied with their first encounter. Other letters
ask about treatment options and what services parents should choose
among the bewildering array of possibilities open to them. Other letters
tell stories of children who are in trouble, who are teased by their classmates
or are in danger of losing their school placement. Sometimes I receive
correspondence thanking me for some small deed like writing a
letter of support or giving a talk that proved helpful. I keep all these
notes tucked away in a special drawer.
Some letters, though, catch me completely unprepared. One letter
was written by an adult who wondered if people ever recovered from
autism or AS. Sharon’s letter began: “I would like to make an appointment
for an assessment. Obviously, I cannot really be autistic, or even
have Asperger syndrome since I have a husband, a child, and a career.
But since I first heard of autism I have thought of it as ‘my problem,’ and
this conviction only deepens as I learn more, and as I fail to change myself
despite my best efforts. While professional diagnosis might be a
comfort, professional denigration would be painful, which is why I have
avoided exposing myself to anyone qualified to deny my self-diagnosis.
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