Seeing Asperger's from the inside

Washington Post

"It's sort of like being the absent-minded professor times five," says Tim Page. After a lifetime of struggling to relate to fellow human beings, he received a diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome at age 45. Seven years later Page, then the music critic for the Washington Post, revealed his condition in an essay in the New Yorker, which he has expanded into a new memoir, "Parallel Play: Growing Up With Undiagnosed Asperger's" (Doubleday, $26).

The syndrome is one of several autism spectrum disorders; symptoms may include an inability to understand other people's feelings, clumsy motor movements and repetitive behavior. Many patients have an unrelenting interest in a single topic -- in Page's case, music -- and "an encyclopedic memory for dates," Page says.

"The diagnosis was helpful in a lot of ways -- mostly in explaining some of the things that had proved difficult, sometimes even impossible, for most of my life," Page says. "And I didn't exactly 'give in' to the condition, but being aware that I had it helped me make smarter choices. It also helped to explain a weird childhood that included an easy mastery of all sorts of data, yet also included an absolute inability to concentrate on subjects that didn't interest me. It was also enormously difficult for me to make friends."

Resources he suggests for Asperger's include Tony Attwood's book, "The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome" or his Web site at www.tonyattwood.com.au; aspergerssyndrome.com; and OASIS (Online Asperger SyndromeInformation and Support) at www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger.