Beardon Luke Dr - Autism and Asperger Syndrome in Adults

Autism and Asperger Syndrome in Adults

Dr Luke Beardon has worked for decades in a wide range of roles in the field of autism, and has won many autism-related awards. He describes his interests as anything relating to autism and has a passion for the rights and equalities of autistic children and adults. His current role is Senior Lecturer in Autism at The Autism Centre which is part of Sheffield Hallam Universitys Institute of Education.

Overcoming Common Problems Series

Selected titles

A full list of titles is available from Sheldon Press,

36 Causton Street, London SW1P 4ST and on our website at

www.sheldonpress.co.uk

Beating Insomnia: Without really trying

Dr Tim Cantopher

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: What you need to know about CFS/ME

Dr Megan A. Arroll

Cider Vinegar

Margaret Hills

Coeliac Disease: What you need to know

Alex Gazzola

Coping Successfully with Hiatus Hernia

Dr Tom Smith

Coping with a Mental Health Crisis: Seve n steps to healing

Catherine G. Lucas

Coping with Difficult Families

Dr Jane McGregor and Tim McGregor

Coping with Endometriosis

Jill Eckersley and Dr Zara Aziz

Coping with Memory Problems

Dr Sallie Baxendale

Coping with Schizophrenia

Professor Kevin Gournay and Debbie Robson

Coping with the Psychological Effects of Illness

Dr Fran Smith, Dr Carina Eriksen and Professor Robert Bor

Coping with Thyroid Disease

Mark Greener

Depression and Anxiety the Drug-Free Way

Mark Greener

Depressive Illness: The curse of the strong

Dr Tim Cantopher

Dr Dawns Guide to Brain Health

Dr Dawn Harper

Dr Dawns Guide to Digestive Health

Dr Dawn Harper

Dr Dawns Guide to Healthy Eating for Diabetes

Dr Dawn Harper

Dr Dawns Guide to Healthy Eating for IBS

Dr Dawn Harper

Dr Dawns Guide to Heart Health

Dr Dawn Harper

Dr Dawns Guide to Sexual Health

Dr Dawn Harper

Dr Dawns Guide to Weight and Diabetes

Dr Dawn Harper

Dr Dawns Guide to Womens Health

Dr Dawn Harper

The Fibromyalgia Healing Diet

Christine Craggs-Hinton

Helping Elderly Relatives

Jill Eckersley

How to Stop Worrying

Dr Frank Tallis

Invisible Illness: Coping with misunderstood conditions

Dr Megan A. Arroll and Profess or Christin e P. Dancey

Living with Fibromyalgia

Christine Craggs-Hinton

Living with Hearing Loss

Dr Don McFerran, Lucy Handscomb and Dr Cherilee Rutherford

Living with the Challenges of Dementia: A guide for family and friends

Patrick McCurry

Overcoming Emotional Abuse: Survive and heal

Susan Elliot-Wright

Overcoming Low Self-esteem with Mindfulness

Deborah Ward

Overcoming Worry and Anxiety

Dr Jerry Kennard

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Recovery after accident and disaster

Professor Kevin Gournay

The Stroke Survival Guide

Mark Greener

Ten Steps to Positive Living

Dr Windy Dryden

Treating Arthritis: The drug-free way

Margaret Hills and Christine Horner

Understanding High Blood Pressure

Dr Shahid Aziz and Dr Zara Aziz

Understanding Yourself and Others: Practical ideas from the world of coaching

Bob Thomson

When Someone You Love Has Dementia

Susan Elliot-Wright

The Whole Person Recovery Handbook

Emma Drew

Overcoming Common Problems

Autism and Asperger
Syndrome in Adults

DR LUKE BEARDON

First published in Great Britain in 2017

Sheldon Press

36 Causton Street

London SW1P 4ST

www.sheldonpress.co.uk

Copyright Dr Luke Beardon 2017

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Index created by Dr Nick Chown

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 9781847094451

eBook ISBN 9781847094469

eBook by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NN

To all the autistic people and their families

who have shared their lives with me; youre the real teachers.

And, as always, to my own family without you, I am nothing

There is a plethora of individuals to whom I owe a debt of gratitude, for varying reasons that need not be aired in public. I hope you know what you mean to me. In no particular order: Dr Nick Chown, Dr Sandra Beale-Ellis (and Joe), Julia Leatherland and family, my trimigo Piggy-Paws (and husband), Dr Linda Buchan and the Axia family, including Dream, Dean Beadle, Sarah Hendrickx, Kleio Cossburn and Caroline Lear. Last but never least, Ash my ongoing dose of reality.

The first part of the section on Social anxiety in is an expanded version of my blog post Mustnt Grumble.

Never believe anything you read about autism.

Perhaps this statement requires some justification. After all, if you have bought this book you may well be somewhat disappointed at such an opening remark; if you are in a shop trying to decide whether to buy it or not, then it may well put you off!

There is no such thing as a typical autistic person. There is extraordinarily little that can be said to be true or valid when pertaining to the whole of the population described as autistic. There is no one size fits all approach, nor any description of an autistic person that will be true for all individuals. There are very few facts about autism that are common to all individuals, and precious little advice that can be beneficial to all families, individuals, parents or professionals. Thus, everything you read or hear about autism, see on the TV, etc., must be taken with a very clear understanding that it may not be particularly relevant to you. The heterogeneity of the autistic population is such that there will be differences from one individual to the next, and what is of huge relevance to one party may have no meaning whatsoever to another. It is hugely frustrating to read suggestions that the best thing for children with autism is... or any similar definitive sentiment. What may work well for one individual could be a disaster for another. Taking this a stage further, what may work well for one individual one day could be a disaster for the same individual the next day. Such is the nature of autism.

By far the best approach (in my opinion) is that of unadulterated honesty. There will be nothing written in this book that I do not honestly believe; there may be some matters that I deliberately leave open ended, if there is no clear answer. To constantly question the validity of what is being written, and the theories and perspectives that can be found out there, is good practice. But to digest the written word without question, and then to make the assumption that all that has been digested will be of relevance to your situation, goes against the principles of this book, and I would urge you not to take that route.

Let me say a bit about the perspective from which Im writing. My understanding of autism has come about from decades of working in autism-related fields. I have been a support worker, an outreach worker, a service co-ordinator, a project officer, a development officer, an autism consultant, a trainer, a researcher and a lecturer all within the autism field. I am lucky enough to have chatted at length about autism with hundreds of individuals on what is often known as the spectrum, as well as parents, carers, professionals and academics. I also have several personal connections within the field. My writing therefore stems from an amalgamation of experience, learning from others, research and almost constant rumination; I do not claim to be an expert on the subject, and anyone who does is misguided (one may have a high level of expertise in the field but that does not mean one is an expert in all things related to autism). I do hope, though, that what I have written here will stimulate thought and be of help.