Published on 12, July, 2020
The stereotyped autistic person is obsessed with maths, science, technology, but I wondered if there is another type who is obsessed with words, correcting word mistakes, dictionaries, learning new words etc. A Word Nerd.
I am a proud Word Nerd, I have zero interest or skills in maths, science, technology. It is a reason I didn't even consider I was autistic until I was in my 40s/50s- I wasn't a computer geek, so I couldn't be autistic, could I?
What do you think?
I teach, and do proof reading from time to time too as a profession. I was considered gifted St writing as a kid, but lost that later on, somehow.
I was considered gifted at writing and acting. I seem to have lost them. I also, weirdly, lost other joys: trusting human beings, reading and being intensely moved by music. These losses coincided with exposure to Secondary school thuggishness but I can’t be certain that trying to adapt to teenage boys’ treatment of me and my own development were factors.
My GP used it with me as therapy, getting me to write a journal. My English book was never returned to me, and I suspect the school psychologist kept it back as part of his case study work. That was lethal, somehow. I think, ou can use writing to work through demons, it you have to be ittey ruthless with yourself a d your characters. I do have a selection of short stories, but don't really ha e the time to do much with them.
In the end I preferred using creative media that did not involve words.
The school I attended was a pretty thuggish place too.