The Artistic Spectrum

The purpose of this post will be to update everyone on my whereabouts and to also outline my plans for Autism Awareness month!

First of all, I apologize for being so absent from my blog and from making videos for the past few months. As it turns out, it is a lot of work completing 20 credits in one semester, especially with no Friday classes. However, I was fortunate enough to have been the youngest one chosen to receive a 2012 Outstanding Women of Somerset County award and had a great time at the reception! I met many inspiring women, many of which had been working much longer than I have been alive! You can find more information about that here.

Secondly, it is Autism Awareness Month! I will be selling crocheted and hand-sculpted elephants (NEW! With keychains!) throughout the entire month and will be setting up an online donation page within the next few days. If you would like to order an elephant, you can e-mail me at nicole.m.dangelo@gmail.com. I will ship them anywhere!

My big event for the month will be a solo recital at the Watchung Arts Center which will benefit the center and also Autism New Jersey! Tickets are $15, and if you are interested in attending you can purchase them here! I will be playing works on piano, clarinet, and bass clarinet by Bach, Beethoven, Meyerbeer, von Weber, and more!

Thank you for your continued support!

Just talking about some of the downsides of being high-functioning and issues I faced this semester. I wrote a blog post a while back discussing this as well, if you prefer to read something cohesive: Link

I forgot to mention in the video that I just hit 10,000 blog views and 100 YouTube subscribers! Hooray for celebrating arbitrary numbers! I’ll take the opportunity anyway to sincerely thank everybody who’s subscribed to or even viewed my blog or my videos. I appreciate your continued support!

Also, just to add a little to the video: another very important piece of advice for medical professionals working with patients on the spectrum: Always be direct with your patient. Provide statistics and be blunt when providing a prognosis. You may think that by skirting around the issue at hand you are cushioning the blow of whatever the impact of the sickness will be or that you are helping the patient to understand better, but without directness we especially are left with ambiguity and a lot of confusion.

I should have been a little more specific and said that the type of overstimulation that I experience is just one type and there can be many other different reactions to stimuli.

The reason I was so irritated in this video was because right before filming I received a distressing e-mail. I’m not going to share the details of that message, but I will say that I was incredibly misunderstood by an adult who has barely met me. Now, to answer the “autistic world” question more clearly, what I was trying to say is exactly what is demonstrated by my frustration; that when I know I will be faced with a situation such as meeting a person for the first time, the encounter will probably not go as I planned even if I rehearse it a million times in my head. Many times I wind up failing to make the point that I rehearsed for so long, and this can cause major misunderstanding and later frustration. This disconnect between my mind and reality is the closest thing I can think of which relates to an “autistic world.” I hope that answers the question!

Also, here’s a really good explanation of Asperger’s as it presents itself in females. I came across it this week, and I wanted to share it: http://www.help4aspergers.com/pb/wp_a58d4f6a/images/img244154ad237783e339.JPG

This week I answer three viewer questions relating to how Asperger’s works. Enjoy!

I meant to put this up yesterday and to add some fancy editing, but due to technical errors neither of those things happened. Huge thanks to my good friend Chris for trying! Here’s a link to his channel. I recommend you check it out.

Anyways, here’s my video of the week. It covers the differences between autism and Asperger’s, and touches upon the subtle differences between high-functioning autism and AS. I also discuss my plans for the future and my depressingly picky eating habits. Enjoy! Leave a comment with a question for next week’s video!

It is very common for people who have autism spectrum disorders to state that “Autism does not define them.” For a long time I have struggled to understand what is meant by this, and have recently decided that what these people mean to say is that autism does not run their lives and that they are made of many other attributes besides those prescribed by their condition. Usually this phrase is used to indicate that people with autism spectrum disorders are able to do many good things despite their disabilities. What many do not consider is that while many of our struggles and downfalls come from the disabilities which do not define us, many of our faults are faults because in addition to being autistic, we actually are human beings.
It can be difficult to distinguish the faults posed by our human condition from those from our autistic condition, though it is easy to prove the fact that we have human faults simply by the fact that if we did not, then we would be perfect humans if not for our conditions. By this logic, everybody would have to have a mental disorder, and if everybody had a disability, then there would be no such thing as a disability. For those of us who are disabled, it is important to be able to determine the faults which do define us as opposed to those which are of the condition which does not. By being able to tell which social mistakes come from AS and which come from our human condition we are able to treat our autistic condition more effectively.
The main difference between our human and autistic faults is the intention of the action in question. If somebody tries to get my attention and I do not turn around it could be either because my autistic condition caused me to be distracted and I did not hear them, or it could be because my human condition caused me to resent them for some reason and therefore consciously ignore them. In the first scenario, it would be wrong to place blame on me for not responding, but in the second scenario I would have deserved blame because I made the decision to not turn around.
That being said, I have found that those with autistic conditions work more carefully to shape their human conditions because the impact of our human faults on our autistic faults tend to bear much larger consequences for us than for those who do not have autistic faults. If I were to decide one night that instead of adhering to my autistic routine of eating dinner, studying, showering, and sleeping, I would instead go out and stay up late instead of doing work, I would be demonstrating a human fault. However, this human decision would result in the breaking of my autistic routine, and my autistic condition would cause me to become overwhelmed by the break in the schedule and it could take a week or two to readjust to my routine, causing anxiety and a build-up of work. Somebody who does not live with an autistic condition may go out every night without studying but not become overwhelmed, and will only realize the consequences when they find they have failed their courses. Because those who do have autistic conditions take this into consideration, we are less likely to make poor human choices because we are more aware of their consequences.
It is necessary for us, then, to find the perfect balance between our human condition and our autistic condition. Autism may not define me, but it definitely does help me to live better as a human being.

I’m starting a new Internet series called Aspervlogs where I will discuss how I am affected by Asperger’s Syndrome. I decided to make these videos A) because I am trying to get over my fear of cameras, and B) because I think it will help others to understand what AS is like if they can hear me and see me talk about it rather than just reading about it. Please leave comments here or on the video letting me know what you would like me to talk about, because I am going to be making a video every week. Thanks for watching!