Childhood
Throughout my childhood, I was wondering why I was diffrent compared to other people. I tried to find various different explanations for my diffrency. Was it because I didn’t have any siblings at my own age? Maybe it was because my mom had been a housewife since I turned four, and I had never gone to a daycare center as a child? Was that the reason I had not gotten used to socializing with other children? I was so desperate to find the an explanation for my diffrency, that I was about to give up.
My last effort was to contact a psychologist to get some answers. My whole life I had to put a lot of effort into trying to change and become as normal as possible and I felt I really needed some advice from a psychologist, to achive ny goals as everybody else.
Receiving the diagnosis
The response I got from the psychologist was quite unexpected. Instead of giving me advice on how I could become normal, she thought that I should undergo a neuropsychiatric evaluation. This resulted in that i got diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome at the age of 24.
At first, I was surprised and was wondering how this could be true. After all, I had always been social and empathetic. Weren’t people with Asperger’s syndrome supposed to be unsociable and unempathetic? Not until I started reading literature about Asperger’s syndrome, I began to understand that these statements were only myths.
My path to become a lecturer
In 2008, I collected all my courage and applied for the educational program about autism spectrum conditions in Ågesta public college.
The interesting about that program was the fact that the program was only for students with Asperger’s syndrome or autism spectrum condition. We read literature about Asperger’s syndrome, lead discussion groups, worked as mentors at Asperger Center in Stockholm and preformed presentations for various audiences. After I had become more experienced preforming presentations and received an extremely positive response, I started to lose all my insecurities.
After graduating from the program, I was contacted by people who had heard my lectures and they booked me for new lectures. Very soon more people were booking me for lectures and today I make my living by doing presentations and writing books.
Working as a public speaker about Asperger’s syndrome has been important for my personal development and people who have listened to my lectures have been very interested in learning more about Asperger’s syndrome and autism. To spread awareness about Asperger’s syndrome is my passion in life and it is something I want to keep on doing for many years to come.
