Gifts from the Autistic Community: A Guide to Giving and Receiving

By Anthony Pappas

A series of memoirs of working with individuals with autism, Anthony Pappas takes us on an inward journey about love, self-knowledge and affirmation, and following your own dreams—all found through the priceless gifts of working with, and caring for, special-needs people.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Nov 2, 2016
• ISBN: 9781483459967

Book preview

Gifts from the

Autistic

Community

A Guide to Giving and Receiving

ANTHONY PAPPAS

All names hereafter have been edited for confidentiality.

Copyright © 2016 Anthony Pappas.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-5997-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-5996-7 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 10/28/2016

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1 Welcome to My World

Chapter 2 Failure

Chapter 3 The Hypersensitive Autistic

Chapter 4 The home and life of the autistic child and family

Chapter 5 The High Functioning Autistic Client

Chapter 6 Where do I take my experiences going forward?

Chapter 7 Dating

Chapter 8 Creativity

Chapter 9 Autism in the World

Chapter 10 The System

Chapter 11 Sometimes it is better just to listen

Chapter 12 Have you ever felt like you were being put in a box….

Chapter 13 It may sound strange but….

Chapter 14 Stigma

Afterword

About the Author

Dedicated to all my friends who have autism, for teaching me how to live.

INTRODUCTION

Love is patient, love is kind

It does not envy, it does not boast

I   heard my client Daniel say this many times. I didn’t quite understand it at the time. In fact, I didn’t get it at all. What was love? What was patience?

I was full of questions. This is why I didn’t understand. I had to clear my mind of questions, as Yoda would say.

Daniel considered himself a Jedi Knight. He chose the Light as opposed to the Dark Side of the Force. Star Wars greatly shaped his perception of the world. At first we would play games together, and talk about Star Wars, one of our mutual interests. And Daniel tapped something in me, something I knew in my childhood, but forgot in my adulthood: that this wasn’t just a game. That just because we were playing at something in our imaginations, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t real. If Daniel had not been autistic, he may not have had such a passion for the imagination that he did. I had this passion, too. But it was not socially acceptable for me to live it. Our games were part of a dream. A living dream.

Our dream grew bigger. Instead of talking about Star Wars characters, we gave them new life. Count Dooku became Count Doinku, and was the subject of any kind of practical jokes our imaginations could conceive. Emperor Palpatine, the evil, intimidating Dark Lord of the Sith, became just another joke platform, reduced to a weeping dunce as he became the blunt of our jokes in Palpatine’s Playhouse.

Daniel liked to bring up Palpatine’s Playhouse on a regular basis. I would think, why on earth does he continue to bring this into conversation? It wasn’t normal conversation. It wasn’t a two-way street. But Daniel was so enthusiastic about our jokes that I couldn’t possibly be cross with him. He would constantly say I love the stuff we come up with! And I knew he meant it. Daniel was expressing to me a level of gratitude that cannot be satisfied through money, through a brand-new big screen TV, through a Mercedes. I couldn’t help but smile. I really felt good about my work.

Not only my professional life was affected. I found myself taking more time for myself. Enjoying my music more, allowing myself more listening time. Which I realized was what I really wanted to be doing. Making plans to go out on weekends just didn’t seem as important, or nearly as fulfilling. I began to realize the passion of personal time with myself.

And the most amazing thing happened. I began to create! I played guitar every day. I’d always loved music; in fact, music had been my favorite thing in the world. But I’d never had confidence in myself as a musician. I’d always played the bass guitar, and been in several bands. But I’d never had the courage to write