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A View from someone with severe Aspergers Syndrome

posted 13 years ago by Tikovoma
3 replies | jump to latest

Hello

First of all - i'm german, english is a language i learned so dont be surprised if you may find mistakes - and i used the word "severe" because most people with "Aspergers" just have a few traits of it but not all, and i have it all since diagnostics from when i was 8 until today where i am 25 - i still visit a Psychiatrist/Neurologist twice a year for checks and tests - Anyway to the topic: Ben X (2007)

I have Aspergers Syndrome and i am 25 years old i got diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome and diverse Savant traits very early in my life and of course like many here on IMDB i am a movie/tv-series/documentary fan so of course i also started looking for movies with Aspergers as main or side-topic and so i also watched Ben X (2007)

The Bullying:

I hope to answer alot of questions with this about this movie - the bullying is very accurate, even the scene in class is accurate, i of course didn't experience the same, but similar situations, my backpack emptied out of the window, pants pulled down, beaten up, theft from, even once i wrote a letter to a girl, not a love letter more like a penpal kind of letter because we wrote eachother, because she seemed to think i was interesting, later some of the bullies put all of the letters copied on eahc blackboard available in school - i could go on and on about bullies when you have Aspergers, so the bullying scenes in the movie are not exaggerated at all

The Family:

His reactions and actions towards his family are very accurate aswell, my family was not as supportive as his are, they are just as interested in Aspergers Syndrome but didn't help me with it or tried to like Bens Family did - but his constant isolation he wants at home is very accurate, i also played online games for a while, until i noticed they're a waste of time and there are more productive ways to ignore the world around you - but that protrayal was very accurate

I can't speak for his "girlfriend" since she's imaginary, but i can understand why he already went so outside of reality that he imagines one, when you have Aspergers Synrome you are totally isolated and feel constantly alone, compare it with bein a normal US-american citizen and you need to live with a tribe of humans who feels, acts and thinks 100% differently as you do, and you can't change that, you can't just take a plane and fly back to the USA to feel home, you simply are never home and never will be - so that his brain created another psychological disorder which transformed into actually hallucinating a person who likes, understands and helps him is also very likely

I had the luck to find a girlfriend which whom i am in a relationship with since almost 5 years, she understands my condition and accepts it, and also seems to like how i think and act, so i guess i am lucky in that case and didn't turn as miserable as Ben did with his hallucinated girlfriend

But i can say i don't have any friends and never had any, when i tried i always failed because people don't like the character of someone with Aspergers or simply can't handle the lack of empathy and power of honesty which is something they should have included in the movie too, Aspergers and having friends

Also the movie woke alot of emotions in me, which is obvious because i experienced the most of it myself and understand him and his acting 100%

There should be more movies about this topic - and get at least as much attention as the discrimination and problems of homosexual people - because people with Aspergers Syndrome are also discriminated because we are different and suffer too

Hopefully i could help people in understanding this movie - i usually don't use message boards nor do i use social networking and why i don't do that should be obvious

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Samus Aran 12 years ago

It's very fascinating seeing someone diagnosed with Asperger's actually speak out, since I find that in this day and age it's often self-diagnosed (more often than not) by semi-intellectual internet hypochondriacs who are a bit socially awkward or asocial. It's perhaps a difficult condition to accurately pin down since its symptoms seem incredibly varied and easily mistaken for something else.

And it's quite remarkable how ignorant you are. It generally costs thousands of dollars to get a diagnosis for Asperger's, so of course many people opt to not get it formally diagnosed. But to suggest that someone with a completely different brain from their peers can't self-diagnose that they are nothing like their peers, is a ridiculously stupid and naive assertion.

Are you going to pay for everyone's diagnoses, or just troll Internet forums?

[–] Samus Aran 12 years ago

As for Scarlite, it's called dissociation. From a brain perspective, it is an advanced form of self-defense, and was portrayed quite realistically in this film.