Is It ADHD, Asperger’s, or Autism?

I have met a kid who is in third grade and when I talked to him he kept trying to not look at me and he kept moving around with his string of his hat. Don’t get me wrong, I loved talking to that kid, but just the fact that his actions that he showed when we had the conversation made me incredibly surprised—I perhaps saw what it would be like to have those symptoms. I have seen the play of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, and the way the actor of Christopher showed his symptoms of autism through his small actions that came with his lines gave the audience a glimpse of what it may be like when people have autism. They are sometimes hyperactive when having conversations and they avoid eye contact with the person they are talking to and they also are fiddling with something when they are talking and they also go into things really objectively, literally, and in much depth. For example, when I asked the boy I was talking to where he went to school, he told me where he went to school of course, and then started to tell me where his friends at his previous school lived, and went on and on about the location, the location’s relationship with the school’s location, etc. When I asked him if he had been to a famous theme park where our current school is and he started to even tell me about his experience at another aquarium in Hong Kong and how that was related to his experience at the theme park in the place where our current school is.

I enjoyed seeing how his actions connects with the “stereotype” of these common mental health diseases. Sometimes, we may connect what we see with the stereotypical images of what something may be like, however, I think that just because a person is acting a certain way doesn’t mean that they might have a certain symptom. Which is why I don’t believe in judging a person based on their actions because I am not one of those people who aligns my actions with who I am. I am one of those people who have a pretty big appetite, so I mean it when I say I eat a lot. However, just because I am a person who eats a lot, doesn’t mean I am not “ladylike” in other ways. Also, I hate the word “ladylike”. Just because I am female, that does not mean I am obliged to act like one of those housewives back in the 1960s who just wait for their husbands to come home everyday like a dog. Just because they have to be quiet and wear dresses and not swear and not separate their legs when they sit, that doesn’t mean it is “elegance” and should be exuded by other women and of women of this period of time. That is just how I think our society should be now—objectively perceiving the subjectiveness of others, understanding that intentions and one’s inner being is not related to what they do and what they want society to see.