Re: [ARSCLIST] Asperger's Syndrome (was How Vinyl Records Are Made Part 1)

[David Breneman <david_breneman@xxxxxxxxx>]

 On Jul 19, 2006, at 11:30 AM, Roger and Allison Kulp wrote: 
>  This sort of hits close to home.I was diagnosed as autistic,when
> I  
> was in first grade.I am somewhere between Asperger's,and Autism,
> on the spectrum.

When I was a kid I stuttered so badly that it could take me
five minutes to say my name.  People just don't understand
what it means to try to will yourself to say something and
have no control over your body.  The best analogy I heard was
the comic actor Terry Thomas, who was suffering from Parkinson's
disease.  He said that at times he would walk across his
apartment floor, up to the kitchen doorway, and couldn't
walk any farther.  Over and over, he'd back up into the
living room, start stalking forward determined to make
it through the doorway, and come up short just at the 
threshold every time.  But, he could *dance* through the
doorway with no problem.  I've never heard it expressed
better than that.  In my mid teens I beat the stuttering,
although I've never been sure exactly why.  I really 
don't think the years of therapy had any thing to do with
it, but hypnosis might have.  The upsot is that I now talk
to myself all the time.  Like an athlete or musical
virtuoso, I have to keep in constant training.  And
it pretty much works.  Sometimes I let down my guard and
find myself starting to block again, but if I enforce 
a certain degree of mental discipline I can make it
through the kitchen door again.  Since my twenties, I've
been able to make money with my voice.  Doing VOs,
commercials, PSAs, industrial films, etc., making up to
$100 per finished minute.  I remember as a kid hearing
the therapists tell my parents that as long as I could
find a job where I didn't have to talk, I'd do OK.
Now I make money with my voice.  Once you've mastered
the impossible, the rest of your life is all down hill.

Sorry for an overly long and self serving post.



David Breneman         david_breneman@xxxxxxxxx

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