Asperger's disorder

Alison Hale, My World is not Your World, 1998

Alison Hale's (1998) book My World is not Your World is the autobiography of a young woman of high intelligence but disabled because she was born with a condition on the autistic spectrum which is known as Asperger's disorder (Asperger, 1944). In addition to the issues with social and communication skills characteristic of the given diagnosis, she experienced major visual problems "with little spots like snow appearing across everything that I see" (quoted from here) for as long as she could remember, constituting a symptom which does not belong to the essential features of Asperger's disorder as described in the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria. Hence, her persistent visual snow, which she graphically represented in a series of animated illustrations on her webpage, was attributed to Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome, or Irlen Syndrome, a broadly defined visual perceptual disorder characterised as affecting primarily reading and writing based activities (Irlen, 1983, 1991). Critics claim that the symptoms of those with Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome (a diagnosis not included in the ICD-10 classification, indicating its lack of acceptance by the medical community) are related to already known visual disorders. Considering Hale's remark, that "a Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome sufferer is much more susceptible to headaches and migraines brought about by the visual distortions they are experiencing", the causal relationship may actually be the reverse, her persistent visual snow and associated phenomena (hypersensitivity to light; hypersensitivity to visual discomfort: "Stripy or spotty patterns move around violently"; impaired night vision: "My vision is always this chaotic even in the dark"; poor depth perception: "I have no perception of height and have no fear when looking over bridges, cliffs etc."; metamorphopsia: "Everything I see is distorted by varying amounts") possibly representing symptoms of persistent aura without infarction acquired in very early childhood (see here and here). Hale's autobiography describes "how these sight distortions affected my life and how hard it was coping when nobody knew that anything was wrong with my vision. Bad?, Mad?, Slow?, Strange?" (see here), existential questions that will strike a cord with many "vs lifers". Her book successfully communicates how important it is to recognise that not everybody experiences the world in the same way. And in doing so, she also addresses the issue of creative potential of visual snow, which is like Asperger's disorder in the sense of it being both an afflicton and a gift. Alison Hale's interesting and thought provoking book (order here) is recommended reading for visual snow sufferers and their families.

DancesWithDeath aka Dion Shore [subject #386], Migraine auras - a perceptual cornucopia of experience, 2007. © 2007 DancesWithDeath aka Dion Shore (see here)

Dion Shore [subject #386], The Real World, 2007. © 2007 Dion Shore

Although the visual impact of snow has been suggested as an impressive visual metaphor of autistic perception (see Transguyjay's below comments on his photograph of a snowy townscape), the experience of persistent visual snow in a sufferer from Asperger's disorder (see the above posts quoted from a thread in WrongPlanet.net) is unlikely to represent a symptom of the given disorder of the autistic spectrum but rather suggests a comorbidity of Asperger's disorder and persistent aura without infarction. This notion is confirmed by the case histories of Wendi Triplet Mom (subject #147), SparklingAries (subject #175), Capital H (subject #383), yonjuunana (subject #384), Dion Shore (subject #386), Laura (subject #390), AspieGirl (subject #402) and xFoxxxx (subject #458) who participated in Sofia Greene's internet survey on persistent perception disturbances. Interestingly, 4 of the 8 last mentioned subjects have a positive family history for migraine (in Wendi Triplet Mom's case also a positive family history for persistent aura without infarction), documenting the strong genetic component in these cases, and 6 have a very early childhood onset with visual snow for as long as one can remember, so that the early visual impairment from persistent aura may have interacted with the developmental anomalies characteristic of Asperger's disorder (cf. Mukaddes et al., 2007).

Age at onset of persistent aura = 0 yrs indicates very early childhood onset ("for as long as one can remember")

Transguyjay, Visual Metaphor for Autistic Perception, 2006 (see here and here)

References

Asperger H. Die "Autistischen Psychopathen" im Kindesalter. Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten 1944; 117: 73-136. [PDF]
Hale A. My World is Not Your World. Archimedes Press, Essex 1998.
Irlen H. Successful treatment of learning disabilities. Paper presented at the 91st Annual Conference of the American Psychological Association, Anaheim, Calif 1983.
Irlen H. Reading by the Colours. Avery Publishing Group Inc., New York 1991.
Mukaddes NM, Kilincaslan A, Kucukyazici G, Sevketoglu T, Tuncer S. Autism in visually impaired individuals. Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 2007; 61: 39-44.

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