Distorted Genius Disease – Asperger’s Syndrome

  ”There is such a special group of children who live quietly in their own world, where no one else can enter and no one can go out by themselves. Unlike ordinary children, they are oblivious to the world around them and turn a deaf ear to it. Because of their withdrawn nature, they are often immersed in their own world, just like the stars in the sky, flashing their light alone under the quiet beauty of the night sky, so they are called the children of the stars.”  After being discovered by his classmates for stealing women’s underwear, Xiaogang, who was just in college, was brought in by his mother to be hospitalized in the psychology department.  The 20-year-old Xiaogang, who looks much smaller than his peers, is thin and shy, looks at people shyly, does not take the initiative to greet people in the corridor, and the whole content of his daily life is to look at his cell phone on his hospital bed, likes to go into his mother’s arms, pokes his mother with his finger from time to time, occasionally talks to his mother, but sees his mother crying expressionless and emotionally bland. After admission, through detailed communication with the mother, we learned that Xiaogang has been developing half a beat slower than children of the same age since childhood, especially the language function, the mother thinks that Xiaogang is introverted and does not like to talk, but in our opinion, this is not the case at all, 50 minutes of psychotherapy he basically did not speak, only lifting his head from time to time to look at the doctor and smile, after 3 rounds of “psychological torture” to the psychiatrist After three rounds of “psychological torture” to the psychiatrist, Xiaogang was able to respond to the doctor briefly, and the progress made in the treatment brought great encouragement to the doctor.  After a comprehensive analysis of Xiaogang’s condition, Director Tang Jihua concluded that Xiaogang’s condition has been present since childhood and should be a developmental problem, mental retardation? Is it also known as “mental retardation”, or is it autism? With doubts, after Kong was able to express himself and cooperate with the examination, we took the Wechsler Intelligence Test. To our surprise, Kong scored 19 on the “number breadth” test, almost a perfect score, which means he has a higher-than-average ability in number memory, with 10 numbers from 0-9 arranged freely, and the highest score on the intelligence test was 13. The highest score of 13 numbers, he can completely retell the test in a straightforward manner, and can retell 8 numbers backwards. What’s even more surprising is that this little Kong, who grew up with bad grades, was able to recite the 108 good men in “Water Margin”; his brother reflected that he was able to quickly determine the map of any small country in the world map as a child, which took our breath away! Combining the IQ scores and these performances, we ruled out mental retardation and finally gave the diagnosis of Asperger’s on the autism spectrum, while collecting women’s underwear was just a symptom of his stereotypical interest preference.  Asperger’s is a form of autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized primarily by difficulties with social interaction and restricted and abnormal patterns of interest behavior. Although their unique ways of thinking and behavior make it difficult for them to integrate into society, most patients are capable of taking care of themselves and appear to be as good as, or even more talented than, the average person in certain areas. Some scholars have suggested that there is a link between “madness” and “greatness”, and that people with Asperger’s are capable of extraordinary artistic creativity and mathematical prowess.  During the subsequent medication and psychotherapy, Xiaogang’s parents and doctors witnessed the changes in Xiaogang in just one month: he was able to greet others on his own initiative, enjoyed playing badminton and ping-pong with his patients, and even shed tears over small things …… Although Xiaogang was still far from living and adapting to ordinary life, these improvements meant hope for Xiaogang. progress means hope and possibility for Xiaogang. “I’m so happy to see him in tears because no one is playing ball with him. Xiaogang has never been this sad when he was growing up.” The mother told the doctor with relief and confessed that the past six months or so of treatment in her hometown had not been as effective as now.  The trauma and burden brought to patients and families by mental illness is no less than that of major physical illnesses, and the treatment difficulty and time span of the illness is relatively large. Therefore, it is a long way to go to help Asperger’s patients train patients’ basic life skills, such as interpersonal communication and independent work completion. At the same time, how to make full use of his resources is the focus of future treatment for such patients.