I would now like to clear up a misconception about Asperger Syndrome: that it is a brand new condition, and that there is suddenly an epidemic of it. This illusion has been created by an accident of history: Dr. Hans Asperger's nationality.

In 1943, Dr. Leo Kanner, an American, researched and named what we now know as Autism. He used this term because the Greek word autos means "self" - the autistic person appears to live in their own, self-contained world. The individuals whom he studied were at the severely affected end of the scale; therefore, to make this clear, such individuals are, these days, often said to suffer from "Kanner's autism" or "classic autism."

In the same year, Dr. Hans Asperger, an Austrian, researched another group of individuals, also deciding to call them "autistic," from the Greek derivation. (The two doctors who discovered autism, at practically the same time, had not even heard of each other.) The children in Dr. Asperger's research group were at the milder end of the spectrum. Dr. Asperger's native language was German; therefore, he wrote up his discoveries in German. At the time, the Second World Was was in progress - making German-speakers, such as Hans Asperger, the enemies of Britain and the USA. Dr. Asperger's house was bombed, and some of his papers were lost. Because he was on the enemy side, Dr. Asperger's written work was not translated into English until the late 1980s [by which time I had left school with poor A' Level grades and was reading Theology at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth]! The next stage, of getting his discovered condition into the Diagnostic Manual, did not happen until 1994 [by which time I had graduated with a first class honours degree]. Then to distinguish it from Kanner's autism, the condition was named after him: Asperger Syndrome, (or, sometimes), Asperger's Disorder.

Therefore, an accident of history had caused this important information to remain unknown to the English-speaking world for fifty years. This resulted in all persons with Asperger Syndrome, up until 1994 at the very earliest, being unable to receive the correct diagnosis. Some individuals, of course, did have Asperger Syndrome during this information gap of fifty years - for I am one of them [as am I]. Others would have been born decades and centuries too early, thus never having a chance of being diagnosed. This account shows the reason for Asperger Syndrome appearing to be a new disorder - yet it was identified in 1943. This also explains why there now seems to be an "epidemic" of new cases - because we, the individuals who have Asperger Syndrome, had to wait until now to be diagnosed, and so there is a large backlog of cases.

The delays and differences of my [and my] motor milestones (no crawling, walking at 22 months [although Mum attributes that to my being strapped permanently into a chair by my child-minder], unusual gait [my gait is based currently on that of the Horatio Kane character from CSI Miami as is much of my projected persona], awkwardness climbing stairs, etc.) can now be seen as an early sign of a developmental disorder, applying particularly to Asperger Syndrome. Judith Sheridan and Dr. Tony Attwood have written a paper called "Abnormal Movements Among People with Pervasive Developmental Disorders," in which they state that "an experienced clinician can identify Autism by the way the child moves... and that this aspect of Autism requires further investigation."

Other hints of an Autistic Spectrum Disorder were: difficulty in knowing which way around my clothes were meant to go [yes]; my extremet "shyness" with anybody I did not know [yes]; my difficulty in participating in conversation [yes]; not knowing how to play with little girls [boys], therefore mixing with an "inappropriate" group, the little boys [girls]; my unusual and obsessional interests which persisted long after the "appropriate" age for them was past (e.g. marble alleys, collecting bottle tops, catching water beetles, harvesting acorns, chestnuts [yes] and turnip seeds [and climbing trees]); my repetitive activities of, for instance, digging with a stick in the ground and walking repeatedly around the perimeter of the school [spinning on the spot and jogging around the perimeter of the school]; wanting, as a child, to spend a lot of time alone [yes indeed]; preferring my solitary fantasy games to playing with other children [yes]; being a "walking dictionary" [yes] compared with other children [and adults]; experiencing difficulty with decision making [yes]; having a low threshold for frustration [yes]; and being excessively fearful [yes], especially about changes, e.g. going up into the next class, which was a drama every new year [yes]. None of these things, on their own, mean that a person has Asperger Syndrome; but, when combined together, with other characteristics as well, the clinical picture shows itself. The characteristics which I have just listed are some which are observable by others; but there are just as many which are more hidden insider the person, and which are harder to notice unless one knows exactly what one is looking for, for example mental rigidity, major and ongoing identity problems, slower mental processing speed (except in one's special skill area), getting confused easily, difficulty with multi-tasking, difficulty with following a series of instructions, difficulties with spatial orientation (e.g. getting lost easily), difficulty in knowing what is going on in a social situation (not understanding social cues), sometimes not understanding jokes, becoming easily upset and taking a longer time (than "normal" people) to get over it, feeling increasing anxiety in a pressured situation [like being stuck in a B & B]... these and many other "invisible" traits [like my fake accent] are also part of the way in which Asperger Syndrome manifests itself in my [and my] case. Many other persons with Asperger Syndrome have these same traits [hello], but they may not have every single one, and they may have some different ones - because persons with Asperger Syndrome are still individuals as well, not all peas in the same pod. I repeat: having one, two, or a few of these characteristics does not mean that a person has Asperger Syndrome - because everyone in the world has a few of them. With Asperger Syndrome (and other autistic conditions), it is also the intensity of the characteristics which is a factor [and they are extremely intense]. Persons with Asperger Syndrome have at least one "obsessional" interest [I have two: musical composition and computer programming], which would [is] indulged in for very long periods of time [46 hours], if not stopped by an outside authority; and when someone else, for example a parent [or wife, or partner], does try to stop the activity, they may [will] face fierce opposition.