runners with asperger's syndrome

I had/have a runner on the my high school team that has asperger's syndrome. when I first met him 3 years ago he was in pretty rough shape, very hard to communicate with and not easy to coach. After a couple of years of running he has become more outgoing and social as well as a great team player. I also think he began meds but either way he has been much improved after taking up running.

but hasn't Gerry Lindgren's name been linked to asperger's syundrome?

I feel sorry for you man. That's even worse than broccoli syndrome

My brothers both (twins) have Asperger's. They both have a lot of trouble with mood control. Both of them do some running and other sports. Going for a run helps them calm down when they are having a bad day (I think that is true for everyone though). So, yes, running is a good idea but from a psycological and physical standpoint.

Help with what? Does it cure you of Asperger's? No empirical evidence suggesting that this is true. I don't know of any research studies supporting the relationship between runners and Asperger's other than my perception of running as a solitary activity and Asperger's cases tend to be solitary individuals.

In any case, running in groups or joining a club will help you build social skills. Running alone will only reinforce your current level of functioning.

Good Luck

I've been running for a few months and got hooked up to this site from a running store. I'm am taking risperdal.

I hope running helps.

I don't really think I have asperger's but I just don't like people in groups and I fly off the handle a lot if people say stupid things. Maybe I have it or maybe the doc needs to make some money.

I don't know what broccolli syndrome is but if its like aspergers I feel bad for who has it.

Is it ok to run in a group and not talk? I think it would annoy me to have to talk when I run.

My brother has self-diagnosed himself with Asperger Syndrome (AS), and from what I've read, he's probably right.

I'm sorry to hear about your own diagnosis. My understanding is that AS is a fairly large collection of symptoms or tendencies and that not all AS people exhibit all of them. There's lots of info available on the web, as you've no doubt discovered. Just google "Asperger syndrome." Several dedicated websites.

My brother's key moment was when he came across a book by Temple Grandin, a high-functioning AS who has enjoyed quite a career designing the chutes that guide factory-farmed animals to their deaths in a human way, without evoking their fear reflex. He suddenly realized that he wasn't just "different"; that he actually had something, a syndrome, that had been described by other people.

My brother is exceptionally intelligent (an IQ of 190 when tested at age 6; mine was something like 160 and that made me the stupid one). He upset his Fourth Grade teacher when he sat in the back of the classroom reading my mother's old organic chem textbook, college level. He went to MIT at 16. Indifferent grades. Was very fond of building "devices": fuzz-boxes of every conceivable type; a whole recording studio at MIT, which he handwired from the bottom up. A recumbent tricycle.

He's described one key symptom of AS as an inability--often quite disconcerting to others--to decode the emotional subtexts of conversations. "An inability to process social cues." He was fired from many jobs for simply ignoring what his boss asked him to do and spending his time doing something else that he thought was more important as an R&D focus.

Here's AS, as exemplified by my brother: Somebody says to him, "My mother died yesterday." He says: "Did you know that after the human heart has stopped beating, the body cools at exactly the same differential rate as a refrigerator warms if you unplug it?" True enough! But wildly missing the point.

That's my brother.

A second key symptom, implicit in this first: things are more real to him than people. Those fuzz-boxes had feelings, as far as he was concerned.

Now, as the owner of a series of old cars, I understand this. God knows I feel for my cars. I can FEEL when the oil level has dropped and the cams start to complain. Since I shared a room with this guy for the first 12 years of my life, I've often felt that I had gotten a bit of "contact AS," if you will.

About running: my brother played his share of soccer back in school, and he still bicycles a lot. He wasn't particularly athletic or well coordinated.

Over the past decade he's put on more than a hundred pounds. So no: he's not doing much running.

I think, frankly, that running would be a great thing for an AS sufferer. (Is "sufferer" the PC term? Probably not. Sorry about that. Really!) AS people have incredible focus; they often accumulate amazing stores of knowledge about esoteric things--such as train schedules, a classic AS riff, or cars. So the many aspect of running physiology and training could become such a focus.

Running is a wonderful way to spend solitary time. You can get lost in your own head. Yet, especially if you're running outdoors, it's also a great way of keeping in touch with the "world out there," which is something that AS people need.

My worry about putting AS together with running would be that AS people, who can be prone to isolating themselves in their heads, might literally drive the car--their body--into the ground, failing to pay attention to the cues (somatic intelligence) that non AS people routinely attend to.

Then again, most runners know how to avoid paying attention to that stuff. They "just run," and run too hard some of the time, and do OK.

Good luck with your journey.

That should have been Asperger's, not Asperger. My bad. I'm still reeling from the discovery that mongoloidism is Down Syndrome, not Down's Syndrome.......

Being a professional in the field, I know that asperger's generally involves an inability to read appropriate social cues. These people can be very awkward and tend to cross boundaries b/c they do not have the ability to read other people, something that is more natural for the rest of us. Someone in a previous posts suggested that an individual with aspergers tends to want to isolate, -- which is not true at all. A person with aspergers has a high need to socialize, but being so apparently socially innapt, they have a difficult time maintaining frienships.

Running can be a good way to be around other people without the pressure of constantly having to interact, and a person with this disorder can slowly integrate themselves within a running social circle. The physical demands of long distance running can also be a good form of mood control and a great coping skill (as it is for the rest of us).

abitdifferent wrote:

I don't know what broccolli syndrome is but if its like aspergers I feel bad for who has it.

holy shit was that funny!!! even more so because that type of response should be expected from someone who has AS.

it was a joke. asperger sounds like asparagus. asparagus and broccoli are both unpleasant tasting vegetables. do you get it now?

Broccoli syndrome is not funny it is just dumb.

All you people make me sound like I have such a bad disease. Just because the doctor says I have Asperger's doesn't mean I really have it. I probably have it but I may not have it. There is no real medical test for it and some people say it doesn't really exist.

And I'm not going to get fat like that brother because I do run and am careful about what I eat. I am not as smart as the fat brother but I am not dumb. My tested IQ is 117.

Just because some one has Asperger's Syndrome does not mean they are crazy or weird. Everybody is different in some way.

You should not make fun of some one just because they might act different than you. You should not try and trick them by making up syndromes that do not exist.

If I have Asperger's I can't help it. If I don't have it I won't be mean to some one who does.

I wish runners would understand that!

jesus christ, lighten up. it wasn't a mean trick, it was a simple joke.

but that would be another symptom of AS...not understanding peoples' intentions

My roommate, Sean, came in and said it was just a joke and it was OK. He did say there could be a lot of mean jokes on message boards. (I already knew that)

He said this board would be a good way for me to talk to people as long as I didn't get upset by stupid comments I might hear.

He does a little running and basketball too. Sean is really busy all the time.

Sean says I should really go to the college running club. They sometimes run with the track team. I don\'t think I would fit in and I don\'t mind running by myself.

Sean says sometimes he might run with me when he is not busy. I think I would run faster than him so he might not be able to keep up with me. That might make him mad.

Sean is a really cool roommate. He has lots of girlfriends.

I don't feel sorry for you nor should anyone else your just like everyone else just unique and that is what you need to understand. I am a teacher and work with AS and other Austic functioning students. I love all the uniqueness I have in my classrooms.

I am very OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)and I am also a elite runner and coach. I have this thing where when I go our and run I look at houses that have for sale signs on them and get the phone number and for an hour I can think of those 7 digits in so many ways and go over and over that even if I'm on a tempo run. Running clears my head and I get to think about the day and my feelings. I say keep running it will help you adventure out and find yourself. So what if you have AS it will help you exand your view and thoughts on things and if it doesn't well then you still get in shape. Sometimes I don't like to go run during the day b/c then I obsess about odd or even numbers or some bs like this, but if you look at in a positive way other runners that are "normal" aren't out there obsessing that are there going when is this next mile going to be over with.

Enjoy yourself keep posting and if you do get mad at what people say take it and turn it in to something positive for yourself and screw the rest of them.

Wow, you sound more like a troll with your responses because they are so typical of Asperger's, almost too typical. Assuming you aren't trolling, I know some runners with Asperger's and it seems to be their primary social activity and really helpful for them. Most other runners are pretty understanding of their situation too, and give them some leeway with their deviant behavior. Usually they just cause a lot of laughs by being totally candid in tense situations.

el_duderino wrote:

Wow, you sound more like a troll with your responses because they are so typical of Asperger's, almost too typical.

was just about to make that comment as well

They just did an Asbersger's epsiode on Boston Legal.