Its funny that this was just posted, because I was just at my local grocery store. This store hires handicapped people to act as baggers - so I always make sure to spend an extra moment after checkout thanking them and just generally trying to expand the goodness in the world.
Funny enough, the bagger today had such a "handicap" as depicted here. He was super outgoing, with a real infectious sense of interaction. He said to me completely sincerely, "have you been keeping your energy up and yourself positive?!?" and I stammered a bit and said I was sure trying.
Then he said, "you know, each day I try to appreciate how beautiful the sun is, it really can help you keep your energy up! So keep yours up up up! That way you can Rock On!"
There's not much you can say to that but to give him a high-five.
Having said that, I was thinking on the walk to the car how often his parents must worry about him. Precisely because you could tell he was so outgoing he would've been open to any suggestion "want to take a ride? want to go see the lake? etc etc"
Nonetheless, it feels strange calling it a "handicap", he still bringing a smile to face just thinking about how generally excited he was.
This may not pertain directly to your story, but I feel the need to explain something, as a physically impaired individual.
We, as individuals , live with certain impairments.
These impairments only handicap us when we are put into a situation where our impairment serves to hinder us in some way.
A disability occurs when our handicaps , which were caused directly by our impairments serve to effectively eliminate an ability of ours within a given environment.
Please try your best to keep the wording straight, it can end up being contextually important.
An easy way to remember : A handicap is basically the same concept as it is applied to sports, negative points which serve to reduce the chances of conquering a goal.
I'm not sure why. If he could perform a better job, he wouldn't have been a grocery store bagger. That he has found himself there strongly suggests that his "handicap" affects his life in such a way as we might expect.
Reading about this disorder reminds me of my sister. She has Down's Syndrome and is one of my favorite people in the world. She has basically the same strengths and weaknesses as WS -- open and friendly when not anxious, but unable to determine when it is appropriate to trust someone. It's been a blessing having her in my life. She's the linchpin of our family in many ways. I'd probably be more of a black sheep in my family's eyes if it wasn't for always being so excited to see me regardless of conflicting religious beliefs with my family, etc.
The brain is an amazing instrument and it's fascinating (and scary) how it can be wired so differently in edge cases, but deep down, no matter the abnormality, there's a "soul" waiting to connect if you can meet them on their terms.
A good friend of mine has a brother with Down Syndrom...
1 Evening, he said that he would take his brother home and then we would meet. Saying that it is okay to bring along his brother to a local bar was one of the most "rewarding" moment i ever felt...
Btw. The boy with down syndrome has a job, lives alone and even sings in french in a quior.. :-) . He is alsof very social (talks to everyone in the train, but i think he trusts people to easily, he made paintings every year for our student club because we asked him every year if he wanted to go swimming with us when we rented the pool for 30-40 people in the evening, yearly tradition ).
You could really see his joy every time... Its awesome to see that a small gesture can have such a big impact on someone
When I first saw this headline I thought oh no, have we created another "syndrome"? But after reading it I realize this is probably what my wife has.
in the last 17 years I've noticed all of these traits over and over. She's extremely nice, friendly and approachable to the point where she's not only vulnerable but people have said it's "annoying". She is constantly reaching out, talking and being extremely friendly with people everywhere despite having HUGE issues with anxiety.
She has some learning disabilities and issues and works in healthcare where she is in a unique position because of her personality. She's unable to learn or retain certain things beyond a base knowledge developed over the last 10 years or so. She struggles with charts and paperwork and hasn't been able to move up beyond a certain level. She rarely makes mistakes but also doesn't take any risks with patients and doesn't do a lot of critical care.
But the reason she hasn't been fired is quite simply because there would probably be a revolt where she works. She is absolutely LOVED by the residents of the facility, her coworkers and even management. She's a "ray of light" that comes in and cheers everyone up no matter what and I honestly think if it came down to it they'd pay her just to come in talk to people if they had to.
It's one of the things I fell in love with so long ago that makes the downsides (frequent anxiety, OCD, over engagement etc) so much much worth it. It's very hard to be in a bad mood around her.
I'm glad to have found this article and it even inspired me to create an account just to post about this. It was eerie reading this article describing my wife... even the "buzzing bee" thing. Absolutely intolerable to her. Clicks, noises, things like that create great anxiety. But get her into a crowd of people and she'll be talking, relating and stealing the show.
I'm definitely going to do some more research into this.
Williams syndrome is a CHROMOSOMAL disorder which has PROFOUND effects, not just on personality but on physical appearance. It isn't all that common.
Please don't diagnose your wife with chromosomal disorders based on her being friendly and anxious and bad at charts. Perhaps she has a learning disability, like tons of other people.
Is she a music fan? Unusually good at pitch, rhythm, instruments, or memory for music and lyrics?
Williams Syndrome is associated with unusual aptitude for music (or perhaps just unusual compared to the other more serious learning difficulties). There are even music-focused summer camps specifically for kids and adults with Williams Syndrome.
> When I first saw this headline I thought oh no, have we created another "syndrome"? But after reading it I realize this is probably what my wife has.
The first sentence seems to convey an annoyance with people's propensity to hastily self-diagnose/make amateur diagnosis. And then you do the same thing in the next sentence...
The wiki article on this syndrome is very interesting. Apparently there is a substantial number of people with this genetic deletion that are not diagnosed as they are cognitively normal. There does not seem to be a term for such 'mild' Williams syndrome like there is for autism.
There's a blurry line between 'diagnosed' and 'what kind of person you are' which is increasingly being encroached upon by modern medicine. Certainly there are lots of ways a person can be classified which only become a disorder when they go above a certain magnitude.
Progress will be made into better classifying people so that more and more regular folks can take advantage of strategies and 'treatments' to have a more successful life (whatever that may be). With this comes the risk of discrimination relying too heavily on these classifications, which, though real, will never be fair to judge a person against.
This is awesome, I have never seen Williams Syndrome mentioned in the news before. My younger cousin has it, though, and it's interesting to hear some of the common symptoms.
She's an amazing person, but absolutely a handful! More recently, things have become awkward as she is coming of that age, and while interested in the opposite sex doesn't quite grasp those social boundaries of what is and is not acceptable.
Her personality, like the article mentions, is totally infectious. She loves music and friends and parties, and wants everyone to just be happy!
It seems almost as if we are afforded a certain amount of "intelligence" and it is split between "emotional" and "cognitive". Those who exhibit high ability in one seem to suffer from not enough of the other.
I really like these sorts of 'zoom out' comments, because they tend to show the similarity between disparate systems and the cross-domain value inherant in systems thinking. (Then again, HN is probably a bit of an echo-chamber for this!)
This paper [0] is really interesting from the perspective of looking at Williams syndrome as the opposite of autism. The authors found that an individual with a duplication of the Williams syndrome deletion region that was autistic. Basically they found that not enough of the genes in this region (i.e deletion) then you end up with Williams syndrome, too much and you get autism.
Autism is genetically more complex than Williams syndrome as there are many other genes that can cause autism.
It would be really interesting to see which genes in the section of chromosome 7 that is deleted in Williams syndrome have been under recent strong selection in humans.
We know so little of how the brain actually operates, it not surprising that simple changes in brain anatomy or chemistry can produce enormous variations in behavior. I wonder if we will ever be able to be able to correct or at least change the brain without making things worse.
Interesting, again because of the parallels to autism. My son's therapist recommended a book called All Cats Have Aspergers[0] as a way to help him relate to how he sees the world.
[+] [-] _red|12 years ago|reply
Funny enough, the bagger today had such a "handicap" as depicted here. He was super outgoing, with a real infectious sense of interaction. He said to me completely sincerely, "have you been keeping your energy up and yourself positive?!?" and I stammered a bit and said I was sure trying.
Then he said, "you know, each day I try to appreciate how beautiful the sun is, it really can help you keep your energy up! So keep yours up up up! That way you can Rock On!"
There's not much you can say to that but to give him a high-five.
Having said that, I was thinking on the walk to the car how often his parents must worry about him. Precisely because you could tell he was so outgoing he would've been open to any suggestion "want to take a ride? want to go see the lake? etc etc"
Nonetheless, it feels strange calling it a "handicap", he still bringing a smile to face just thinking about how generally excited he was.
[+] [-] serf|12 years ago|reply
We, as individuals , live with certain impairments.
These impairments only handicap us when we are put into a situation where our impairment serves to hinder us in some way.
A disability occurs when our handicaps , which were caused directly by our impairments serve to effectively eliminate an ability of ours within a given environment.
Please try your best to keep the wording straight, it can end up being contextually important.
An easy way to remember : A handicap is basically the same concept as it is applied to sports, negative points which serve to reduce the chances of conquering a goal.
Here's a helpful resource : http://www.pediatrics.emory.edu/divisions/neonatology/dpc/Im...
[+] [-] dublinben|12 years ago|reply
I'm not sure why. If he could perform a better job, he wouldn't have been a grocery store bagger. That he has found himself there strongly suggests that his "handicap" affects his life in such a way as we might expect.
[+] [-] danieltillett|12 years ago|reply
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_syndrome
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] mcphilip|12 years ago|reply
The brain is an amazing instrument and it's fascinating (and scary) how it can be wired so differently in edge cases, but deep down, no matter the abnormality, there's a "soul" waiting to connect if you can meet them on their terms.
[+] [-] NicoJuicy|12 years ago|reply
1 Evening, he said that he would take his brother home and then we would meet. Saying that it is okay to bring along his brother to a local bar was one of the most "rewarding" moment i ever felt...
Btw. The boy with down syndrome has a job, lives alone and even sings in french in a quior.. :-) . He is alsof very social (talks to everyone in the train, but i think he trusts people to easily, he made paintings every year for our student club because we asked him every year if he wanted to go swimming with us when we rented the pool for 30-40 people in the evening, yearly tradition ).
You could really see his joy every time... Its awesome to see that a small gesture can have such a big impact on someone
[+] [-] fibertera|12 years ago|reply
in the last 17 years I've noticed all of these traits over and over. She's extremely nice, friendly and approachable to the point where she's not only vulnerable but people have said it's "annoying". She is constantly reaching out, talking and being extremely friendly with people everywhere despite having HUGE issues with anxiety.
She has some learning disabilities and issues and works in healthcare where she is in a unique position because of her personality. She's unable to learn or retain certain things beyond a base knowledge developed over the last 10 years or so. She struggles with charts and paperwork and hasn't been able to move up beyond a certain level. She rarely makes mistakes but also doesn't take any risks with patients and doesn't do a lot of critical care.
But the reason she hasn't been fired is quite simply because there would probably be a revolt where she works. She is absolutely LOVED by the residents of the facility, her coworkers and even management. She's a "ray of light" that comes in and cheers everyone up no matter what and I honestly think if it came down to it they'd pay her just to come in talk to people if they had to.
It's one of the things I fell in love with so long ago that makes the downsides (frequent anxiety, OCD, over engagement etc) so much much worth it. It's very hard to be in a bad mood around her.
I'm glad to have found this article and it even inspired me to create an account just to post about this. It was eerie reading this article describing my wife... even the "buzzing bee" thing. Absolutely intolerable to her. Clicks, noises, things like that create great anxiety. But get her into a crowd of people and she'll be talking, relating and stealing the show.
I'm definitely going to do some more research into this.
[+] [-] froxle|12 years ago|reply
Please don't diagnose your wife with chromosomal disorders based on her being friendly and anxious and bad at charts. Perhaps she has a learning disability, like tons of other people.
[+] [-] Asparagirl|12 years ago|reply
Williams Syndrome is associated with unusual aptitude for music (or perhaps just unusual compared to the other more serious learning difficulties). There are even music-focused summer camps specifically for kids and adults with Williams Syndrome.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061003191006.ht...
[+] [-] Dewie|12 years ago|reply
The first sentence seems to convey an annoyance with people's propensity to hastily self-diagnose/make amateur diagnosis. And then you do the same thing in the next sentence...
[+] [-] Asparagirl|12 years ago|reply
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/williams-s...
[+] [-] blahedo|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tomphoolery|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danieltillett|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] colechristensen|12 years ago|reply
Progress will be made into better classifying people so that more and more regular folks can take advantage of strategies and 'treatments' to have a more successful life (whatever that may be). With this comes the risk of discrimination relying too heavily on these classifications, which, though real, will never be fair to judge a person against.
[+] [-] tcfunk|12 years ago|reply
She's an amazing person, but absolutely a handful! More recently, things have become awkward as she is coming of that age, and while interested in the opposite sex doesn't quite grasp those social boundaries of what is and is not acceptable.
Her personality, like the article mentions, is totally infectious. She loves music and friends and parties, and wants everyone to just be happy!
Thanks for linking this!
[+] [-] skuunk1|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] contingencies|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danieltillett|12 years ago|reply
Autism is genetically more complex than Williams syndrome as there are many other genes that can cause autism.
[0]http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-011-1389-4
[+] [-] danieltillett|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] coldcode|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] asaddhamani|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Ponies12345|12 years ago|reply
http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/22yed5/living_with_...
[+] [-] tootie|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] callesgg|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] VMG|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danbmil99|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Adam503|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] spiritplumber|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Ponies12345|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] the_cat_kittles|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] benrhughes|12 years ago|reply
http://www.amazon.com/All-Cats-Have-Asperger-Syndrome/dp/184...