Article on Disneyland freaks

[BarryHom]

I'm not sure if I should be scared, but here are some guests obssessed with Disneyland. I'm not sure if I want to meet them in the park!

Take a look: http://www.laweekly.com/ink/03/42/features-davidson.php

 

[roymccoy]

Wow...nice find.

Roy

 

[Grog]

Saw that yesteday. Interesting article. As much as I like DL, I doubt I could take it that far, even if I lived near the park.

 

[missypie]

It sounds like most of the people discussed in the article have Asperger's Syndome, a form of high functioning autism, characterized by one or more obsessive interests. Many fit the "absent minded professor" stereotype. If the public had a greater awareness of Asperger's Syndrome, it would be easier to understand people who visit Disneyland daily to ride Indiana Jones, as well as the "Trekkies" and folks with other obsessions.

Most of these people probably don't know that they are "Aspies"; they've probably never heard of the syndrome. It was recognized by Dr. Hans Asperger of Vienna in the early 40s, but his research was ignored for years...Asperger's Syndrome was finally recognized as a disorder in the US in the early 90s. (There is a good article about autism in last week's Newsweek.)

The only reason to be "afraid" of meeting an Aspie is that they don't recognize social cues very well, so they might enthusiastically bend your ear about DL for hours on end!

 

[roymccoy]

Oh, I'm sure that some of these people may have a real mental imbalance but for the vast majority of DL freaks and Trekkies, I think that it's just their "thing." Like collecting Beanie Babies or following around the Grateful dead, DL and Star Trek define a lot of peoples lives. I would suspect that your garden variety Disney freak is probably just wanting to belong to something and hey, it's better than selling drugs...or collecting Beanie Babies! (sorry!)

Roy

 

[missypie]

That's the point I'm trying to make. Most adults with AS are undiagnosed, but when you see someone who LIVES Star Trek, or DLR, or the Greatful Dead, they probably have Aspergers. When you read about the kids who win Harry Potter trivia contests because they can practically recite the thousands of pages of those books by memory, they probably are Aspies.

It's not actually a mental imbalance, it's a difference in the wiring of one's brain.

It's actually the "lucky" ones who fixate on something acceptable and interesting like DLR or Harry Potter...some are fascinated by things like vacuum cleaners or washers & dryers or train schedules, and it's hard to listen to someone talk about those things for hours on end!

 

[roymccoy]

Hey! Watch it! I worked on RUBIX Cube for an entire summer one time and I could also read along with every line from Star Wars! (saw it 37 times!) I would bet that most people that are "really into something" are doing so free from any brain damage. I always got into things for competitive reasons. Me and my buddies would all race to be the fastest at RUBIX Cube or be able to get through to the end of Mario Bros. the quickest. (Am I dating myself too much?)

I would bet that the majority of the "Disney Freaks" just like the feeling of belonging to a group and to be really good at something. For instance, the woman who rides Indy all day sounds like that she is kind of popular at the park for this reason. The employees are recognizing her with awards and I'm sure she knows everyone. Can't this be a powerful reason for getting hooked on something? At DL and especially Indy, she's almost a celebrity.

Now, I'm not for a second saying that there aren't some people at DL who have a chemical imbalance in the brain....a lot of them work in the big yellow TDA building! ;-) but I would bet that the majority are hitting on at least 7 cylinders.

Roy

 

[missypie]

I'm not saying you or anyone else has a defect or imbalance ... but your mind is certainly wired diffferently than mine because I, too, worked for ages on the Rubix cube, but the best I could ever get is one side! There are brains that can do the Rubix cube quickly and there are brains that can't do it at all. There are brains that can compose music and there are brains that can't tell one note from another. There are brains that can enjoy Star Wars 37 times or Indy every day, and others that think that anything more than once would be excessive.

I would encourage you to type "Asperger's" into google and spend a few minutes reading about the syndrome. Whether or not you recognize yourself, I'll bet you will "diagnose" at least one person you know (more than one if you work in the computer/tech industry).

 

[roymccoy]

Couldn't there be those who would say that over 250 posts in 5 months to an internet chat board could qualify one as an "aspie"?

Roy

 

[missypie]

We're all on a continuum from "Not at all" to "Very much so."

That's a little under two posts a day...probably excessive in some people's book, but pretty far away from someone who rides Indy every day. Combine "middle of the road" obsessive traits with a sometimes dull job with unlimited internet access, with the thought that certainly everyone should hear my opinion ) ), and you get 250 posts in 5 1/2 months.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

<font color=navy>Gotta love the Internet...

 

[roymccoy]

I'm just saying that how come people who ride Indy everyday are "aspie's" and people who post 2 1/2 times a day on the internet have "middle of the road obsessive traits"?
I don't mean to pick on you, but you did bring it up and I feel that is kind of a problem in this society. People are to quick to label other people as having some sort of mental disorder. We had one kid in my school in 1976 on the hyperactive drug Ridillin (sp?) and now, there are many, many more kids on it. ADD, chronic fatigue syndrome, obsessive compulsive behavior, etc. What....are we all a little crazy??

Roy

 

[missypie]

Doctors and psychologists may have gone overboard on diagnosing active boys as ADD, but other than that, I think a more sophisticated approach to mental differences is a step in the right direction. I was a special education major in the late 70s. At that time, everyone one who learned or behaved differently but wasn't mentally retarded was put in one classroom and was taught pretty much the same way ... so the "behavior disordered" kid who wanted to burn down the school was in the same classroom with the dislexic kid who saw all his letters backwards ... and the inability to concentrate on school work was often treated with the principal's paddle rather than with Ritalin or Concerta. I think we're actually making progress, but that's only my opinion.

(And actually, I think that psychologically, 250 posts in 5 1/2 months is more an indication of addictive behavior than AS. If you started a thread entitled "Are you addicted to disboards?" or "Are you addicted to trip planning?" I bet you'd get lots of folks to confess!