What’s the difference between autism & Asperger’s?
The difference between may be so obvious it’s staring us right in the face.
If you or someone you know is on the spectrum and you’d like to understand them better,
I have an explanation that—for now—you won’t hear about anywhere else.
If I’m right, the difference between Autism & Asperger’s may explain a lot about what
causes it and hopefully one day, how we might better work with those who have it.
A few years ago I started researching this subject and was able to piece together what
may be happening.
I’ve written several books about it and hinted at the difference between autism and
Asperger’s, but as more and more people are getting censored and canceled these days,
I wanted to go ahead and put out a crystal clear explanation—with visuals—so that
other people who may be more accepted by the scientific community might continue this line
of research.
Ready?
Okay.
We’re coming up on the 80th anniversary of what we currently call autism.
First officially recognized in the 1940s, this neurological disorder is affecting more
children than ever.
Many of you have probably been directly affected by it.
Over time, two different sorts of autism have emerged: classic autism and what we call Asperger’s
syndrome.
Many people think of Asperger’s as autism-light—a slightly less disruptive version.
Deficient social cues, emotional connections, etc.
There is overlap of course, and everyone’s different, but for those with Asperger’s,
there DOES seem to be something specifically different about it than those with the classic
definition of autism.
People argue about how to diagnose them, whether they are actually variations of the same thing,
but I want to give you an easy way to tell the difference.
If you’re already familiar with my research, you will have heard some of this, but I don’t
believe autism is genetic in any way.
They’ve tried for decades to find a genetic link and despite hundreds of millions—possibly
billions of dollars—they haven’t really found anything significant.
I think this is because autism isn’t genetic.
It’s the result of a brain injury.
More specifically a brainstem injury.
Don’t go away—give me 2 minutes and I’ll prove it to you.
The evidence is so obvious you can literally see it on someone’s face.
It’s staring right at you.
The brainstem is the little part of your brain that connects it to your spinal cord.
It powers your sense of taste, smell, hearing, your ability to move your eyes and your face,
among many other important things.
My theory is that Autism and Asperger’s syndrome are often the result of injury to
a particular side of the brainstem.
They’re asymmetrical.
With autism, the left side of the brainstem is affected.
With Asperger’s, it’s the right.
That’s the difference.
Autism is a left-side brainstem injury and Asperger’s is a right-side issue.
I’m going to show you exactly what I’m talking about and it will blow your mind.
Remember that your brain’s two halves have specific functions.
The left side of your brain is used for rational thought, language processing, science and
math functioning.
The right side of your brain is used for abstract thought, creativity, music, the arts.
Humor.
When you have a problem on the left side of your brain, you won’t be as good at linear,
rational thinking but you’ll often accel in other things—the arts.
Creative things.
If you have a right-side problem, as is the case with Asperger’s, your brain can be
more fully used for scientific and mathematic thought.
You will seem extremely smart.
Your language processing will be incredible—the reason they called people with Asperger’s
“Little Professors.”
But your social skills may suffer.
You won’t be able to pick on social cues as well.
Humor will be difficult for you.
You probably won’t be as artistic or creative as you would like.
When there is an injury on one side of the brainstem, it appears that the majority of
your brain becomes available for the other side to use.
So you become really good at one thing, but often not so good at the other.
This is why you often see artistic prodigies with autism—their entire brain is being
used for right-brained activity because the left-side of their brainstem is not functioning
perfectly.
They may not make for a good scientist or engineer, but their artistic skills are off
the chart.
This is often why you will see scientific and mathematic prodigies with Asperger’s—they
may not get your jokes but they can perform amazing numerical calculations instantly.
Okay, you may not believe me yet, but I think I can convince you this is what’s going
on.
You can see it right on people’s faces.
Remember when I said that one of the things the brainstem does is control your facial
muscles?
If you have a problem with one side of your brainstem, it might cause one of your eyes
to not point where it’s supposed to go, or your smile to not be even.
With autism, it’s a left-sided brainstem issue.
That means the left side of your face may show some weakness.
So if I just cycle through some pictures of people who are diagnosed with autism, you
will see it.
It’s obvious.
Sometimes they can only smile on the right-side (because the left is not working), or sometimes
their left eye won’t point exactly in the right direction.
But over and over, you’ll see pictures of people with autism and you’ll notice the
left side of their face is weaker than the right.
If that’s correct, then you would expect to see the opposite with people with Asperger’s
right?
People with Asperger’s have right-sided issues, so the right side of their face would
show weakness.
And incredibly, this is exactly what you see.
All these pictures are of people who supposedly have Asperger’s diagnoses.
Over and over, you can see the weakness on the right side of their face.
Sometimes it’s their smile.
Other times it’s their right eye that’s not pointed correctly.
Either way, it’s obvious that people with Asperger’s have something going on with
the right side of their brain.
You can see it on their face.
This is why they may be a little bit more socially awkward.
This is why they may be really good at math or science but not get your jokes.
Other people, who are musically and artistically inclined, like myself, smile like this.
We tend to have weakness on the left-side our face, possibly because we have left-side
brain injury.
Now you’re probably thinking, “He’s not diagnosing himself with autism, is he?”
This is what’s interesting.
You’ve heard of people talk about the autism spectrum…
You know, being on the autism spectrum?
You’ll hear people say their “actually autistic” because no one believes them.
They sense that something’s off but it’s not enough to qualify for a diagnosis.
If autism and Asperger’s aren’t genetic but are instead brainstem injuries, I think
that explains why there’s such a wide spectrum.
Some people are extremely mild.
It may have been more easily detected when they were children, but as they grew up, they
learned to accommodate and compensate and you really can’t even notice it anymore.
There are obviously other children who have a worse situation and their improvements may
not be so dramatic.
Their parents are some of the most dedicated, hard-working, loving people I’ve EVER met,
and in a way, you can see why it might hurt for someone with no visible problems to call
themselves “actually autistic.”
I get that—it minimizes the amount of pain these parents have had to deal with when people
begin to think of their children’s condition as some mild quirk, when in reality for a
lot of other people it’s extremely challenging.
Impossible some days.
Knowing that, I want to look at a few famous people because I think it will help explain
their sometimes unexplainable behavior.
Greta Thunberg, the climate activist?
Well, I think she’s stated an Asperger’s diagnosis.
Right-side facial weakness?
Check.
Just like we would expect.
That’s the smile of someone with Asperger’s.
What about Bill Gates?
Some people have said he has some autistic like tendencies.
Left-side facial weakness?
Yes.
Remember, if you have left-side brain issues, your right, creative, artistic side is likely
to be much stronger.
This is why you’ll often see so many artists and comedians with left-side weakness.
The right side of their brain is able to work double time.
This is likely why someone like Steve Jobs, notoriously socially awkward and extremely
smart, shows signs of a right-sided issue.
I would make the case he probably had a touch of Asperger’s.
Same for George Lucas.
Known to be difficult to communicate with, and a poor sense of humor.
Looks like the smile of someone with Asperger’s to me.
Another thing that is kind of fascinating—you remember hearing that the left side of your
brain controls the right side of your body and vice-versa?
The right side of your brain controls the left side of your body?
Remember that?
Well what’s interesting is you can frequently guess whether someone is left-handed or not
by looking at their face.
If they have left-side facial weakness, because of that cross-over thing, they are likely
to have right-sided body weakness.
This means if you see someone with left-sided facial weakness, they will often be left handed.
It’s the opposite of what you would think.
Left-side facial weakness means they will likely be left handed.
Right-sided facial issues means they’ll likely be right handed.
I am left-handed, and I smile like this.
My left-side brain doesn’t work as good, and because it crosses over in the body, my
right-hand didn’t work as good.
So I’m left handed.
But you will see this over and over, especially with musicians, actors, and comedians.
The right side of their brain works best, and as a result, they’re left-handed.
Lady Gaga.
Left-side issue perhaps?
Left handed.
Will Ferrell?
Left-sided facial weakness?
Left-handed.
Josh Jackson.
See how his left-eye wanders a bit?
Left handed.
Ashley Jenkins.
Lazy eye on the left side.
Right-brain dominant and left-handed.
Comedians.
Musicians.
So many left-handed, which would indicate right-brain dominance.
People have always wondered why this is, and I think this explains it.
What’s really interesting is to go through the cast of Harry Potter.
Daniel Radcliffe, he has the smile of Asperger’s—and I’ve heard him mention how socially awkward
he often feels.
We’d expect him to be right-handed.
And he is.
Ruper Grint has the right-side weakness smile.
And he’s right-handed.
But Matthew Lewis, who played Neville Longbottom, has the left-side weakness smile.
And he, like we would expect, is left-handed.
To be clear, I am not diagnosing anyone with anything, but the pattern is obvious.
Many with autism smile like this.
Many with Asperger’s smile like this.
Not always, but very often.
Maybe this will help you understand someone close to you.
For me, it has really helped.
Autism appears to be issues with the left side of your brain.
Asperger’s appears to be issues with the right.
You can see it in their behaviors and proficiencies.
You can often see it on their face.
One more thing, in case you’re still doubting my theory.
If you don’t know this already, autism and Asperger’s are far more prevalent in boys.
3 or 4 to 1.
I’m fairly certain why this is, but I’m not going to talk about it right now—because
it’s actually disturbing and is covered in detail in two of my books—but if you
look around and start seeing crooked smiles or misaligned eyes, you will immediately notice
something.
It’s mostly males.
There are very few girls with crooked smiles.
In fact, there are about 3 or 4 males with crooked smiles for every one female.
Don’t trust me.
Look for it.
Count them yourself.
You’ll see that I’m right.
Why is that?
Why is the ratio of crooked smiles and misaligned eyes by gender the same as it is with autism?
The spectrum is much wider than we realize.
That’s why.
Some people get a tiny amount of damage that doesn’t cause language issues or sensory
processing disorders or intestinal issues.
Unfortunately, others do.
One last thing I almost forgot about actually.
Autism vs. Aspergers.
Remember this is autism—left-side brain injury, and this is Asperger’s—right-side
brain injury.
Did you know there are about 8 or 9 cases of autism for every 1 or 2 cases of Asperger’s?
And as you start to notice crooked faces, you will notice a pattern.
Most smiles are crooked like this—left-side weakness.
In fact, about 8 or 9 are right-side high, left-side low.
The other one or two are the opposite.
Left-side high, right-side low—the same ratio as autism to Asperger’s.
Don’t believe me, look for yourself.
Catalog them.
You will notice far more males with crooked smiles, and you will notice far more smile
like this—the smile of autism, than this, the smile of Asperger’s.
The ratio of males to females and Autism to Asperger’s is the same, even just by looking
at people’s faces.
Amazing.
Many of these people don’t have diagnoses—they would not be considered on the spectrum.
But if you know these people and have ever wondered about why they are so good at this
or deficient at something else, their smile may tell you why.
It’s a fascinating subject and I’m only touching the surface of it, but I cover it
completely in a book I wrote called Crooked: Man-made disease explained.
It covers this and many other autoimmune issues and how many of them tie together.
Obviously, there are other issues at play—gut issues, sensory processing, etc. that I haven’t
talked about in this short video but regardless, I hope this might help you understand what’s
going on with you or someone you love.
I have several other books that tell the true stories about polio and autism—and trust
me, they’re probably not what you’ve been told.
The truth is much different than you hear on television.
The books are available on Amazon (currently) and through my personal website at forrestmaready.com.
I hope they may give you some insight into understanding things a bit better.
Thank you for listening.