Member Since: 3/15/2013
Posts: 32,106
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Here's the source
http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2...have-aspergers
I picked a few highlights for you
Quote:
(...) when her initial wariness wears off, Boyle displays warmth, kindness and empathy in conversation. This is sometimes lost in articles about her, which refer variously to "learning difficulties" or "slowness" caused by complications at birth. Such descriptions are a puzzle – like looking at an apple and being told it's a pear. Boyle is perfectly intelligent. Her assistant reads a glowing review of her new album, stumbling over a word before she can place it. "Timber?" she speculates. "Timbre," corrects Boyle immediately. "It means colour."
No, the clues lie elsewhere. The delayed eye contact. The visible anxiety until the stranger in her presence settles into at least superficial familiarity. The slightly offbeat laughter in the middle of conversation. The sudden and obvious emotional withdrawal if she feels uncomfortable with a particular subject. (She does not like to criticise anyone, and you can almost see her anxiety levels rising.) Crucially, the fact is she is surrounded by people: a personal assistant who lives locally; a PR from London who flies up specially for this interview. She also has a manager and someone who helps with housework. "I am not strong on my own," she admits. "When I have the support of people around me, I am fine."
Sometimes people misunderstand. Sometimes she gets frustrated. "Some articles have said I have brain damage," she acknowledges, before adding, cryptically: "It's been something else." A year ago she went to a Scottish specialist. "I have always known that I have had an unfair label put upon me," she explains. The specialist discovered her IQ was above average. And the diagnosis? "I have Asperger's," she says calmly. Asperger's, a high-functioning form of autism, mainly affects people's social interaction and communication skills. When she says the word, things fall into place. Finally, it's like looking at an apple and agreeing it really is an apple. "It is," she says, "a relief."
Fame is a precarious thing. It brings affirmation and criticism, security and insecurity, triumph and disappointment, almost in equal measures. But what it has also brought Susan Boyle is acceptance. Asperger's – unnamed as it was – made her different, and her childhood was marred by feelings of being an outsider. "That made me more determined to be where I want to be." But she admits that the isolation, the attempts to prove herself to people who didn't always understand, left a legacy of inner anger and frustration. "You don't fight without some resentment," she says.
Success – and her diagnosis – changes things. "Asperger's doesn't define me. It's a condition that I have to live with and work through, but I feel more relaxed about myself. People will have a greater understanding of who I am and why I do the things I do."
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Great to see she's happy and doing fine, making mental disorders something not taboo is important
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My bad for not checking the squigly red line 
