FAQ: Answers From The Autism Pastor (Part 2)

Over the last two weeks I’ve been getting lots of requests to do interviews. Some of the interviews are radio interviews and others are written interviews ranging from college and grad students wanting my perspective on life with autism to organizations wanting my opinion on current affairs related to the autism community.

Here is part to of the blog series FAQ where I share my answers to interview questions that I’ve received. 

Question: How do you feel since you were diagnosed with autism?

Answer: Honestly, it changes from month to month. There are days that I am ok with it. It has certainly help explain some very puzzling things about my behavior and my personality. Having a diagnosis has helped in that way. Then there are times when I forget how real it is and I think that I can bypass some of the issues I have by trying harder, but of course it doesn’t work. I try to remain balanced and positive by reminding myself that I may struggle with some things, but I am exceptional at other things because of my autism.

Question: What did your parents think when they heard that you were diagnosed with ASD?
Answer: On some level I believe my parents knew that I was different, so getting an autism diagnosis wasn’t exactly a shock to them. Growing up in the late 70’s and early 80’s there wasn’t a lot of education and diagnosis of autism going on, especially for young African American kids so I’m not sure they would have ever known to have me evaluated. They raised me the best way they knew how, but they always noticed that I was very quiet and did not like to be around a lot of people. They noticed that I didn’t like loud noises or certain textures, but because I didn’t appear to have a significant speech or cognitive delay, there was no clear reason for my issues. We also moved around a lot because my father was in the military so it was very easy for my diagnosis to slip under the radar. All in all, they were not surprised given what we now know about autism.

Question: What does your family think about you having autism?

Answer: My wife is very supportive. We continue to read and learn more about autism so that we can learn how to relate to each other better. Our children are very young and really don’t know my official diagnosis but they do know that dad is a little different. For example they know that it is very rare that I leave the house because I am not as outgoing as my wife. They accept that, and they appreciate the activities that I do engage in with them, they just don’t know that dad is autistic. When they are older and able to understand the diagnosis we will explain things to them.Stay tuned for part 3 of this blog series. Have questions you want to ask? Send them to on my Autism Pastor FB page.