{"id":256732,"date":"2021-05-22T19:38:04","date_gmt":"2021-05-22T16:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/rhodes-scholar-on-how-autism-makes-his-brain-work-differently\/"},"modified":"2021-05-22T19:38:04","modified_gmt":"2021-05-22T16:38:04","slug":"rhodes-scholar-on-how-autism-makes-his-brain-work-differently","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/rhodes-scholar-on-how-autism-makes-his-brain-work-differently\/","title":{"rendered":"#Rhodes scholar on how autism makes his brain work differently"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Rhodes scholar on how autism makes his brain work differently<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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One day in college, Jory Fleming was walking across campus with his service dog, Daisy, when a stranger app<\/a>roached and declared that he was being cruel to the animal. <\/p>\n

The dog, the man insisted, was unhappy and shouldn\u2019t be a slave to anyone.<\/p>\n

Onlookers were horrified, worried that the insensitive remark had wounded Fleming. But the encounter only spawned a fleeting thought in his head: \u201cOh, that was a very rude thing to say.\u201d Then he kept walking to class.<\/p>\n

Fleming has autism, and his brain works differently, especially when it comes to emotions. While he recognizes emotions and certain environmental stimuli might create feelings within him, they affect him less than most people. For example, he might see a large spider but \u201cstruggle to think of a reason why fear would be appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fleming explains how his mind works in his new book \u201cHow to Be Human: An Autistic Man\u2019s Guide to Life<\/a>\u201d (Simon & Schuster), out now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it would be a cool goal to have a book make its way out into the world, not so people can learn about me individually, but so they can see an individual with autism and what that means in viewing the world,\u201d Fleming, 26, told The Post.<\/p>\n

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\"Jory
Jory Fleming with Daisy.<\/figcaption>
Courtesy of Jory Fleming<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

As a child growing up in South Carolina, it was unclear that Fleming would ever graduate high school, much less become an author and a prestigious Rhodes scholar who recently completed a graduate degree at Oxford.<\/p>\n

He had language issues and didn\u2019t play well with other children. He couldn\u2019t stand to touch anything squishy and would occasionally have hours-long screaming fits if someone changed the order of his carefully arranged toys<\/p>\n

Diagnosed with autism at age 5, his mother began to homeschool her son when he was 8. Fleming gradually improved, eventually attending the University of South Carolina and earning an undergrad degree in geography and marine science<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like my journey from childhood to adulthood was less about a specific breakthrough and more of a journey that a lot of people cared for me and helped me along the way,\u201d says the author, who also has cerebral palsy and a metabolic condition that keeps him from properly digesting food.<\/p>\n

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\"How
Jory Fleming\u2019s latest book.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Even with advanced degrees, Fleming still has trouble processing language. His brain is literal almost to a fault.<\/p>\n

Phrases with dual meanings, such as \u201cI\u2019m not buying it,\u201d sometimes go over his head. <\/p>\n

Recently his mom asked him to \u201csee\u201d if the store had something she needed. Fleming returned empty-handed, declaring, \u201cYes, they have it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also has difficulty connecting with some forms of humor. For example, he likes puns but doesn\u2019t get sarcasm, because it\u2019s so dependent on tone. And comics don\u2019t really register for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith a comedia<\/a>n, I don\u2019t know this person, I don\u2019t have any connection to this person,\u201d he writes. \u201cIf I laugh, it doesn\u2019t have any meaning behind it. It has more memory value if it comes from people I know.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Fleming, now is now 26 and a research associate at South Carolina, says there are advantages to being autistic, including being less driven by emotions.<\/p>\n

\"Fleming
Fleming says he can\u2019t summon much fear for spiders \u2014 or many laughs for professional comedians.<\/figcaption>
Amith Nag Photography; WireImage<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI see enough of them being weaponized,\u201d he writes, to know that feelings aren\u2019t always a force for good.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s more anxious about hurting other people\u2019s feelings if he fails to read their reactions or pick up on nonverbal cues.<\/p>\n

And he says there\u2019s a lesson everyone can learn in how he approaches the world. Because his brain doesn\u2019t necessarily read and automatically generate a reaction to a situation, he\u2019s forced to make a conscious decision about how he\u2019s going to behave.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I\u2019m not able to do things on autopilot, it helps me decide who I want to be,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd that\u2019s something that everyone can do.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Rhodes scholar on how autism makes his brain work differently” One day in college, Jory Fleming was walking across campus with his service dog, Daisy, when a stranger approached and declared that he was being cruel to the animal. The dog, the man insisted, was unhappy and shouldn\u2019t be a slave to anyone. Onlookers were…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":256733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/jory-fleming-and-his-dog.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[106828,71502,71978,106899,69311,115,106900],"class_list":["post-256732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-5-22-21","tag-authors","tag-autism","tag-cerebral-palsy","tag-chris-rock","tag-news","tag-rhodes-scholarship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}