Dan Vs. Autism

Dan Vs. Discovery

Dan was sitting in his apartment, it was 3:00 AM and he was trying his best to sleep, but there were so many dogs barking and trucks honking outside.

He wanted to grab his noise-cancelling headphones, but he was so tired he couldn't move, and he wanted to call Chris but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to talk.

"Great, I'm screwed." he thought, "why does my body do this? I won't stop chewing on all of my shirts and now all of the necks are stretched out, and whenever I get
excited or uncomfortable I have the urge to wave my arms around, whenever I get anxious I want to scratch at my face and arms, I have so many rashes from that."

he sat there, this wasnt the first time he couldn't gather up enough energy to speak, it happened the other day too.

"Well Chris must've obviously noticed, I was with him when it happened." He pondered to himself. "Why didn't he say anything though? He was trying to talk to me and I just couldn't answer, but he didn't get mad?".

Thankfully, after all of that thinking he had enough energy to grab his noise-cancelling headphones off of his nightstand. He had a massive headache and he felt like crying, but somehow he drifted off to sleep.

The next morning he woke up, still tired but he had energy to talk so he wasn't complaining.

"Chris, do you remember that one time the other day when I couldn't speak to you?" He called Chris on the phone to talk about this.

"Yeah actually Dan about that I-". Chris was cut off by Dan.

"Well the same thing happened last night, I wanted to call you but I couldn't because I couldn't talk last night either, theres something happening Chris I think I'm sick or something and I-".

"Dan you're not sick, come to my house I need to take you somewhere." Chris interrupted Dan. "its not gonna be a bad place so don't get all paranoid"

Dan blurted out "Ok, but if its a dentist appointment I will add you to the list."

Dan arrived at Chris' house and got into his car where Chris was waiting for him.

"Alright Dan, so it kind of is like the doctors office but without all of the temperature taking and the weight and height checking, its a different kind of doctor.", Chris decided to get a word in before they got to the place, that way Dan wouldn't be screaming

"Chris come on! Seriously! I don't need to go to a therapist, I don't need to im fine!" Dan explained

Chris, keeping his eyes on the road says "well its sort of a therapist, theres questioning but not the type of questioning about your childhood"

Before Dan could get a word in they arrived at the office

They both walk in and wait, Chris was thinking to himself about something, he finally says something "this is where I got diagnosed, I wonder if they have the same psychiatrist..."

Dan was going to say something but, again, he got cut off by someone calling his and Chris' name out

They both walk into this room with a psychiatrist sitting on a chair

"Welcome! You must be Dan" greeted  the Psychiatrist, warmly "have a seat, and im going to ask you some questions, ok?"

"OK sure lady, but don't ask me about my childhood" Dan grunted, not having it

"I won't trust me, you can call me Dr. Wilson by the way!"

Chris waits in the other room for Dan, he could faintly hear Dr. Wilson and Dan conversating

Around 30 Minutes later, Dr. Wilson comes into the waiting room and calls Chris in, by Dan's request

"So....she said I was.....Autistic? What does that mean Chris, am I sick or something?" Dan questioned

Chris chuckled, "no Dan, you're not sick, I'm Autistic too! It's a neurological disorder, it just makes you see, hear and feel the world differently, it changes little aspects of your life and you just have to get used to it"

Dan sat and thought for a moment, "is this the explanation to why I can't talk sometimes? Why i chew on everything? Why when I wear a shirt with a tag I want to rip it off?" The list goes on and on.

"This is the reason I didn't get mad when you couldn't talk to me the other day, you were Non-Verbal, its when your body is too overstimulated to allow you to talk, I go Non-Verbal sometimes too! It's something all Autistic people go through!" Chris stated "its completely normal for us"

"But I still don't get it, I really don't" Dan said, shocked and confused