Welcome to the website for the Southern Tier Asperger’s Syndrome Support Group. We are a support group for individuals (mainly adults) with Asperger’s Syndrome or other similar Pervasive Developmental Disorders such as High Functioning Autism or Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS). Families and friends of those affected, as well as people who are just interested, are also welcome to attend our meetings. We are located in the Binghamton, New York area (the Southern Tier of New York) and our meetings take place in Wilson Hospital in Johnson City. For more information about us besides what is on this website, please come to one of our meetings or call (607) 722-0467 for more information.
All meetings are at 1-3 PM on the third Saturday of every month, in the Picciano Building, on the 4th Floor, Room 5-A, at Wilson Hospital, Johnson City, New York (click here for directions on Google Maps):
Here are some useful links: Aspergers.com - a site about Asperger’s Syndrome maintained by R. Kaan Ozbayrak, MD since 1/1/1996 Aspies For Freedom - site with forums that promotes the idea that Asperger’s Syndrome is not a disease that needs to be cured BehaveNet - a website with the DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria for Asperger’s Disorder as well as most of the rest of DSM-IV-TR (the newest version of the book containing official diagnostic criteria for all psychiatric disorders) GRASP - the Global and Regional Asperger Syndrome Partnership, an organization founded by people with Asperger’s Syndrome to help each other and the world MAAP Services, Inc. - a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information and advice to families of More advanced individuals with Autism, Asperger syndrome, and Pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) O.A.S.I.S. - Online Asperger Syndrome Information & Support, one of the longest-running websites with information about Asperger’s Syndrome Tony Attwood - a leading expert in Asperger’s Syndrome with a very nice website Wikipedia - detailed encyclopedia article about Asperger’s Syndrome Wrong Planet - the biggest forum site for people with Asperger’s Syndrome, with useful information as well
And here is a list of famous people speculated to have Asperger’s Syndrome:
Joy Adamson, Woody Allen, Hans Christian Andersen, Hans Asperger, W. H. Auden, Jane Austen, Isaac Asimov, A. J. Ayer, Dan Aykroyd, Béla Bartók, Daisy Bates, Samuel Beckett, Ludwig van Beethoven, Alexander Graham Bell, David Bellamy, Tony Benn, Jeremy Bentham, Hugh Blair of Borgue, Richard Borcherds, Robert Boyle, Gordon Brown, Anton Bruckner, Tim Burton, David Byrne, Lewis Carroll, Henry Cavendish, King Charles XII of Sweden, Bruce Chatwin, Bram Cohen, Marie Curie, Leonardo da Vinci, Henry Darger, Charles Darwin, Éamon de Valera, John Denver, Emily Dickinson, Paul Dirac, Arthur Conan Doyle, Bob Dylan, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Robert Emmet, Joseph Erber, Paul Erdős, Bobby Fischer, Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Antoni Gaudi, “Genie”, Gunilla Gerland, Crispin Glover, Kurt Gödel, Al Gore, Glenn Gould, Temple Grandin, Jeff Greenfield, William Rowan Hamilton, Daryl Hannah, Kaspar Hauser, Oliver Heaviside, David Helfgott, Jim Henson, Patricia Highsmith, Alfred Hitchcock, Edward Hopper, John Howard, Peter Howson, Howard Hughes, Michael Jackson, Stonewall Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, Keith Joseph, James Joyce, Carl Jung, Franz Kafka, Wassily Kandinsky, Immanuel Kant, Andy Kaufman, Garrison Keillor, Alfred Kinsey, Stanley Kubrick, Wendy Lawson, Courtney Love, H. P. Lovecraft, L. S. Lowry, King Ludwig II of Bavaria, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Gustav Mahler, James Clerk Maxwell, Herman Melville, Michelangelo, Kevin Mitnick, John Motson, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Les Murray, John F. Nash Jr., Isaac Newton, Craig Nicholls, Friedrich Nietzsche, Moe Norman, Gary Numan, Keith Olbermann, George Orwell, Michael Palin, Pádraig Pearse, King Philip II of Spain, Enoch Powell, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Stephen Ramsey, Keanu Reeves, Charles Richter, Bertrand Russell, Oliver Sacks, Carl Sagan, Erik Satie, Edgar Schneider, Charles Schulz, George Bernard Shaw, Solomon V. Shereshevskii, William Shockley, William James Sidis, Vernon L. Smith, Socrates, Steven Spielberg, Baruch Spinoza, Richard Stallman, Richard Strauss, Screaming Lord Sutch, Jonathan Swift, Satoshi Tajiri, Daniel Tammet, James Taylor, Nikola Tesla, Henry David Thoreau, Alan Turing, Mark Twain, Vincent van Gogh, Michael Ventris, Louis Wain, Robert Walser, Andy Warhol, Simone Weil, Orson Welles, Blind Tom Wiggins, Donna Williams, Robin Williams, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Jack B. Yeats, and William Butler Yeats
Now as to whether these famous people actually had Asperger’s Syndrome, nobody knows for sure. Some of them probably did. Most people with Asperger’s Syndrome will not get to be billionaires like Bill Gates, win a Nobel Peace Prize like Al Gore, make great discoveries in physics like Albert Einstein, or be great composers like Mozart or movie directors like Steven Spielberg. But at least we know that some of us have managed to become successful. And we know the world would be far worse off without the contributions of people with Asperger’s Syndrome. For most people who have it, Asperger’s Syndrome is far more of a curse than a blessing. That is why there is a need for a support group. But it comforts us and gives us hope to know that some people with this condition have managed to make the most of it and become successful.
