Life Story

Shaping Autism

We are honoured at Business Fit Magazine, to feature an article by William Wehrli, diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder at an early age, he gives us an insight of what it is like from his perspective.

My name is William Wehrli, and I am an Individual with Autism Spectrum Disorder. It was suspected when I was 18 months old, and officially diagnosed when I was four. The people who evaluated me told my mother I would never stand a chance in this world as an Independent adult and I would never graduate from a traditional school.

I was six years old before I could speak properly. My biological Dad left me and my sister, when I was seven. My stepfather expressed frustration with me due to my struggles and quirks. I was bullied at school for being different; mistreated by the teachers and by supervisors and coworkers at work.

However, I did graduate, with a master’s degree in Special Education. I have my own house, car, job, and pay all my bills and do all my grocery shopping. I have presented many public presentations on my autism over many years and have worked with kids with Special Needs for several years! I have been on my own Fitness Journey for almost two years, losing over 50 pounds. I exercise often. I work hard, I’m visually creative, I strive to grow, and to help others.

Understanding Autism from my Perspective:

The most common definition for autism is that it is a developmental disorder; meaning an autistic person’s brain does not develop the same as a typical person. Imagine you planted a tree right beneath a boulder. That tree is going to have the hardest time growing compared to other trees planted with space and sunshine.

How Does Autism Affect Me as A Human Being?

Having autism, communication is my primary struggle in human society. I am not very proficient at verbal communication. I have to take my time to think of words to say when having a conversation, or an argument. That’s why people are quick to cut me off and interrupt me. I don’t see any grey when facts are presented to me. I sometimes take things the wrong way and act on them in ways people did not expect me to. You could also give me a direction I may or may not understand fully, and I would carry it out in ways you would not expect me to.

Another struggle due to having autism is my delayed processing skills. Here’s an example. You take a cupcake, and a regular size cake. Which are you most likely able to finish the quickest? Probably the cupcake. Because it’s smaller. With the regular sized cake, you’re going need to take more bits, and time to digest. That’s how it is with autism. Depending on how much information you give me, I will need more time to process it. Less is more.

I strive to grow, and to help others

Having autism has an impact on my social skills. There’s a lot of modern society language I do not understand. Like body language, social cues, or boundaries.

My Autism Cloud Theory

Try and picture this. You have a brain as the main source of your mind. You have thousands of reliable information sources which can be either books, the internet, magazines, lectures, notes, videos, audio tracks, etc, all of them are attempting to feed knowledge into your brain. However, something is blocking that knowledge from entering your mind. Nobody can really see or identify what that barrier is, but for me, there are many different ways on how I can describe that barrier.

I was really young when I was diagnosed with autism, and barely functioned like any other human being. It’s like I had a thick piece of cloth that served as a blind fold, and ear plugs. If you take a piece of cloth and attach it to my face, I may be able to see through the cloth but not well enough to make sense of what is going on around me. With ear plugs, they don’t exactly make you completely deaf, but certainly limit your hearing. So if I could barely hear what was going on around me, I wouldn’t be able to fully understand my surroundings.

A lot of people seem to think that shouting and getting right into your face is a good way to get your attention, and that’s where they are wrong. As I got older, it became easier for me to break that barrier and start gaining more knowledge. However the thing with autism is that it may be easy for me to gain knowledge, but it’s hard for me to express it. When I got older, that cloth that served as a barrier began to form into a cloud that would later surround me instead of being stuck in front of me. Now instead of a cloud that is made of water and vapor, this cloud was made of visions, visions from movies, pictures, books, events that happened in the past, or visions of what I think my future would be like. It could also contain audio from the same sources the visions came from.

When I am stuck inside that cloud, I can sometimes see those visual sources at 100% opacity, or at 10%. Same with the audio, I can hear the audio coming from those sources at 100%, or at a muted level, or sometimes in between. There’s never a set time or routine of when I can see those or hear those sources at different lengths, it just happens at random moments. That cloud can consist of either good or bad. The good thing about it is that it can be filled with images that autistic people love. Like their favourite movie, past, or something they look forward to facing in their future. The bad thing is that it can also contain the opposite.

William Wehrli is an Autistic Influencer and Entrepreneur. He’s an Aspiring Actor, Former Camp Counselor at Meadowood Springs, Public Speaker on Growing and Experiencing Autism. His goal is to help make a difference in the autism community and support autistic families and individuals who are struggling. Youtube - William Shaping Autism. Instagram: @ williamshapingautism. Facebook: Shaping Autism with William Wehrli.