Autistic Comedian Is A Turn For The Better
[By Helen Rumbelow.]
Sport
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001563416,00.html
A young woman from Essex who suffers from a form of autism has broken
new ground by having a comic play performed professionally.
Most comedians draw on a fund of unhappy childhood experiences, but
Nita Jackson's condition, Asperger's syndrome, meant that she grew up with
such continual and violent bullying that she was on the verge of suicide.
Help from the National Autistic Society (NAS) was the first step to
saving her life, Nita, 18, said. The Times Christmas Appeal is aiming to
raise money which the NAS needs to help more than a tiny fraction of
children with autism. Diagnosis and support allowed Nita's talent to
flourish: her autobiographical novel is to be published in the new year
after her sell-out run at the Brentwood Theatre in Essex two weeks ago.
Instead of considering herself "a freak and a weirdo", she can now poke fun
at the curious ways of the "mainstreamers" or "neurotypicals" without her
condition.
Nita was fortunate because the NAS has the funds to help only 120
youngsters with autism to find work. For many of the hundreds of thousands
of people like Nita with Asperger's, there is no hope of a productive life
and their usually high intelligence is wasted.
"I knew something was wrong from the first moment because I remember
an all-encompassing fear of the world, I was scared of everything and
everyone," she said at her home in Ilford, East London. "While the other kids
found solace in friendship, I was coming home to my mum, saying, 'How do I
make friends?' " Nita had characteristics that are typical of Asperger's,
such as having to climb the school steps in ten seconds, or colour-coding
all her possessions, which earnt her ridicule. By the time she was 14, she
had changed school three times and the stress of isolation had reached
breaking point.
She said: "I thought I was insane. I seriously thought I should be
locked up, and the bullying had become so bad that I couldn't go into school
any more.
They would hold a knife to my throat, singe my hair, attack me with
Bunsen burners."
Her mother, Carolann, said that at the end of one call to the NAS
helpline, she knew what was wrong. "The NAS have been brilliant because
there is no statutory provision for Asperger's - it's like it doesn't
exist," she said.
With support from the NAS, Nita performed well in her GCSEs and A
levels and went on to do work experience with the scriptwriters' workshop at
the BBC.
The charity also arranged work experience at the Brentwood Theatre
where a producer heard about her writing and agreed to stage her first play,
Detained. In the new year her book Standing Down, Falling Up will be
published.
Copyright 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd.
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