I am passionate about helping others and in particular those with Asperger's Syndrome.  I grew up undiagnosed and had a number of struggles until I was eventually diagnosed and gained an understanding of myself.  Once I was able to understand myself there was a significant improvement in my life and social relationships.  I feel that I have achieved a lot in recent years in my kickboxing and in more personal areas.  I also feel incredibly fortunate as a young person with Asperger's to be able to do the things I can and to have had the support from people close to me and those that went through diagnosis with me.  Feeling as though I have turned my life around I want to give something back for the help I had and if from the things I have achieved through kickboxing I can help to inspire younger people with Asperger's into believing they can achieve their goals and dreams, then I am committed to doing so.

I intend to start a new project on raising awareness for Asperger's Syndrome and possibly to create a resource for those living with it.  When it comes to Asperger's I see that lack of understanding and lack of resource come together.  I could easily talk about how bad and hard having Asperger’s is and about how people don’t understand me and that I’m brilliant for everything I have still managed to achieve despite a lack of support and awareness from the general population but as far as I’m concerned having Asperger’s does not grant me that right.  I’m still a person just like everyone else and it is still up to me what I choose to do with my life.

I was very lucky when I was diagnosed that I had some incredible people to help me through that really tough time, not everyone has that and that is one area I might look to address.  There were two things said to me, one by my psychologist and one by my friend that have really stuck with me. During one of our post-diagnosis discussions my psychologist said to me that the way that I behaved, reacted and thought was not wrong but nor was it right, it was just different to how other people might sometimes behave, react or think and that that was ok. And really that was the first time in my life that someone had said to me that it was ok just to be me, at 23 years old I finally realised I didn’t have to try to be what everyone else wanted or expected me to be, I had a choice.  And that actually sets us up quite nicely for what my friend said to me probably around the same time, life is about choices. If you don’t like something in life you have two choices, you either accept it and get on with it in which case you have no right to moan about it or you choose to change it in which case you don’t need to moan.

I am not the sort of person who is happy to just accept things the way they are when they don’t work right for me and as I have travelled through life there are so many things I see that are so hard and difficult to understand for anyone let alone a person with Asperger's and these things are things that are essential such as support for employment, benefits, etc.  I’d like to create a resource for others that could maybe help them through some of the confusing processes of society.

I have recently begun public speaking about my experiences with Asperger's Syndrome and my kickboxing achievements and aim to continue to raise awareness through this and through my blog.  Having Asperger’s Syndrome will never stop me from achieving what I want to achieve, in fact I believe it is the other way round and that Asperger’s will help me to fulfil my goals.  If you would like to be a part of this please contact me via my contact page.

Jo Redman - Click here to read my blog