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Jeanette Purkis
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Book
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Publisher | Jessica Kingsley Publishers | ||
ISBN | 9781843104162 | ||
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Reviewer
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Jayne
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Synopsis
Jeanette Purkis spent her early life reacting violently against her feelings of embarrassment, anger and confusion about her 'difference' from other people. She was unaware until well into adulthood that everything she found difficult, including her lack of success in forming relationships, could be a result of having Asperger Syndrome. Used to being a misfit from a very young age, Jeanette found that being a member of a group in which she had a label - Jeanette the communist; Jeanette, enemy of the state; Jeanette the convict; Jeanette the drug addict - gave her a sense of order she could depend on, particularly in prison, where each day had a set routine and the inmates accepted her because of her rebel attitude. Finally diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome at the age of 20, the author only began to accept her diagnosis some years later when she felt for the first time that she might learn to cope with being herself. Jeanette's remarkable life and her journey towards finding a different kind of normal is compelling and inspiring reading for people with autism spectrum disorders, and those living or working with them.
Review
Jeanette Purkis, has written extremely candidly about the mess she made of her life because she was different. Why was she different? Because she had Aspergers Syndrome and could not accept it, she was not diagnosed until the age of twenty.
The author is so utterly open about what she got up to and her experiences with people, and the trouble that she got herself into, and then ended up in prison and psychiatric hospitals and then turned her life around and succeeded in gaining her Masters degree in Art Sciences, that it leaves you quite stunned.
Jeanette has been through lots of labels, but can now understands why she did not fit in. I think that this is a book that all sufferers of Autism or Aspergers syndrome should try to read because I was mesmerised by the scrapes and incidents that she went through before and after she got her diagnosis, and how she continued in this downward slippery criminal slope culminating and then accepting her diagnosis.
Jeanette's remarkable chaotic life and her journey through that life to find a different kind of normal, was tragic. People did not understand why she was different or what was wrong. Why was she always so angry, and why did she have the continuous feeling of wanting to be part of a group to belong to. She states that prison was the only place she felt she could cope, but that was where there was a routine which made her feel safe which is what most people with Austism want. But with her honesty and remarkable courage she has opened the doors for others not to fall into the same traps that she fell into!
This book is not supposed to be read in one sitting but I just could not put it down, I tried to at 11.30 at night but still hadn't really fallen asleep by 2.00am so you've guessed it - I pick up her book and just had to keep reading. I was wishing that someone would understand and help her to really come to terms with her condition. In the end it finally happens and what a change there is in her.
I would like to say thank you to Jeanette for sharing her story, and especially to Donna Walker for encouraging her to put her story down on paper. This took great courage and I know it will help many others in the future. I think also her parents should be praised for standing by their daughter even though she had turned her back on them during some of the worst phases of her life.
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