Born on the Wrong Planet

by Erika Hammerschmidt

Overview

The story of the childhood and young adulthood of Erika Hammerschmidt, a young woman diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, takes the reader into a confusing and often tumultuous world. On her eccentric journey, coping mechanisms include ladybug biology, extreme linguistics, alien worldbuilding, picky eating, and eventual marriage to someone else on the autism spectrum. Throughout this book, Erika's unique language skills and her fresh perspective on the world combine to make a delightful and enlightening read.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940164008437
Publisher:	Erika Hammerschmidt
Publication date:	03/18/2020
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	494 KB

About the Author

I am an author, artist and speaker. I give speeches with my husband John to schools and support groups, telling the story of how we grew up as aliens on earth, and finally found each other.

I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome and Tourette's Syndrome around the age of 11, but labels aren't important to me. We are all individuals, and a diagnosis is just one of humanity's flawed but natural attempts to arrange the world into categories that seem neat and orderly. It's language, and as much as I love language, it is not a perfect way of describing reality. There is no perfect way. No word's definition is universally agreed upon. No written definition can perfectly encompass the idea expressed by a word. And some ideas can't even be expressed by words in the first place.

What I am can be described partially by the words "Asperger's Syndrome," with their definition as printed in the DSM-IV, and as interpreted by my childhood psychiatrist... but really, individual people all have their own unique mental conditions. Mine works for me right now. I see no need to change.