23, Blonde, 4'10", Tourettes, Aspergers = undateable

[LittleClapham]

Read this article from the Sun (noteably the worlds' best newspaper... but only on page 3...)

thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/s...

I just so happen to have two out of the three conditions this programme has decided to label as 'undateable'. Yes I have indeed been so lucky in life that I not only developed Tourettes when I was 12 years old, I was born with an autistic spectrum disorder as well.

I just find the whole idea of this show offensive. It appears to be showing Tourettes as a 'hilarious swearing disease' rather than offering an educational viewpoint of the condition. As I and probably anyone reading this, will be aware, coprolalia only affects 10-15% of people with TS. I was unlucky enough to be one of those 10-15% but that's not the point. The point is that once again, kids are going to be picked on in the playground after little bully Timmy's Mummy decides to let her kid watch this programme. Don't tell me HONESTLY that no kids are going to see this despite it's late showing time. My little cousin was watching South Park long before I was and he's only 15 now!

What worries me as well is that people with Aspergers, whether they like it or not, are vulnerable members of society. This programme is exploiting people who might not be able to recognise that they are being exploited.

Oh and by the way. My Grandad has narcolepsy so I am triple offended...

[Suz13 Volunteer]

Hi LittleClapham

I am sorry that the Sun article upset you, but please be assured not as much as it it upset me.

We have been working with the film company to make sure that the programme that they are making didn't do any of the things that this articles seems to suggest. We have complained to the Sun that they have misrepresented what is actually happening, and the film company didn't place the article and they too are very cross. Having been very clear about not marginalising or making fun of people with ANY condition you can imagine how cross and surprised we were with the article.

We shall continue to work on this project because we need to make sure that the right messages are sent out. As you rightly say the coverage could be huge and we have as one of our aims to act as advocates for people with TS and cast a kindly eye to make sure that no one else is belittled in the process. Many members tell us that finding a relationship is difficult and if we can work with experts to help them find some solutions and raise public awareness as to the true nature of TS then we wil be doing eveyone a big favour.

We have already posted on the Sun site the correction to the coprollalia stat.

Once again I sorry that this article rasied all your alarm bells but that isn't the real programme that we are involved with.

Best wishes

Suzanne

[LittleClapham in reply to Suz13]

I really hope you are right that the Sun were the ones to blame here. I still am not impressed with the title of the show though, although I believe it is currently only the working title.

[catherinem in reply to LittleClapham]

The Sun have rather sensationalized it in their own invitable style. If you google it there are some other articles about it. As the girl on FB was saying, hopefully the Guardian will do a piece about it in their media section which will highlight our concerns.

[catherinem]

I was actually going to blog about this myself. I hope you don't mind.