A man was once encouraged by his wife to visit the doctor. He displayed highly obsessive behaviour towards his interests and had difficulties with social interaction.
Soon, he was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, a disorder now absorbed into the classification of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) by the American Psychiatric Association.
The man was consumed by his two niche passions. One of which was Police Enforcement. He was intrigued by Criminology and would later go on to pursue it at a Bachelor’s level. However, he would eventually become a producer instead of a policeman.
Reportedly, he would even go as far as to carry around an imitation police badge as an essential, which he would often feel “naked” without.
This is fairly common ASD behaviour as obsessions or rituals is one way ASD individuals ground themselves in the face of stress.
His other passion lay quite differently in the spooky depths of paranormality. Coming from a family of spiritualists, his intrigue with spectres started as early as childhood.
His ASD made him ponder over their existence compulsively and he soon developed an unshakable belief in them.
But in 1984, the world would be introduced to something they had never seen before, for the man decided to fuse his two passions through what he did best — he wrote a movie. The film later went on to sweep numerous Hollywood awards and has been a household name ever since.
This man diagnosed with ASD was Dan Aykroyd. And with his contributions, we now know who to call if there is something strange in our neighbourhood.
Sources:
- Yahoo! (n.d.). Dan Aykroyd on how lifelong belief in paranormal led to ‘ghostbusters’: ‘this stuff is real’. Yahoo! Retrieved April 23, 2023, from https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/dan-aykroyd-ghost-stories-hotel-paranormal-150046932.html
- Dan Aykroyd says being on the spectrum helped him make Ghostbusters. Child Mind Institute. (2021, August 4). Retrieved April 23, 2023, from https://childmind.org/blog/dan-aykroyd-says-being-on-the-spectrum-helped-him-make-ghostbusters/
See here to find out more about Autism.