Alex Jameson, 25, will be appearing alongside two other people in the film which charts their day-to-day lives as the live with Asperger’s Syndrome.

 

The documentary is called The Autistic Me and will be screened on BBC3 at 9pm next Tuesday (August 11).
 

Alex’s mother Peggy, who lives in Bexhill, said: “The BBC put out feelers on a website I was looking at about autism. It was looking for people interested in taking part in a documentary.

 

“I sent off an email after speaking with Alex and the next day the film crew were at the door.
 

“They did lots of filming around Hastings and Bexhill, including shots of Alex playing pool, walking on Bexhill beach and meeting with a young lady in Brighton. Crews also filmed him at work.
 

“The programme is all about how young adults with Asperger’s and how the cope with the condition.”
 

Asperger’s Syndrome is a form of autism, which is a lifelong disability that affects how a person makes sense of the world, processes information and relates to other people.
 

It is mostly a hidden disability in that you cannot tell that someone has the condition from their outward appearance.
 

People with the syndrome sometimes find it difficult to express themselves emotionally and socially. For example, they may have difficulty understanding gestures, facial expressions or tone of voice.

 

Many people with the condition are sociable but have difficulty with initiating and sustaining social relationships, which can make them very anxious.
 

They have difficulty knowing when to start or end a conversation and choosing topics to talk about.
 

People with Asperger’s Syndrome can have difficulty with social imagination. This can include difficulty in understanding or interpreting other peoples thoughts, feelings or actions.
 

Those with the condition people may have rules and rituals which they insist upon sticking to. For example walking the same way to school.
 

Mrs Jameson said her son, who works at BeSure Security Systems in Battle Road, St Leonards, was diagnosed with the condition when he was 12.
 

She said: “People do not know they have it usually until they are older, sometimes not until they reach their 50s.
 

“Alex was diagnosed after there were behavioural issues when he was at school.
 

“Awareness of Asperger’s is increasing more and more. Alex has a mild form and went to Filsham Valley, Hastings College and did training with Tressell Training.
 

“He also volunteers for the Alzheimer’s Society and Age Concern in Hastings.”

Last Night’s Television: The Autistic Me, BBC3

 

Tom’s mum was worried about him. “Since puberty he’s become much more aggressive, much more violent..” she explained. “He doesn’t seem to care now who he upsets… he seems to have lost all his compassion for people.” “Congratulations, my dear, you’ve got a teenager,” I thought, but the flippancy wouldn’t sustain for long.

There were aspects of Tom that will have looked familiar to anyone with teenage children – the shoegazing withdrawal, the early-morning torpor, the seething fury at the lightest parental guidance – but in Tom all these aspects were turned up to 11. Tom is autistic, one of three young men on the autistic spectrum whose problems with growing up were detailed in Matt Rudge’s film The Autistic Me, and he was not having a happy time when filming was underway.

Oli, 23 years old and with a high-functioning form of autism, appeared more cheerful, a charming type set at just a slight angle to the ordinary world, but enough of one to make it tricky for him to find a job, which was his dearest wish. Alex, at 24, did have a part-time place at a security firm, but didn’t have a girlfriend, and was hoping that an online dating site might fill that gap in his life.

 

All three were very different – individuals, not representatives of a syndrome. But they each had one thing in common – protective mothers understandably nervous that the world would not look as lovingly on their children as they did. And in Tom’s case, you couldn’t help but wonder whether this might be part of the problem.