Greg Halford - Autism in football

[Mutchy]

The diagnosis that changed it all for a Premier League player

It was only towards the end of his career that Greg Halford found there may be a deeper reason for his reluctance to mix with team-mates.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Alex Rae The Substitute]

He’s featured in quite an interesting recent Undr The Cosh podcast too, where he talks about this.

 

[Saltyjim]

Double page spread in The I at the weekend as well.

 

[OLDGOLD]

I have not read the article as yet, but it may go some way to some of the.....interactions...he had when he was at the club.

There is a great documentary about Gary Numan and his late diagnosis of aspergers, which then made sense to him...and all those of us of a certain age who remember him in the 70s and 80s

 

[Oldgoldilox]

I still follow Numan and have met him once, he certainly is a bit odd in the way he interacts with people, his wife has helped him enormously but you can tell that his apparently outgoing and friendly nature is a bit forced and rehearsed at times. Id recommend a listen to some of his more recent albums by the way, some excellent tracks.

Falls in to place with Halford as well, just goes to show you dont always know the full story.

 

[JonahWolf]

I could have the same story (well, apart from being **** at football).
2 sons with clinical diagnoses now, with the various Docs seeing a less than subtle genetic link there.
The more you learn about neurodivergence the more so many things growing up make more sense.
It is liberating to know you’re not simply ‘weird’, or rather you might be many other people’s definition of weird, but there’s a perfectly good reason for it.

Been married 15 years, and the wife occasionally drops out: ‘I’m sure you weren’t this weird when we met’ (in as friendly/patient a manner as possible).
I do try to explain to her that, 1, I was young and drank a lot then, which does tend to round off some of the awkward edges, and the other being, I’m more comfortable and accepting of my own weird. For someone that’s supposed to struggle with filtering, turns out I was doing a reasonable job of ‘pretending to be normalish’.

 

[North West Wanderer]

I could have the same story (well, apart from being **** at football).
2 sons with clinical diagnoses now, with the various Docs seeing a less than subtle genetic link there.
The more you learn about neurodivergence the more so many things growing up make more sense.
It is liberating to know you’re not simply ‘weird’, or rather you might be many other people’s definition of weird, but there’s a perfectly good reason for it.

Been married 15 years, and the wife occasionally drops out: ‘I’m sure you weren’t this weird when we met’ (in as friendly/patient a manner as possible).
I do try to explain to her that, 1, I was young and drank a lot then, which does tend to round off some of the awkward edges, and the other being, I’m more comfortable and accepting of my own weird. For someone that’s supposed to struggle with filtering, turns out I was doing a reasonable job of ‘pretending to be normalish’.

Can I firstly say how much I admire you for sharing this on here, it is both brave and hugely important to know how to best potentially interact, plus its bloody brave.
This place is frustrating, annoying and pedantic at best, but I can assure you you are amongst friends. In my worst of times, people have reached out to help.

 

[Ian]

Having worked in disability you come to realise how prevalent Autism is in the community, the majority of us have some form of what is considered Autism.
No real surprise that footballers also " suffer" with it.

 

[sillytuna]

A lot that's familiar there tho it'd be interesting to have a deeper dive. I found (and still find) playing football, and attending in some ways, to be a great way to get over a bunch of related social difficulties. People wouldn't realise unless they stepped back and thought about it.

 

[OLDGOLD]

I still follow Numan and have met him once, he certainly is a bit odd in the way he interacts with people, his wife has helped him enormously but you can tell that his apparently outgoing and friendly nature is a bit forced and rehearsed at times. Id recommend a listen to some of his more recent albums by the way, some excellent tracks.

Falls in to place with Halford as well, just goes to show you dont always know the full story.

Yes, some of his newer stuff is awesome. I'm seeing him in Birmingham later this year.

 

[Oldgoldilox]

Yes, some of his newer stuff is awesome. I'm seeing him in Birmingham later this year.

I'm going to the Nottingham gig but may go to the brum one as well if I can justify it to the other half

 

[Streathamwolf]

I could have the same story (well, apart from being **** at football).
2 sons with clinical diagnoses now, with the various Docs seeing a less than subtle genetic link there.
The more you learn about neurodivergence the more so many things growing up make more sense.
It is liberating to know you’re not simply ‘weird’, or rather you might be many other people’s definition of weird, but there’s a perfectly good reason for it.

Been married 15 years, and the wife occasionally drops out: ‘I’m sure you weren’t this weird when we met’ (in as friendly/patient a manner as possible).
I do try to explain to her that, 1, I was young and drank a lot then, which does tend to round off some of the awkward edges, and the other being, I’m more comfortable and accepting of my own weird. For someone that’s supposed to struggle with filtering, turns out I was doing a reasonable job of ‘pretending to be normalish’.

Well said Jonah. Not easy to speak (write) publicly on such a subject though no doubt no harder than actually acknowledging to yourself your own unique "weird". As others have said lots of understanding on here. IMO fanatical fans all have a little bit of weird so you're in good company.

 

[JonahWolf]

Well said Jonah. Not easy to speak (write) publicly on such a subject though no doubt no harder than actually acknowledging to yourself your own unique "weird". As others have said lots of understanding on here. IMO fanatical fans all have a little bit of weird so you're in good company.

Thanks, but not really hard at all. Any typed conversation is infinitely easier than doing so face to face.
It’s an odd subject. None of us can know exactly what’s going on in someone else’s brain, so you just assume that other people at least to an extent, think like you and experience things similarly, and vice-versa. Apparently, really not the case.

Another random recent example, involving the woman that’s known me for over 20 years, so you’d think she’d be used to most of my bull**** by now.
The end of celebrity BB just the other night.
They had the ‘boy band’ performance. Now, they were all varying degrees of terrible, but one of them (I think it was the one that was called boring, can’t say I was paying attention at any point, I was there under being a good husband suffrage) suddenly came in miles off time, and stayed that way. I covered my ears and hid under the duvet, it was genuinely upsetting.

She says ‘but they’re just having fun’, under the assumption I was just being a music snob/nazi, as I was a music student and played semi-professionally. But no, it was a really unsettling experience. I tried to liken it to that moment of panic when you trip (as in feet, not acid), but being stuck in that moment for the duration of their ill-timed caterwauling.
Thats really not a normal reaction is it? Well unfortunately, tough ****, can’t help, change or ignore it, that’s just the way some of us are wired.

 

[WorcesterWanderer]

My best mate has autism and at times it seems like it can be a really hard thing to deal with, obviously. He is a lovely person and he manages it very well. It seems like a very misunderstood thing- I'm all for more discussions about it, anywhere.

 

[Streathamwolf]

Thanks, but not really hard at all. Any typed conversation is infinitely easier than doing so face to face.
It’s an odd subject. None of us can know exactly what’s going on in someone else’s brain, so you just assume that other people at least to an extent, think like you and experience things similarly, and vice-versa. Apparently, really not the case.

Another random recent example, involving the woman that’s known me for over 20 years, so you’d think she’d be used to most of my bull**** by now.
The end of celebrity BB just the other night.
They had the ‘boy band’ performance. Now, they were all varying degrees of terrible, but one of them (I think it was the one that was called boring, can’t say I was paying attention at any point, I was there under being a good husband suffrage) suddenly came in miles off time, and stayed that way. I covered my ears and hid under the duvet, it was genuinely upsetting.

She says ‘but they’re just having fun’, under the assumption I was just being a music snob/nazi, as I was a music student and played semi-professionally. But no, it was a really unsettling experience. I tried to liken it to that moment of panic when you trip (as in feet, not acid), but being stuck in that moment for the duration of their ill-timed caterwauling.
Thats really not a normal reaction is it? Well unfortunately, tough ****, can’t help, change or ignore it, that’s just the way some of us are wired.

Yeah excellent example, it wouldn't bother me at all but the other day in my brother's car he was changing gear at the wrong time. I literally had to sit on my hands, pretend to look out of the window and close my eyes and ears. It was excruciating. As you say, all about the wiring and that understanding, of different perspectives giving totally different experiences, is what needs to be given greater weight. You can see it on here a lot because people feel so passionately.

 

[Thank you Sir Jack]

Fortunately, there is a growing awareness of the autism spectrum due to people like Chris Packham. I have a close relative who has Asperger's and have some appreciation of the difficulties (and delights) that come with it.