Kristian Wiklund: Armwrestling vs. Asperger syndrome: Amazing story

You really have to read this amazing story. I have to say I know Kristian Wiklund from facebook because we are friends there and we discussed many times about armwrestling and his videos from S.A.TV Productions in the past, but I had absolutely no idea that he was diagnosed with the Asperger syndrome.

This is an inspirational story, you will see how armwrestling helped Kristian to conquer this disorder.

Engin Terzi ► World Armwrestling Forum:

” Nah, i’ll go for the long one!
But first I’ll mention one thing.
I’m diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome.
For those of you who do not know what Asperger’s is, it is a “thing”, which is inside our brains.
It affects the way we communicate, how to socialize, how we can understand others’ body language and it affects everyone to some degree.
When people hear about people who have Asperger’s, they want to feel sorry for us and treat me, as i have a disability.
But I do not see it as a disability (though I did it for the first 2-3 months when I found out it took a while before I could accept it.) Now I see it as a gift that has been given to just me.
For the first 15 years of my life, and I’m not lying, it was hell, it was hell on earth for me.
I could not talk to people that I wanted, could not make freinds, I was bullied, harassed, every day was like in the thickest and most sultry fog, people talked to me, but I could not really understand it. (having some trouble with it to this very day, but I’m still learning.) I isolated myself, staring in front of a screen, playing games, and it was so for most of my life.
But back to the story.My life was like a mountain valley o path indeed. My parents was inside the hospital for about 15min when I decided that now I gonna enter this world.
I did´nt do as the other children, that learned to sit and crawl before they walked. No, already at the age of 8 months, I decided that it was time to go walking. I was a bit difficult to make eye contact and I did not care particularly about what is happening around. I got interested early for comics on television and I could sit for hours and became very frustrated if my parents wanted me to do anything else. It was actually the only time I sat still, otherwise I ran most around aimlessly without doing anything.
I was very late with speaking until 2 years of age when I discovered numbers, my parents could say any number, such as 3245 plus 2567 and I figured it out faster than they could figure it out on your calculator. After a while I developed the whole alphabet and reading words, but I still could not talk. It was really good at some things, but to interact with other people, it was not on the map.
If i did´nt get as I wanted, Then i went nuts with the fists and that made the other kids to walk away from me. The first day of Kindergarten. After the day was over when o they would pick me up, so the manager took my mom aside and asked straight out: How can you deal with this? My mother took it as an incredible insult and asked: What do you mean?
Then she told me that I had literally headbutted down the kindergardens aquarium. Most likely under frustration of not being understood. I had been home in the quiet and calm home and was now exposed to new children, new environment, and not knowing how to be. The result was total chaos for me.
After half a year since the incident, so they went to BUP (child and adult psychiatry) with me in Umeå to do an investigation to see what was the issue. There they saw how I was when I did not have support from home. I behaved in a way that made her scared. I could put myself even on the floor and lick it. I could put myself even on the floor and lick it. I simply did not know what I would do. When it came to numbers or letters, I was way ahead of other people in my age, but when it came to the social, communication and understanding, then it was completely stopped.
I did´nt start talking until I was about 5 years old, although that was very little, it was like I did not think it was important to talk.
I had an assistant when I would start school that followed me through the years of school. Her name was Jeanette Andersson, also known as Heidi Andersson’s own mother. An amazing women who I hold dear in my heart.
She did a lot for me and got me to evolve in an amazing way. I have had their special interests who did that I was like a little professor. I could be everything from dinosaurs to planets, you name it. Still, it was difficult to communicate with others so I was mostly with Jeanette. I probably felt a sense of security with her, who i could go to, when it did not go well for me with the social interaction with others.
I also had trouble eating certain things, meat, fish, mashed potatoes, etc.. I ate just basically a few things. Spaghetti and meat sauce, sausage and macaroni and so on.
I was very good at school on sports and many medals were in the running / high jump etc. and I felt happy when people saw me and thought I was good. At age 13, I wanted a guitar for Christmas, he had seen his brother play and it aroused the interest of it. I could watch a youtube clip and then play it straight off. Around the same time, the interest in films awakened and a video camera was standing on the wish list.
Now I combined this recorded cover songs and put them out on youtube. I got a lot of viewers and of course it was great fun for me to communicate with others of similar interests and get positive feedback.
Then armwrestling came in the picture.There I received and accepted for who I am. And with my interest in films so I was a bit of a celebrity in the sport.
But how does armwrestling connect to this? Well, I’ll gonna tell you.
I remember so well, when I came to armwrestling Table in Junior-high and beated the majority of the people I met, so Johannes said to me (Now known as Palt’N in the armwrestling community in Sweden and is one of my closest friends), “Why do not you start with arm-wrestling? “I thought about it, so I went to StorumanArmsport’s old locals, and i came in as the shy boy Asperger’s, tried it, then I got there for all their workouts, I felt …like i was home … somehow.
But then I was being bullied just because I was doing armwrestling, called me “Fucking flexis” and the whole package, and with the weak mentality I had then, they scared me away from the sport, so it became isolated aspergers boy once more.
There was a time that my self-esteem had fallen so low that they began to have thoughts that i did not even have the stomach to think about. I saw an anime series called School Rumble and where the protagonist had a scar on his back after he had saved the heroine of the program. I was alone at home during that time then. So I took a long kitchen knife, pulled up the shirt and I put the cold blade against my back o I felt the knife’s cold, sharp blade going against my back o I was ready to cut until I could not stand it anymore, so i just put myself in a corner and closed myself off.
After 6-18 months had passed, on a Wednesday, after I had finished school, then came one of the most up to me and said, “Fucking flexis” for me, and my patience nerve burst and I pushed him up against the wall and he gave a real killer look, and i was so close to giving him a real punch in the face, when i saw that the majority of those behind me began to take up their mobile phones to film the whole thing, but I just could not, so I went from there, when I got home, I shut myself in my room, and just broke down, I remembered that I never cried so much …
The following day, they had stopped bothering me, I just thought “What’s happening?” Later that day, so I asked my mom to drive me up to the practice, I got there and would just take the handle, but uncertainly took over me, in a evil grasp, after a while, I went in and what I was surprised when I heard the words from our coach “What have you been, boy? We wondered where you went. “
I do not know what flew over me, but I felt a real warm feeling that bursted inside my body, it warmed my heart that they had thoughts where I had been!
This sport can be considered as a drunken sport in the eyes of many, but not to me!
For it has given me the social skills, and strengthened it. It has given me friends that I have not had the stomach to dream of, not only in my home country, but also across the world. It has given me friends that I may now be open to, when I have something I want to tell you, when I want to get it from my armbrytande heart. And if they want to talk to me about anything they want out of their hearts, I’ll be there to listen. It has also strengthened my self-esteem, both as an athlete in the sport and as an individual within the hard life in our current society.
It has made me into the individual that I am now. If armwrestling had not come into my life, I would probably never have met the sweetest, coolest and most wonderful individuals who i have the extreme honor of meeting in the arm-wrestling community, both in my home club and worldwide.
In present day, I´m the cameraman / founder of SATV (Sweden Armwrestling Television), I´m one of the best fighters in Europe, Part of the national team in Sweden and I compete / train with my secondary family Storuman Armsport!
The social part is something that I will always have to work with, and I am very aware of it, but I’ve come a long way and I’m proud of it! “