Susan Boyle: I Have Asperger's

Singer told she suffered brain damage, but 'my IQ was above average'
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 8, 2013 6:51 AM CST
Susan Boyle: I Have Asperger's
Susan Boyle performs ahead of the Champions League qualifying second round soccer match between Celtic and Helsingborgs at Celtic Park, Glasgow, Scotland, in this Aug. 29, 2012 file photo.   (SCOTT HEPPELL)

After a lifetime of being told she suffered brain damage, reclusive Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle finally sought out a specialist and came away with an entirely different diagnosis: Asperger's syndrome. "It was the wrong diagnosis when I was a kid," she tells the Observer. "I was told I had brain damage. I always knew it was an unfair label. Now I have a clearer understanding of what's wrong and I feel relieved and a bit more relaxed about myself." She was diagnosed a year ago, but has kept it secret until now.

Boyle had trouble in school as a child, and says she was told she'd suffered oxygen deprivation during her birth. Of Asperger's, she says, "it will not make any difference to my life. It's just a condition that I have to live with and work through," she says, though she adds, "I think people will treat me better because they will have a much greater understanding of who I am and why I do the things I do." (More Susan Boyle stories.)

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