About

Who’s Byzsym?

Byzsym is my open pseudonym. My real name is Ava Brooks and I work as an author and blogger.

At the University of Hagen I studied Cultural Studies with the subjects Literature, Philosophy and History. I also completed my training as a psychological consultant.

On this page I write mainly as the mother of a non-speaking autistic (born 99) with a high need for support in all areas of life. We communicate by sign language, which means a very large piece of quality of life for all of us.

Our family also includes a great, committed dad and Niklas’ big sister.

On “Byzsyms Blog” I mix experienced, observed and told experiences with each other – and therefore Ava becomes (sometimes) Byzsym. Also the names of my family members are really different.

Everything remains authentic, but is not always taken 1:1 from our own lives to protect our privacy.

Educating with a personal blog always means a tightrope walk between “how much privacy I give away” and “how much remains safe with us”. Nevertheless, I have chosen this form of publication because it is authentic and hopefully conveys a little bit of solidarity to many people.

Also with guest contributions all names are changed on request, in order to protect the Privatsphäre of those, which entrust themselves to the readers of Byzsyms Blog and me.

In addition to personal experiences of families of autistic children, the blog also contains guest contributions by autistic people, information on factual topics and interviews with experts and interesting people.

The result is a mixture that offers an online magazine on the subject of autism.

Logo of Byzsyms Blog

“Byzsyms Blog” is an information and experience service from a parent’s perspective.

None of the information and experiences on this page are suitable for making your own diagnoses. For making diagnoses, assessing suitable medication or therapeutic procedures, qualified advice and support is always required, which “Byzsyms Blog” cannot and does not want to provide.

To me and this blog:

This blog is meant to tell you about my life – in areas that are often hard for others to imagine. From the areas where I have difficulties and think that everything is dark. Concretely: From my thoughts and feelings, fears and doubts, which I have so.

After I first had the diagnoses Social Phobia (F40.1) with self-insecure-avoiding personality traits and depressions (F32.1), my “main diagnoses” are now Asperger Syndrome (F84.5) and Primary Insomnia (G47.0). Since I started taking Modafinil, fatigue has not completely disappeared, but has become much less, leading to the disappearance of almost all depressive symptoms. (Unfortunately, they are back now…) Nobody knows exactly where the fatigue comes from; the doctors have meanwhile got rid of “that’s psychic” and so it was called “unclear organic (main) cause” in the sleep laboratory.

I am female and am currently doing a Master’s degree in natural sciences.

I am a convinced Christian, which creates problems and doubts for me in the darkest times, which I would not have without my faith – but which on the other hand is also what has kept me alive and keeps me alive.

I have had psychotherapy and a hospital stay several times in recent years and I am now again with a behavioural therapist.

Something else about this blog: I write here as anonymously as possible and want to mention it for the sake of correctness – I don’t just think up fantasy names, but I also change details that are not relevant for the statement of an article.

Password: Everyone can ask, who has no own Blog, should write please something to it, why he would like it. But there is no legal right to mention your password with or without your own blog ;-).