Barb Rentenbach, author of Synergy

I am Barb Rentenbach, and my other defining label is autism—the severe kind, if I may be so bold. For decades, I bumped around ignorantly in this vexatious arcade of blaring impersonal voices, erratic assaults of color and light, indefinable loneliness, and relentless confusion. Eventually, I let down my bulwark and discovered clarity, purpose, meaning, confidence, independence, and friendship.

Today, I am at peace and I am happy and productive. The paths to that state of being were filled with considerable pain, intense anger, frustration, and lots of trial and error. And that is not the half of what my parents went through.

My unique design gives me receptive language, but expressive language is primarily nonsensical. I say "primarily nonsensical" because every now and then, when I blurt out one of my inexorable stock phrases—like, "You are not going," "Fire truck," "It's raining," "You can't go to the pool," "Just a minute," "Pig," "Oh, do not go in the mail truck," "She is not here," "No ma'am," "Nice," "Oh, my God," "the ballgame," "I am mad," "It's Dad's car," or "It's mine, it's mine"—it is sometimes relevant. It is rather like a broken watch being accurate twice a day.

Furthermore, my facial expressions do not always match my emotions. I can walk and move about fairly well, but my fine motor skills are limited and my initiation impulse is extremely weak, so assistance is needed in almost every life sphere (e.g., safety, health maintenance, communication, and personal hygiene). Until just a couple of years ago, my confusion, frustration, isolation, and anger often erupted without warning, putting any handy "normal" or myself in real danger of being kicked, bitten, hit, grabbed, and pinched. Plus, when I am feeling overwhelmed, I have this expensive and stupid habit of breaking my own glasses. Pricey, "indestructible" frames prove no match for old Barb.

Coming Soon!  Mary Pace Press presents - I Might Be You, by Mary Johnson, Barb Rentenbach, and Lois Prislovsky, Ph.D. due out in August 2011.  This is a fresh look at life through the collaborative eyes of a mother with a teenage son who has "severe autism", myself who is "severely autistic", and a psychologist who treats "severe autism". The good news is we are not severe people and hope you will find the read uplifting, refreshingly funny, informative, and just what the doctor ordered. Enjoy. Barb 

Pictured from Right to left: Mary Johnson, Barb Rentenbach, 

and Lois Prislovsky