My name is Paddy Howard.
I became a true born again Christian in September 1999 but my story starts
long before that. I was born in 1980 I was later diagnosed with autism at 4.
But many years after that I was bullied to the point of tears on occasion. It
all came to an end (Thankfully) in December 1996. From the age of four I
seemed to think it was OK to hurt others. I have done some terrible things
to human beings during the last fifteen years but I have been forgiven for
these sins. I was a loner. I wanted to be by myself. People must have
thought I was really boring. Right from the word go, I started pushing kids
over at Pre-School as a way of saying hello. My mother smacked me and
yelled at me for it. My teachers were traumatised by my violence. The kids
were scared of me. When my baby cousin (Now 15) came to stay with us I
was worse than usual, hitting kids pushing them over even tripping a little
girl over in the playground. I remember feeling really bad about myself
when she started crying. The teachers stood me in a little circle and I wasn't
allowed to come out until I said sorry. I made a decision not to push kids
over as I thought of how bad I felt. I decided it was wrong. So I decided to
stop. It wasn't easy. I hit sometimes but I quickly turned it into a pat. Then I
stopped hitting. When I met my best friend Andrew in 1987 things got even
better. I stopped being a loner and began to enjoy someone else's company
for once. When I met another best friend Jonny McLaren I thought things
could only get better. I was wrong. When I was in High School I was
constantly teased and harassed by people simply because of my reaction. I
finally realised that people did it just to see the reaction. So I stopped
reacting. In 1999 Andrew came to my house. We hung out like we always
did. I told Andrew of a short prayer to God that I made one night after I
had been dropped home by Jonny's parents. We had had a night out. I
prayed that a spare key would be in its place and it was. When this
happened a couple of times I decided to trust my faith to the Lord. Andrew
introduced me to a friend of his Karl Irving. Then I started going to church.
I am now with Advance Personnel and hope to get some Work Experience
and a job this year. How I overcame my fear of bullying and harassment
was fairly easy. I gradually worked out that people were just trying to wind
me up. I didn't react. Nobody picked on me. In 1996, I worked it out
properly. I realised they did it just to wind me up and I stopped reacting. I
took a bit of crap in college but that was about it. All in all I was pretty
popular in college, for the right and wrong reasons. This is my testimony.
Last Updated - 20/09/2003
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