Katie Greenhalgh's Asperger's syndrome can cause obsessive behaviour
She can become fixated on boys and text one boyfriend 72 times in an hour
The 16-year-old from Surrey was blocked on Facebook for harassing a boy
Her school specialises with autism and mother, Julie, admits it's a worry
By LUCY WATERLOW FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 14:59 GMT, 15 July 2015 | UPDATED: 18:10 GMT, 15 July 2015
While many young girls develop obsessions with schoolboys or members of One Direction, a 16-year-old says her Asperger's syndrome causes her to take her crushes much further than most.
Katie Greenhalgh from Guilford, Surrey, admits she once text a boy 72 times in one hour and has been blocked on Facebook for harassing another.
Speaking on today's This Morning, the teenager said she often has no awareness of when she crosses the boundaries of socially appropriate behaviour.
'With boys I can get obsessive, I stare at them, I fancy them and talk about them a lot. Once I had a boyfriend and I sent him 72 texts in one hour. I get bit too obsessed,' she admitted on the show.
Katie also talks about her behaviour in a one-off ITV documentary, Girls With Autism, which focuses on Limpsfield Grange in Surrey, the only state-run boarding school in Britain that specialises with girls like her.
On the documentary, Katie tells her IT teacher Sam Janaway: 'I got blocked by the Facebook police because I was harassing someone too much because I thought he was fit.'
Mrs Janaway reveals her own son was once the object of Katie's affection and her behaviour towards him quickly escalated.
'My son was coming in once a week to help them with homework and Katie took a liking to him that culminated in her going on to his Facebook page to download photos of him. She had several hundred before we became aware of it,' she said.
Katie admitted she will often download the same picture of a boy again and again.
Her mother Julie revealed the extent of the problem: 'When we cleared her iPhone the other day she had more than 11,000 pictures of the same boy - we don't know who he is or where she got it from but she becomes fixated and obsessed very quickly.'
Children with autism can often struggle to make sense of the world around them and can display repetitive and intense behaviour.
Julie admitted her daughter's obsessions were a worry - particularly given how easy it was to contact people these days via mobile phone and social media.
As well as being concerned about the impact it can have on the boys themselves, she fears Katie's vulnerability could be taken advantage of by online predators.
Julie said: 'I have to monitor her social media activity all the time, who she's talking to, who she has invited to be friends with her.'
'We can't let her out of our sight, it's worrying.'
Julie said her daughter was diagnosed at six years old after suffering behavioural problems at school.
'I used to get called in a lot to her old school,' Julie recalled. 'She was very disruptive, she didn't make friends easily, she was seen as the naughty girl in the class until she got her diagnosis.'
Julie said her and her husband Mark felt like they 'won the lottery' when their daughter was offered a place at Limpsfield Grange.
Most pupils at the school board on weekdays and are looked after by a dedicated care team, who teach the girls how to deal with their autism and become more independent.
Sarah Wild, headteacher, said: 'Every girl here is a conundrum. They haven't had any friendships, outside of their family probably. When they come in year seven, they have already experienced some depression, feelings of isolation, they are quite bullied, they've got really low self-esteem
'You do have to be a detective to work here because you have to follow lots of different hunches and leads and you have to try things out.'
Julie said the school has helped Katie feel much more comfortable as she often struggles in situations 'many of us take for granted' such as taking a shower or being a in a train carriage surrounded by people.
Julie admitted that her son Ben has struggled at times growing up with a sister who demands a lot of attention and who he feels can be 'embarrassing' in public.
But she said that, thanks to Limpsfield Grange, Katie has learnt to cope better with many situations and is more self-aware.
Julie added: 'You can never have a down day with her because she would always bring you up. She will bring joy to anybody that she meets. She is a special little girl, definitely.'
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