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Learned Behavior?!

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AnnabelLee
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25 Sep 2007, 4:55 pm

How ignorant are people to believe that autism/asperger's is merely learned behavior patterns that can "simply" be changed?
My son's ex-therapist (since her display of an obvious lack of knowledge) said my autistic son's stimming and both his and my sensory problems and meltdowns were done "for attention" or were learned habits. I am so angry and hurt. I hear this crap all the time with myself. They comment my "problems" are not any more than habits or done to draw attention to myself. That makes no sense! Anyone with a clue knows most auties/aspies would prefer to NOT be in the spotlight! How do you cope with consistent ignorance? I am starting to think that a country of only auties/aspies would be awesome.

Annabel Lee


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25 Sep 2007, 5:28 pm

AnnabelLee wrote:
How ignorant are people to believe that autism/asperger's is merely learned behavior patterns that can "simply" be changed?
My son's ex-therapist (since her display of an obvious lack of knowledge) said my autistic son's stimming and both his and my sensory problems and meltdowns were done "for attention" or were learned habits. I am so angry and hurt. I hear this crap all the time with myself. They comment my "problems" are not any more than habits or done to draw attention to myself. That makes no sense! Anyone with a clue knows most auties/aspies would prefer to NOT be in the spotlight! How do you cope with consistent ignorance? I am starting to think that a country of only auties/aspies would be awesome.

Annabel Lee


"You're only doing it for the attention." Seven words that I cannot stand because, as you say Annabel, I don't want the attention I just want to communicate what I'm feeling/thinking and no one takes me seriously or can understand the point I'm trying to make. To answer your question, I haven't found an effective way of coping with this problem, since it seems that whatever I do makes the situation worse.



siuan
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25 Sep 2007, 6:27 pm

HA! My entire life I had fought the battle that cannot be won trying to convince people my...issues were not about attention. I hate attention. I want the exact opposite.


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Belle77
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25 Sep 2007, 6:50 pm

Exactly! That's why I would usually just sit and suffer if I was being tortured by some sound like a person chewing gum behind me in class. I didn't want to bring attention to the fact that I was different. It was trying to avoid attention that caused me so much anxiety.



2ukenkerl
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25 Sep 2007, 7:16 pm

I always tried to DOWNPLAY it! It is the OPPOSITE of desiring attention. As for learned behaviour? WHY???? FROM WHO????? I remember it even at 5. My SCHOOL went on record as speking about it when I was 6. So HOW was it learned?