Aspies, does it bother you to be lumped in with autistics?

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An aspy wrote to me once and said he didn't want to be a part of a group where autism was discussed. It made sense to me. Maybe he felt uncomfortable being lumped in with nonverbal, hand flapping people who can't be left alone. I have an aspy son whose problems are quite different from my autistic daughter. However, since my family is like an autism spectrum rainbow, to me, of course, I would discuss both.

I'm wondering how important in the distinction to other aspies?

I don't like to to be lumped in with anyone. But I see what you're saying. When I attended a meeting with other people on the spectrum, I felt a terrible guilt because I seemed to be doing so much "better" than many in the bunch. Really, just my perspective, though. Who am I to judge? But I have no problem considering myself autistic without a caveat like "Aspie" or "High-functioning". /m

no problem with it. I've just accepted. Autistics have feelings too. Cats don't speak our language but they have feelings. For all you know, crops that are grown on farms have feelings and are screaming bloody murder when you crush them to death with your teeth.

The point is, we all have feelings. Some just communicate them more.

You both are so.... I was going to say sweet but that doesn't fit. You both are old souls. Thanks for the answers.

I have an autistic friend who communicates very well and does a lot more things that one would not expect from someone with autism. When she talks to parents of autistic kids and they comment on how they hope that their kids would grow up to be like her, inside, she gets upset because she knows that those parents have no idea how hard her days ususally are. hf or not.

I agree, it makes me very uncomfortable to be around autistic kids, I don't know what to say or do. It's probably just me being a little immature, but I just don't know how to react to a 17 year old infant.

There is one time when I really resent it, and that is when curebies try to make it seem like the most dire and extreme case of autism is representative. They will never make an example of an aspie who has won a Nobel prize, because that reality flies squarely in the face of their agenda. So I do hate being lumped in with autism when the reason for doing so is to mislead and distort the truth.

Generally in a speech decriptive, no.
In a physical sense, I'd assume I would mind, but then I've never been in that situation so I really do not know.

Sometimes it bothers me to be lumped with aspies, especially some of those so called "aspie" school shootings such as at Columbine. Or even Martin Bryandt in Tasmania. I kind of urks me to be lumped it with them. I would much rather be lumped in with the body rocking non-verbals than them.

Similarly to OregonBecky, I have two autistic children (my only children). They differ greatly in ability, however.

My thirteen year old is non-verbal. My eighteen year old stops talking when he falls asleep.

Bless them both.

There is a great deal of variety on the autistic spectrum and, if viewed realistically, it's pretty hard to be seen as lumped into to something when it is so varied.

I disagree with Geek a little. I agree that the lowest funcioning people are part of the TV stereotype, but I think the highest functioning people are also.

It is the great bulk in the middle who are adapting and functioning in the struggle that is every day who are ignored by the media. In my opinion.

I'm sorry, but I absolutely hate to be associated with people with full-blown autism. In my freshman year, I was in a gym class with a lot of autistic people of the sort. Half of them couldn't talk at all. And I remember one day there was a new girl in a regular gym class and she pointed to me and asked "Who's that?" to another girl and she said "Oh, she's just one of them". The only reason I was even in that gym class was because I was too small for a regular one. And this may sound completely ignorant, but I actually got nightmares from some of those kids. In fact, I still do to this day every now and then. So yeah, I think my answer's pretty obvious here...

I'm just starting down the path to get a DX, but when I do it won't bother me to use it. For me, the fact that there is something that explains my weird behavior is wonderful and means I'm not a total freak. Won't make life any easier to have the label, but at least I'll be able to look in the mirror and say "It's just an Aspie thing.." instead of wondering what the hell is wrong with me. Well, it might also help keep my parents from yelling at me so much too.

People with AS can be "nonverbal" and they can flap just as much as autistic individuals (most autistic people aren't "nonverbal", they just don't want to talk to you for some reason or another); the only difference is a delay in cognitive development for many autistic individuals, which includes the verbal impairment -- speech therapy can help the verbal impairment massively.

Since I hold that Asperger's is a form of autism, it does not bother me at all. In fact, when I see cause to disclose my neurological state, I generally just tell people I'm autistic rather than mention Asperger's, as most people have never heard of AS. I understand that I am not much like the stereotype of the nonverbal arm-flapper, but then all groups have a fairly wide range of behaviors and capabilities within them. So, I have no problem being "lumped in" with Kanner Autists.

No, it doesn't bother me. I'm not officially diagnosed yet, so, who knows, maybe I have HFA instead of AS. A diagnosis of AS would make a little more sense to me, but I can relate to some of the things auties experience as well. I mean, it was reading and hearing autobiographical accounts of HFA that caused me to suspect I was on the spectrum, and subsequently learn about AS. Ideally, I'd rather not be lumped in with anyone or anything, but these categories seem to be useful in certain ways. I understand that generalizations will be made and I don't mind as long as there is some logic behind them, which there is in this case.