Would you rather be neurotypical or hav Asperger's Syndrome?

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It all boils to how severely affected the individual is:

For me, a 26 years old man who is "officially" diagnosed with autistic disorder, but who can also be seen as AS by those who lump HFA/AS together: I'll take NT thanks.

I kinda left school in grade 11, I failed all of high school, I live at home with my mother, I've never worked a day in my life, I cannot socialize at all, I cannot talk to people at all (well, I'm saying 'Hello' back now); all of this is due to autism. All of it (I have the professionals to back me up here).

Frankly, apart from something recent, it's been a terrible ride for me since the onset of puberty.

But then, "officially" (see: DSM-IV-TR), I'm autistic rather than AS, but then again, the "god" of autism sees me as AS (Gilberg's criteria), so I have a say.

I really am lucky. I think my AS is probably not as pronounced as it seems to be in so many others.

I had a horrible childhood and almost all the AS horror stories you hear about growing up Aspie applied to me. But over the past few years (since I turned 30 or there-abouts) I've become fairly comfortable with who I was and how I feel about being the way I am. I was only diagnosed a few months ago, so the diagnosis hasn't really had much impact on my life except as a vindication that I am different and that how I'm feeling is the result of something that is real.

I pretty much pass as NT to most people now, though perhaps a bit strange and a little slow (as I have to run through the decision tree of how to act, rather than just react on reflex). So I'm happy to be where I am on the spectrum, I kinda feel like I have the best of both worlds.

I guess for some people, that sort of happy medium isn't likely or even possible in some cases. But if this sense of balance that I have now, happened at sixty instead of thirty, I'd still be ready to wait for it and work towards it. It really is worth it.

Hopefully people with more Autistic levels of abilities rather than AS levels can reach a similar sort of a sense of harmony with who they are. But I can't imagine what that would be like really, only having the smallest of impression of it with my AS. You guys have my admiration and respect.

I had to vote "no" this time.

I don't hate being so different - it's being HATED for it! The constant job loss, the nearly-friendless existence, being ridiculed everywhere I go all 30+ years of my life.

I'd give up the talents to gain normalcy.

I fear that being an NT would have no challenge at all, being normal is boring. I just wanna be an aspie + social skills.

I have often wondered what it would be like to be Nt but then why would I wanna change me. My AS is part of me and I aint gonna change it for nowt.

Would I like to be neurotypical? I don't know, it depends on how much of myself I'd lose. Where's the "Unsure" option?

I like being me. My only regret is that I didn't find anyone who liked me being me for a very, very long time.

I think as an aspie, I experience a lot more real sensations than NTs do. I know what it is to have real friends that aren't concerned with my outside. I know what it is like to think on an everyday basis. I know how to think for myself.

Besides, my goal in life is now to work with kids on the spectrum as a music therapist (I'm in grad school currently), and if I didn't have the experiences that I have now from the previous years, then I don't think I would get as far.

I'd like to stay the waxy I am. Which means autistic. I mean really, I like myself, so whoever I am, whatever I am, I can stay like that, health and disorders aside. I am content with my personality and it was of course affected greatly by autism.

The only thing I'd have liked is to now about my ASD from childhood on, definitely. That is less because I always felt different, which of course I did, but more because of the general expectations and hopes people have and had about me and how my own skills and talents don't agree with them, but are there to be discovered by other means. I learned so much by just knowing I'm autistic.
Non-autistic children can look at other people for how to do things, for what works best, what might apply for them, but this doesn't apply when you're autistic.

I don't think I would be any less intelligent without AS, although I think I'd lose some of my sense of humor.

I used to think that A.S. made me who I was, but thinking of all my diagnoses (OCD, ADD, Avoidant Personality, Major Depressive Disorder) and how they're directly caused by having Asperger's, and how miserable my life has always been, I would give up A.S. in a heartbeat if it meant I could have a chance at being happy.

I do not want to join the ranks of either the autonomous collective or the greedy manipulative bastards, both of which seem to populate 99% of all NT-dom. I'll stay aspie any day, thank you very much...

The only thing I would want to change about myself is my childhood (being the subject of much bullying). I go to an engineering school now, and people here are much easier to get along with...

It's hard to say...some days I would give anything to be NT. For the most part though, I'll stay an Aspie. I woulnd't give up my musical talent for anything in the world. The only reason I would want to be an NT is so I could have more social skills/personality and a girlfriend.

Having only discovered Asperger's Syndrome in the last few months and only had the possibility of a official diagnosis in the last couple of weeks this is something that has been on my mind quite a bit recently.

I was trying to imagine what my life might have been like to this point if I didn't have AS and I just can't, so much of my life has been shaped by it that I really don't have any idea how it would have differed if I didn't have it.

The conclusion I came to actually shocked me - I have been extremely depressed recently, I tend to get it at the start of each academic year (living with new people, new rules, new workloads and expectations etc) and I thought that I hated my life so when I realised that given the choice I would rather stay as I am because if I were NT I probably wouldn't be where I am now I realised that maybe my life wasn't so bad.

Saying that although I'd keep the Aspergers I wish I had been diagnosed much earlier, maybe it would have saved me a great deal of misery in my adolesence