Are you proud of being on the spectrum?

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I am. I agree I didn't do anything to cause it or anything but I still feel like I am pround of it.

Oh and kerosene on the fire? My idiom book doesn't have that one and I am not good with idioms. Will someone here interepret?

When the world gives you gas, be proud to wield mustard gas.

I am neither proud nor ashamed. It is part of who I am. I am not ashamed of who I am, though I also feel no particular sense of pride. It is who I am and at most I accept it.

Being proud of being on the spectrum is something all of us should want.

How can one be proud of something that is not the result of either choice or effort?

ruveyn

Trust me, I'm proud of something that is not the result of either choice or effort.

Yes, I am proud to be autistic. Why? Because I am unique and I have special abilities that I would not have had had I been born NT. I take great pride in those special abilities. These special abilities are caused by my special intense interests that have helped drive me through life. Take my music for example. I am an excellent organist. My abilities on the organ have come not by the desire to play music in so much as it was in having an extremely intense special interest/fascination with the electronics of the organ. The switches, tabs, sliders, mechanisms, etc. are what got me into playing the organ. The same thing goes for the hammered dulcimer, mountain dulcimer, banjimer, trombone, harmonica, etc. I am a professional musician not as much for the desire of the music as it has been for the fascination with the instrument itself. Let me give another example of how this works in my life. When I go camping, I am not that much into the experience of the outdoors and the campfires, etc. My desire lies in the fascination with the looks, architectural detailing, etc. of the travel trailers and tents. My joy at the campground therefore is in the travel trailer or tent, not the camping experience. I have a 1961 Airstream travel trailer in my backyard that I bought in 2004. I have been fascinated with Airstreams since I was a child. I love the looks and design of them. Guess what, I have never spent a night in that Airstream. All I mainly do is look at it. That gives me joy. I am proud to be autistic because I am a talented savant. I can play whatever musical instrument that I become fascinated with in a short amount of time (less than a week) and with no lessons or training. I also memorized the statistics for every roller coaster (another special intense interest) in the United States, Canada, and Mexico by the time I was in high school---and I didn't have to study those statistics---they just stuck in my head. There are other reasons I am proud to be autistic, but I think this suffices for now. And yes, there are challenges in my life---but even NTs have challenges. I must be honest---if reincarnation is real, I would be afraid of being an NT in a future life---I would want to be autistic again. In my church music ministry, I give thanks to God for making me autistic. I have had an enjoyable life. And yes, I don't have a social life, and yes, I lack the motor skills necessary to play typical sports, and yes, I have sensory issues, and yes, I have a son who is autistic (and another son that may also be autistic---but he doesn't want diagnosed) and yes, I fail to get a lot of humor, and yes, I tend to take things literally, etc. etc. etc. But so what, I have focused on using the things that my "deck of cards of life" has in it. So yes, I am proud to be autistic. I am proud to be a mystery in this primarily NT world. I can trace the autism gene in my family back 200 years. I am proud of that heritage.

Tracing your autism gene in the family, eh? I wish more knowledge was available to find specific things that could possibly make my life a little better.

The autism gene research started after my diagnosis. I began examining members of my family on this particular lineage---and identifying obvious autistic traits in it. One cousin for example was institutionalized in the Athens Ohio Psychiatric Hospital from the time he was 16 until he was an old man---he was an autistic savant more like the classic Rain Man stereotype, whereas I am a talented autistic savant. I had a great uncle who had a nice log house where he ate and set on the porch a lot, but had a seperate sleeping cabin that he built straddling a creek---the water runs right underneath it. And he was obsessed with whittling/carving these mechanical figures with multiple moving parts powered by his own electrified mechanical motors. He had a special building he built just to house them. All around his property he built wooden structures---and he did not socialize to my knowledge.

I am interested in the fact that I bet there are things in your life Krasher to make your life better. Have you searched for things?

How?

When you believe in yourself it gives you the power to accomplish things otherwise thought impossible.

P.S. Just think of it as destiny, makes things a lot easier.

For once I feel at peace, your a kind soul and I'm grateful for this discussion. I plan to search for things soon I hope.

Are you proud of being on the spectrum?

NO

I am not "proud" of my shoe size.
I am not "proud" of my hair color.
I am not "proud" of my skin color.
I am not "proud" of my blood type.

I have no right to take credit for, or refer to as an accomplishment or detriment, any of the above.
Pride/shame, Proud/blame have zero relevance to the truth inside once accepted as simple fact.
The society spectrum is a complexity beyond comprehension, and it requires an aspie to admit it. The "NT" spectrum appears to be automatic in acceptance of itself and it's assumptions of correctness. The Autistic spectrum appears to manual in correctness and requires facts prior to acceptance.
That being re-construed, I am proud that I have finally accepted the fact that I have have the right to be wrong, and so doesn't the next guy. The acceptance of aspergers is an accomplishment that I have to actively participate in. The acceptance of others is a result of accepting myself. It brings a comforting gratitude that does not require the arrogance of pride and diminishes the remorseful victim of self infliction.

I don't care anymore.

The concept of pride is used by marginalised and oppressed groups to proclaim their equal value as persons with other human beings, e.g. Black pride, Gay pride. It has nothing to do with personal pride. So in that sense in believe in autistic pride. As to whether I am proud of being on the spectrum I care very little, if at all, now.

I agree with glidder18.
Yesterday I've talked with my mother and she said: "Are you ok?", I said: "Why?". She answered with a question: "Why do you want to diagnose yourself, you always wanted and come up with something strange, what's wrong?". I said: "Well, I always known that my brain was different, and now I know why, that's cool". "Are you not scared?". "No, I'm happy".

Actually I'm an uncurable optimistic. I'm proud of it. I'm proud of my brain. I know that it's not my "responsability", it's not the same as being proud of a good work, but let's say it in another word: "I was scared about the idea of becaming normal, and I'm happy that my son has some AS trait, and If anything like reincarnation would exist, I want to be exactly as I am". Isn't it proud?

Yet, it's easy for me. When my sense overload I've managed to "selective-exculde" them. I was able to focus inside a classroom without problem simply because I didn't listen, see, etc.. While in overload I usually shout-down instead of melt (shout-down is actually more acceptable). I hate strong light, I hate strong sound but they make me only nervous, it takes a lot to make me meltdown. I have a very very big self-control. I can avoid stimming and the like (If I want), I'm basically now (27 y-old) able to mimitize myself inside NTs. I'm not very social but actually I don't care. So yes probably if I can balance AS-bad / AS-good think it's like 20/80 for me, so it's probably easyer.
My AS gives me: good night vision, the ability to percive rumors, etc.. that other people don't, a very high focus ability, a perfect pattern-recognizing ability, a mind and a sense of self that probably 99.99% of NTs lack. So yes, I'm happy.

When I talked with my wife about our son she said: "How can you be so happy? Didn't you remember all bad things you have gone into when a child? All the bulling? All that people calling you weird? All that problem". Well no. I'm happy and I'm happy of all the bad things happened to me. My brain was a gift but my character was build around all my expirience and all that "bad things" are the ones who made me the person I am. Without them I'll be not so strong-willed, I'll not be so sympatetical with people in needs, I'll not be better, probably worst so? So I think that 20 years of pain are worth being a better person for other 60 years.