What's your favorite part of being an aspie/autie?

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Joe90: my thoughts exactly,

In my case, just because I might be intellegent on subjects like astrophysics and other mathematical sciences, I don't believe it to come from the same neurology that gave me AS.

Many Neurotypicals have the capacity to learn complex academic subjects, but they have a choice, to study academically, but they can also choose to socialise. They have to split up their time if they want to do both.
Because socialising was hell for me, I had virtually no choice but to study academically ; so most of my time-effort went into that rathar than the neurotypcial practice of mixing some academic study with some socialising.
The neurotypical person could achieve all the same things as any aspie, but because the NT has a *choice* on whether to involve themselves with both objects and people, their time-effort is less intensely focused on one particular area of academia.

My 'unique' insight into things, comes from my analytic mind and individuality, not from AS ; just as NTs can have a 'unique' insight into things.
All the things I'm good at, many NTs are good at too.

The "good to be on the spectrum" argument is the same as a person who is confined to a wheelchair and says "hey I can do these cool manoevres on my wheelchair, normal walking people can't do that, so I'm superior ; I have unique skills"

Until I ran into the diagnosis, at the age of fifty-two, I'd maintained a hope that some day the endless rat-run would turn out to be worth something.

Now, I'm trapped in a world where old people's right not to know of their autism trumps my discovery of my own.

For the young people I've met, who've wrestled with autism and society's awkward attempts to ameliorate it, an adult society that knows of and accepts autism is essential. That's so far from my experience that it's scary.

What's good about being autistic? That hope for the future - that we can be as we are and that'l be enough.

I love everything about being an Aspie. I see what most people don't see. I'm able to focus for long periods of time. I enjoy my special interests. I have the ability to question popular culture and do my own thing. I'm the only person in my family who speaks with an English accent. I'm also able to handle repetitive tasks for long periods of time. The only thing that I don't like about being an Aspie is the fact that I see Autism Squeaks ads all over the place and that's a reminder to me that most people aren't willing to accept autism and the people who are on the spectrum and most NTs want people on the spectrum to be wiped out.

Hang on, let me make an another analogy out of this analogy you made up. If a person in a wheelchair (who can't walk) can do cool manoevres with their wheelchair, a person who is able to walk can still get into a wheelchair and practice different moves in the wheelchair, but obviously a person who can walk doesn't spend their time in a wheelchair and so won't need to do this skill, and so either won't take up the time to get so good at it or won't need to do it. So I suppose that's a bit like NT intelligence and Aspie intelligence?

It's that I've basically grown up in an NT world, I was diagnosed at 8 but never knew any other Aspies until I was 17, so I had to just adapt to the NT world (I was in mainstream school all through and was brought up in an NT family). So most of my life I have been observing NTs, and I know that not all NTs are all exactly the same. On WP I have seen a lot of ''nothing interests NTs'', but that is not true. Just because NTs may not get big fixations on to a narrow subject and not become so obsessed that they can't stop thinking about and talking about it non-stop, it doesn't mean that they have no interests at all. I remember at school it was always hard to get all the children completely still and quiet during lessons, but one science lesson (when we were about 11) the teacher stood up the front of the class for 2 hours telling us all about the universe and everything, and for the whole 2 hours all the children sat very still and very quietly, and they were all so interested that they didn't want lunchtime to come, they wanted to stay in the classroom and have the teacher tell them more. I did too, I was as interested in what she was telling us as what all the other kids were. The universe is an interesting subject, although it is not my special interest or is not something I think about in my day to day life, I still would be interested if somebody put something up on the internet about it or something. ''Interest'' doesn't mean ''something an Autistic person feels''. It means ''something a person is interested in'', meaning anyone can have interests in anything, but it is more common in Autistics to become signifficantly interested in something to the point of an intense obsession what they literally cannot stop thinking about and they usually make this interest the most important thing in the world.

I don't have Aspergers, nor do I have Autism (at least never diagnosed anyway) but I definitely share a few traits. I have that "stare" that's apparently common in Aspie's/Autie's in photographs and stuff, and I have this expressionless face 90% of the time, and strange body language.

I just think of it as my 'poker face' so no-one knows what I'm actually thinking or feeling

Well people in North Korea love their country and literally cried when Kim Jong Il died.
North Koreans are completely and totally isolated from the rest of the world. It's like living on a different planet where their leader is worshipped like a God.

Draw the parallel to Asperger Syndrome ; my argument is that those who believe that having AS is a good thing, is the same as North Koreans believing their own country is the greatest, kindest, most generous. The point is that North Koreans have never been outside their country, so don't know any better.

If you don't know, or can never feel the joys that Neurotypical socialisation may bring, then who are you to judge which is better ; AS or NT.

For me, what's my favourite part of being oneself has nothing to do with neurolological classification, and everything to do with one's individual experience and personality.


... and so do most Neurotypicals that I know of. Many people out there don't. Many do. It seems like your argument is a result of forming a very selective view of only a certain group of low-IQ NTs.


No they don't.
I do. But most of them don't.


Well there are several millions out there in the neighbouring counties around London who speak with an English accent. Most of those are Neurotypical.

Hi Chris,

If that is you in your avatar, has anyone ever told you how much you look like Roger Federer?

I can tell from this post and others I've seen by you that you have very strong feelings about AS. I can certainly understand your frustrations but I just wanted to personally say to you that not everyone feels like you do and sometimes you come across, at least to me, as a bit too antagonistic to others. Of course, everyone is entitled to his or her opinion but I'm thinking that some of your comments might curtail others from fully expressing their opinion. To me, and again this is my personal opinion, your response in this post was a bit harsh.

For me, I have some aspie traits I would rather not have. I would rather walk into a crowded room and have everyone like me instantly for example but of course that doesn't seem to happen. As one person put it to me a long time ago, I am an "acquired taste." Maybe I don't give off the right pheromones or make the right faces or who knows exactly why some of us aspies struggle with social things even though we are good people.

On the other hand, there are many traits that I can attribute to being an aspie that I dearly love and wouldn't trade for anything. For example, my heightened sense of smell, taste, and hearing. These are all things that can sometimes cause problems in the modern world of motorcycles and car horns but the positives that come out of these extra strong senses more than than out weigh the negatives, by a long shot actually. While I don't put a lot of stock in IQ scores and such, fluid intelligence is a very special kind of intelligence that I have seen many aspies (or aspie like people) possess and when present I would say that it is one of the very best things about being an aspie. In fact, it is good for the world at large with the likes of Einstein and Mozart. While NT's can possess this special kind of intelligence, it is far more prevalent in aspies and perhaps with those "broader AS phenotypes" I keep hearing about lately. I also love being able to see details that most others around me don't notice and to put things together and figure things out that most people can't. Finally, I do think that many aspies possess a special way with animals and I wouldn't give up this trait for anything either!

Sometimes I hate it. I hate being seen as odd by so-called "normal" people.
Sometimes it's fun. Some aspies have outrageously fantastic senses of humor. I like that. I like being easily amused by things that other people don't get. It's just fun to see humor in the most unlikely places and situations.

One thing I like about it is how playing music has been my main special interest for 14 or so years. It's allowed me to stay on track with my music playing. My other musical abilities (like absolute pitch, ability to learn instruments extremely rapidly, etc.), I am not sure if they come from my autism or not, but I like to think that, just like NTs who are good at music, I just happen to be good at it.

Another part that I'm not sure about, as far as playing music goes, is how I see/sense/think of whichever chord/scale/mode/key I'm playing in as shapes, which are related to the fingering of it on bass/guitar (same fingerings pretty much). If I'm on piano, which I only started playing about 2.75 years ago, I will be sensing shapes based off of the piano fingering and the bass fingering at the same time - it's the only instrument where I've learned it and developed new shapes. On ocarina for example, I just have the bass fingering based shapes.

I have no idea if that would be related to my autism or not, but either way I enjoy having that.

Another thing - my memory. I have very detailed and very long lasting memory. I once played a song (from a movie) I had only heard once, when I was 5 or 6, at my current age. It was also played correctly.

I have a bachelor's degree and I pretty much never studied, even for a final exam that was 60% of the entire grade in the class, and cumulative, on which I got an A. I just remember all the things I have read, although that doesn't stop me from reading books over and over again. I also remembered each class I had attended, and when I saw each question I could remember which class the professor gave us the information to answer it, or which book for the class had that information, sometimes even which page (if I paid attention to page numbers). Also, speaking of books, I never use bookmarks, I always remember where I left off exactly.

I also can, for many days/times, name the specific calendar day, day of the week, year, and even specific time of day that certain things happened. Sometimes they're events that I found important, other times they're completely random moments, often they're just times when I noticed which day of the week it was, the calendar date, and the time of day. It's not particularly useful, but I like remembering things like that anyway.

I live in Canada.

Oh, great...another person who doesn't believe that I'm sensitive. Talk to the hand. One more thing. What are you doing on WP if you think that Aspies and autistics should be wiped out? That doesn't make sense. If you think that ASDs should be wiped out, than maybe you shouldn't be on WP.

So far, I hate everything about being an aspie. I like to fit in with all the NTs, but I feel like my AS triats can get in the way and I have to work harder to seem "chill" to my peers. I still don't accept myself as an aspie, and I still fear that I won't be accepted by anyone else If I tell them. To me, AS is like a parasite inside my brain :-/

Guys, I need to make an apology.

then I wrote


I'm very sorry that I said that.
I do not actually want to go around wiping out people on the spectrum.

I do wish the condition could be prevented. WITH A PASSION.
In my case, my Aspie traits have done nothing but good ; caused endless anxiety and depression, to such an extent that personally I would rather have been miscarraiged, than to suffer a life with AS symptoms.

I got quite passionate because someone preached an AS superiority complex, and combined that with a sweeping statement of NTs that is just factually not true. To say NTs want to wipe us (me included) off the planet is also quite offensive ; you are talking about my friends and family here.

So, grovel grovel. Apology made.
I could have just edited the thread but that would have been cowardly.

That's how I feel about it. I'm an AS-hater, I hate having it, and I think it makes it worse when all my cousins are all normal and will always find it easier than me to find and keep friends, and I'll have to struggle for the rest of my life, all because my stupid brain couldn't be wired the way it should have been, and I feel I want to blame someone but can't. Lots of people on here just say ''AS makes me who I am'', it doesn't really with me. It makes me who I don't want to be. Because I'm so mild, I can sort of imagine myself still being me but taking the AS part away. And that would be wonderful if that came true!

But would you say "stupid brain" about yourself if you were in a World where highly logical highly rational people, were the norm? I'm just trying to establish whether it's only the comparison of yourself with other people that makes you feel this way, or something more than that.

The contra-argument of course from most of the pro-AS people, of "that it isn't wrong, just different", does have a good point. I don't agree with it personally, but I have to respect those opinions.

Going back to the topic of the thread, "fav. part of being an aspie" ; I guess the answer from many of us is "none" ; the other answers [correct me if my interpretation is wrong] seem to claim an "advantage" of AS that can only be made apparent if the aspie were to compare him/herself with only a selected specific low-IQ, poorly educated Neurotypicals.
It goes back to the brainwashed North Korean ; he might think that he lives in paradise. But we see more of the real World than the brainwashed North Korean does. So we cannot really take too seriously such a person's claim that their country is paradise.

One thing I rather like about AS is that we present such a challenge to the interfering busybodies out there who seem to think people can be hammered into a pre-set mould - it's particularly noticeable in the world of work (because of the profit motive) but it also happens in other social setting.....there's always this "oh, you've GOT to do that, everybody does." Everybody's trying to make everybody else over all the time. Then along comes an Aspie, and suddenly that formula doesn't work any more.

Of course for the individual Aspie this is often a source of great pain and strife because we're in the firing line, but because we can't knuckle under and "walk on a broken leg" for them, they never win, so they get this wonderful take-home message that they are NOT entitled to absolute flexibility and compliance from any individual.

Another thing I love about Aspies is pathological honesty.....again it's an area in which I think we have the moral high ground, though it's also important that we try to keep the lid on brutal frankness at times. But it's so refreshng to hear of (e.g.) an Aspie whose partner asks "how do I look?" and he responds with sincerity. Sure, it's not always pleasant, but how narcissistic and insecure is it for a person to expect to always be told "you are the fairest of all" regardless of the truth? We are the ones who dare to speak out when the emperor has no clothes, when everybody else is lying to feed egos and ingratiate themselves. The world would be even nastier than it is, if not for whistleblowers such as Aspies.