Im ret*d

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I agree with the OP in that I to often feel as if my cognitive abilities mean nothing in certain situations.

An example is in my new job. I have been out of work for some time, and am therefore unacquainted with a lot of the situations that arise around the office, and the social need to not be entirely task focused but chat with the others in my team.

Because of this I can often come across as intellectually lacking, or "stupid."

I've had that feeling many times, so you are not alone in the....'I'm ret*d but not ret*d' department.

I was called retorted when I started school is the later part of the 80s. I didn't have a clue what it meant at the time but I think my classmates may of really believed that I was suffering from something like mental retardation & weren't just using it as an insult for me. I don't have above average intelligence or any of the other stereotyped special strengths & skills us Aspies are thought to have.

They are used as insults on sites like 4Chan.

Most people have forgotten that the other terms were ever used as clinical terms. Unless you study history of medicine, very few people alive today will have encountered 'moron', 'imbecile' and 'idiot' being used as clinical terms. (I haven't seen any document younger than 1920s use those terms that way, so those who were old enough to remember when they were current terms will be well over 90 by now. And only if they had a personal connection with a cognitively disabled person are they likely to have encountered those terms.) 'Moron' was coined by Goddard, but 'imbecile' and 'idiot' were actually used as insults before they became medical terms.

In contrast, 'ret*d' was being used as a clinical term in the 60s and 70s, so plenty of people remember having a child or a sibling diagnosed as 'ret*d', getting the diagnosis themselves, or going to school with someone carrying that diagnosis. Also, the integration of disabled students first became common in that time period, greatly increasing public awareness of disabilities.

This article explains the "evolution" of the term pretty well, I think:

"The Rise and Fall of 'Mentally ret*d'"

Surprisingly, I believe "ret*d" was a clinical term even in the early 1990s. I know that the DSM IV, in 1994, did not have the term.

Some kid, in 7th grade, followed me around calling me "ret*d." When he turned around to shake my hand, I shook his hand virtually off. My mother got the doctor bills for the torn ligaments in the kid's fingers and wrist.

Why is almost every one focusing on the word ret*d & not the reason that the person feels the way they do. I feel that way a lot due to my shortcomings even though at least in some ways I'm very highly intelligent. For me it's not just the social aspects that I have shortcomings but in the cognitive areas as well.

If something doesn't interest me I cannot focus on it. This is usually an indication that I have a shortcoming in that area as well as there is something that I'm not able to pick up on. This is true even though I have a good reading comprehension & have had that as far back as when I was in my first year of special education which was in what would have been my 3rd grade year. I had a 12th grade reading level even that far back so certainly I was not stupid, just couldn't focus unless it really interested me.

It doesn't seem to me like your cognition is affected at all.

If you are able to discern that your cognition is affected, your cognition probably isn't affected.

It is often stated that people of "normal" or "above normal" intelligence, in the presence of a social disorder, are "cognitively intact."

It was my impression that cognition was not strictly related to intelligence but to things like executive function which is where I have significant problems though I could be wrong. Just looked up & yes executive function is a part of cognition though cognition does takes in a lot more than that. Granted if someone can't know who they are then there is a huge cognitive problem, that part is not my problem but executive function is.

In practice, it seems to me that cognition refers to basic recognition (hence "cognition); whereas "executive function" refers to the ability to make sense, and to appropriately react to, many instances of cognition.

My basic cognition is not affected; my executive function is affected to a degree.

In good executive function, the "headquarters" of your mind is neat and clean.

My "headquarters," while not necessarily dirty, is at least somewhat cluttered.

OK I agree I used the wrong word. Executive function would have been far better & eliminate confusion as to what I was writing about.

Are you presently on a run?

I think it's great that, if you're on a run, you could use your tablet (or even laptop) to go on WP!

Yes I am on a run, I am at a customer's getting unloaded. It usually takes this place 2 or more hours to unload.

Are you going cross-country? And sleeping in your cab, and all that?

No I work local. Western wa. Puget sound area. I drive a 4 axle day cab tractor that's licenced for 98,000 pounds. Currently I have a 3 axle chassis with a 40 foot high cube container on it. The tractor has a twin turbo 475 horsepower Caterpillar 15 liter engine & 18 speed Eaton Fuller transmission.