Treated like you are crazy?

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When I was still in college, there was a biweekly support group for autistics on campus. I attended once and found what I feared--it was run by an NT who was just brimming with ways we could act like NTs and was just so ready to treat us like the ret*d children he thought us to be. So I and most of the people there stopped going, and simply met informally in the library or student union to discuss our issues.

People often see "different" and classify it incorrectly.

A good example of this is my physical vs. my mental disability. OK I have autism and depression, but I am pretty darn smart or at least used to be before I got old. (Another "different" state that often gets one treated like an idiot or a child.) But for the past 10 years or longer, I have been unable to walk without an assistive device.

So I go into a restaurant using either a walker or a scooter, due to my spinal lesion. Waiter falls all over himself seating us, then READS THE MENU to me at a slow tempo. I said "I KNOW how to READ."

Later I asked him where the restroom was. It looks like he is planning to escort me, so I said - in a sarcastic tone that he probably missed - "I see it, I can take it from here."

When I got back to the table, my amused husband said "you should have told him you need him to wipe your butt afterward, I bet he would have fallen for it." I said I was thinking the same thing!

My point is, people get nervous and stupid when they see something that they think requires some special response but they don't know what the correct response is. I can't count the number of times I have asked people to NOT hold the door for me, and sometimes I have to tell them two or three times. They can see a disability and assume that means you are deaf, dumb, blind, and stupid, all rolled up into one. I have also had people confuse mental illness and mental retardation. When I mentioned I was studying mental illness, they said "Oh yes, I have a nephew with Down's syndrome." Not the same thing at all!

I personally see a huge difference in being respectful and caring or treating someone like an idiot or child and not taking them seriously. Pride is a huge factor for people of course and understandable but everyone should at least see the good intentions, even if undesirable by the person in question.