Do you think your condition is apparent to others?

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Irulan
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13 May 2008, 7:35 am

We can safely assume it is ALWAYS more or less obvious to others that there's something unusual about us but the question is what they tend to put it down to.

I think in my case it is very obvious because I'm very quiet (until a situation when I am able to give an answer nobody else knows appears or when I want to criticize someone's point of view) and always standing in some distance, not among my peers and if some benign soul wants to pull me into conversation, it becomes even more obvious because I almost never have the same opinion about things if we are not talking about neutral topics. I also never keep a direct eye contact and my manner of speaking is formal. My voice rarely reflects my feelings.

But I don't know any people who would suspect me of having something from autistic spectrum, I pass for an eccentric person and nothing more.



Brandon-J
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13 May 2008, 10:05 am

They tend to think Im quiet then as time goes on they may think i'm weird.



sonny1471
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13 May 2008, 10:14 am

Certain traits have been commented on for years... low eye contact, odd interests, lack of friends, etc. While those things were never connected to AS in their heads, it now makes perfect sense to me and those I decide to tell. I typically don't share that I'm on the spectrum unless there's a specific reason to do so though.



kit000003
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13 May 2008, 10:25 am

I think management at work knows...

We have a HFA? man working in receiving.... (don't know how to tell how high functioning a person is) But he definitely shows many outward signs of autism... And the other receiving person I haven't had much to do with, but I have this suspiscion that she's on the spectrum somewhere.... But I'll never ask... So management here has experience dealing with spectrum individuals.

And I have had a few odd comments from upper management (when speaking to them in their office) like "oh right, it's numbers" because I said I would be interested in looking at the pay raise schedule (I am an accounting student). It is a half inch booklet, laid out in spreadsheets.



KingdomOfRats
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13 May 2008, 12:28 pm

am have obvious autism,and staff/family have often been asked if am autistic by strangers.
am live in an area that is also home to many other adult autistics,and is also also a popular area visited by autistics,so this place especially has a lot more autism awareness.

am still find ignorance off a specific group though-old people,its to do with them having only known of physical disabilities when they were younger,they will have understanding for a wheel chair,cane or hearing aid user but when it's a rocking,hand flapping, head throwing ear defender wearing one who starts headbanging and attacking themselves/out because of their whistling they tell dad to give am a smack.
non physical disabilities do not need awareness to have understanding,can have understanding without knowing exactly what it is,instead of calling someone pyscho,ret*d,crazy,mental,pyschotic etc they should think first-
why are they doing it,and respect them like anyone else.


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13 May 2008, 12:57 pm

well come to think of it only one person has ever guessed right away that I'm autistic - the best friend who gave me the link spent the first few months she knew me asking me if I was autistic because she was positive I was. Entertainingly enough it was her prompting that made me talk to my doctor and psychologist (oh the joys of being 'maladjusted') about the possibility.



ThatRedHairedGrrl
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13 May 2008, 1:28 pm

Interesting question.

As a child, my parents found me, variously, strange, uncontrollable, too quiet, anti-social, intelligent but totally lacking in common sense, living in a world of my own, and developing backwards rather than forwards (this last often said when I showed interest in certain things they regarded as appropriate to a younger age, like comic books). Oh, and my mother always told me that if I avoided everyone's eyes all the time (as I tended to do), they'd think I was dishonest. My teachers labeled me disruptive, a daydreamer and again, antisocial.

By the time I left school, I'd worked out the social stuff enough to have a few friends, and when the autograph books got passed round at the end of the last term, someone wrote in mine: "You know....you're weird...but you're all right!" That's probably been the concensus of most of the people who've ever known and liked me.

Workplaces have varied. I now work in a pathology lab, where there's not much contact with the public, and some other people there have admitted that that's why they gravitated to that kind of work. (In fact, there was one guy in the past who had an Aspie son - sweet kid - and a few AS traits himself, but he never remarked on anything unusual about my behavior.) Past places haven't always been so understanding - I nearly had a nervous breakdown a few years back, after being put in a counter position. And I've actually been bullied in some other offices. "Weird" was the word there too, but they didn't say it with quite so much affection.

The interesting thing is my family. My sister-in-law teaches 'special needs' kids, and I'm pretty sure that has included kids on the autistic spectrum. She's known me since I was about six, and has remarked on what a strange, super-polite, quiet child I was. But, I think she puts it down to me having had a very old-fashioned upbringing, and I'm not sure she connects it with the kids she teaches. My husband has joked about his own 'Asperger behavior' at odd times (he's rather quiet and regarded as 'weird' by some, although I'm not convinced he's actually AS) but they do treat it as just a joke and it's never led to serious discussion. Would be interesting to find out what would happen if I did mention it.


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hal9000
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13 May 2008, 1:34 pm

my condition is very apparent to others. At work I'm quiet, unable to look at people in the eye when I pass them, and I eat lunch by myself. I guess I'm the loner and I'm comfortable with that. I didn't think people noticed until someone pointed out to me that I don't talk a lot. Maybe because I internalise everything, I'm always thinking but on the surface there's not much there.



Last edited by hal9000 on 13 May 2008, 1:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Social_Fantom
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13 May 2008, 1:34 pm

No one in my area takes the time to learn about anything, including AS or autism so I think they just assume I'm weird. :?


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Escuerd
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13 May 2008, 1:51 pm

I also mostly just get people telling me I'm weird. Sometimes I can see why, others I can't.



LCD
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13 May 2008, 2:34 pm

My general direct eye contact avoidance probably arouses suspicion, but exactly how many people are aware of Asperger's?



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13 May 2008, 2:41 pm

I don't think many know... I had to explain it to two of my classes, in my living and working with children it was brought up that one of the girls in our class had a learning disability and I replied with 'I'm autistic' to which I had to explain all about ASD and Asperger's
The second was while reading a book to my writer's craft class - no one in either had ever heard of it and I felt a little odd afterwards when everyone kept asking about it :oops:



Phssthpok
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13 May 2008, 3:18 pm

I don't mention it to anyone and they probably don't know. I don't see how they could know unless they were pretty knowledgeable about it and perceptive enough to notice it. I've never even told my parents about it but I know for a fact my dad is aware of aspergers. We were talking about that girl from MIT who tried to go through airport security with the circuit board on her shirt and it didn't occur to her that that would be a red flag for the TSA and I said she might be autistic and he said yeah like aspergers syndrome. The way he said it was odd which might be my imagination but he has never suggested I might have it.



samantca
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13 May 2008, 3:35 pm

Some things i do have been commented on for ages, like my stims and my obsessions. But i think i mostly come off as shy and a bit weird. Weird in the sense that i sometimes laugh when everyone else is dead serious etc.



theQuail
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13 May 2008, 4:54 pm

People just think I'm shy and quirky, I think... *quick glance around*

I don't think most people would ever think I'm autistic because I don't stim obviously and have a good verbal ability. It would be interesting to see if people educated about autistic spectrum conditions would think I'm on the spectrum. A psychiatrist specializing in Aspergers was quite certain I had mild Aspergers, but she tried to read my mind too much and sometimes guessed wrong when trying to figure out why I do some weird things.

People that aren't familiar with me, like substitute teachers, seem to assume that I'm not very bright, am not all there, or even arrogant because I keep to myself so much. Well, the odd facial expressions and general awkwardness might just contribute to the first two impressions... People that are more familiar with me still think I'm weird because I don't socialize and enjoy writing in codes. It takes a long time to explain that you are just writing English phonetically with a modified Hangul system, and don't actually know Korean... or that you're writing in an original script, which is obviously not Arabic because it's left-to-right and not cursive. :nerdy:



Last edited by theQuail on 13 May 2008, 6:07 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Tim_Tex
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13 May 2008, 5:11 pm

pinkbowtiepumps wrote:
When you interact with other people, do you think that they assume you're on the spectrum, or do they just assume you're quiet and quirky? Do you think it crosses their minds?

Most people I know don't know what AS is, so they assume I'm just a little quiet. If I happen to tell anybody, then they'll usually respond with "...oh, that makes so much sense!"

What about you?


That's probably what they assume about me.


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