Aspies, does it bother you to be lumped in with autistics?

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The expression "lumped in" in this context sort of makes me cringe. It's disturbing how people with classic/Kanner's autism are often referred to as inferior in one way or another; and it's doubly disturbing when it is other people on the spectrum that see them like that, in spite of being essentially the same way themselves, only to a lesser extent.

I don't see why any strict line ought to be drawn between AS and classic autism. Both are part of the autistic spectrum, and the difference between them is quantitative rather than qualitative. All the more so that some people move up the spectrum as they mature, so that, while they may have matched the profile of classic autism as children, they appear to be AS later in adulthood, and may be diagnosed with just that if their childhood records are not looked into.

I don't go around telling people about my diagnosis for the very reasons indicated in this thread. Sometimes I am NT-like, sometimes not. But in either case, if somebody expects me to do something I have trouble with, I will either suck up and do it or I will tell them 'no, this makes me uncomfortable' I will never say "oh I am aspie, this might cause problems and blablabla". Because really, all aspies and auties are different. And the fact that I am officially diagnosed is hardly relevant to anything. NTs can have the same difficulties as me, too.

First, I'm new to all of this. I just thought I screwed up as a child, rather than suffering from AS or any other ASD. It's only recently that I really figured out I had AS, and looking back it's painfully obvious to me. Still, no one ever tried to diagnose me with autism as a child. We may all be somewhere on the spectrum, but our locations there are all vastly different.

A great example is the concept of "Rich people." Any number of people could be on the "rich-people spectrum." However there is certainly a big difference between a guy with $5 million and, say, Bill Gates with $50 billion or whatever he's worth these days. There are some who are getting richer, and some who are losing money no doubt. There are some who invest in stocks, others who inherited tons of money and some who are just famous actors or athletes. We can call them all "Rich People" but there is an enormous difference between them. Sub-groupings like "millionaire" and "billionaire" help, and further groupings of "old money" and "new money" help as well.

So I don't mind being lumped in with other people who are on the spectrum if it's taken that way, if someone is speaking in generalizations. I.e. "People who have Autistic Spectrum Disorders are likely to have social issues." But people should be aware of the enormous variety of people who are on the spectrum, and therefore be careful to distinguish non-verbal Autistics from the almost indistinguishable-from-NT AS folk, especially when talking to people who have little knowledge of autism or AS. This way people don't get the wrong idea when you tell them "I have AS" and they look it up somewhere and see the word autism. When I told my girlfriend about the fact that I have AS, I was very careful to point out that although it is an ASD, and I am on that spectrum, that I am at a different location than a non-verbal autistic. Of course that should be painfully obvious to people, but for some reason it usually isn't.

That's pretty long, but I guess the summary is I don't mind being lumped in with autistics, because we are all on that spectrum, but I do want to make sure that people also realize the differences that are present on the spectrum.

I don't really mind being "lumped in" with autistic people, but I do resent being "lumped in" with people who have more serious mental illnesses (i.e. schizophrenia). Don't get me wrong, I know they are people with real feelings and all, but the mental health community in my town is mainly geared toward low-functioning people with mental illnesses, people who are almost ret*d rather than just mentally ill. That is what I resent.