Joy Is Asperger's!

Post Reply New Topic

Today I've been thinking about my condition, my syndrome: Asperger's. It's a mild form of autism, but that's not all. Asperger's is joy! Whenever I go online and visit one of the several Internet communities for us aspies, I get a tingly sensation that I can only call unremitting ecstasy. I would embrace AS as I would a longtime friend; Asperger's syndrome is my companion. Together we conquer our stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest with our unflaggering attention to detail. I am one with my autism, and it is bliss.

I am somewhat embarrassed to share this with all of you. It's only come to me just now, and the feelings are overwhelming. Sometimes I wonder if other aspies will find me too unaspie for this or that reason. Maybe one of my experiences won't be typically aspie. I'm very much afraid of that. Dare I share?

Now I must figure out how to cope with those people without my condition out there--those cold, indifferent neurotypicals--those NTs! I wonder if we're better than they are: you know, smarter, more focused, concerned with the right things. I wonder if we're the next evolutionary stage after Homo sapiens sapiens. Homo sapiens aspergerus. That's us! Those NTs are constantly oppressing us with their quack therapies, their psychopharmaceuticals, and their discriminatory practices. I hate them! I'd like to join hand in hand with my fellow aspies someday and parade on the street for Our Rights!

Then I remember it isn't about the bigots; it's about us. Asperger's isn't an oppressor; it's a gift. I wish to use my gift as those more famous aspies like Albert Einstein, Michelangelo, and Bill Gates already have. I want the world to know that aspieness is progress! I want to share the joy and spread the love.

I am aspie; and, dammit, I am proud!

Néant Humain

NeantHumain - it's brilliant that you feel like this, and thank you for sharing it with everyone, especially as you had doubts about sharing.

i hope the rest of this reply doesn't sound as though i'm trying to burst your bubble - i'm not disagreeing, just offering a different viewpoint, personal to me, as yours is to you.

cold and indifferent? or just ignorant about AS? i still think that the majority of people know so little about AS that their reactions tend to be those of fear through not understanding - the unusual, different, strange, or unpredictable is threatening to most people, NT, aspie or whoever. who is capable of reacting positively to something they know little, if not nothing, about? i know nothing about what it's like to have sickle cell anaemia, for example - it doesn't mean that i'm not sympathetic towards someone who has, just that i don't know how to respond to them.




dodgy territory, i feel. in classic psychology terms, feelings of superiority mask inner (i.e. unconscious and, therefore, unacknowledged) feelings of inferiority. yes, aspies are better at some things than NTs, but that's true of everybody - some people can paint and draw, others are good at maths, etc., some are great with people.

the evolution theory you mention is also dodgy, i feel, given the biological imperative of reproduction, and the seemingly common characteristic of many aspies i have read about (on here, and elsewhere) who have grave difficulties in achieving, maintaining and developing relationships: not all, i do understand, but it works against classic evolutionary theory. and this would only work if AS has a predominantly (if not totally) genetic causative agent.



oppression? or responding according to what they have learned? let's face it, the whole world is into therapies and pharmaceuticals these days - take a pill for anything, which is why so many antibiotics are no longer efficacious. discriminatory practices - well, yes: show me someone who isn't able-bodied, white, middle-class, heterosexual and male who isn't discriminated against. i'm not saying we should take this lying down, but education is the key. and hating NTs is counterproductive, i believe - how can you expect NTs not to hate aspies if aspies hate NTs? if it's a matter of understanding and learning about why people with AS behave and think as they do, then the same works in reverse - understand why NTs do what they do. since i've been "educating" people at my workplace, i've had nothing but interest and support from them. i know they come from the more "educated" section of society, but people with a narrow viewpoint will probably never get the point about AS (or most other things), and so it's daft to expect them to. i do believe that one keeps trying to show them, though (until it becomes obvious there's no point, anyway).



anyone can be a bigot. fundamentalism is about saying "i'm right and you're wrong", and will only win over people who are easily swayed and don't think for themselves. we have to encourage peope to think, rather than telling them they're bigots. and if that's playing by NT rules... well, we live in an NT world, and you have to play by the rules to win the game, i'm afraid. if that makes some aspies call me a "traitor" to AS, then so be it. i'd prefer to call myself a pragmatist.




again, i am genuinely smiling for you, Neant Humain. it's great that you're so positive. and finding where one can be happy is vital. have a big smile from me

embrace it good my friend!



Does knowing what year every school bus you ever rode on was built count? And if so, I look forward to joining you!



An aspie parade. I like the sound of that.

I personally wouldn't say that AS in itself is either 'joy' or 'pain'.

For me there are both extremely positive and extremely negative aspects of my AS.

Where I do feel a sense of 'joy' is in the fact that I can get what seems to be a ridiculous amount of pleasure out of the smallest of things:

The sound of a vacuum cleaner
The shape of building
The patterns of sound people make when they walk
The feel of my cats fur

I don't know how typical this is for others with AS but my natural tendency is towards a kind of euphoric trance-like state where these types of pleasures make most sense.

Whereas everything within this state is euphoric everything outside of it is to some degree stressful.

In order to function in the NT world throughout the day I have to constantly fight against the euphoria and live (for a while) in the stress.

This is the difficult side!

i find aspergers overbearing. i wish that i were "neurotypical" whatever that is

I can't help but think that these kinds of threads somehow miss the point of being human...

interesting, montjuic - any more you can say on that?

How dare you reject aspie orthodoxy in full! What kind of autistic are you, anyway? There is a party line, you know; and you must tow it! Being an apologist for those dispicable NTs won't get you anywhere with your compatriots.

/me hugs neanthumain.

thank you!

that's the best laugh i've had in ages. you're a star!

btw, i've never towed, or even toed any party line...

oh, and p.s. ...

in case you are serious and i've misinterpreted your post - if i, as an aspie, cannot have my own views and my own modus operandi of functioning in this world... if i have to obey certain rules made by people with AS who are telling me what i should do, how i should think, etc... sound familiar? then that's just as bad as what NTs are accused of by some people with AS, isn't it? in which case, they wouldn't be my "compatriots", but my gaolers, and i wouldn't want to "get anywhere with them", ta.

When I read this thread, I empathized with everyone here. My view is we are fundamentally different from NTs but we're all still human. We deserve equal treatment in this world, no more, no less than any other group or person. Today I see us as a discriminated minority, largely unrecognized and hence ignored by the general population. In 20 years this could change depending on our ability to form an agenda and advance it. A consequence of exposure is increased discrimination, until we achieve critical mass. Alternatively, we remain a rather obscure medical/psychological condition and individually, we get by learning to behave as NT, the way many of us have. We still enjoy aspie/autie pleasures, but mostly in private.

To become a movement we must bond together. Are we capable of doing that? Do we want to? My own view is we start by getting in touch with each other and supporting each other. I'm such a loner that won't be easy.

To me, AS is a pain and a joy. But what I hate is when we get treated as if were ret*d or something. Just because we have AS, doesn't mean we're not human! And we should be treated with respect and equality! I feel putting down someone for a disability is under the same category for teasing someone about their gender, age, color, etc. Do I make myself clear?!

I don’t agree with the fact that this is an NT world. I very happily live in my own world. I do not know a single person that doesn’t live in there own world. I have only recently discovered aspergers syndrome. But when I discovered it many of my issues actually started making sense. Before I found aspergers I worked very hard at learning about the outside world. For me the only thing that made sense was that it was created by an amalgam of everyone’s individual world.

The statistics state that there are more NT people in the world so the weight of their worlds is larger. But that doesn’t make it a NT world in my view. It can be compared to a painting. Get a painting that is very blue in hue. There are a more than a few like that. People call it a blue painting often. But what if you were to take all the yellow pigments out of the paint. What would you have? Would it be the same? Not to me. Just because there isn’t a lot of it doesn’t mean it isn’t part of the picture. I wish I could explain it better.

Two Months ago I didn’t know the difference between NT and aspie. But knowing the differences doesn’t make me a different person. It doesn’t change who I am. I put up masks to deal with the world around me for many many years. But I refused to change who I was beneath the mask. I know many NT people who wear more masks than I do on a daily basis. That is part of how the world is able to come together in my view. Just because someone doesn’t understand my masks doesn’t give me the right to dismiss their masks.

Well said. I don't think the label of a person as "NT" is very constructive, considering the fact that everyone in the world is different. Some people may have NT traits but they can still have some traits common to Asperger's syndrome. Regardless, it isn't fair to assume that someone is bad just because he or she hasn't gone through the same experiences as oneself. I think we should try to meet people and relate to others instead of isolating ourselves in our own little world for our entire lives. It is fine to have "alone time" but Rome wasn't built by one person.

NeantHumain, I applaud your enthusiasm and your joy in your Aspie nature. But I hope that you can use your knowledge of this nature to bridge the gap in understanding between AS and NTs, not to stress the differences.

All human nature is a spectrum. People on the 'autistic spectrum' are not different in this respect. Neither AS nor NT is "better" or "worse" than the other. We may think of ourselves emotionally as being on a different planet, but the physical reality is that we all have to live together and share one world. But NTs are in the majority; maybe this means that Aspies, who don't fit the average NT concept of the way people should be, have a greater need to foster understanding. I do not mean we should 'justify' the way we are;our nature is perfectly valid and does not need justification. But sadly, it is usually minorities that have to explain themselves; majorities often seem to assume, from the comfort of their superior numbers, that no explanation of their views or lifestyles is necessary!
When I was diagnosed with AS, my family nodded sagely and said "Ah, now we understand...you behave thus, you do such-and-such . because you have Aspergers." "No", I replied, "its the other way round; because I do these things and behave thus, I am termed 'a person with Aspergers'". This may sound like splitting hairs, but the point I am trying to make is that terms such as "Asperger's Syndrome" are merely labels. The problem with labels is that they can delude people into thinking they understand something when they have simply identified it. We need to foster true understanding. This will help us all, because I guess, NeantHumain, not all Aspies share your joy and delight, much as I wish they did!

Hello,

My name is thinker and I just joined. For me AS is painful. Although, if I didn't have it I might be in more pain because I would care more that I am alone.

I would rather have something that doesn't claim my ability to relate to the outside world so completely. I would rather be like the more normal social being out there who have better lives than I do.

I don't see any glory in this at all.

Thinker