"What's It Like Being Aspergers/Autistic"?

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I find this question difficult to answer for multiple reasons:

1) I don't know what it's like to not be aspergers or autistic, so I wouldn't know the difference.

2) Maybe a few of my wierd personality traits aren't from autism/aspergers. They could just be idiosyncratic preferences that ALL people have.

3) I could have many personality traits that "normal people" have without knowing.

4) I'm only one case of aspergers/autism, I cannot speak for others.

What do you think of that question?

I hate being asked this. It's so hard to answer because then I have to think up a list of things to tell my difficulties.

It's easier to answer on the forums because I have time to think of what to say but on IM and in real life, it's nearly impossible. It's like asking what is it like to be me. Plus I don't know what everything I do is part of being me or the AS.

Whether it would be different were I officially diagnosed I do not know, but I rather doubt it, from what I have seen of people diagnosed as X Y Z. And from what comes when peiple find out anything official about me.

To wit: I have never been asked what it is like to be me [nor has my equal but different spouse]. Neither has anybody EXCEPT probable Spectral people bothered to listen when I [or she] tried to TELL them what it is like. They either talk their talk or try to get me [or her] to snap out of it and get with the program and be normal.

It's difficult to answer what it's like to be you because nobody has ever been anybody else. But you can compare your experiences to what other people say their experiences are like.

I'm only one aspie. I can't speak for others. It's actually very fun. I'm free from the chains and bondage of mainstream society. I can feel free to be living in the Mid 60s. I can feel free to listen to The Kinks and other performers of The British Invasion genre at will, at any given point of the 24 hour day, and the general population can't stop me. I can wear whatever I want, any day of the week. I can be the tomboyish Mod that I am, and brush aside the fact that it's 2010 - not 1965. I feel free from the numbers on the calendar, because the four digit numbers of any current year, are irrelevant to me, since I'm that much of a Mod of the 60s, despite the fact that I was born in 1974.

As you all notice, I've written a paragraph about my personality traits, and I haven't written anything about the words, suffering, affliction and struggling, because those words are NOT in my vocabulary. I don't suffer, I'm not afflicted with anything, and I sure as hell don't struggle with anything.

That's what it's like for me to have Asperger's Syndrome. It's a free ticket for me to be myself.

But I cannot know what their experiences are like.
I am not them, I may use different words for the same thing.
But no one has ever asked me that question.
It is a stupid question.

What I've just described above, is the real me.

Who's seen the film Adam? I like his answer best: "it doesen't feel like anything, it just is!"

That's how I always answer if people do ask me. Autism is just a part of me and how I am, it doesn't feel like anything!

I think it's a stupid question. It's like asking someone who was born blind what it feels like to live without vision. It's all they know just like my life with AS is all I've ever known. However I can say that the bullying at school was horrible but lots of people get bullied so I guess it wouldn't really be the answer they were looking for.

I can't imagine not living without it. It is second nature to me! And I think it is fun to look at the world from a different way than the NT way. I think that is boring to me.

I was just about to use this quote, you've beat me to it.

Lots of people on the spectrum tend to be taller and have a more muscular build. We also have more acute balance and coordination. We excell at school and are often the life of the party.

Somebody asked me this:

I replied with,

"I don't walk funny because I'm autistic, I walk funny because I have to look at ignorant f^&*s like you every day."

There's your answer.

Also, that's the closest anyone has ever come to asking me 'What's it like to be autistic?'.

Good comeback.

I have asked people when they ask me what is it like to have AS "What is it like not having it?" They were unable to answer it.

I'll have to remember that one >:P
Anyway, this is impossible to explain legitimately because like many people have said already, we won't and never will most likely ever know what it is like to be a neuro. The reason League_Girl's comeback is so good is because neuros don't know what it's like being an aSpie, same reason for us