Thinking positively about my aspie-ness.

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I don't know about you, but I usually spend a great deal of time thinking of it in one of two negative ways.

1. The things I wish I could do to feed my aspie side and can't, because I'm at home with my toddler, living by a totally alien set of rules.

2. The ways my AS has made my life suck.

Just a few days ago I realised I really need to try viewing it differently. Now I try look at my life as how it IS, how it seems destined to be, and how it will be tomorrow. From there I think of how I can apply my aspie-ness to improve my life, or how it contributes to making it better already.

Like it's already easier for me because I hardly get lonely. I know a lot of solo mums that get really lonely, and need heaps of support. The only support I need is babysitters. That's good! I also bounced back from my break-up with my ex far better than anyone expected, found the perfect home for us to stay in, and because of my limited needs in terms of those "cars, drugs and animal products" that everyone else seems to be into, I'm not in debt or having my power shut off. That's more than I can say for other people I know..

These are just some ways having AS has already made my life better.

So now I'm thinking more outside the box. How can I make my day better, thanks to aspie-ness? How can I make my life better? I'm gonna go tweak crazy on the life I already have!

If I can customise my firefox or whatever for hours, surely I can do the same thing to my life.

I'm feeling really positive now. I hope this might inspire someone else. I bet there are ways your life is better thanks to Asperger's.

This is great.

I need to give my life more order. That is when I am happy. I do not especially like not having a plan.

Well, I find it to be very difficult sometimes, and outright horrible at others, but you're right, it doesn't mean every minute has to be a pity-party. As handicapping as AS can be sometimes, I realize there are worse things I could have. And there are parts of it that one can learn to deal with, with effort - I know I learned to work around, if not overcome several of my own weak areas over the years, but I did it by developing better and more sophisticated coping mechanisms, rather than by 'curing' the disability.

I don't know what you mean by 'tweaking your life', but I can tell you that the parts of AS that really give you trouble don't go away no matter how much you determine that you're going to overcome them. They are hardwired into your neurological makeup - they have formed your personality since before you ever knew what Autism was. An amputee can't grow a new leg just because they're determined to win the sack race, but they can develop a more efficient prosthetic.

I'm glad that you're seeing yourself, in a new light.

Yeah, me too.



True. But what if we stopped even looking at ourselves as disabled? I read this really awesome post a while ago. Made me lol.

"Asperger's syndrome? Why is the inability to mingle with airheads considered a syndrome?"

I mean, don't get me wrong, I totally understand the helplessness one can feel with oneself. I've beat myself over the head for years trying to meet expectations that aren't reasonable for me, trying to somehow "normalise" myself enough to "get along" with the world I live in. I do get where you're coming from, I hope, but who's to say we're disabled? Or if we are, that we are the only ones with disability? And is the term therefore moot?



Do you see NTs sitting around berating themselves for Logic Deficit disorder? No. But some of them definitely should be! What if we tried viewing ourselves with the same "eh" attitude that NTs are allowed? Why should we be ashamed if they get to live in acceptance of their "quirks"? I want that. I want to be able to say "STFU. I'm as disabled as you are."

So. First accepting yourself as a worthwhile human being, and THEN applying the idea that you can improve your life based on your own standard of measure... does what I said make more sense to you?

I hope you read that link just for the lols.



Me too. Hope it sticks.

edit: Although, obviously, we still need the terms of AS disability as long as we're still having trouble getting and keeping jobs... Something I suffer from myself... But in an ideal world, with an attitude as above, maybe we wouldn't need that anymore either.