Cant even talk about my AS with family
Anyone else having this problem? Of course many of my rants on here have centered greatly around my family's inability to take my AS seriously or to understand the little difficulties in how it has affected me.
If I even mention my AS, my family seems to give this attitude that's almost like "whatever you need to shut up and grow up" type of attitude. Then my mom tells me to work on my eye contact. And my dad just thinks I dont try hard enough even though it is hard for anyone with AS to try to be sociable.
It was easier to talk to them about AS in the first few months of my diagnosis when my dad was trying to do his research on it but I wasnt very knowledgable about it back then so my dad was relying on books. I think that's what creates a lot of problems because this was earlier in the decades and those Tony Attwood books, as good as they are dont give you as much knowledge about AS as we know of today.
And people say that I may have gotten my AS from my dad and as socially imcompetent as he is, I find it hard to believe that he could have the same condition as me and be completely unsympathetic or misunderstanding of my difficulties.
Is anyone getting this 3rd degree treatment from their families or whatnot?
My mom insists I don't have AS; I'm not even sure she told my brothers that I am an aspie. Luckily for me, my dad is way more accepting of my diagnosis. He tells me not to hide it so people can understand my behavior and help me behave in a more appropriate manner.
My mom won't tell anyone I have AS. She won't let me get the IEP I need to be able to get extra time for the PSAT and the ACT. When I am around her, it's like if I even mention my AS in passing, she freaks out and goes into her "you don't really have it" lecture. I hate that every time I mess up socially all I get is "grow up and quit saying you have AS"
So I know how you feel and it's incredibly frustrating knowing you don't have family support to help with the social/behavioral issues.
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My parents have been ok with it, but there was a sibling I couldn't talk to for a while. He was fairly convinced that Asperger syndrome was a direct inability to tell right from wrong and was primarily manifested by making uninvited sexual advances on others. Claims to have known someone who knew someone with it from way back when, when that way back when was before it was in the DSM... I had a hard time convincing him that he was full of it. I think he eventually got the message, but we still don't talk about it.
