AS and being a sideshow attraction...

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Ok, I have only been diagnosed as of a few months ago, but I am finding a recurring situation that bugs the hell out of me.

I talked to my parents, family, friends, some co-workers, etc about AS and what it means. These are all people that have known me for years, and all of my quirks have ALWAYS been there. Nothing has changed about who I am.

So why when I talk about AS do people expect me to suddenly start performing parlor tricks to "prove" I have an autistic spectrum disorder? What the f**k?

As soon as people hear autism, they seem to expect me to pull out a poker deck and start counting cards. Some jackasses have actually started throwing math questions at me, and when I didn't immediately start answering them in a monotone, he started to voice doubts over whether I was really autistic.

Do they go up to black people on the street and ask them to discuss what it is like picking cotton in the fields over a meal of fried chicken and watermelon?

Should I start going up to Asians and ask them to show my how short their **** is? They have the math stereotype going as well, so I'd better throw some math in. "Hello Mr. Chinese! Whats the square root of the legnth of your **** in inches cubed expressed as a logarithm?"

It infuriates me. I demonstrate enough quirkiness as it is, and definitely have exceptional talents that can trace back to AS. I'm different enough, thanks.

To every "normal" person out there, I am sorry that I don't live up to your expectations of what a "cool" autistic person should be able to do.

rant off...

Edited by Mod- please remember this is the general forum not the mature forum when posting please.

I've never had such blantant things like that happen but I know one of the first things people say when I tell them I'm autistic is that I have no sence of direction and also that I can't hardly balance my checkbook . . . like having skills in these areas are NECESSARY for autism . . . Temple Grandin says she has the same two problems!

People are just ignorant - that is all there is to it . . .

Yeah I know how you feel, but I don't share it with many people.. My family knows, but they have learnt alot about it because they've had to live with it for a long time.

The people who do know probably think i'm slow of stupid, as they don't understand it. It infuriates me, because I'm extermely creative and have above averege intelligence.

I just have trouble concerntrating.

Most of the people around here think of Autism as some sort of intellectually handicapped thing, hence why I don't want to share it, they couldn't be more wrong.

I'm going to add this- I don't want anyone to be offended, it's isn't meant to be offensive, but it is relevant to this thread.

It's the same for overweight/underweight.. when I was little I got teased something chronic for being thin. No-one ever did it to anyone overweight in case they got offended.

But for some reason they thought it was alright to do it to thin people. They would go "oh my goodness you're skinny" "even though you don't want to admit it, you're SKINNY, you aren't normal"

replace "skinny" with "fat" and see if people would randomly go upto people and say that.

I think not.

The same goes for this... for some reason they think it's ok/they have the right to do it, even though they might not do it for something else, Like it isn't hurtful or offensive..

If it was me I would put them in their place, and sling something horrible back at them to shut them up.. but that's not really good advice..

Thin people are being discriminated against. There are all sorts of diets for losing weight but it's hard to find advice on how to gain weight in a healthy way. There are special clothes sizes for very large people; very thin people can never find trousers that fit (I can't). Doctors ask people with below-average weight "are you eating enough?" with no reason other than how they look, while they don't ask people with above-average weight "are you eating too much?"

Yeah, I could go on forever. I'm not really thin now, but I found it completley insensitive.

As for the sideshow thing, Anachronism I think the same thing applies, perhaps you just need to politley tell them you find it offensive and ask them to stop it.

I don't know how well that will work, so I'm not saying you should definitley try it or anything..

When I tell people that I have a learning disability, especially older people, they always say to me, "I can't BELIEVE that you have a learning disability, you are SOOOO smart!" I always wanna scream in their faces, "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM, ret*d?"

My mother has explained that a lot of older people seem to think that "learning disability" is an euphemism for retardation, and I believe that this is hogwash. Learning disability and retardation are two entirely different things.

Many people do not consider Asperger's to be a learning disability, but I do. I also have ADHD and dyscalcula, so that qualifies me right there, I think. You could also very well say that Asperger's is a social disability. We have problems understanding correct social behavior....

By the way, all my friends don't ask me to perform mathematical tricks. They know I can't do math. But one thing that does drive me nuts is peope who go around saying that I know everything. Nobody can know everything except maybe God.