Is anything else a gift?

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-Have you, or someone you know or heard of, ever had considered something besides Aspergers a gift or something good? I knew of so many peolpe with it who thought ASpergers so great but have not met alot with other conditions who enjoy them.

Or do you think nothing is a gift and or you have Aspergers but hate it

Experiences-
One of my friends broke her hip in a car accident and cancer was discovered on the other hip she was considered lucky.
My dad's friend had severe diabetes and had a leg taken off but he used it to make jokes instead of feeling sorry.
After my mom's diagnosis with diabetes our family had started to eat healthier and stop un healthy habits.

If someone is missing one limb the other limb tends to become super agile and super strong. Blind people and deaf people tend to have other senses enhanced. I've heard numerous people say that having a disabled child is an immense gift, more than an ordinary child would be.

Yeah, a lot of my disabled friends (physically and mentally/cognitively, including mental illness) say that their disability is a gift. Not that it doesn't have negative or annoying aspects; more that it is part of their lives, they've had interesting and valuable experiences that they wouldn't otherwise have had. I agree with them not just about my autism but about ADHD and even major depression. You often don't realize it until you look back on it, but even extremely painful experiences can add to who we are. I think I'd rather have a history of depression and the constant threat of a relapse, than be unable to understand what it is like when your own brain doesn't let you concentrate or enjoy anything, when you start to wonder how much it would hurt to jump in front of a semi truck. Knowing I've had that experience multiple times, and survived, means that I can tell others that they can survive too, and know at least halfway what I'm talking about. It means that every time my own symptoms come back, I can remind myself that I've been there before and I can get out of it again--that I can survive, that there's hope, because logically, if you've been seriously suicidal four times and all four times recovered and went on to enjoy life, doesn't that mean that odds are you'll go on to enjoy life after this episode too? Realistically of course I do not want to ever have another episode of depression, but I know I can survive if I do. It's something I'd never have learned about myself if I had never had that experience.

I don't consider disability to be either positive or negative, though. I don't have any illusions about being particularly special or superior because I've had these problems and many other people haven't. Rather, I feel that it is an important part of my life, part of what makes me who I am; it's a neutral part of the world. Being "normal" in terms of the people around me would, for me, be abnormal. There are many ways to live life and most of them--including life with disability--are as acceptable as any other.

I don't want pity because I don't feel there is anything pitiful about my life. I don't want to be called inspirational because I am not doing anything inspirational. That's not modesty; it's a simple statement that solving problems is part of life as a human being. You live with a disability not because you're heroic or inspirational, but because you have your life to get on with, things to do. Just like anyone does.

Aspergers and I have a love hate relationship All my other problems is just pure hate. Who likes being dyslexic?

My cousin was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor earlier this year. Her illness seems to have instilled a philosophy in my aunt revolving around living life to its fullest and living each day as if it were your last. I know for one thing that having a family member with a serious disease has more or less cured my hypochondria, because all of my little aches and pains seem so insignificant compared to hers.

Being transgendered definitely comes with a few perks. I'd still have preferred to be born female instead of going back to the factory for a rework. But no periods is nice. I'm stronger than average for a woman. I look young for my age.

And you learn a lot about determination, willpower, and who your friends are when you go through something like that. I'll always wish I hadn't had to go through with it, but it brought many gifts along with the pains.

Depression has a certain duality to it. It makes you creative in ways that you never would have been without it. Poetry and music seems to be much better when done from a melancholy perspective than a happy one. There's just something more raw and real about it.

Can't separate the gift from the curse. It's a unity of opposites. I wouldn't trade my life in, though, all the happy people seem so ordinary.

I don't know. It seems okay, and just a part of me and such like when I'm doing okay. When I'm not doing okay I would trade everything to be a different person.

But I think this comes down to me pretty much hating myself.

I tend to believe having AS allows me to look into something from a perspective nobody else had considered. It also allows me to see details others overlook.

I think you can't compare AS with cancer or say, strokes, diabetes, a major heart attack because i was born with ASD and therefore had decades to get used to it, moreover, it's not going to kill me.

Unquestionably there are benefits ... it's quite impossible for others to influence me, i can focus better than most people i know and for me the inability to get along with people has led to a comprehensive independence. What i like less are the dysthymic disorder and some impairments like sensory issues, meltdowns and the like.