Asperger and Autism are not gifts

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I don't understand the recent positivity movement. I tried to fake being optimistic here, but I hate wearing a mask so I stopped doing it. I'm actually a negative, pessimistic and ableistic person and I think we should stop deluding ourselves. Autism is not a gift, it's a disability. Instead of saying "I am glad to be autistic, it's a gift.", we should say "I wish I wasn't autistic, it's a curse. Anyway, I'll try to cope and survive". I got fired from my job. My boss and coworkers hated me the second they saw me. How is autism a gift? NTs can have beneficial traits that are normally associated with autism, such as being able to think analitically and remember lots of things. Autism doesn't have any benefits. Is Down syndrome a gift? How about being unable to walk? I've never heard a paraplegic person saying that he is glad to be paraplegic.

There are positive and negative aspects of everything.

There are positive aspects of having autism/Asperger's. There are negative aspects, too.

We have to acknowledge the positive and the negative.

What I am certain of: there's no shame in having autism/Asperger's.

Yes, but there's shame in displaying the traits.

One could try not to show the traits so much.

Sometimes, Aspergian traits can be hidden if you are otherwise of good humor, and a good person.
Many times, Aspergian traits could be mistaken for "eccentric, artsy, etc" sorts of traits.

It takes a lot of energy to try and conceal the traits, and even so they still show and you're punished for them. Nobody sees how hard you're working, they just see you are a freak who isn't welcome in the world.

It really isn't so cut and dried.

I've lived 54 years with this. I've smelled the coffee many times.

You can make the necessary adjustments. Sometimes, one has to practice things like conversational skills. I used to practice talking to people before I actually talked to people. Eventually, through learning and practice, I learned to adjust fairly well to the world.

No matter how much you improve yourself, you will always feel out of place. Being alive as an aspie is and feels like showing up at a party uninvited.

Everybody, whether NT or autistic, feels out of place at times.

It's true what you say---but there are ways of getting around that.

Yes, but we're out of place all the time. There are many ways to define Asperger's. One of them is: "the disorder in which you exist but you weren't supposed to."

That's a BS definition. No doubt about it.

Nobody is "supposed" to exist. We just exist. We have to make the best of our existence.

What I hate about life is that one never asked to be born. Instead of working my ass off, retiring with a face like Yoda, then spending my old age in hospitals, I would rather have never been born at all. If you also factor in the fact that I'm an aspie, it becomes clear that I have no justification for being alive, no goal to live for.

Where in Romania do you live?

I've always wanted to cruise the Danube, and see Transylvania.

Yoda happens to me somebody whom I model myself on.

He's a very virtuous, well-respected fellow whose syntax is off LOL (according to modern English standards).

Wrong. Life is a quest to find your own purpose, part of a much larger puzzle to solve. What you do on your quest is up to you (direction of travel).

It's not necessarily positive or negative, it's just there. Often it's your attitude towards that helps. If you just keep going I can't do anything useful because I'm autistic, then that's not going to help. But if you find or at least attempt to find what you can do and try and do that, then is that not good, no?

I don't think I'd go as far as saying its a gift, but it's definitely not something that means there is no reason to live or that you shouldn't exist.

Absolutely no doubt about what Tetris is saying.....