Has anyone called you "pathological"?
Might seem like an odd question, but has anyone called you - or insinuated - that you're "pathological"??
I know that those of us with ASD/HFA have often been described as "annoying", "weird", "losers", "incels", "not all there", "special", and all manner of pejoratives - veiled or otherwise...but I can only see the "pathological" label occurring under four types of scenarios.
First, when we relay a bullying situation to a 3rd party, he/she tends to give the flippant response of "it takes two to tango" or "it's six of one and half a dozen of the other!" - never stopping to think logically that why the heck would the *real* bully falsely report that *he* was being bullied by a mild-mannered or weaker target as it would be a knock to their self-esteem... this sort of dismissive response kind of implies that we're pathological b/c we somehow get perverse pleasure from tormenting others
Another situation is when someone denies that anything is "wrong" with us clinically, that this is just some charade or acting out or something, which we can control any time we want...again, this insinuates pathological disposition. LIke it would "kill" that person to admit that we have ASD/HFA and if the shoe fits wear it no, they would prefer to conform to ingrained polite rules of society that psychological disorders don't exist.
A third and more insidious situation is when a bully with an antisocial personality disorder (i.e. malignant narcissism) - which could be a housemate or co-workers or acquaintance or "fake friend" or whatever - keeps trying to feed you disinformation and projecting faults on to YOU like you're the negative or cynical or unreasonable one or whatever, with the intent of elevating themselves as the "sane, good, all-knowing one" and reducing you to delirium.
The fourth and final situation is also really despicable, where a bully or other malignant or ignorant person will try to conflate the actions of mass killers like Adam Lanza and Nikolas Cruz with ASD, and maybe make some perverse remark about whether you've had similar thoughts or that they foresee you're going to snap someday
...that's just so absurd it doesn't warrant any comment.
I think in those situations, the best response is to retort something like, "Well, I may not be the best person at intuiting other people's motives, but after THAT statement, I think I'm way ahead of you"
Yes.
"Pathological liar" for trying to avoid stressful situations, "pathological" whatever, "crazy," a lot of things. "Living in the past" was another.
The third situation is surprisingly common.
_________________
Your neurodiverse (Aspie) score: 134 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 72 of 200
You are very likely neurodiverse (Aspie)
When I was bullied in school it was never taken seriously by staff, as I was a "weird" kid and had things wrong with me, so I obviously deserved it. Kids would often turn it around on me and I'd get in trouble for it, or I'd get in trouble for "lying" by telling anyone what happened, if that's what you mean by the first thing.
I've also had people compare me to school shooters and insinuate I'd become a school shooter at some point, particularly in middle school. I still have no damn reason why I was compared to that, as I wasn't violent or anything. Quite the opposite.
I've also had people compare me to school shooters and insinuate I'd become a school shooter at some point, particularly in middle school. I still have no damn reason why I was compared to that, as I wasn't violent or anything. Quite the opposite.
They were probably conjuring up that silly archetype of the "quiet, weird loner" who is waiting to explode like a powder keg some day.
It's like a media meme that gets burned into the collective psyche...
Apparently some of my behaviours fall into the "pathalogical demand avoidance" category.
Basically I would rather opt out than take s**t from anyone, even if that means I end up alone / poor.
I always thought this was primarily a side-effect of increased factual, social perception uninterrupted by conventions, stereotypes, arbitrary rules etc.
But the book I'm reading at the moment has a section from Tony Attwood where he says PDA is a form of denial and a negative thing, so now I'm confused.