Responses to "is there something wrong with you??"

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Or, phrased more abrasively - "what is WRONG with you??!"

I can't recall getting this comment since about my early 20s, back in the 90s and just before diagnosis in 2001... although I'm sure I "received it" non-verbally a few times (and missed it in true Aspie fashion)...

Here are some gems of snappy responses to this sort of question:

1) The narcissistic response:
"There's nothing wrong with ME - there's something wrong with everyone else / the world."

2) The passive-aggressive response:
"Wow! You're...the first person to ask me that. What compelled you to ask that?"

3) The perverse response:
"No, I just have unpopular opinions - I don't consider that something "wrong" with someone, it means they've got a backbone." (I guess there went my prospective career as a politician, sob sniff )

4) The deflective-selective response:
"Umm, no... I don't hallucinate or hear voices; I don't laugh maniacally for no reason, so why would I or anybody else think that??"

5) The disingenuous, disarming, and passive-aggressive response:
"OK, this may sound like an ironic response, but...is that rhetorical?? I can't tell."

Hmm, I don't quite follow.
Are you asking if these are responses we have said to NTs or are you asking if these responses are what NTs have said to us?

I used to get the "Why are you so weird?" or various derivatives thereof. I have heard "What is wrong with you?" on occasion, but not as much as the comment about weirdness.

My response to all of the above has developed into a decidedly sarcastic or flippant one. This wasn't always the case: I used to not have a response at all. It took me actually coming up with the responses I liked, kinda practicing them to myself, and then using them successfully here and there to be able to come up with my witty retorts about it.

Such as:

"Because I am awesome."
"I like being weird."
"I think it's a bit weird to be normal."

To the "What is wrong with you?" query:

"I breathe more oxygen than normal, and oxygen is a fun drug."
"A lot of things, but most of them are fun things."
"Nothing really, what's wrong with you?" (Used in the same non-chalant tone as a response to "How are you?")

I should note that I haven't really received an ASD diagnosis, even though I seem to have a lot of the criteria for it. I lived most of my 38 year old life thinking I was NT. Odd. But NT. This might impact the reason why I developed these responses.

I tell them to just shove it.....

Why do they care?

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I used to get it as a statement--"You're weird"--rather than a question. I think the best response I had was "Better than boring."

Jeez, where should we even start... (while sounding like you've just been dying to finally get to run through the list in detail)

Whad'ya think? (accompanied by a predatory stare into their soul)

It's usually a rhetorical question of course. It means they don't understand your behaviour, and very probably that they've become annoyed by your behaviour, given that they've resorted to being so rude.

So my response would be:
1. Ask myself whether I can think of anything I did or didn't do that annoyed them.
2. If so, take it from there
3. If not, ask "what have I done?"

But it doesn't bode well for the future of the relationship if it's come to that. Might be wise to activate your communicator and get ready to ask Scottie to beam you up.

no matter what i'd say to such aholes, it would be taken wrong and twisted and used against me. there is no winning with psychopathic aholes.

I don't recall having heard it said to me, but I've heard others say it about me, primarily when in school.
"He's so weird", "What the h*** is wrong with him?"... Even teachers did that, but a little more subtle.
Nowadays I can see people making looks towards each other...

/Mats

I'd just answer, "Nothing, I'm just autistic and being autistic is great, because I know not to ask hurtful questions like the one that you just asked me."