are we treated differently?

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if an NT knows you have some kind of emotional pr psychological problem, do you think it wouldn't be beyond the realm of possibility for them to treat that person differently than other people? What I mean is, if I was a member of a board with mostly NT's and most of them knew about my mental illnesses, do you think because of that, they'd hold me to a an NT standard by picking apart everything I say?

One time, I asked about a specific watch and people jumped all over me but several years later when someone else asks for similar help, they are happy to oblige.

It's also possible that if they know I have certain conditions, they'd be freaked out at a lot of simple, innocent stuff I post and decide to gang up on me al-a wolfpack mentality. They see someone with a potential weakness and they all decide to gang up on me with maybe one or two sympathetic defenders in there.

I'm glad I found this site. I feel safe and accepted.

I'm glad you found this site, too!

I don't know about an 'NT standard,' but if you let people (especially coworkers) in on your mental health issues, nine times out of ten they won't understand the syndrome, even if you held an hour-long powerpoint presentation on it for them. They'd just write you off in their minds as mentally ill. I told people about my issues with AS and anxiety/OCD at the my last place of employment and after they found out, they began giving me funny stares all the time, as if they thought I'd start gibbering in the corner or something. You mention autism and they instantly think 'sociopath' or 'ret*d.' People are generally ignorant about such things. I've not mentioned it at my current place of work. When I get stressed & start skeching (my term for the stimming and other anxious behavior), they still look at me funny, but I take them aside and tell them I'm going through some hormonal problems. It's not a lie - I AM going through those problems, but they are not the direct cause of my behavioral problems. Hearing the Menopause Excuse, they nod, smile, pat me on the back and say, "yeah, I know what you're going through." I feel I can use that explanation for another 10-15 years, at least.




If you find yourself hating your job because of the way people treat you, then it's time you found another. And if you do find another job, let the person hiring you know what your personal issues are and ask them to keep it to themselves. Let everyone think what they want - it's none of their business anyway.

OR work for yourself

Yeah, but now I rarely tell ppl I have it unless I trust them and they want to know me better. Otherwise, it sucks b/c they either don't know what it is and they want me to explain which isn't easy or they think I'm mentally impaired. Whenever I do try to explain, in my case it's a comparison to Rain Man since Autism and Aspergers are suppose to be related. That damn movie has been brought up so many times, I get sick of it. I don't think of my condition defined by mental illness, I just don't socialize in the same way as a typical NT. Sometimes my AS is noticeable for me around others. Other times it isn't. I'm glad I found this site b/c ppl aren't afraid to talk about their own idiosyncrasies. I like to hear about people's different interests, quirks, ideas, and thoughts. I get so sick of pretending to have a "normal life." I don't know if this is exactly an NT trait or not. I've met some NTs that don't act like this though. I'm just glad I have ppl I can kind of relate to on this site. It's helped a lot in terms of accepting myself with AS. Took me a long time to actually want to interact on here. I had this site for a while but was afraid. Turns out I'm not as different from ppl than I thought.

Varies on who it is and how they do things as a whole.

When I had no formal diagnosis, all kinds of people kept insisting that I was somehow mentally ill, they treated me very different from how they'd treat me a short time after I met them. Now that I know exactly what I have and have a pretty good idea of what undiagnosed disorder I most likely have, people insist that I'm still mentally ill and don't have these.
Some are informed and thus agree/accept/help, some don't care/don't mind, that's great, but others insist that I have emotional problems and am different like this on pure purpose.

Yeah I feel i'm treated differently in my family sometimes, not so much around my mates.