Proud to be Aspie ?

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As someone that is only recently diagnosed I have virtually no idea of the politics involved between the ASD community and those that do not have it, I have noticed that some of you seem to be proud to be AS and also the term NT appears to be used as an insult. I am curious to know if I am correct in my observations and if so, the rational behind it. It seems a bit like the way some in the deaf community are fiercly protective of their deafness, to the point where they are opposed to cochlear implants.

I am proud to be an Aspie!! And I am glad I confessed to some of my friends that I have it!!

I wouldn't say I'm proud to have AS but I accept it...and it took me over a year after my DX to do that. I guess because, for me, since I've accepted maybe when one reads what I write I might sound proud but I don't think proud is the correct term. I see it more as accepting of it but not proud of it. There are some though that probably are very proud to have it and would want it no other way.

I'm not sure what you mean by the term NT appears to be an insult. I think I've read where some people think the term is an insult and so is the term Aspie but I don't know why. I don't find either term insulting but that's me. I'm not sure though if you mean the term NT appears insulting or if we seem to come across as insulted by NT's.

I'm not proud to be an Aspie, any more than I am proud to have brown hair (well, it used to be brown.)

I'm proud of what I've accomplished, despite not knowing why I am so different from many others. Having spent most of my adult life in the nerd/geek world, I guess I had an advantage. When I began driving a school bus, the differences became noticable, again.

Now that I know why I'm different, it affects my self knowledge about as much as knowing that I am ambidextrous, but lean towards left handedness.

Pops

Many people have made good use of their life, despite the problems they started with. To be glad about what they have accomplished isnt surprising, or wrong. Plus, when people like who they are, they have to like their autism also. Its not as though their personality is somehow separate from their autism, and the autism was just an unfortunate add on. The two are intertwined, to stop being autistic would make somebody an entirely different person. So in order for you to be happy with who you are, you must be comfortable with your autism as a prerequisite.

Furthermore, Normal people (NTs) are sometimes considered weird, or somehow less effective, for the same reason NTs consider autistic people weird, or less effective. Normal people dont understand how autistic people think or work. All they know is that autistic people have issues, and cant grasp the intricacies of social situations. They completely ignore the improved memory, and high analytical skills that autistic people have. Its not as though they dont notice we have a good memory, they just consider it less useful then something like small talk. Likewise, to me normal people seem overly emotional, and many times irrational. I dont see what possible use small talk could have, nor do I understand why NTs consider it a good thing to do. This might seem odd to a NT, but I actually like some aspects of my AS, such as good memory, and dislike aspects of being normal, such as over-emphasis of social hierarchy.

Its a reoccurring theme throughout time that people think less of other people who they dont understand. Also, many times, problems such as bullying or stereotyping are done by NT people. Its not surprising that they are disliked for these things. A fellow autistic person will be kind to their own kind. Whereas normal people have a tendency to not treat you equally.

Some Aspies are resentful, after they've been misunderstood and ostracized by NTs their whole lives. It's a sort of reverse discrimination. But it gets kind of ridiculous, some people seem to think we're at war!

I'm engaged to an NT, and have had generally favorable relations with NTs, and I honestly don't care one way or another as to one's diagnosis (or lack thereof). I like most NTs the same way I like most Aspies. Of course, there are a**holes in every category.

I guess I'm proud to be Aspie, but only in the way that I'm proud to be myself.

There does seem to be a lot of bitterness toward NTs on this site. While I can understand the frustration caused by being Aspie in a world designed by NTs, I don't approve of NT-bashing. That's just as bad as the way most NTs discriminate against us. I think we should try to understand the NTs better and educate them about us. If we can't read their minds, why should expect them to be able to read ours?

I am happy with who I am, and I am an Aspie. That is a fundamental part of me. I am not broken; I do not need to be fixed. However, just like every other person on the planet Earth, I have plenty of room for improvement.

Sums it up perfectly. After years of living with myself thinking I'm defect, AS has given me some pride in who I am, in who I was trying to hide from. In a church group I was once a part of, one of the pastors always took me by her side, and tried to help me with some "shame" I had, something wrong was in my face of course, and I wasn't trying to show it, but she caught what was up. It wasn't shame exactly, just feeling very out of sync with everyone else, the feeling of "unease" being constant on my face might have looked like shame tho...

In anycase, I don't resent NTs one single bit, although I get frustrated at times. Those who do resent NTs, I've no judgement for either, some of us have lived harder lives. Not my place to judge, tho I do let myself go occasionally.

Right now its a love hate thing, I am embarrassed by how some aspies behave, some seem psychotic and should be locked away.
Then there are some aspies who are the complete opposite, they such exceptional people, who seem to make being an apsie as a blessing.

That is true and what i would say. I agree on all that.

Yeah, same here. Learning about AS ha helped me to accept myself for who I am instead of constantly feeling guilty about my shortcomings and therefore assuming I must be defective. It's given me an understanding that I can build on to take advantage of my strengths and confront my weaknesses or work around them.

I see AS as neither good nor bad overall, but I'm proud to have it because it gives me a very unique perspective on life. That perspective is something that other people tend to appreciate if and when I get the chance to share it with them.

So I guess that at this point, I feel kind of lucky to have AS. It's made my life hard - led to problems with poverty, unemployment, abuse, all the usual hardships. But if it allows me to make some kind of unique contribution to the world, it's worth it.

-rtb

The word NT isn't an insult, it wasn't ever intended to be one.

Unfortunately, ever since some people started using it as one, many other people have stopped using it as one to try to avoid being confused with the ones who did find it insulting.

NT? insult? WTF?

Yes many of ue are proud of being autistic, but no I don't remember NT being used as an insult. People would bash them by saying 'they suck/arebiased/illogical/etc' and the like.



not that argument again

Anyway, I can't say anythign about the deaf community but a "Cure" of autism would result in a genocide of autistic people as there are no more of them. That's the basic logic IIRC. "Curing" them makes them into someone else especially if you garner a reputation for knowing a lot about certain stuff-something that is an AS 'symptom' or something similar. Then there's the 'history gets repeated' ans they march them in campe-who knows what the future holds.




hmm....wut? Can you explain how?

I'm happy that I found out that I have AS, because it explains my life. But I am not proud. I wish I wasn't Autistic.

im proud of anything that makes me different. im proud of my blue hair, im proud of how i can mismatch my clothing and still have it look good, im proud of my platform boots and how they look with that one skirt, im proud of my kinda-strange musical tastes that not many people ive met so far have heard of, im proud of my bass-playing, my violin-playing, the other instruments i play, and my ability to absorb knowledge like a sponge (the bands ive been in are proud of my knowledge absorption too really helps when deadlines are close lol) i see AS as just another trait of myself, and its not very common. also, knowing whats wrong and where its coming from actually helps me fix it. in fact, knowing the different traits of Asperger;s has helped me actually fix a few things (cant fix a problem when you dont know its a problem) such as the tone of voice being incorrect, or my wording makes me seem pompous.

for the most part, being so different makes finding other people who are similar to me such a great event, and ends up in me feeling like theyre family. i imagine that if i were completely normal, finding someone similar to me would be an every day thing, and would lose its specialness, and id eventually stop caring about everything person-related