People think I'm a ret*d - how to prevent it?

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"Where's your mummy, dear boy?" That's a question I get asked a lot. No, it's not because I'm a wisecracking Kindergarten pupil. Instead, I'm a rather mature (well almost ) 23 year old male.

Though I've never been diagnosed as an "official" AS, I do think I have some distinctly AS traits. For example, I have great difficulty making eye contact in a socially acceptable manner, and also reading people's faces is quite a challenge. In addition to this, or perhaps because of it, most social interactions and constructs are a real mystery to me. But then there's is my real "problem", namely that I suffer from CP (Cerebral Palsy), causing all sorts of involuntary movements and spasms over my entire body (but especially the upper half). I can walk rather well (thank goodness), but clearly not in a normal way. Because of spasms in my vocal cords, I speak in a strange, slurred and monotonic, voice. Certain muscular contractions in my face often cause my mouth to form a big smile or grin - I look as if I'm constantly winning the lottery . Add to this my very clearly Asian ethnicity, my youthful appearance, and my thick-rimmed eye glasses, and there you have an almost perfect resemblance of Down's Syndrom.

However, the problem is that I haven't got Down's, nor do I have any intellectual abnormalities. I study math and some theoretical physics at college, and I enjoy intelligent conversation very much. But most people, if they talk to me at all, talk really childish BS, as if I were a little kid. It's not their fault, and they mean well, but it's so very tiring - it sometimes brings on the verge of bursting into tears.

What is to be done about this - if at all possible? My student association has given me a sweater with Maxwell's equations on it (as a jubilee present), and I could wear it to gauge people's reactions, like a friend of mine suggested. But I don't really like the idea - I think it's arrogant and snobbish, and doesn't solve anything structurally. Besides, I can't wear it each day.

What do you think about my predicament? In my mind, it sort of ruins an otherwise very happy life. Any advice would be thoroughly appreciated.

In a sense trying to convince people your intelligent is some what pointless. The Scarecrow in "The Wizard of Oz" wanted a brain so the Wizard gave him some meaningless diploma that said he was smart. Really doing something productive will convince the few people who matter alot to you. That you have value. Like the Scarecrow helped Dorthy get back home.

Thanks very much for your wise words - they're in a sense quite true I believe. Though what I would like is not for people to think I'm a genius - for the simple reason that I'm not a genius at all - but rather that they stop assuming I'm mentally challenged.

By the way, if my usage of the words ret*d, intellectual abnormality, etc. seems overly harsh to those really afflicted, please remember that I'm only using them to reflect what I think is the general public's attitude. I have a few friends and acquaintances with IQs < 80, but that doesn't stop me from appreciating them as complete human beings, far from it.

See an optometrist about new ones. You can get thinner plastic lenses and frames to disguise the thickness. That could help.

I bought some Seiko® 1.67 Super High-Index Lenses from France.


http://www.39dollarglasses.com/

Thanks people. I've already bought thinner glasses, but my myopia is so bad (-16 and -12 dpt, with severe astigmatism added) that it didn't really help very much. So while they're thinner than they used to be, the glass is still well sort of "bullet proof"-thickness.

As for the rest, I guess I'll simply have to accept that people would rate me like 100 IQ points too low.

Don't give up ! !!

I bet your clothes could be more fashionable than they are. Do you know anyone that can help you shop?

"Clothes make the man"

Well, thank you BazzaMcKenzie, but I've tried that one too, buying fancy clothes and stuff (a white collared shirt and nice jacket). However, because of my posture and other non-changeable physical characteristics, I still sort of look like a ret*d, and get treated that way, but now a ret*d with, well, fancy clothes on.

No, the only way out of this seems to acquire a new body. But these seem to be in short supply. Though I could always ask my friend Victor Frankenstein...