The problem with calling AS autism.

Post Reply New Topic

See, no one has claimed this.

Anyway: I have found living on my own to be extremely challenging and difficult. It's been suggested to me that I get support assistance if I do want to live alone so that meals will get cooked, the house will get cleaned, laundry will get done, bills will get paid, etc. I often take people literally and misunderstand them, and I often speak under the assumption that I will be taken literally, and I am not, thus I am often misunderstood. I have a lot of difficulty predicting what other people are thinking or how they will react to what I say, and often what I do say doesn't even reflect what I want to say. Is this really "introvert NT level?

This is one of the reasons why functioning labels are terrible. They imply people who are described one way have skills and abilities that they may not have, and they imply that people who are described another way do not have skills and abilities that they may actually have. This does not mean that there is no such thing as severity, but that severity cannot be broadly described or defined in terms of "this person is high functioning and that person is low functioning."

And you see that a lot here - a lot of posters like to speak up "on behalf of" low functioning autistic people, and characterize them as incapable of any form of communication, or even an ability to understand other people exist. This is despite the fact that this is at odds with what people who would be described as LFA have actually said about themselves when they've learned to communicate (through typing, or using other forms of augmented or facilitated communication).

As far as I'm concerned, not only do I not want an Aspie speaking up for me (though I am by no means low-functioning), I also don't want any other autistic, HF or LF or whatEVER speaking up for me, because THEY'RE NOT ME. The issue isn't one of HF/LF but one of difference between and among autistics. No two are alike. And so, I'll speak for me (and when I can't, my mom will), and you speak for you. And as for people who truly can't speak for themselves, let their close family help.

Well everyone here thinks all NTs are exactly alike, and any slight difference in personality and they're on the spectrum. That disturbs me as much as I think there's a visible posibility between LF people and HF people disturbs some here. Now we're even.

Yeah, I don't like the word "Aspergers" either. The first time I heard it was my kids' friend talking to me about his, thinking I had it, or knew I had it. He talks softly and at first I thought he was saying something about Aspen and skiing, but then he repeated himself and I remember thinking "Ass burgers, REALLY?"

Even though it is on the Autistic spectrum, I'd have a problem with defining myself as Autistic, because that always conjurs up images of much lower functioning.

I did see a YouTube video of a guy talking about his AS and he pronounced it ahs-PURGE-urs, which didn't sound anything at all like ass burgers, which is how we tend to pronounce it here.

I suppose those of us with AS shouldn't feel quite as bad about the name of our diagnosis, poor Hans Asperger had to go through life with that name!

No, not everyone here thinks that. Sometimes people generalize, but I'm not sure I've ever seen someone claim something to that degree. People do generalize too much though and there are others who will point this out than just you.

OK I shouldn't of said ''everyone''. I often make the mistake of writing something like ''all'' or ''everyone'' because usually I say that when I speak verbally, and people automatically know I don't mean ''all'' literally. It's like when people say, ''you all right?'' and another person says, ''I'm OK, it's everyone else!'' But then you don't automatically think, ''it's not everyone else - I saw happy people today, what are you talking about?'' But when the non-logical meaning is written on paper (or computer) it is more difficult to know if the person means ''everyone'' or just exaggerating. So, I should think before writing words what are too harsh.

But anyway, back to the actual topic, sometimes I feel a lot of things said here are implied that NTs are all the same. But then again, the mind is a very complex thing, and I suppose we can't explain everything all at once every time we make a post about a minor difference between the common NT and the common Aspie. When we read posts, we just see the main point.

And say if someone put, ''do Aspies have trouble getting to sleep?'' I seem to think that the question is implying that NTs have no trouble getting to sleep and that they never get tired or never get too alert - which is wrong because I know a lot of NTs who wake up in the middle of the night and can't sleep, or get over-drowsy in the day and feel the need to creep off to bed before 9 o'clock, etc. Also I hear that people with ADHD can have trouble with sleep too. My friend has ADHD, and he's on medication to help him sleep a bit easier. But when a question comes up saying ''do Aspies have trouble getting to sleep?'' I should remember that not all these questions mean it's unique to Aspies and Aspies only. It's just seeing how Aspies deal with sleep and help Aspies discuss it together. It's no good saying, ''do Aspies and people with ADHD and lots of other ASDs have trouble sleeping'', unless you want to specifically compare the subject with other conditions, if that makes sense. It's like when I read in the newspapers about Britain being in debt, it doesn't go all into detail about all the other countries whether they are in debt or not - unless it is specifically comparing Britain's fincancial crisis with another country.

Does that sound like I'm understanding more about this now? None of this is sarcasm, I was actually lecturing myself a little and trying to get myself to understand instead of becoming easily disturbed by particular discussions.