"Typical" AS Kid/Adult?

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I know that AS people are viewed (by the general public) as people who sit at train stations wearing anoraks and note down the train numbers, or learn pi to fifty gizillion places...

What are the other "general public" views? I'm interested.

Whwnever i tell anyone that i am AS for the first time, they seem to think either that im a supercomputer made of flesh and bone, or else they think im some idiot as they start talking all slowly and simple and try to help me with even simple things.... annoying as i am more the former than the latter

You're certainly right about that! A lot of people at least PRETEND to know about computers, etc... so some of my non entertainment knowledge is not readily apparant and, still, everyone seems to be able to QUICKLY reassess their opinion of you without regard to older information.

You could throw a book at me in perhaps almost any germanic(Including danish, norwegian, and swedish) language, or some romance languages, and I could at least get the gist! I'm working towards ones based on sanscrit! You could give me a schematic or pictorial, and I could figure out what it represents. Even computer programs. Probably even most written in assembly. Yet even someone knowing some of that may reassess their opinion of me if I said I was in any way autistic, even if it was AS!

Still, there might be someone out there that ALREADY figured I probably have it, and may be just waiting for me to say I have it.

Steve

I don't really tell people I have Asperger's Syndrome, since I told my flatmate and found that people he told asked patronising questions about my perspective on life, although a couple of the more literate ones saw the disconnect from morality/ societalness as being more a philosophically interesting characteristic (or even, shock horror, an advantageous thing) than being a serious cognitive impairment. Yet there are bigots (or at least, that is what I shall call them) who seem to believe that 'autistics' are by definition inhuman, as to be human one must 'live and love'. To be portrayed as emotionless, which is the stereotype that these people seem to get at is rather infuriating, and blinkered on their part. It all gets very Lord Byron, which I find incredibly amusing, but quite annoying at the same time.

At the end of the day, the body transcends the diagnosis, or the labels which're attached to that diagnosis (when I was 3-4 I did have a thing for trainspotting)... the body exists, it is part of the fabric of the universe; interstellar furniture. Words, and the concepts attached to words, seem to have very little to do with the real world, nothing more, in general, than a superficial semeiotic connection. Words don't exist.

Last edited by rabbit23 on 24 Feb 2007, 3:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Words are a human construct and so is money. Actually, so is just about everything. AS is definitely a human construct which is why you see it in supposed academic journals or journals of Psychiatry as a brian disease and a mental disorder. Words only have meaning when the majority of people agree on their meaning. So, an interested party will put the word or term out there until it is "commonplace" and then act as if it is a proven fact. In truth, everything about society is fiction. It was all created at some point by a person, then put out there until it was "commonplace." Over time, it becomes accepted as "fact" and you have people thinking you are strange if you don't automatically accept the "facts." The fact is that it is all made up and you either buy into it because it suits your needs or you don't.

The general public really doesn't have that much exposure to Autism or AS unless they know someone with it (in their own family or circle). Exposure is what makes the difference. People will always assume based on what they have been told because they have no other context to make sense of that. Context is built through exposure. If they know two Autistic people who are different or see two people who are different on a program, they will begin to broaden their context to accept that there are differences.


This isn't just a problem with AS, it is a problem with everything we are exposed to for the first time.

I've been wondering whether or not I have as for about a year and a half now, and still don't know. I've had to completely distance myself from the subject for a while as it was beginning to drive me mad.

I almost drove my best friend mad by going on about it for months.

And now I've reached a kind of conclusion. If I do have as (in which case, it would be mild, and not as prevalent as it was when I was growing up) worrying won't change anything.

If I don't have as, there is nothing to worry about.

Either way, worrying won't help. Which is not much help as I'm a born worrier and over-think just about everything.

I'm also fascinated by the idea of whether I am the way I am because of genes or through upbringing.

I don't think i'm ever going to reach a satisfactory conclusion and so one day I'll just have to accept myself for what I am. I think I'm on the way there.

The point I wanted to make was firstly, some people will always have a black and white idea of what autism is (and they say we're the concrete thinkers, eh??) and that for this reason it might be wise to be 200 per cent sure before you tell anyone of your condition.

Secondly, why worry so much about what people think about your behaviour anyway?
The people who are your friends have already accepted you. Also most "NT"s display the odd autistic moment here and there

People at school are jealous of me because I can manipulate numbers easily. They are jealous because I know a lot about computers.

I don't want jealousy.

I want mere acceptance.

There are exactly two people in this world (who I know personally) who accept me the way that I am.

Two people seems like exactly the right amount of friends to me. No one gets acceptance for the way their are by groups of peers in school. Everybody is working hard to conform to whichever group they've aligned with. If you want acceptance, become part of the group by acting. That's just the way NTs are and you can't change them.

HEY, **I'M** jealous of your apparent math ability! What's wrong with THAT? If anything, I respect you MORE because of it! I'm probably better at computers than you are.(It was a major interest of mine, evolved from electronics, and is my job, which I have ALWAYS been a recognized "expert" there), so you are probably "safe" there.

BTW I saw how you dress, and heard about other things. I bet I would accept you. Frankly, so many dress oddly that that should be accepted by many. Your math/computer skills, and the fact that you can speak so well should encourage people to look past stims. But you aren't seeing that?

Steve

I kind of disagree (and I don't usually disagree with you). I come to the conclusion that it is everyone else is acting. See, I think that most public behavior is an act. The fact that we don't see the point in doing is our real problem. It's really everyone else that is behind the bubble that everyone talks about we're hanging with our asses flapping in the breeze.

I don't know enough people in RL that have any stated perceptions of AS. The only times it comes up is when NTs are saying Aspies aren't autistic enough to understand parents of autistics. So, maybe the opinion is that Aspies are just eccentric jerks.
In fact, taking this further, I spent a lot of time trying to explain autism to my "friend". She kept dismissing autistic traits as normal kid traits. When she finally "got it" her first diagnosis was on a roommate she thought was a jerk. That's how she absorbed the information. Jerk=autistic

ha good example...

We can all count incredible quickly like “The Rainman” and can count 999 toothpicks in half a second.
We’re all violent, unpredictable and paranoid.
We’re all incredible slow and can hardly speak.

We are "walking dictionaries." (True in my case)
We are "computational geniuses." (Not true in my case. I know enough math to get by in daily life.)
We are fountains of "odd" or "useless" knowledge. (Somewhat true in my case)
We are "emotionally labile (changeable)." (True when I was younger, but not now.)
We relate better to animals than to people. (Partly true, but I have also formed lasting friendships with fellow cat lovers.)

I could NEVER understand piercings, etc... but many DO do it. Where does the act come in? But Shakespear(or was it bacon. ) WAS right about the world being players. People usually don't show exactly how they are. I USED to, and was called a knowitall, rude, etc... SO WHAT!? I DID know what I was talking about, and said only what others were likely even thinking. OH WELL, the perils of AS!(It turns out ALL were symptoms of AS!)

Steve

People see me as an insane person. But not many people know I have AS. People where I live would think that anyone who has AS is insane and gets angry all the time.