Horrible attitudes about autism

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all aspies/HFAs are high functioning by criteria.
medicaly/officialy speaking high functioning in terms of autism means having an IQ over seventy and the impact this has on communication,self help ability, intelectual skills etc,those of us who are labeled under low functioning autism have an intelectual disability of varying levels and the global impact this has on all our essential needs/skills.

of course a aspie can have difficulties with specific parts of their functioning because of the severity of autistic traits clashing with it,and in the UK this is better recognised than in america.

am LFA and hate the belief that we are all unable to communicate to any degree;even with alternative communication; and those of us that post on the internet [without finding out how our communication impairment affects us online] are told we arent LFA.

then there are those who say we arent LFA because we dont feel like we are living tragic lives and dont want to be cured,yep have had these both right here directed at self on WP.

am fed up at people seeing LFA as a tragedy and demanding a cure of it,when they fight against the way people ignorantly make assumptions about HFAs needing a cure; very hypocritical and have often seen this attitude here, one old regular even said we shoud be abandoned on an lsland together because of the burden she saw us on society.

people who keep comparing us to their own child and when we dont match,say we arent LFA,yep,have had that here to.

last but not least,HFA!
the attitude that HFA isnt autism.
am fed up at the way much of one community [the 'autism' community] only sees profound autism as 'genuine autism' and HFA as either made up or some totaly different condition,we as autists are blamed for being rigid thinkers but it takes a hell of a lot of rigid thinking to not accept that HFA is just another presentation of autism.

I've rarely seen that level of negativity by high functioning AS people toward lower functioning. Except maybe when we push to distinguish the autism that joins us into gradations. Sometimes that becomes divisive.

What I hate the most.....is the belief that we are all the same, and that we should all be the same as one another and the same as some mythical NT model I'm not even sure exists, and don't know I'd recognize.

Can anyone explain to me how this is so divisive? And whether there isn't some way for us to bond together rather than carve little niches apart? Some way to value ourselves for what we each offer the world even if we each one of us is like no one else?

I will reply to the rest of all of this later, I'm very tired (no sleep). I meant to clarify because of that post before I meant functioning in terms of the DSM. Like....severity level with social, routines/repetitive behaviors/special interests, sensory, etc. I guess I forgot. So, I'm talking about like functioning in terms of independence. I don't really care of it's official or unofficial, I just mean like how well we can be independent or how much help we need.

For example, people assume in high functioning (like VERY able to be independent in ALL areas) and yell if I can't cook very fast and drop things all the time or run into walls.

Honestly, I'm kind of in the middle of functioning in some areas, I think. As in, I'm not really able to be independent despite my high intelligence, but people assume I should be because I can speak very well verbally.

Compared to some other aspies here, I think I'm behind. I can't make eye contact, other aspies even think I'm "too much" for them to handle in person, more severe sensory problems than others I see that are able to be somewhat independent, etc.

Again, I will reply to the rest later. I'm kind of jittery because of lack of sleep. Good responses so far, though. I hope to keep them up. And by the way, everyone, I meant I see these attitudes a lot of places, not just here. I have seen troubling attitudes here, but I read posts from like WAY back, too. I just meant in my personal life, and in other aspie groups (like facebook), I see a LOT of this. I have also seen videos. It makes me upset.

I read this thread and I am hesitant to post because I try to stay positive everyday to keep my mood up but I felt like I had to share my experiences.
I can only assume that most of you who posted your messages are probably from first world countries and as such have a better chance at leading a happier, fulfilling life than in a third world country. Here, you would automatically be thought of as crazy and would be recommended to a mental health institution and never to be heard from again.
I remember in high school, once my teachers found out that I wasn't learning and understanding the criteria normally along with my secluded nature, they just left me to my own devices. In other words, I was isolated and rejected and made fun of by people who could have helped me immensely if they just took the time to ask me what's wrong.
I also remember a time where I was unemployed and wasn't speaking for days on end and thought about suicide because my mind was out of control. I went to my mother for help and tried to explain what was wrong with me and she just ignored me and brushed it aside. She said "so you are gonna kill people then?". Those words destroyed me and my faith in people. Ever since then I have never told anyone how I truly feel and probably never will. I wish I could be smart and move out and do all those things that are expected but I guess that some peo0le were born to live and some people were born to die.

I read this thread and I am hesitant to post because I try to stay positive everyday to keep my mood up but I felt like I had to share my experiences.
I can only assume that most of you who posted your messages are probably from first world countries and as such have a better chance at leading a happier, fulfilling life than in a third world country. Here, you would automatically be thought of as crazy and would be recommended to a mental health institution and never to be heard from again.
I remember in high school, once my teachers found out that I wasn't learning and understanding the criteria normally along with my secluded nature, they just left me to my own devices. In other words, I was isolated and rejected and made fun of by people who could have helped me immensely if they just took the time to ask me what's wrong.
I also remember a time where I was unemployed and wasn't speaking for days on end and thought about suicide because my mind was out of control. I went to my mother for help and tried to explain what was wrong with me and she just ignored me and brushed it aside. She said "so you are gonna kill people then?". Those words destroyed me and my faith in people. Ever since then I have never told anyone how I truly feel and probably never will. I wish I could be smart and move out and do all those things that are expected but I guess that some peo0le were born to live and some people were born to die.

I have seen a lot of those things here especially the evolution stuff.

I have not seen much of people saying directly saying Aspergers is not Autism but I have seen language that intentionally or not seems to imply that Aspergers is not really autism. The blatant Aspergers is not autism attitude is common in online discussions outside of WP. Pretty much every discussion of person first language outside of WP has somebody saying while first person language it's not OK for them it is correct for low functioning autistics.

What is common on Wrong Planet is the attitude that all or most newbies seeking answers are probably "just" quirky NT's. That many professionally diagnosed were diagnosed because they or the clinicians wanted it to happen and thus they talked themselves into it. Because they have or had a decent amount of friends at some point in their life that is proof of they are not Autistic/misdiagnosed. I rarely see these attitudes in discussions between Autistics outside of Wrong Planet. Outside of WP these attitudes seem common in psychologists who do not specialize in autism, specialists in childhood Autism and the Autism Speaks parents.

From the vaccines caused it crowd in nearly every discussion "Where are all the 50 something autistics?"

Females can't be autistic. If they claim they are what they what they really have is Munchausen syndrome or hysteria

Last but not least ASS-BURGERS

just because have not seen it doesnt mean it hasnt happened,am still even able to remember the name of who said the 'island' comment,but she isnt here anymore.
had once complained about the over use of ret*d by some people on this forum as an insult and people said they never see it happen-not that they rarely see it happen,well its not stuff they relate to or are offended by so they automaticaly dont register it in their minds,am directly affected by LFA language/topics so mentaly register it automaticaly.


thanks for explaining it better bleh!

A short time after I joined WP someone was sarcastic and condescending to me in a thread and in PM over their wrong ideas about me. It was over their idea I am not autistic enough to deserve a voice about what it means, what it's like, to be on the spectrum. I am unsure your point, unless perhaps you are saying that what I consider rare is still too frequent an occurrence? I agree any amount of negativity toward people who are vulnerable is problematic. The point I wanted to make is that I feel it is hard enough dealing with negativity from typical people towards those of us on the spectrum, I hate when we start dividing up instead of supporting one another. I do not believe we are helping ourselves if it's higher functioning against lower functioning is what I was trying to say. Not that there is no difference, not that we may not use language differently in ways that can be hurtful, but that if we go against one another, it is IMO self destructive.

I think you are saying that the way I put it offended you? For that, I apologize KoR.

When an aspie decides to use their full mental capacity to simulate the identity obsession of the NTs, they become capable of anything. Serving an identity has a similar chemical reward pathway that you would see with gambling or drug addiction.
At least that's what I see.

I don't understand why people seem personally offended by the identity concept either. Like any concept it depends on how it is used. Some Aspies used it to be elitist and ableist. Most used it in a very positive manor, as a way to reclaim http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reclaimed_word what had been used against them. Because of the elitists the community as a whole decided to group punish ourselves by accepting the elitists ableist connotation for aspie and aspie identity. The Italians did not group punish themselves and stop calling themselves Italian because of the mafia, neither the Jews because of Madeoff. But that is what we did. I know you can identify as you please but what is the purpose to identify with a group that has if not disowned the word itself has disowned the DSM IV era identity concept?

Yes NTs can display the best and worst in response to my daughter's autism as well. There are some outstanding NT people who work with my daughter but then I get a dose of reality when I interact with NT parents at her school.

My daughter;s only friend in school is a girl with mild intellectual disability who is otherwise fairly functional and comes across NT. Her mother unfortunately refuses to acknowledge either myself or my daughter when I attempt to interact. It's a little awkward since the girl always greets me with great enthusiasm in front of her mother. Another girl who sometimes tries to spend time with my daughter is picked up by her father, He;s a fairly sociable and friendly parent with the other parents in my daughter;s class, However whenever I smile at him he looks at me and my daughter like we don't belong there. There in lies the problem with social integration, the NT parents are very competitive for their kids to succeed and they look at integration programs as "social experiments" with "disabled kids" as somehow not something they want their kids to be associated with. even the ones with disabled kids!! !