Auties, Aspies, and other CloudCuckooLanders!

I personally wouldn't worry about it until it happens, but I'm no expert on this.

Also, I've been meaning to ask, how long have you been diagnosed, Melissa?

I was 14. Even though my autistic-ness has been blatantly obvious my entire life. When you're a girl (because girls don't get autism, obviously) getting people to even consider autism as a diagnosis ("She's just shy") is FREAKING DIFFICULT.

Yeah, that's something I've noticed too. Double standards are BS.

This...

I mean, if this is the view of autistic people by others...

And all I can do is only imagine how it is. It infuriates me.

I've never even met someone on the spectrum that's my age. I know a 13 year old girl with Asperger's, but nobody my age.

Though I'm pretty sure some of my friends need to be checked out for it.

There might not be a "cure" for autism itself necessarily, as autism is looking increasingly likely to be a genetic collection of conditions and/or traits.

One thing I see a hell of a lot is that autistics often have non-autistic family members who share mild autism traits. Or people who appear to be mildly autistic or leaning in that direction, have told me or otherwise mentioned that they have a family member who's on the spectrum.

My older brother learned to read on his own at age 3. Learning how to read without being taught is a known autism trait, and I've seen it listed as a "symptom" (lovely term, isn't it?) of autism. My older brother also has issues with loud noise causing him pain. However, he's not autistic. He's got a very high IQ and makes good money in a medical field, so he got the intelligence, certainly. But other than the noise issue and some major anxiety that he takes medication for, none of the disabling aspects.

There's a term for it: BAP. Broader Autism Phenotype. Refers to non-autistics who have mild autism traits. It also implies that autism is really part of an overall spectrum of types of human minds in general.

I'm like that. I have a very high IQ, and can learn very quickly on my own. That's honestly what I do for fun =) But I also have the "disabling" aspects.

What a lot of people don't realize that the "good" and "bad" traits are part of the same thing. A lot of my problems, including anxiety and "meltdowns" are a direct consequence of my thoughts moving so quickly. (My "meltdowns" also have a lot to do with being hyper-empathetic, not an entirely bad trait) It would be impossible to get rid of the bad aspects without taking the good ones in the same motion.

And there is also the issue of when you take away all the traits and what point are you just someone else entirely. I mean I'm very good at reading and bad at math do my cognitive disability, most of my love of reading and writing poems comes from that, this effects how I am, it's impossible to separate this stuff from, for myself (well some aspects of it my anxiety disorder feels much less a part of me and I doubt I'd miss it when I was gone, than again that came later and hasn't been with me my whole life so).

edited 3rd Feb '16 12:00:30 PM by phantom1

There is no "normal" person underneath the autistic person shell. Autism is not a curtain you can pull away. If you removed the autism, you'd have a completely different person. They'd be unrecognizable.

That's why it worries me when parents are so desperate for a "cure' for their autistic child. If they got that, they'd end up with a completely new child. Their old child would be gone, and they'd have a new one they wouldn't even be able to recognize. What parent would want that?

Yes exactly, you can't love the part of your child without autism, you can't love the person without the disability because at that point you are just loving the idea of someone that's not real, a ghost.

And yes you would be getting a new child, making the old one gone, why would you want that?

You have meltdowns too, Melissa?

That makes two of us.

I suppose I have mild meltdowns when I think about things too much or something triggers it.

Like just now, actually, overhearing an argument between my mom and sister. That sort of stressful stuff causes me to break down that barrier that keeps out the feelings of self despair at looking at everything as a whole.

My fatal combination is hyper-empathy, social anxiety, and the ability to calculate logical conclusions very, very quickly. And suddenly I'm crying and hyperventilating.

Everything will be alright, Melissa, don't worry. If they think there's anything to cure about us, they're the disease, not us.

I was diagnosed with Asperger's at 9 but my mom didn't tell me until I was 11, and even then she didn't mean to say it. I guess she thought I would feel like a freak.

Considering how freaked out I get when I don't know the reason for a part of me, she guessed wrong.

Still trying to figure out exactly what that would include. Any good websites about it?

There's always Wrong Planet.org

Yer missin' these: [= =]

I'm no good with formatting.

I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome at age five, though didn't learn until age eight when I asked my mom, while on the way to a therapy session, why I go to so many when most others don't. While having plenty of abnormal quirks, none of them keep me from having a social life or from looking after myself when I need to, at least most of the time. I may be a little slower on the uptake than some people my age (nineteen, graduated high school and am going to a technical school rather than a traditional college), I still have a unique way of looking at things, and usually think of complicated mental patterns to help make certain decisions about some of the things I do. It could be better, but it could be worse as well.

I was diagnosed at three.

Diagnosed at age 3, and it wasn't "Aspergers", as that term wasn't widely used in the US at the time. (It was used in Canada and the UK, but not the US)

I was nonverbal and would push away anyone who tried to hug me, so it was kind of obvious, in the way that "Aspergers" wouldn't have been. So I got my diagnosis and my early intervention, while my parents got told "You don't seem like the type of parents who would have an autistic kid," as the whole parent-blaming BS was still common at the time.

The place that gave me the behaviorism that I needed to learn how to talk and interact with people, struck me as strange and mean. When I had behavior problems in third grade caused by my reaction to stimuli and my poor social skills, the director of the place shook me and screamed "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!" in my face a bunch of times. These assholes had no understanding of "high-functioning" autism or "Aspergers". Only "low-functioning". So when I went from nonverbal and pushing people away, to talking in full sentences and engaging with my next door neighbor all the time and knowing how to read at age 4 (my non-autistic older brother learned how to read on his own at age 3), they probably thought I was "recovered".

We now know otherwise.

My friend filled out an application for college students to join the Autistic Self Advocacy Network and meet with government officials to discuss the needs of autistics. She told me that I helped her understand the importance of advocacy and fighting for our rights, and in her application, she actually wrote about me, saying "Together we have grown our passion for the importance of autism advocacy work."

This is so awesome. The application asks things like "What people from the autism and disability rights movements do you admire and why?" (which she has no answer to, so she intends to do some research for that one) and "What do you think are the issues that most affect autistics?"

She's come a long way on the importance of autistic advocacy. Before, she wasn't interested at all, figuring she could easily "pass" as a non-autistic. Indeed, I've seen the argument given that many autistics don't want anyone to know they're autistic, but instead just want to learn how to get by without anyone knowing.

But for most of us, that's just impossible. My friend learned the hard way with some unpleasant experiences at a job, where people started to dislike her, and her boss made it clear that if she wasn't hired specifically because he wanted to integrate someone with special needs into the workforce (in other words, he was being charitable), she would likely have been fired. I think that gave her a wake-up call, and helped her want to join the rights movement. Now she sees how important it is, and is actively trying to become part of it.

I've gotten to the point where I go out of my way to let people know I'm autistic, so I can actively break stereotypes just by being myself. Maybe I'm overzealous, but I want to show whatever group of people that I'm with that autistic people are capable of empathy and creative thought and everything else we supposedly lack. If I don't, a lot of these people will go right on believing those things and applying them to autistic people.

I very much agree. I've been told by someone (very nastily) that I'm the only person in the world who wants everyone to know that they're autistic. Uh, no. The activist mentality you expressed is something that's important to me, and I'm far from the only one who has it. If we don't break down stereotypes, who will? Should we just wait for other people to make the world better for us, all the while decrying their efforts? Or should we become part of that ourselves?

Hello, diagnosed Aspie here!