Be careful about focusing on your "superpowers" in order to feel better about the diagnosis or to try to get others to think more highly of you. If they are the sort of person who will bully and pick at someone in order to feel better about themselves, portraying asperger's as a collection of superpowers can seriously backfire.
Frowing up, my father only knew how to interact with others by picking at them. So when I had an I.Q. test and my result came out as twenty points higher than his, he never allowed me to live it down. Any mistake I made was instantly leaped on with, "I thought you were supposed to be SCHMART!! !" (said in a mocking tone of voice.) Anything I had difficulty with was mocked as, "but aren't you all SCHMART and stuff?"
Portraying Asperger's as being something great that gives certain superior abilities or powers is just as vulnerable to get leaped upon. "Why do you live in a trailer if you have all that great asperger's stuff?" and so on. Just another flavor of the "if you're so smart, why aren't you rich?" taunt that I've gotten all my life from anyone who realized that I am intelligent (I don't go around in the general population talking about my high I.Q. or Mensa membership because I am ashamed that I live in abject poverty, despite having a good mind. I do mention my intelligence here because it feels safer since so many of my fellow spectrumites have faced the same challenges.)
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"In the end, we decide if we're remembered for what happened to us or for what we did with it."
-- Randy K. Milholland
Avatar=WWI propaganda poster promoting victory gardens.
08 Oct 2010, 12:40 pm
