My Introduction to Autism Planet

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Hi, Thanks for having me here as a part of your forum. This site will help people who are looking for backgrounds, insights and even solutions in struggling for the disease itself. I am new to this forum and I just want to learn more about Autism in general. How parents deal with their children and the challenges of this kind. Let us have a good day of learning and sharing our ideas here.

It's not a disease, and I don't necessarily like the word struggle in relation to my autism. I'm autistic, sure, and parts of being autistic can be a challenge, but that makes it sound like that's all my life is. Struggling with a disease. And it's not even remotely accurate.

I have Asperger's (mild autism) and I don't see it as something to be eliminated (like a disease) but something to be improved. Autism means having strengths and weaknesses. I don't struggle with the strengths, and I don't suffer from them. I enjoy them.

I agree with the above posters.

As people with ASD's, we have to adapt to the world at large. Sometimes, it's difficult.

There is no "cure"--there's only alleviating negative symptoms, and maintaining the positive aspects of ASD's.

It's similar to how one with no arms use their legs just as well as others with arms.

Aspergers and being on the Autistic spectrum is absolutely not a disease! I realise that you mean no offence but your perceptions are wrong.
When i first started reading about AS and ASD i was struck by how much i related, now i am struck by how much everyone is like this. In some ways i think it would be more fitting to think of 'Asperger's' as being something that every single person has, and it fulfils an important role in human evolution. Darwin, James Joyce, Stanley Kubrick and many more all officially come under the heading of Aspergers, and without people like them through history humans would not have evolved as effectively and wondrously as they have. I think the vague characteristics of Aspergers are part of everyone, and should be appreciated, and if someone recognises those characteristics in themselves, then so be it. The more the value of those characteristics are appreciated, the easier it would be for people to accept and connected with their own aspie traits, instead of there being a them and us divide between NT's and AS/ASD. I recently saw an autistic boy in front of a self service checkout machine, he was recording the lights, absolutely mesmerised, and apparently in his own world. He made many loud squeaking and squealing noises. He was about 13 and his mother had to make much effort and with much patience to and coercion to get him to leave. After about 15 mins he did leave. I don't look down upon this child in any way, and his experiences are his own, and i don't value what i consider to be important in life as being of greater value or significance than his. There are aspects of his behaviour one could say have some parallels with AS, such as socially inappropriate behaviour, stimming, narrow field of interest etc, and this child would probably be termed as having classic Autism, but he would also often be describe as having ASD, and people with AS also fall into that category. People with high functioning autism are often described as having AS. Bill Gates is often thought to have have ASD, or AS, and would come under the same umbrella as the boy fascinated by the self service checkout lights. My point i guess is that if everyone human has 'AS' traits, which they seems to, the current system of diagnosis is always going to fail. If everyone has AS characteristic, which i think they do to some extent, then it can not be identified as a disorder in the classic sense, as a disorder can not be present as a 'natural' part of all human behaviour, it can then only really be thought of as a characteristic or quality of human behaviour that people exhibit to a greater or lesser degree.