does everybody think you're a ditz?

Post Reply New Topic

I'm a bottle blond. People get a shock with me because i'm not like the 'typical" bottle blonde.

I loved an article that was posted on an aspie site...I'll quote it here.

A woman talking about being diagnosed with AS:

"It was the only diagnosis that reconciled her ability to be really smart and really stupid at the same time"

I get that a lot. My family says I'm a space cadet. I tell myself it's because my thougths are so far and above where they are that I'm unaware of my surroundings and 'mundane' things. Like where the wall is right before I walk into it.

I'm constantly forgetting what I'm saying while in mid-sentence, unless it's one of my scripted discussions, then I can be remarkably adept at my wording.

I just say 'my focus is elsewhere' and let them think what they want because I know I'm an intelligent woman.

When I was blonde I was taken more seriously. No kidding.

But I'm generally really ditzy. I trip and fall all the time that I'm really good at catching myself and I don't fall to the ground anymore. I did a lot as a child, and I did not stop crying because of it until fifth grade. I find most of my balance problems comes from doorways and people proximity.

I generally mess up a lot of words, either my forgetting them or mispronouncing them. Most words I mispronounce even though I know how to say it but can't force the words out (like wolf, I say woof).

I'm really gullible though, which is where people doubt my intelligence the most. My dad likes to tell me outright lies all the time, like the gas station blew up and I go "really?".

And I can't remember a string of numbers like a phone number to save my life. I used to forget my locker combination halfway through the day and have to go to the office and ask for it again.

Everyone thinks this of me...but I don't mind. I'm clumsy, a little naive and have not much common sense, even though I'm quite intelligent. But I'd rather be called a blonde and an airhead and be liked than be bullied like I was at school.

Wow, again something that makes total sense to me. I often forget what I'm saying mid sentence, I mix my words up and often stutter or slur my words for no apparent reason. But it's worse when I'm tired.

I get confused really easily. It amazes me that people think I am a good employee because sometimes I really mix things up. And then I wonder why, because it was really obvious.

I am always forgetting appointments. I seem to get the time mixed up for some reason. I've learned to write appointment times down. But even then, I have to keep double checking that I have the right time.

I think that people just think I'm funny. I can come out with the most random things, and people find it amusing. It seems to be a family trait.

Totally yes.

Yes definately. Being blonde probably doesn't help with that perception.
Give me something shiny and I'm gone. Give me pretty music and I'm liable to stop what I'm doing and spin.
I forget words for things all the time and end up asking if someone has seen the "thingummy", it's always a pleasant surprise when they magically know that I mean I want a capillary tube or whatever.
One of my teachers once described me as a strange combination of extremely articulate and away with the fairies.
Luckily people don't really get an excuse to call me stupid because I'm currently doing a phd, therefore I can't be that dumb.

Thats the case with me.

I've had dicks online call me a bimbo based on nothing but the way I look also.

I'll preface this by saying I have no idea whether I have AS or not. My son probably does, and the more I read about it, the more things from my past "click." I suspect that were I to undergo testing, I'd place near (but not quite on) the spectrum, as I've had many years to work on my challenges. But I'll answer anyway.


Do you forget what words you're choosing while speaking to new people, or forget what you are talking about mid-sentence? I typically just smile and nod the first time I talk to someone. I've said way too many stupid things in the past!! As for the midsentence amnesia, well, that happens even when I'm talking to my husband.

Do you easily get lost in your own neighborhood? I LOVE my neighborhood. I live on a mountain and if you keep heading up, it doesn't matter which of the two roads you take, you eventually wind up on my street. But yes, this used to be a problem for me. In fact, I have tried to visit places I've lived before, a few years removed from when I lived there, and I cannot find my way to my old house. And once, I got lost in my school cafeteria after they remodeled it over the summer. I still cannot find my chiropractor, my in-laws' house or my favorite grocery store without GPS.

Do you not know your own phone number? I have such trouble with numerical sequences. Anything longer than three digits, and I begin transposing numbers. I know my cell number because I picked something I would remember (the first three numbers are a palindrome and the last four, paired, add up to 100). I have no idea what my home phone is and I'm never confident about my street address. Also don't know my hubby's cell number, and he's had it for three years. Hooray for speed dial!

I know that I come off as a ditz. When I was working (in media, where people are, by necessity, fairly glib and articulate), people who were not familiar with me assumed I was hired for my looks, because I admittedly do not come off as intelligent, interpersonally, until you've been around me for long enough. I come off great in writing, but unfortunately I can't script first impressions! Also, I fall over my own feet constantly, and although I don't believe coordination goes hand-in-hand with intelligence, I suppose I looked pretty dumb hitting my hip on the same part of my desk every day. Those idiots who made the comments about why I was hired as an editor had zero idea that I had to take a copy test when applying for that position, and that my score had been so excellent that I heard about it through the grapevine in my previous department before I got the call from my boss.

The worst, though, is that because I'm not "outgoing" (and if I try to be, it comes off really fake because, well, it IS!), I get labeled as both a ditz and a b***h! But I find that, with a combination of hard work, loyalty and kindness, and occasionally standing up for myself (not nearly as often as I ought, though!), I get by OK.

I frequenrtly get significant brain fog. Additionally, my executive function can be quite poor, and I'm often unable to access all of the bits of information I need to complete a given task successfully, even though all the information is generally tucked away somewhere in my rather cluttered brain. People often get annoyed with me for my forgetfulness in "simple" (to them) tasks. I definitely come across as extremely ditzy, and possibly not too bright. At the same time, I have a Master's Degree, and a high level of skill in written communication. I also demonstrate a high level of verbal communication as well, most of the time., though my grammar and wording may become less precise when I'm under a great deal of strain. My skills are so uneven, I suspect that people don't know what to make of me.

I used to be much more of a space cadet but i have gotten my food alergies under control and now my focus and clumbsyness is significantly less.

When I was younger, yes.

yes sometimes. when I was younger I got the 'airhead' thing alot.

honestly I am so tired of other people's interpretations of what I am or the fact that I am not one-dimensional enough for them or that I can be absentminded and seem ditzy but be really smart at the same time. Complexity is a good thing. People just don't want to think that hard.

Yah, because I tend to say strange "Ralph Wiguum-isms" at random. Also, I am kind of manic and bouncy but that is because I am bored. People are really surprised when I start talking about gravity wells of complex medical stuff.
I'm a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, crammed in a bufoon.

Yes. Cellphone number fail; never confident about dates, the current year, my age, address etc. Incessant giggles; sentence failure; um-what's-that-word? someone please buy me a pocket thesaurus; skipping and random dancing; preoccupation with something far, far away. Many people have considered me not only ditzy but stupid.

Female relationships just don't work. I think I upset a lot of women.

I definitely know what you mean. I have had very few female friends in my adult life, because I find it to be significantly more difficult to interpret women than men. Women are too manipulative, and I fall for it every time. Perhaps they're not, either way, its an assumption I make because I truly can't tell what they're thinking/feeling/wanting.