How come so many people here treat AS like a race/club?

Post Reply New Topic

I know you're trying to not let your AS diagnosis limit yourself by saying it's not a disease, but it's incredibly counter-productive to start treating it like an exclusive club or race. It's as much of a race/club as schizophrenia, ADHD, and cancer. It's not a "Way of life", you CHOOSE your way of life, you're given AS. Trivializing the disease will lead to the entire world thinking it's a joke, similar to what happened with ADHD. Every parent in the world thought their kid had it, and now the 1% of those children who actually DO have ADHD get screwed because people still think of it as "kids who can't sit still". That's like associating asthma with "fat people who can't run" rather than a serious, treatable disease.

By acting all high and mighty claiming you ASD race is superior to others and view a cure as an ethnic genocide, you're only trivializing it more, and eventually people are going to stop thinking it actually exists.

I totally agree with you. I also think that the whole "Autism/AS is the next step in human evolution!" thing is a bunch of garbage.

I have both asperger's and add. It's true, you don't choose to have as, but you can do your best with what's given to you. I don't want to be neurologically typical. True, as and add cause some difficaulties, but the good points outweigh the bad. I'm proud of my weirdness.

They think their helping AS people, but really all they're doing is turning it in to a big joke and when people stop thinking it exists you won't be viewed as an "aspie" just a "weirdo". Difference is, instead of thinking of your odd behavior as an ailment, they'll just think you're a big ol' douche who CHOOSES to act the way they do. Treat it like a disease(WHICH IS BY DEFINITION a bodily occurence that decreases the quality of life and/or shortens lifespan), put energy in to finding a cure or a drug that alleviates most of the symptoms. It being a disease isn't an insult, it's a fact. If you don't think of it as a disease, more power to you, that's a good attitude to have, but you still must realize it is a disease.

Anyone want a membership card? It's a life pass too.

I'm giving it away for free.

That's just how selfless and charitable I am, I guess (O, wait...).

I agree with the notion of "If you don't think of it as a disease, more power to you, that's a good attitude to have, but you still must realize it is a disease." I just mainly think that the ideas of it being the next step in human evolution is extremely false, and that thinking of it as a race or membership club is arrogant and harmful to others on the spectrum, should they influence others' opinion of people on the spectrum as a whole.

THANK YOU! A race is a group of people that come from a geographic location, AS happens everywhere. A club is something you voluntarily join and can voluntarily leave whenever. People with AS didn't choose to have it, and if it affects their life worse than it effects yours, To some people, it really can shatter hopes/dreams and they're gonna have to work a lot harder than the average person to achieve things, Plus the social isolation as most people get with AS as kids can't be healthy in the long run. Even if you don't want friends and enjoy being alone, you're still gonna have to know how to socialize for when times you need to be.

I agree, being on the spectrum is not something to be though of as some kind of exclusive club.

A poll on this site, under the title "Do you wish you were never born?" , 61% responded "yes, often".

In terms of those who are happy with their condition and don't want to be NT, I do admire that and I wish I could be the same. I guess if you compare yourself to the worst arrogant and selfish idiots in the NT World then of course I might rather be myself. However many NTs are also "neuro-rational" and highly intelligent. They get the best of both worlds.
I see a lot of posts that suggest NTs are inferior as a species. Yep, being on the spectrum is a very sad kind of "club" if anyone thinks like that.

That's why we should let the AS people with superiority complexes/grandiose delusions have their little exclusive club and find a cure for the rest of them.

I don't understand what's wrong with being content with who you are, instead of trying to be someone else.

Mentally ret*d people are more likely to be a "race" because it affects the way they physically look especially their facial features.

I never said there was anything wrong with having AS. If you are content with your AS and embrace it, GOODY FOR YOU. You must realize that there are other people with this disease that don't like the symptoms as much as you and develop depression, anxiety, and a whole f**k ton of problems as adults that could have been avoided.

That's why they called Down Syndrome Mongolism before the Mongolians said it was insulting.

Depends whether other people depend on you behaving a certain way; or whether you have a duty to behave a certain way.

As a parent, I am expected to be chatty, interactive, deal with unpredictability, deal with chaos, tell jokes and fit in with the social gatherings with friends of my partner. The chaos, entertainment and small-talk get-togethers involving *massive* amounts of strange idiomatic language ; most NTs find that refreshing. For me it is immensely draining.

Every day I am reminded about just how much NTs are enjoying things, which I have to make a big effort to join in, but such activities very quickly drain my mind and send my anxiety sky-high.

That is one example on how someone might not be content with who they are.

But even back in my school years, I remember having to endure team sports sessions at schools. It was sheer hell, because I had to do it. For me, it was the World remininding me that everyone else enjoys the 'herd mentality' and forming bonds through team sports, and I was standing in the corner of the field thinking about my own little world of computer algorithms on planetary orbital physics, Depressed ? oh hell yes. Could I be content with being myself. No way. Never. Never since the day I was born.

If there is a next step in human evolution (which there will be some time) - autism and Asperger's is not it.

The 1956 movie "The Conqueror" where John Wayne plays the mongol Genghis Khan sounds pretty ret*d.