Are you proud of being on the spectrum?

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Beat me to it.

I dont know who would be proud to be autistic! I AM EMBARRASSED to tell anyone!! In my opinion, this is not a gift and nothing to be proud of, its a curse! I would understand someone accepting themselves for who they are and embracing ASD, but not being proud. This really makes me think!

A lot of people have been called fakers or wanna b's and the argument is who in the heck would want to be autistic......? I think to myself; Yeah who the heck would? Makes me second guess myself!

Just to clarify. I am not calling you a faker! I am not saying anything bad about you either! You seem like a cool person. So please dont take offense to what i have said. I am just sharing my opinion and do not mean any harm!

Hi amboxer21. I'm not sure if you are referring to my post or not. Just to clarify. As stated at the beginning of my post, I am proud to be me, I like me. I don't identify with any label applied by someone else, not even gender labels. I accept that some aspects of those labels may sometimes apply. I just don't see the value of them within my life.

To be honest, I am quite horrified to read how many posters here who have indicated negative feelings about themselves or the labels others have applied to them. It scares me. I don't think anyone should feel uncomfortable within their own skin. We are who we are. I don't understand why a person would think otherwise.

I may feel guilt for something I may have done which I probably should not have done. But I don't understand why someone would feel shame at being as they are. How can you ever be anyone else but who you are?

I am not disrespecting you or your opinion. Just saying I don't understand. I don't know if it is the result of a world which is so obsessed with normalising everything. By the same token, I don't understand Fashion, I don't understand adulation of celebrities, sports stars, politicians etc. I don't understand many things which other people take for granted.

Surely 'shame' is a comparative quality. Can a person intrinsically feel shame or embarrassment without reference to some external standard or judgement? I wouldn't have thought so. If that is true, then I can't help but wonder who taught so many to be ashamed of who they are. That makes me feel quite sad.

This is a hat I got custom made. It was my idea, not the idea of my support group. I appreciate that they tell me it's ok to be autistic (AS/ HFA for me more specifically) but it would be frustrating if I felt they didn't believe I was proud of it. Sure, sometimes it's frustrating (who doesn't get frustrated with a specific aspect of themselves sometimes though,) but I'm proud of every part of me.

Spectrum conscious? no, at least not in familiar company or in my own surround. I mean, when should you be conspicuous of yourself?
I suppose when you go out, you need to be on your guard a bit, especially opposed to strangers, but even now I still get the odd groups of lads pointing and laughing over the street at me and I just think o right, so they want a piece of me now? and I just walk away as they're not worth the look. Of course, if some big handsome bloke stopped me in the street for a valid reason of course, my response would be one of calm resolve, these dashing people don't like to be shown up in public places any more than I do and so its like yeah, ok we can both be civil here, why not. of course its when the cast iron bell of judgement bears its toll on you that you begin to worry and wonder if you get ever get rid of self doubt again.
Forgotten half the question now but never mind, onwards and upwards.

Took the words right out of my mouth. I am proud of the things I have achieved, the difficulties I have overcome, and the positive qualities I have managed to cultivate in myself. I am ashamed of times I have done the wrong thing, and negative qualities I have allowed to fester.

I think it depends on how it affects you as an individual and your life. It also depends on your environment you were brought up in and the people around you.

I was brought up in an NT family, and nobody's got any ASDs or any other conditions either in my family, they all seem ''normal''. This then makes them feel superior to me, which causes me to feel isolated a lot of the time. I only have mild AS, so I only lack certain social skills, which still defines me as an odd person some of the time, and does affect my ability to make friends because I'm so shy. But at the same time I do WANT to be more popular and I desire social interaction. I do seem to be spending most of my life worrying that I'm not socially functioning as well as my peers, and then I think ''what if I never have friends, and lose all the friends I have currently got?''
This is what makes me feel miserable.

Also I am not a genius like most Aspies seem to be. I only lurk around average, maybe below average in a lot of things like maths, science and technology (the things most other Aspies and Autistics seem to be good at). Well, I find a lot of NTs are good with technology as well, I mean, they all seem to know how to run a computer. I know how to use a computer, but I often end up mucking my computers up because I don't know how to update them, even though it sounds easy when other people explain.

And I don't like the way I am either. I seem to have a split personality. My parents are always questioning me about why I act like a dick at home, but don't act like a dick when I'm out, or have a friend round. They're now starting to accuse me of being able to help being a dick, and that I am just being a dick to upset close family. I HATE when this question is asked because I really don't know the answer.

Then finally all I have is the ''move out then'' cliche, as though it is that easy, never mind my life circumstances (financial and medical). So I can't even try to rant about my family because the answer is always ''move out''. I do want to live with people, but just with one person who is organised and predictable, like my mum. Just me and my mum living alone will be perfect for me. I won't be too lonely but I won't feel overwhelmed by too many people either.

No, I am NOT proud of being on the stupid gay spectrum.