Are some people surprised you're autistic?
What frustrates me the most is the disbelief of friends who I have known in some cases for decades. They know that I have never had any romantic relationships in my life; saw me abuse myself with alcohol and drugs when I was a young man; have seen me melt down and disappear into the night when social/sensory situations have overwhelmed me; have openly criticised me for being "immature", "irrational" and "frustrating to deal with" etc. I have even unknowingly described my autistic traits to them quite explicitly in the past; "I'm not stupid, but I am slow"; "No, I don't understand this context that you expect me to intuit"; "I don't have a 'gut feeling' about this"; "I've tried 'just being myself', but that never seems to work out", "What do you mean 'she's interested in me'? How could you tell?".
Now that I can finally begin to explain these troublesome events in my life, all of a sudden people seem to behave as if an explanation for these things is no longer required. As far as I can tell, this is just because they can't face the intellectual 'burden' of trying to understand something that can't just be explained in a 'sound-bite' over a pint of beer.
Despite being diagnosed through a lengthy assessment, involving multiple professionals, all specialising in ASD, I just keep hearing that I'm "Just a bit quirky." (I have really come to loathe the word "quirky" - I find it incredibly dismissive)
Phew - sorry about that, rant over!!
I like this blog, and your post reminded me of the following blog post:
http://respectfullyconnected.com/2016/0 ... e-you-now/
^^ Thankyou, QuiverWhiskers - I really appreciate you taking the time to point me at this, every little bit helps me to understand better (myself and the folks I was ranting about!)
_________________
When you are fighting an invisible monster, first throw a bucket of paint over it.
yes. in the past few years i have disclosed it to some of my peers as i've begun to be more transparent and give less f***s...and i have been met by a lot of surprise, which surprised me. in some cases i don't mind, in fact it has made me feel happy when someone is surprised because they've just seen me as a person the whole time and didn't know, consider, or make the connection between my traits and asd traits (or simply didn't care to ). but i do mind when someone is surprised due to a misunderstanding of the spectrum and is not willing to learn more about it, they just refute my place on it because i'm not like how they see autism. to argue against that part of me like its an abomination is, whether they intend it in a nice way or not, dismissive and disrespectful.
Similar Topics | |
---|---|
How are autistic people fundamentally different than NTs? |
22 Oct 2024, 12:07 pm |
Best Job Platforms for Autistic People? |
11 Oct 2024, 5:45 pm |
How Trans Autistic People Are Using Joy as Resistance |
12 Aug 2024, 11:53 am |
Autistic people are tired of the stigma and fetishization |
10 Oct 2024, 6:27 pm |