Treaded like a dog.

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Growing up in a family of 4 boys I got treated like a dog.
Mum and Dad knew nothing about Aspergers back then in the '60s. I am now 62 and have always had a dislike for being around people and the only reason I can think of is that I will be treated just as I was as a kid.
Aspergers is so misunderstood in the community. It make me so sad to know that perhaps there are many others who feel the same as I do.

Some dogs get treated better

I am autistic savant but I know what you mean

I was diagnosed shortly before my 65th birthday but obviously have been mildly Autistic my whole life (DSM-5 terminology, Asperger's elsewhere).

Last year I learned from my still-living-and-quite-old Dad that even when I was very young my parents thought I was doing weird things but they decided I was just like that, I wasn't being bad, so they decided not to punish me. In many ways they accommodated my differences. That was very, very fortunate for me...I believe if they had decided otherwise my life would've turned out very differently.

I believe that early upbringing of an Autistic would have to make a huge impact on someone's life.

The theoretical but not-doable way to test that would be to get a large number of young Autistic children and carefully raise them different ways, and then wait 50 years and see which upbringing techniques produced the best results.

The folk on WP could conceivably be used for an alternative doable study. Study us old folk here...learn about how we were brought up and look at how we did in life. Some patterns might emerge.

I get treated like a pet dog when in group discussions where what I say people ignore. It is usually because by the time I have thought about it and go to speak, everyone else has moved the conversation on a bit and ignore what I have said, or they don't want to talk about the obvious root causes to the situations they want to talk about.
I remember my Mum and I had to attend a meeting about something that had happened locally so the local dignatories (Councillors) were there along with our MP and many members of the village... (I am not good in crowded rooms but I can ask questions and make statements if I need to)...
And they were talking about how certain employees were over riding the councillors decisions and kept doing this even though they do not have the athority to do so.
So I asked "Then why are these people still employed if they keep doing this. If I was in a job and I kept going outside of my rules I would have had the sack long ago".
The MP (I believe she has now retired and we may now have a new MP?) quickly diverted the conversation and it was as if I had not said anything and no one else was allowed to comment. (The problem in these parts is a localized maffia who put their members in positions so they can over ride public decisions so they can prosper trough it and it is only because others do not challenge this mafia that they can get away with it).
But this sort of treatment I get often because somehow people do not want to know the route causes to the situations they want to discuss.
But if I have to be quiet I think "What am I here for? I put in major effort to break through anxiety to be here and I am better off leaving". But if I leave I am made to feel like I am upsetting everyone because I am leaving? But if I am not allowed to contribute and no one listens or wants me to raise points which will solve their problems, then what is the point of me being there? I am like a pet dog who is to be seen but is not allowed to even give a woof!
I find I am treated like this though in general conversations with other people. I must stand there and say nothing while others talk around me about boring things which habe nothing to do with anything meaningful. For example, why have an entire conversation to talk about someones bad leg unless one can either arrange to help the person or if amongst Christians, pray for the person. Why discuss it unless it has a practical use? Why not just quickly say they have a bad leg and leave it like that? Why spend ages talking about it but not want to go to the person to help? I just don't get it!

I have tried to fit into those sort of conversations to bring practical solutions but no one wants to hear.
Also, the usual thing they talk about is the weather.
The weather... I thought "OK. Lets contribute to the conversations because folks around here are always talking about the weather!"
So as my youngest brother has an interest in clouds and the weather formations when he was young, so he had a book about it, I forced myself to study the weather. (It is not something I "Latch onto" so it is tough going for me, and I don't remember things for that long unless I can latch onto the subject, but I did remember a little when the opportunity came to use it.
A neighbour came up the lane and she started talking about the weather, so I pointed to some clouds and gave her the details of what weather to expect, what the clouds were called and what they meant etc, etc...
And she looked at me daft with her mouth open and there's me wondering what I had done wrong?
But I get the impression that thouh they are always talking about the weather, they don't want to know about the weather? Then why talk about it? I just don't get it!

But yes. Treated like a dog. Yes. That's familiar!

Was I treated like a dog?  No, not exactly.

Was I threatened with being treated like a dog?  Yes.  Many, many times...

I'd be very surprised if the way a person was treated when they were a child had no effect on their adult self. To my mind, childhood is the time when you learn what the world is like and how to adapt to it. I think the learning process also happens to adults, but our minds are probably more flexible when we're young.

In my case, my mother gave me a hard time, undermining my self-confidence, restricting my freedom to explore the world, denied me affection, and hounded me. As luck would have it, my father was the opposite. It seems to readily explain my self-image as an adult - I can never quite decide whether I'm a great guy or a jerk, and although intellectually I know I'm neither, emotionally I can't quite believe that. I'd have thought I'd have a lot of problems dealing with women, especially as my father thought women were impossible (which was a somewhat realistic thing to think about my mother), and I've certainly had problems in relationships, but also a lot of good times with women and my current marriage has been very successful so far and I don't seem to see my wife as overbearing or harsh. I notice traces at times, e.g. if she accidentally sets a saucepan down on the cooker so that it makes a sudden noise as if she's slammed it down in anger, I might get a disproportionate sense of panic and for a brief moment I feel that she's furious with me and is about to give me hell, but it's over in seconds.

I think it can be extremely hard to undo some of the effects of a very rough childhood, and that some people never manage it completely, but I think there's always hope, for anybody who grasps what's been done to them and is really determined to make repairs. And sometimes I think it's just a matter of letting yourself grow by intuition. I'm pretty sure that some of the ways in which I've become better "balanced" over the years were nothing much to do with conscious will or effort. I think it can be counterproductive to try to become completely reborn. We can usually make changes to the programming but it might be a mistake to think we can completely rewrite it from the ground up. And sometimes what we see as a weakness could be turned to our advantage.

Mountain Goat, I agree. I think most people (therefore most NTs?) seem to like talking for the sake of talking...with as little content as possible.

BeaArthur, I would take an anonymous questionnaire from some reputable source to contribute to a study--I'm not talking about having someone follow me around or anything like that. But (a) participation would obviously be voluntary, and (b) as far as I know there is no such study to voluntarily participate in. It is just a notion.