how do you feel about the term "asperger's sufferer

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Apera
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03 Apr 2010, 11:05 pm

I do find the term "sufferer" offensive. It is NTs we suffer from, not AS. However, I must consider what would happen to our disability status if we keep saying that we don't suffer and are just like everyone else.

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millie
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03 Apr 2010, 11:22 pm

Apera wrote:

Sorry...but you are not speaking for me here. I actually SUFFER from my sensory issues. I scream in pain at sounds, I cry when I have to vacuum the house, i cannot cope with two people talking in our home (my son and his dad) and I often have to leave the room - as I did a little while ago. I spend a lot of the time nauseous because of sensory malfunction and it's total pain to live with. I am told by an ASD specialist my sensory issues are very severe. I know they are and it sucks. I try to cope, but often cannot. I'm off on my own now, as usual, with ear plugs in and with a rising level of frustration because it is holidays here and that means i get completely BOMBED OUT by having to be around other people in the house for two weeks. I also get frustrated because of my need for such strong routine. I would like to cope with more dynamism and spontaneity but I cannot. While I do enjoy routine, sometimes I wish I could live like other people who do not have these things to deal with. I wish I could just go out and do what I would love to do. I can't. I end up in meltdowns.

I can suffer from the ignorance of people - regardless of their status in terms of neurodiversity. (Some so-called "NT" people are absolutely brilliant and wonderful.)

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pensieve
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04 Apr 2010, 1:21 am

Apera wrote:

However, I must consider what would happen to our disability status if we keep saying that we don't suffer and are just like everyone else.

I agree. If we're not disabled then why do we even get diagnosed with it? I'm so grateful to be on disability and have the network work so hard to find me a job that involves something I'm good at and interested in. Without that I would still be stuttering my way through job interviews and making it sound like I had good people skills and was really passionate about a job in sales or retail, or that I was good on the phone which I am not.

There's much that a suffer from too like executive dysfunction, a limit in social activity, anxiety around crowds, and all those sensory issues too. I have to get away like Millie when two very loud people talk. They're probably not that loud to everybody but. My mum has a friend and every time she's over I run away like I'm some timid animal.

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Claradoon
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04 Apr 2010, 2:10 am

I don't like "sufferer" because it implies that I'm defective. I'm not defective. I do suffer from extreme loudness, but so does everybody else on earth - the difference is where the line gets drawn. There's no right/wrong in it. Education and tolerance would go a very long way.

criss
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04 Apr 2010, 2:29 am

"To perceive is to suffer." said Aristotle

If I am truly honest with myself, some days
I feel I am super-abled and other days I feel
Super-disabled. When I am in a still place I
I know myself to be 'differently-abled'

I see life like looking through a very long
tube, everything is intense, and the whole
often evades me, this experience, of not
being able to see the whole picture, or see
the psychological stiching between events,
causes me pain and suffering.

I see, touch taste
and feel the world around me with such
intensity and longing, and yet at the same
time remain for the most part a stranger to
this world's ways and practices. Consequently
I feel to say I do not suffer would render
me a fool.

Yet in my suffering, through my suffering
and as long as I am able to find meaning
in my suffering, I am free. Suffering
can and does continue to break me open.

Happy Easter.

that

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homo_aspien
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04 Apr 2010, 2:39 am

About the same way that I feel about the term disorder.

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TheDoctor82
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04 Apr 2010, 2:56 am

NO, people still believe that we Autistic folks are "really suffering" from the inability to socialize, and that it's a horrible experience, yada yada yada.

I ain't sufferin'.

Ardent_Eccentric
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04 Apr 2010, 3:28 am

I’m cool with it!

I would trade all my abilities, skills and intelligence, to get rid of this god awful autism spectrum disorder. This spectrum has made my life hell. And I would rather be an average person with no creativity, with minimal intelligence and have people call me normal instead of weird and or strange.

I do believe it depends on severity though. I don’t know about anyone else but I have repetitive hand motion issues that I have always had. So when I’m stressed and nervous my fingers have the tendency to flutter. I have to hide my hands in my pockets at times and if I‘m not paying attention people sometime notice and cruelly and shallowly label me a serial killer. I also have the tendency to say strange things out loud that have absolutely no relevancy to any thing… And people miss read my facial expressions…or lack of facial expression. People look at my face at times and think I’m angry when I’m actually in a good mood. And the list can go on and on……

So basically I do believe it is a disorder depending on symptoms… for some its great for others its hell …

PS. my avatar picture is of me yesterday, and I was actually in a good mood at that very moment . My brother just looked at it and thought I was pissed but I was just looking at the camera… I’ve been working on that face thing though….

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Fickle_Pickle
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04 Apr 2010, 3:49 am

It fits me perfectly.

TheDoctor82
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04 Apr 2010, 3:56 am

Ardent_Eccentric wrote:

honestly dude...sounds like me.

But I wouldn't trade any of my advantages to be "normal". I was dealt a certain hand in life, and I think I'm doing quite well with the hand I was dealt. I wouldn't trade that to be normal any day.

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04 Apr 2010, 8:48 am

Yeah. That last post shows something important: As much as many people who hate being autistic assume that it's because of their particular combination of traits, there will always be someone with the same traits who doesn't mind being autistic. I have known many many autistic people and across the board no matter how many or what kind of traits people have, people are divided as to whether they want to be autistic.

Things that do seem to affect the opinion include attitude towards disability and many other thoughts and feelings. The thoughts and feelings don't come from how many or what kind of traits you have.

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MONKEY
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04 Apr 2010, 8:58 am

I don't really care. Call it what you want.
Disorder, gift, suffering, magical powers, terrbible affliction etc etc
I call it a condition usually. I don't make it sound nice by calling it a difference and all that, if it was just a "difference" it wouldn't have become a medical diagnosis now would it?

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wblastyn
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04 Apr 2010, 9:20 am

MONKEY wrote:

Like homosexuality?

anbuend
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04 Apr 2010, 10:33 am

Disability is a form of difference. I don't get why people get so upset when people call it one.

MONKEY
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04 Apr 2010, 11:38 am

anbuend wrote:

Disability is a form of difference. I don't get why people get so upset when people call it one.

When people say difference it's usually meant to be postitive and sound all pretty, like "we don't have a disability we're just diffrent blah blah". But yeah you're right it is I agree with you there. I don't like when people do the whole sugar coating "JUST a difference maaaan" when they should know just how disordering it actually is.

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TheDoctor82
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04 Apr 2010, 2:03 pm

anbuend wrote:

Disability is a form of difference. I don't get why people get so upset when people call it one.

because it suggests being "disabled" and handicapped; my question...from what exactly?

I don't see my situation as a handicap, since I can easily work around any areas it works against me.

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