Do NTs or aspies have more overall stress level?

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It seems to me that anyone with a diagnosable disorder would experience more stress than someone without one. One of the critieria for diagnosing any DSM disorder is that it causes significant distress in the person's life.

A bit OT here:

Trouble socializing is not just partying or boy/girlfriends. If you can't socialize correctly enough to not come off as a weirdo to landlords, you're going to be homeless. if you can't socialize well enough with co-workers and bosses, you're not going to have money to survive with. If you can't socialize correctly enough to deal with beauracrats to get help because you lost your job and can't secure a place to live, you're survial is at stake.

I've lost jobs due to sensory issues, and due to lack of socializing 'properly.' The end effect in both cases was identical, so neither seems like the lesser problem to me.

I can appreciate that some folks have more more severe sensory and other issues that can threaten survival (i.e. my EF and memory are so crap I've got a "cognitive disorder NOS" dx). But "socializing" problems can also threaten survival.

Depends. If you're brilliant and don't feel the need for company (like my great-uncle, who is very aspie) stress is reduced. His stress is mainly work-based which NT's face, and he doesn't care about socialising because he doesn't even make an attempt. He also likes to eat the same food and controlled his wife. As he is very inventive and brilliant he is respected and had no trouble finding jobs.

I get stressed because I feel lonely and I have the pressure to talk or interact. I also dislike being out of place. Being a girl my awkwardness stands out. I am not brilliant so I fear I will not get a good job. My mum does not accept who I am. I also fear I will never know how to conduct a relationship with the person I love and get along with his friends/family. Being nerdy makes me think about exams and my obsessions.

My classmate is aspie. She doesn't talk to me on her own and I make the effort. She makes no effort to know ppl, unlike me. Ppl don't bully her, they just ignore her. So she doesn't have real social stress, except perhaps the noise. Unlike my great-uncle, she is not brilliant in the sciences, which she chose to take. In fact she's retaking most of her papers. So her stress is exam-based. I doubt she is really lonely.

= an entire lifetime of a. trying to perceive and live by incomprehensible rules, and b. being shunned / wrong (i.e. defective) for failing to adapt (or, alternately: b. adapting or mimicking, suffering loss of authenticity in order to do so).

so i'm going to go with the aspie, who needs to work harder to maintain the same level of competency.

EDIT: and .. and ..



Janissy for the win.