"Suffers from Asperger's Syndrome"

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Whether you think you "suffer" from it or not, the term still implies that it is a wholly negative condition, and that it's a major disadvantage, though this is not necessarily the case.

As I said above, there are other ways of getting it across that someone has AS in a more positive way, and that saying that they suffer from it isn't really going to help people's perceptions.

I don't dispute that, because I myself have been through some hardship that may not have been there had I been NT.

I'm not a victim, therefore I don't suffer from Asperger's Syndrome. I'm also not diseased, I'm unique. If AS was a disease, we would have all been dead before our fourth birthdays.

Who said anything about focusing on the negatives. WTF difference does it make what you call it? If I have a broken arm, calling it something else doesn't change the fact that the bone needs to be set.

I experience emotional distress because of my ASD. This is form of pain. It is by definition suffering. It is not ME that conflates this FACT with all the cultural detritus often associated with that particular word. While I experience pain, that suffering is not how I define myself. Autism is a part of what I am, a significant part, and some of it gets in the way.

Yes, I've always hated the whole "suffers from" quote. I don't suffer from Aspergers. I have it but I'm not suffering. Coping is a better word I think. I thought maybe "lives with Aspergers" but then people would think I live with a German room mate.

Let the people think we suffer. Who cares.

Well, the whole existence of the concept of "Asperger's Syndrome" is because it is considered "a horrible syndrome and [people with it] suffer...".

It's an odd choice of words, as I personally have never "suffered" from HFA or Asperger's. I may have "suffered" from a tooth ache, a bad flu, or a broken finger, or even an emotional loss, etc etc....

As far as how I would suggest for someone to say it, maybe I'd say "(Joe Q. Public) is with Asperger's", or "...is within the autism spectrum". Now also taking it a step further, if the subject person has been mal-treated due to misdiagnosis, or something, then he/she may have suffered due to wrong handling of the situation.

I can't speak for anyone but myself, so I can only say that high functioning autism in no way affects my happiness in daily life, nor has it ever stopped me from pursuing goals, and meeting them in most cases. If that's suffering, then I'd sure hate to hear the word for someone with a physical ailment with severe pain, crippling or debilitating symptoms, and/or curtailed life expectancy, etc.

Charles

Last edited by kx250rider on 15 Apr 2011, 10:15 am, edited 1 time in total.

So why aren't people described as being suffering from non-disability things that "cause" suffering? Black people have higher suicide rates as well, does that mean we should say they're suffering from excessive pigmentation, and try to cure them of that to fix it?

Saying you're suffering from a part of you removes blame from society, which isn't a constructive way of looking at it.

Animals get killed because they're said to be suffering, and some want to apply that to humans as well. It's a matter of life and death.

The problem is that the word "suffering" implies different things in different contexts. African Americans surely suffered under slavery. How that suffering is interpreted through the lenses of culture and history varies widely. Same with the phrase "suffers from Asperger's". In the context of some cloying Hallmark Chanel tear fest movie, it means something entirely different than when used as part of a clinical description of a neurological state. I don't embed much more meaning into the word other than to describe the clinical issues autism presents in me. I DO suffer from Asperger's. If this culture wants to wrap that in layers of psychobabble and emotional slime, that's their problem.

That kind of talk always annoys me. The way that I'm different is called Aspergers Syndrome BUT I don't suffer from it. I suffer from shallow feeble minded extroverts that talk a lot about diversity and accepting people that are different but they don't act like it... people that are different 'need to be fixed', 'need to be controlled', 'need to be pitied', or 'need to be segregated'. I know it is just a fear reaction but they're the 'sheeple' majority that controls the world and we don't have a huge chance of changing them. Therefore learning to fit in the best we can is about all we can do. I'm just wired differently than the majority; Im ok with it but they're not. Thats my take on it anyway.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKRIRZEV4B4[/youtube]

I like the quote that says we don't suffer from AS and that instead we suffer from other people, although I don't know a snappy way to say not all the time though. Nice accommodating people do exist but they're in a minority.

I don't want to make excuses but I do believe that a baseline rule in working towards a utopian society is that if someone doesn't fit in to society well they have not failed it, it has failed them so I do agree that most of the problems are caused by environment/other people/society and I don't want to sound like an arrogant, narcissistic, neuro-chauvinist but I agree that we suffer other people and this would be more accurate than saying suffers from Asperger's in my individual case at least.

"Suffers from Asperger's Syndrome" is better as "An Aspergian who suffers other people" lol

I'm absolutely fine with "suffers with". Suffers with implies a disabling health problem of some kind and that is my relation to my AS. The government is already trying to rob the disabled of benefits and say that there is effectively nothing wrong with people.

No society can move towards a utopian vision by arbitrarily redefining words to fit a personal point of view. "Suffer" has multiple meanings. Insistence on abandoning this specific word because some of those meanings are distasteful is tantamount to censorship. Does your vision of utopia include thought control?

i am usually healthy.....

and my potential health problems in general haven't any connection to aspergers syndrome... at. all.

double post

Last edited by TB on 15 Apr 2011, 11:33 am, edited 1 time in total.