Why is autism such a bad thing?

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Well it's harder for someone like me because I feel that I'm sitting on the line between AS and NT. I'm expected to function normally in society because I'm able enough to be independant, but my anxiety and limited social skills are what holds me back from doing things like finding a job, meeting new people, and taking care of money independantly. I am self-aware enough to be able and want to take care of myself and to be able and want to get along with people, but certain aspects of my disabilities stop me, so I've got no choice but to just grin and bear it, otherwise my next option is to lock myself away in my house forever and not ever come out and meet anyone, which isn't really a good thing to reduce to.

Sometimes I do wish I was just very low-functioning. At least I wouldn't keep saying, ''ohh people keep looking at me, do I look all right?'' every time I go out in public, and I wouldn't be expected to have to socially interact with everyone, and I wouldn't be expected to get out there on my own in the big wide world and get a job, and people will guess I'm low-functioning when they look at me. I think people who are ''inbetween'' get judged more. I go out independantly, looking presentable and acting normal, but there's still that look about me, so people stare and stare and they still can't figure out what is odd about me, so they get a little agitated. If you're visually disabled, people take one glance and think, ''right, she must just have something wrong with her'', if you're NT you generally can cover up any weirdness about you, but if you're somebody like me, it's awkward.

Joe90, at least you have the advantage of knowing what's going on. I'm straddling the same line. For most of my life, I didn't think there was anything different about me but the high IQ and the cyclical Clinical Depression, and I always thought that, especially with the IQ, (which was made up in the first place to predict success in life) that I should be doing better, at least doing more of what I wanted to do, better. I was ashamed of how well I wasn't doing, thinking I must be lazy or something (I knew I was disorganized, and kept trying to organize better)(the "lazy" idea came from how much time I "wasted" on my Special Interests, "playing", most of which involved sitting down). I thought I had few/no friends because there was some sort of psychic "stink" about me, something Evil, maybe, that other people could "smell". I found out about the Asperger's, and the different wiring, and it was delightful, and a major relief. Suddenly, all the differences all my life made _sense_! There wasn't anything Bad about me at all!

I think some of the reasons that people like Downs people better is that they know about them, understand them. They aren't very complex, are usually happy and sunny and harmless and like everybody and show it. Even if someone mistreats them, unless it's very intense, they still like them, because they haven't caught on that they're being made fun of. The NTs know they aren't hiding anything, any evil intentions, they just are who they appear to be, nothing more. It's like a lot of big, happy children running around.

When I was a child, Downs babies usually didn't grow up. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans had one, who, like all the rest then, died very young. Dale wrote a book about her, after she died, "Angel Unawares". Since that time, the medical people have found out a lot more about their typical Special Needs, and most of them grow up. But not really.

Well it's other people what make me feel bad about myself all the time. The way people stare at me when I know I'm not doing anything even remotely different, it all makes me feel self-conscious. It's easy to just say ''just ignore them'', which I do anyway, but sometimes it gets too distracting and I just wish people would leave me alone and stare at something worth staring at.

The media currently dictates culture and what is the ideal of perfection. Unfortunately autism is perceived as a disability and "imperfection" on one end of the spectrum of "normality" when compared to what media stereotypes of "normal" is.

Even NTs have low self esteem, eating disorders and need plastic surgery to feel better about themselves. The average NT is probably asking the same question, what's wrong with being average? why am I called "mediocre"?

Autism ruins lives, destroys families, etc.

If you really can't understand why people think that autism is a "bad thing", you don't know what autism is. Yes, I'm sure you can rattle off DSM criteria...but you don't know what autism is.