AS, disability or disadvantage

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I second this but I probably have different reasons to the poster I have quoted.

I am only stopped from doing things by the difficulties other people and their ignorance create for me. The stress of their constant accusations that I am doing things to annoy them on purpose, their lack of understanding of things in general, their lack of logic, them not understanding my sensitivities (physical or otherwise), their bullying spiteful manipulative behaviours and so on.

Ie I cannot work because of my social difficulties, not because I am not able to do the job. I can't study because of social difficulties and other peoples reactions to me not because I can't do the work (I get A grades work wise at any level of study) and so on. I can be a little disorganised sometimes but I will get results (and good ones) if left to work in my own little bumble like way.

But because of my social problems which are caused more by other peoples ignorant reactions to me and their lack of understanding regarding individual difference, I am stuck at home on disability instead. All that academic ability I had going to waste...well mostly. I did recently use it to help me resolve my physical health problems and I am now losing the weight I gained whilst I was sick so that is one good thing, but still, that aside my social problems still exist and no one wants me to use my ability to help them (which is what I really wanted to do with it) as society has rejected me as 'not being good enough' (their opinion, not mine!! !!) so I am at a bit of a loss as to what to do with myself really.

Just float around passing the time until I get old and die I guess.

Disability.
I'm not maltreated. People are generally nice to me.
I'm still impaired.

The strengths that I have because of autism come nowhere near balancing the difficulties that I have. I do not have hyperfocus and the other positives that you mention. What I do have is a tolerance for being around people and in public that is so low that after only an hour I need to fight every urge to meltdown, often unsuccessfully. I do suffer long periods of shutdown where I can barely care for myself.

It is unfair to say that sensory issues are not what you are talking about because "not everyone has them"... I don't have the ability to hyperfocus, or most of the other positives that you mentioned, so maybe you shouldn't assume that everyone has these gifts either.

Having autism is absolutely a disability for me. I work damned hard to push myself, look after myself and stay positive. But my life (by my own struggles, not how others have treated me) is HARD. I struggle every day just to get by and I can only guess that when I read about others who see autism as a gift that they do not have the same severity or set of traits that I have.

My answer would be a mixture of disability, disadvantage and positive difference - but you didn't give that option in the poll.

Exactly!

You're right. I didn't, and should have. I also was not trying to infer that there were no positives to AS. I am Aspergers and don't want to be anything else. It was more in an objective sense of where one did face limitation or difficulty, in their view, is it due to their inability or how others react to them. I accept that Both is valid, and so too where those more heavily afflicted have stated that AS cannot be separated from the associated conditions that cause the difficulties.

theres no option for both. It's both a disability and disadvantage.


technically, it's a disability first so I voted for disability.

I actually wrote a blog post about this a couple of days ago as someone on one of the Aspergers groups on Facebook recommended that I write about it. His view was that it is not a disability at all-in the blog post, I gave a more balanced view as I personally see it as a bit of both depending on the situation and my general mood. My argument was that, if you put someone with Aspergers traits that make them excel in academia such as hyper focus and a thirst for knowledge in a university, they will not be disabled because their traits mean that they excel academically. If you put the same person in a social event such as a party, you can see how Aspergers can be disabling because being in such a situation, for me at least, causes intense anxiety (I have had panic attacks before at parties). This is just one example but there are lots of others-if we are in situations where AS benefits us, we don't see it as a disability or even as a disadvantage but, if we are forced into situations where our traits are highlighted, such as (for me) group interviews, then it becomes disabling. I think the secondary conditions that develop from the way that people with AS are mistreated throughout life, such as depression and anxiety, are extremely disabling.

But the world we live in is made of, by and for other people. Have a look:




That second image shows these weird light patterns way out in the south atlantic. They are the lights of squid fishing fleets.

The thing I see in these images is that people are everywhere. Their collective works have made a striking mark on the planet.

While it may be true that life would be easier for you if they would make the effort to understand your needs, it is also true that life would be easier if you could make the effort to understand their needs. But this is where the disability exists and because we all exist in a social context, I think it IS a disability.

I don't see a meaningful distinction between a disadvantage that you can't remove and a disability.

By current definitions in the DSM and ICD, if these traits are not a problem for you, then you are not autisitc. If they are a problem, then disability is a perfectly good word. There's no point in trying to make the thing sound better. The problem part IS a problem.

I am all in favor of celebrating our strengths. I like to see Alex doing well, the stories about Daryl Hannah, Clay Marzo, autistic nobel laureates, etc. but it makes no sense to say both that you have great difficulty or just can't do things that involve living and working with other people and that you don't have a disability.

I would love to see more research into what circumstance help us to thrive, so we can try to create those circumstances for ourselves and our children (OK, self-interest, MY children!) I want to try to minimize the impact of the disability on myself and my family. I think this will take exploration of ways of being, practicing particular skills and skillful awareness of our situation--But not despair and not denial.

I know that my own experience is my own, and I noticed a different viewpoint once I looked around. The purpose of this thread was to see what people actually thought on the subject. And I accept that there is a wide view point on the topic.

I guess where I'm coming from is that I went through the process with my kids, and what I saw seemed to be of little use. The study seems to be on “why are you not like me” rather than “what are you”. The study is observer based, not subject based. From my point of view it was rather ignorant.

It seemed that from a medical/societal viewpoint, it's easier to just lump everything under AS as a disability, rather than examine what the causes for the various difficulties are. For example, depression and anxiety are regarded as secondary conditions of AS. It is also understood that AS children generally face greater ostracisation than most. If an NT experiences the same, that too can results in depression and anxiety. It's not to diminish that difficulties and even disabilities do exist. Even those suffering from conditions that are environmentally promoted I accept are valid. It's just that so many of our kind seem to be so poorly affected by the time they reach adulthood, that even if there were an inherent difficulty, they would still fair far better without the extra burden. In some ways it appears an excuse for the studies to just lump everything under AS instead of acknowledging environmental factors, when those same environmental factors would be regarded as detrimental to someone else.

This is a nice idea but not strictly true. A university is not a wonderful abundance of knowledge situated within a vacuum. I still struggled in academia, not with grades but with having to sit still in fluorescent lit lecture theatres or tutorial rooms with so many other people and the accompanying massive sensory overload. It was an extremely disabling experience. I have Asperger's no matter where I am, it's not entirely dependent on how successful I can be in that environment. Do you see what I mean? I'm all for seeing our strengths and valuing our difference but that does not render the challenges insignificant.