Do Autistic people think they're better than everyone else?

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Some Aspies, like myself, do care about their social status and fear social isolation. I get depressed if I feel people don't like me or feel friendless, etc.

I certainly don't. Right now, I don't feel as though I am even as good as everyone else. I think of the people I like and admire, and I'm nowhere near as good as they are.

I feel ill-equipped to succeed in the world. Not better, not worse, just like I'm in the wrong environment. I used to adopt a superior attitude to protect my ego, but now I'm older and wiser and I realize that reality is never that simple. I've got a greater appreciation for the diversity of people around me and an awareness that I'm just wired different from most folks.

I still would rather not spend time with most of them, but I don't feel superior about it.

My wife (an NT) doesn't like it when I refer to NT's as 'you people', whilst my mother (as much an Aspie as me, though she won't admit it) used to suggest I am arrogant for belittling people (she does the same, of course). Still, I don't think it's arrogance, I think many AS people get frustrated with NT's, because we can think in straight lines, whereas they (in the majority) are ingenious at finding ways not to do so. We are direct thinkers and they are not, so in some ways we can think faster than them (most of them, anyway). In some ways, we are better, in others, much worse. I like to think of ASD people as a stripped-down version of humanity, focused and not easily distracted. However, does looking at the world in all its' harshness get us anywhere? Would it not be more enjoyable to be distracted by trivia?

I'm beginning to wonder if I even have AS any more, looking at this thread.

I see myself as "worse" than most other people. I can't say 'worse than everyone else' because I don't think 7.5 billion people are all better than me

But that has been the diagnostic criteria IRL despite it not being mentioned in diagnostic manuals. Functioning labels were never used to in any diagnostic manual but has been used as part of ASD diagnostic labels used for decades.

In hindsight, I should have written high to genius level intelligence because unfortunately, that is what Aspergers has morphed into.

I am sure there are a few out there because there will always be exceptions but if you want to find "ret*d" people diagnosed with Aspergers it will prove to be very very difficult, much more difficult than finding "intellectually disabled" people who were diagnosed with Autism disorder or in recent years Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The reason I said "not again" is because this has already been discussed at length. Intelligence is not a part of the diagnostic criteria.

Repetitive Behaviours are in the diagnostic criteria so there have been, are, and will be topics such as should Autism be cured and self-diagnosis that get discussed over and over again. Also on a forum of this size you are going to get newbies that have no idea about a topics history.

What the manual's criteria are and the criteria of the clinicians diagnosing ASD's are not always the same thing. The manuals are a guideline. As far as I know clinicians will not lose their license if they do not follow the DSM or ICD. Aspergers has always been considered a form a high functioning autism. Autism Functioning labels are generally defined by intelligence levels.

I'm not talking about repetitive behaviour, I'm talking about ignorance. You'd think of all the people on the planet we should know these things, but seemingly there is a lot of resistance to the truth.


So what you're saying is that you should be able to define what autism\Aspergers\anything is on a whim using arbitrary bias and when someone tells you you are wrong you simply bring out this "trump card" and think it makes you right? That holds no water with me.

Some do, some don't. Although many autistic people have self-esteem issues, so I think many feel inferior. After all, things that are natural and easy for NTs to do are often difficult for us, and they're mostly things people in general think you should naturally be good at, and if you aren't, they think you're inferior or even worthless.

been told a fair few times to possess too high an estimation in the capabilities of others. only thing taken from those who spoke such, is that they held too little for themselves and consequentially so in the capabilities of others.

autistics sometimes do not interact or otherwise talk as much as neurotypicals.

the neurotypicals might perceive the avoidance as the autistics acting like they are better than everyone else.

having said that, neurotypicals, especially extroverts, seem, to me. like they act like they are morally superior, academically smart, awesome, wise, funny, socially cool, absolutely important. extroverts act like every time they have a thought or emotion they have a moral duty to announce it within 10 seconds. lest the sky fall down.

extroverts seem so judgmental. sometimes it's like one action: one statement

in other words, every time i make an action, they make a statement.

and then they elevate their opinions to facts. then they call themselves "we", "people" or "most people".

a clinical psychologist had the nerve to tell me to go buy clothes at a consignment store. then he told me that when he saw me he did not know if i was male or female. then he told me that my gait was a "transgender walk". and he only saw me walk from the waiting room to the office. several feet. several seconds. and he just had to comment. and he just had to remark.

quite frankly, i get it that everyone can say whatever they want. and he was, by far, not the first to comment on or ridicule my gait/posture. cariacature. (fine). but for a clinical psychologist to do it? to get paid to do it?

now that, is like insult to injury.

extroverts have had the nerve to tell me i go around "all slumped over". they ask "why are you smiling". they tell me to "smile". "how come you're looking at me wierd."

it's like every time i do or say the slightest thing they do not like, it's like a cross examination. do extroverts just have a higher metabolism than introverts?

they make me want to puke.

it's like they truly believe that they have a moral right to get, become, and do everything they want. immediately.

then every time i do or say something they do not like they label it as "disrespectful", "rude", "mean". or whatever.

but they do not know that maybe it is "rude" to keep flapping their traps like that.

b/c i ain't no football game. and they ain't no sports announcer.

seriously some precious little "people" have humungous egos. you would think that they believed that if and when they stopped flapping their fat traps, that the solar system would collapse.

but whatever. that is not illegal.

besides, what if it was illegal, then what? take a videotape and tattle to 911? open the phone book and waste a lot of $$ on hiring a lawyer?

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anyways, i am autistic and i do not think i am better than everyone else. if anything, i think i am worse than everyone else. but, of course, i do not represent autistics. and i do not represent people either.

in their defense, however, sometimes introverts and autists are just as judgmental as extroverts and neurotypicals. just that introverts and autists do not go about flapping their traps. at least not as much.

Not this again. This has already been discussed at lenght. IQ *IS* part of the diagnostic criteria. Below 70 you are LFA, above 70 you may or may not be lumped into HFA (the latter of which includes what used to be called aspergers).

I like to think of myself as Manwë compared to Gandalf.