Why are you proud of having AS?

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I am proud to have AS because of my heightened intelligence and ability to focus on things that I am passionate about.

1) Having AS in common with Einstein is just a genetic similiarity. One might as well say they are proud to be white because Einstein was white or proud to have wispy white hair because Einstein did. It is meaningless; no reflected glory can come from it.

2) I think this is the biggest fallacy of AS...ever. I severely doubt that the set of all people with AS as a whole are any more or less intelligent than the wider community at large.

can someone tell what proud means exactly,used to ask my tutor what it meant when she said it to me, but it never made sense,dictionary definitions make no sense either.

That means having a sense of happiness in your accomplishments.

I like a lot to be myself.
(anyway I really dislike the expression "have aspergers", I am really aspie, but I don't have aspergers).
Well, let me still say that I wouldn't like to be a gnu.

Right now, not really.

I concur! I don't 'have AS' like someone 'Has the Mumps'. hummm. . maybe no one "has the mumps" anymore. Well I don't have AS like some one "has Herpes" or "has an STD", I pretty well AM Aspie and likely to stay that way.

oh, well, better luck next life, I always say!

Merle

Award to squier, with a thank you too!

How can you like being misunderstood?

In a way, I'm proud. Not in a big-headed way though. I just want to show every other AS person that they can participate with other NTs quite normally. I push the boundries all the time with myself. Here's a list of things I thought I'd never do which I do with pride....

1) Drive a car (how many people with AS can drive?)
2) Worked in a very busy social environment part-time at a DIY store and interacted with the general public all the time.
3) Worked my way up in IT. Did an apprenticeship and my employer took me on full-time when I finished the course.
4) Able to go out with friends when I have the oppertunity. Nightclubs, pubs, bars etc.
5) Makes friends from all sorts of backgrounds and ages, especially through my current job.

NT people don't need to fully know what AS is. It shouldn't ever discriminate you to do what you want to do even if they knew.

Life's too short to worry about AS. That's how I see it.

I wouldn't say I'm proud of it but it does give me things that NT's don't have. The negative aspects of AS can be dealt with by finding work arounds. It isn't any better or worse than anything else just different.

Right on brother.

Some people will claim AS for any historical figure for whom any evidence of social awkwardness can be found. In one Yahoo group I was kicked out of (after being castigated as an NT, of all things) AS was claimed for the socially brilliant Goethe on the basis of a single anecdotal account that he was solitary as a child. The same people making this claim had decided that Newton (for whom a much stronger case could be made!) was definitely not an ASer because he was a "shallow" thinker. Because newtonian physics is "shallow" and quantum physics is "deep" and since Asers are "deep thinkers," Newton could not have been an ASer and must have been an NT. Come on, people

Anyway, ASers skew a little higher in IQ than the general population because an absence of mental retardation is one of the diagnostic criteria for AS. In other words, to say that ASers are on average brighter than non-ASers is a mere tautology.

There is also some data suggesting that AS is rarely associated with genius (you didnt want to hear that, did you?). The best we can say is that we occupy the normal-bright to superior range. That's definitely the sunny side of the IQ scale but it doesn't automatically put us in the company of goethe and newton.

Wow...I can just let my mind wander, and I'm like...in Heaven, man. It's like I'm flyyyyyyying, way up high. Oh, it always comes out when I'm exercising a savant skill, like when I'm writing or something. I used to lock myself away for days without food, sometimes just a few snacks and some drinks, and just write, not really going anywhere in particular with it but just spraying the stuff up onto the screen. Blissssssssssss. Oh, but that's off the topic.

Okay, proud of being an aspie? Being a little quirky? Oh, I'm proud of myself, but I don't think that being an aspie is necessarily a reason for pride. You see, every aspie is going to be a little different. Some of us are going to be true savants and make huge contributions to our nation or community. It's not like being an aspie makes you better or lesser than someone else. It's the entirity of yourself, expressed in everything you say and do. You know, these death metal growls sound amusingly like flatulance. Has anyone ever noticed that? Hehehe, it makes me giggle.

You should be proud if you can find for yourself a place in society. Do not try to conform yourself to someone else's place, though. To do so would destroy you. Seek greatness. Seek worth.

I have a lot of reasons for being proud:

* I'm uncommon, rare and unique
* I have a better memory than the average people
* I'm smarter
* I have amazing interests

When the brain sacrifices social functions, it replaces those functions with an intellectual gift. If we didn't have that, then the NTs would be correct in their assumption that we're just a disability. Autism without a high intelligence is just social anxiety disorder on steroids.
We do have a compacity to be alot more intelligent than most NTs, but we're brought up in a NT world where we're educated through NT means, taught to assimilate in a NT world and try to emulate their behaviors, we're taught their theories of mind, and it generally makes some aspies not very aspie. As a matter of fact, a high IQ is one of the main characteristics in diagnosing an Aspergian. We also have larger brains than NTs. Larger brains doesn't always mean that one is more intelligent, but in evolutionary bounds it kinda does.
Every time a new stage in evolution comes along, their brains are larger than the past breed. Higher intelligence means making better decisions, which will better aid the surivival of the species. Yes, I am proud to be Aspergian, and I would rather die honestly than to let intolerance continue to plague our people.

it's a weird thought for me to address... as i've only heard out this stuff less than a year ago...

i guess, looking back, i would have been a little less hard on myself, though; if i had done that... i'm not sure i'd be who i am today.