Do people tell you you're normal?

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I knew I was different growing up, and I always thought I was just smarter and more mature than the kids at schools. I wouldn't say at that time I was smarter or more mature, however, I will say that I was "smarter" in a difference sense, and more "mature" in a different sense. I self labeled myself as weird, and most people who met me didn't disagree. I have been labeled weird by many people as well.

I know now I am quite normal. That is.. I am not completely outrageous. That doesn't mean I'm not unique, because if you got to know me you'd find that I do many things that most don't. It also doesn't mean that I don't have AS.

I once read somewhere that autistic people tend to thrive on being different. This mirrors my tendency to pick something different on games. When I first play a game, I usually find the classes that interest me and then pick what I think would be the least played out of those interests. I dislike popular opinion, and I don't know why. Sometimes I dislike it for specific beliefs and have reasoning.. Other times it's just, "But everyone does it, so I don't want to!".

From my experiance, my family dosent like to say that Im not normal, so my mom has always made excuses for my behavior. She had the thought that I was just really shy, I will grow out of it. My mom would also say, I was just like you when I your age for every single time I've brought up being different. My relatives have had a similar attitude until I stayed at their house for three weeks, during one of the worst times of my entire life. Then my aunt sent my mom an email saying how much of a disrepect I was towards her family.

I've had a couple friends tell me, I dont see how your that different. Then later they'll accuse me of doing stuff that has do with my disorder and they dont know it.

Most of the time when I here it, it is coming from family members, particularly my sister and mother. I wasn't diagnosed until age 30, and I always tried to "blend in", so, I can understand why they would say that I'm normal.

It bothered me quite a bit in the beginning, but now I think they are convinced that I am not(normal). I also think that they were so reluctant to believe me (at first) because they have some of the same traits, and didn't want to consider that they too, might have some sort of problem.(they both have anxiety issues, but aren't on the spectrum)

I don't hear it much anymore, because I don't mention it often, and those I have mentioned it to, believe me now. It is still frustrating when I do hear it though, and I suppose that is something that I'll never get over completely, but I have learned to not let it bother me.

Since I'm so high functioning, I can't possibly be Autistic. (being sarcastic) You have to be a stimming, non-verbal person apparently. So people say I have mild Aspergers, or not even a condition at all. Yet they have no clue of how hard I have to work in order to be social and not mess everything up. I probably work twice as hard as the typical person. But they don't see that unless I tell them.

People assume i'm normal by first glance i'm pretty sure. No one ever really tells me i'm not normal. Then again not many really know me, or talk to me very much.

Being NORMAL is over- rated

They sure do. They just think I'm simply anti-social or shy. When I was in school, I was asked a million times why I didn't talk. I'd give the same answers like "I don''t know" or "I don't feel like it". The truth is most people simply has no ideas aspergers even exists. (other than professionals or others who have it) Even most of my teacher didn't know about it and one of my teachers called me anti-social a few years back.

sunshower: glad you like my quote! It comes from the film "The Fountain", a movie that I happen to like very much. I also thought it fit pretty well with my username "Morgana", the dark Goddess. I´m quite into all that mystical stuff...anyway, I like that quote too, which is why I use it.

Everyone I've worked for/with has thought me abnormal. Everyone in medical and psychological services accepts my diagnosis and automatically notices I'm not "normal".

However, I can relate to the OP because my parents refuse to admit anything's abnormal (and so I cannot tell them about my diagnosis). In particular my mother who, in spite of this:


-- Answered a developmental questionnaire designed for autism (though I hid what it was for), giving such answers as how she could never tell what I was feeling due to my lack of facial expression, and revealing many other traits from my childhood. But near the end, when it asked when she'd first noticed something was wrong, she wrote that she's never thought anything was wrong.

-- Used to harrass me every day about my traits in adolescence (my science and sci fi obsessions; lack of friends; lack of interest in fashion, driving, partying, dating; my anxiety and poor social skills.)

-- Knows I've often used psych services


Am almost sure it's a form of denial induced by guilt and fear. They do not want to face the truth because then they'd have to deal with it.

1) that they have a disabled (adult) child

2) that they've done little to help over the years, and added to the problems by neglecting them and/or harrassing me.

3) that they would have no idea how to go about helping


Another sitution that indicates my mother's prone to denial: I once had a benign brain lesion, and a few years later my mother denied it had happened. She genuinely didn't seem to remember. And she was the one who'd taken me for the MRI!

My family's refusal to acknowledge I've any major difficulties and me not being able to raise the AS subject with them gives a sense of identity loss. Eg, My brother has a friend he often mentions to me who's diagnosed with AS. But I keep quiet that I'm also diagnosed with AS, and even mention some things I've read that his friend might experience, yet my brother has never suspected there's a link!

Yes. There's really no reason for anyone to think something's wrong with me. I present quite nicely, I have excellent style, and I'm outgoing. Only people who really know me know that I have problems. Either I tell them after a while, or they eventually (but not always) figure it out.

have never been called normal,always words meaning the complete opposite-so that to am is 'normal'.

sunshower,
maybe those who call self 'normal' see the opposite to normal as being something bad/nasty,like many do with the word 'disabled' so are not wanting to class self under the opposite words.