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Autism/Aspergers: A Gift or God's Cruel Joke?

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Are Autism Spectrum Disorders gifts or curses?
Gift 56%  56%  [ 59 ]
Curse 44%  44%  [ 47 ]
Total votes : 106

Dussel
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15 Apr 2009, 7:14 am

Giftorcurse wrote:
How do you know?

P.S. My Asperger's is one of the reason I tried to strangle myself with bedsheets a few months ago.


You are not the only 15-year old how has difficulties and thinks about suicide. That is quite normal in this age - your hormons are turning mad, you don't know exactly what you are and how to live etc.

Wait some years - than it will be over and you will laugh about this; just the normal curse of live.



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15 Apr 2009, 8:53 am

My vote is:
Neither. Not a gift or a curse. It's just there.
It just is.


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15 Apr 2009, 8:58 am

BelindatheNobody wrote:
My vote is:
Neither. Not a gift or a curse. It's just there.
It just is.


QFT


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15 Apr 2009, 12:46 pm

Gift or curse?

Frankly, I see things in terms of economics...mostly because you can't fudge math.

AS and it's pros in my life....I see things from a unique perspective, but you don't have to have AS to enjoy that perk.

AS and the cons in my life....Inability to make and keep friends without much hard work; Inability to secure good jobs and earn promotions; Inability to form meaningful intimate relationships with family and friends; Tons of emotional scars and baggage from issues that I can fault (in part) on how AS affected my life. Just for starters.

I don't think AS has to be a "curse from God" but if it's a blessing, I'm not sure how to count it as such. I feel my life is blessed, but I see it as God doing something beautiful with what I had to work with more than anything else.



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15 Apr 2009, 1:05 pm

It is waht you make of it...

I can see it as a curse or as a gift...

I an take some of the undesirable or incompatible attributes as sa curse and other behaviors that are positive or desirable as gifts...

Depends on waht you have and/or do not have and how being ASD affects it so...

One of my biggest hang ups is having meltdowns being around people for long period sof time... Yet also this can be used for a good in that I have a less likelihood or more resistance from being drawn into the drama of the NT world...

I'll take the apparent disfunction of myself than to be psychotic imbalanced and unstableness that NT's exhibit toward one another.



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15 Apr 2009, 1:11 pm

kip wrote:
Hmmm... I suppose it's both and neither at the same time. It's a difficult question to answer, and falls akin to the glass half full / half empty idea.

There are good and bad parts. On the good side, we obviously have our ability to focus so extremely on the one thing we enjoy, in spite of the distractions. Yet, when we attempt to make social connections, we are completely lost. That would be the bad side.

But to consider it a curse may be taking it a bit far. We can do things no NT can, if for nothing else then they worry about what everyone else thinks. You eventually reach the point of not caring about what other people think, and when you do, it's nirvana. You don't look at an object and see only what is. You see what it was, and what it could be. To see the world around you as nothing more than a puzzle where all the pieces fit in different places may feel like a struggle now, but once you find your place, you can create the world you want.

That's what AS is, an Alchemists dream. To create something out of nothing, and better everyone for it. Don't worry if you do not find your place now, OP, you will eventually. Someday, it will all make sense. We just have to keep fighting for that day.


Great Post.
Deserves repeating.


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15 Apr 2009, 3:24 pm

It depends on the person.

In my case, I say both. Though due to me being a complete pessimist, I'm inclined to call it a curse more often. The negatives seem to outweigh the positives sometimes. Having said that, alot of the positives are also negatives depending on the context and situation. I guess in that case, it depends on how you look at it.


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15 Apr 2009, 3:27 pm

Aspects of both, really.

I suck at being social, I can't multitask, and I am so literal minded I piss people off.

On the other hand, my high academic ability at math and scientific subjects comes from my ASD. My ability to go into "hyperlucidity" (I like that term better than hyperfocus) most certainly comes from my ASD. I don't want to get rid of those things,


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15 Apr 2009, 3:41 pm

AS is a neurological condition. There are both positive and negative aspects of it.


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15 Apr 2009, 4:51 pm

Giftorcurse wrote:
Believe it or not, I signed up for no apparent reason. Maybe I felt sorry for insulting the people on the chat room. As of late, I have a fairly negative outlook on my Asperger's and life in general. My resource teacher and parents tell me I'm a genius and that my Asperger's is a gift. Gift? More like a curse God inflicted on me for kicks.


Rules To Live By:

RTLB#1: you are special; however, this only makes you perfectly normal. Most people are special in some way, and they should be appreciated for this.
RTLB#2: most people have trouble understanding themselves, especially when it comes to understanding their role in the scheme of things; it is highly unusual for this to be obvious to others, though.
RTLB#3: an ounce of work ethic is worth a pound of genius, and most people can develop it over a few years if they have the inclination to.
RTLB#4: only douchebags bother to excel in things they don't have a talent for when they are actually talented at something that is perfectly useful; when you're bringing in a respectable income, you can hire people to do most things (from taxes to housekeeping), and most of them would probably appreciate your patronage.
RTLB#5: most people who actually know what they are doing are actually very patient with people who don't; the ones who grow impatient with you are likely to make very stupid, potentially dangerous mistakes in their haste, and you have a responsibility tell them to quit being impetuous douchebags.



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15 Apr 2009, 5:11 pm

AgentCROCODILE wrote:
MathGirl wrote:
AS is the reason I'm good at math. I also can learn very quickly because of my visual mind, and I love it. To me, it's a gift.


So I presume you have never had sensory overloads, panic attacks, rage attacks, or social mishaps etc?


Because I'm not preoccupied with social norms, I am more likely to do whatever it takes to obtain what I desire. I'm more stubborn and single-minded than a mule and won't stop until I meet my goals. Rage attacks aren't necessarily negative if you know how to use them against the right people. What if these people deserve to be yelled at? Allowing the anger to seether inside leads to many potential health problems.



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15 Apr 2009, 6:00 pm

I am starting to get tired of this "I'm a ret*d and I'm feeling great" routine from all the people posting on this thread.



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15 Apr 2009, 6:09 pm

AgentCROCODILE wrote:
MathGirl wrote:
AS is the reason I'm good at math. I also can learn very quickly because of my visual mind, and I love it. To me, it's a gift.


So I presume you have never had sensory overloads, panic attacks, rage attacks, or social mishaps etc?

Yes, I have panic attacks, used to have rage attacks and sometimes have sensory overloads, but I've learned to control myself after everything I've been through. And now that I'm in high school, no one bullies/tortures me anymore, and I can be alone as much as I want. And as long as I'm alone, I'm happy. :)



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15 Apr 2009, 6:43 pm

Giftorcurse wrote:
I am starting to get tired of this "I'm a ret*d and I'm feeling great" routine from all the people posting on this thread.


I'm such a "ret*d" with a 4.0 index and a verbal IQ score of 167 on the Stanford Binet :roll:. Do you even know the meaning of the word?



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15 Apr 2009, 6:49 pm

Giftorcurse wrote:
I am starting to get tired of this "I'm a ret*d and I'm feeling great" routine from all the people posting on this thread.


Care to elaborate?


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Dussel
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15 Apr 2009, 7:49 pm

Giftorcurse wrote:
I am starting to get tired of this "I'm a ret*d and I'm feeling great" routine ...


In a first instance this is a very pragmatic idea - if you really would label Aspergers as a "ret*d" than feeling not great about it would change anything, therefore feeling great about it is a logic reaction.

Besides this: A very few people would regard a lack of understanding of higher mathematics or classic Latin regard as a "ret*d"; even this lack of understanding is in may cases based on a fundamental lack of mental capacities. Why should than a lack of understanding of non-verbal communication be regarded as a "ret*d", especially it often come along with other mental capacities above those of the vast majority of humans?