How Serious Is Autism To You?

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Yes lots of folks
even some professionals don't really get it.

Maybe I don't "get it"--but I do "get" that misinformation is being spread around and making people fearful.

An increase in the incidence of early Alzheimer's has been found within people with Down Syndrome. Still, it's not an inevitable feature of Down's.

Yes, I heartedly agree

Yes, I just quoted the entire text of a post - because I can relate to all of it. Thank you ArielsSong!

I wouldn't know about my AS had I not asked to be tested for and diagnosed with ADHD in 2009. Somehow, until getting medication for ADHD, my AS didn't really show. It was as if my ADHD put a blanket over my AS.
I never thought of the way I always did stuff alone, sat alone, played alone, not having friends as something "not normal" - growing up in the deep forests of Sweden it occurred normal.

Was I bullied in school? Yes. But the bullying never specifically targeted my Aspie traits, except the fact that I was way more intelligent than any of my peers, which rendered me the nick-name 'The Professor'. I was also bullied for being transgendered (being beyond Tomboyish in rural Sweden in the 70s was harder than being AS).
So my AS went undetected untill I was medicated for ADHD.
Once my ADHD was under some control, my Aspie traits, the negative ones broke out in hives.
Anxiety, social phobia, literal thinking, resistance to change, tics, intolerance to stress.

Would I want a cure? NO. Do I consider my Autism serious? Yes. It is what makes me me.

Do I consider my Autism disableing? Yes - but only when I have interact with Neurotypical People and Society. Which every time I have to step outside my home.

I vehemently refuse to conform. I absolutely refuse to play their little social games of 'small-talk', 'social-hide-and-seek', 'read-between-the-lines', 'greet-and-smile' and other such malarkey.
If they dont want to get real with me, I force them by asking any and all pesonal questions I can come up with until they do. If they run screaming the other way it is their loss, because I am a really great guy to know and socialize with once 'you' skip all the fake stuff.
If they dont run away screaming, they are usually keepers.

What exactly do I find disableing about my Autism?
My social phobia. Which is abit backwards for me - my obsessive thinking after encountering people is off the charts but I dont feel akward in the actual encounter. I do not like being around Neurotypical people. They usually don't have the intellectual or emotional scope to think beyond their own experience/framework. ASplaining to NTs is sooo energy consuming. So I just don't bother.
My sensitivity to sound, light and odor. Which makes public transport a night-mare on a good day, and undoable on a bad day. With melt-down/panic attack as a result.
My intolerance to stress in new or demanding situations, such as grocery shopping, doctor's visits.

Despite all this... I am happy being an Aspie. I am married to an Aspie.
I am however lucky to live in Sweden, where the law says I have a right to get whatever support and assistance I need, on my terms.
So, I no longer have to use public transportation, I can use Assisted Transportation. I have a pair of custom-made earplugs to help with sound. I have basic home assistance twice a week, so I dont have to go shopping without someone there to help me deal with the stress.

And then I have my Wife. And my sense of humor.

Your life is good but you live in a place where you are fortunate the receive help. What about places with fewer resources? Also you dont seem to be exactly aware of what you are doing when you interact, the lack of literalness in neurotypical speech is not some random fluff but has evolutionary reasons for why humans communicate that way. They probably think you are being quite rude based on what you said about how you interact, also considering yourself more intelligent than your peers automatically can be quite an automatic assumption. But I don't know your lifestory so I can't judge.

We live in a world where each person is interlocked with others in a chain of interaction, one cannot think too much of oneself as being above it all. If the mountain will not go to Mohammed, then Mohammed must go to the mountain. Wanting to be cured has utilitarian motives behind it as well for me, I would rather be able to carry all my weight in this world rather than weigh others down and require more services and accommodation. Not everyone is able to make more than they would consume with all these "accommodations" neurodiversity advocates insist on until the end of time, but do I believe in stopping them? No, I feel compassion for the disabled, but if an opportunity presents itself to cure one of their disease then it should be taken! Hence there has to be serious research into ending the disorder.

Edit: Now, I do want to let you know I am holding myself back in what I wrote after reading your comment, just saying!

To those who think I'm not being serious:
Why I don't take my own case seriously? Because I'm the type who doesn't want to be accommodated. If I were still truly in need for accommodations, I'd be probably a curebie myself. My issues at this present are lesser known issues. (Ones that doesn't involve anxiety, meltdowns, sensory overload, clumsiness, and major social problems)
So for all suspicions and invalidations of me being autistic is more than welcome. After all, I'm not checking this forum just for myself.


As for itself and others:
I've seen others with frustrations towards communicating. (I've been there myself) The frustration that they are not being 'trusted' for being 'unpredictable'. The assumptions of being less capable thanks to body language. Such issues can deprived autistics the chance to learn and grow. (Being coddled TOO much, being pushed too far, just too many assumptions from the 3rd person's view)
Not to mention the parents' worries. They worry about their children's future. It's up to them to take it that they can be more functioning as they can be, or be desperate or be a denier. The social stigmas are the most obvious parts, but how about the less addressed parts like difficulty taking care of them? (I'm no caretaker nor a parent. I can only listen)


As I think about those children I played with... Usually for HFAs: Would they have to get through with what I did (in my worst years-- anxious, isolated, misunderstood, self-hating, depression, repression)? Would they decide to demand or pull through?
LFAs' fate? I don't know. Would they end up getting more or enough breathing room from their own body? Would they get used to the treatment around those who think of them as 'less capable'? And things I may not able to fathom with.


From where I live, the systems are derived from the US.
But the approach is different, and resources in general are more limited. While people in the spectrum here have little chance of getting help from a professional, we don't have a fear mongering organization either.

But that is exactly the point. We all have different experiences.

You act like you're trying to start a war amongst the autistic community just because YOUR experience has been entirely miserable.

There seems to be two (at least) responses in this thread.

One does not consider the last two words in the posed question.

Exactly. But still you do. I suppose it has to do with the utilitarian world view you give expression to. Something or someone has value only in accordance with how useful it is to others. Therefore if it is 'diseased' it must either be 'cured' or otherwise made useful. Like turned into soap or lamp shades.

I stopped caring about playing the Neurotypical Social Game once I realized that 1. The Game is rigged against NeuroDifferents regardless of how much we follow the Rules, 2. The Rules change as soon as NTs realize they have an ND among them; and they always realize because they cheat by changing the Rules, that is how they maintain the Social Status Quo 3. The Rules never apply to Neurotypicals. They can break the Rules on a whim, while the Rules always apply to Neurodifferents who may never break the Rules.

This Game only creates disconnection, loneliness and alienation.

I dont care if they think I am being rude by not engaging in conversation with them at bus stop or on the subway, because talking about something meaningful at the bus stop or on the subway is meaningless due to time constraints. I dont care if the shop clerk think I am being rude by telling them how I am in response to their question "How are you?". I dont care if they think I am being rude by asking them how they actually are when they insist they "are fine" despite looking haggard with tears in their eyes. I dont care, because I CARE. Because to me the value of a person is too high to be wasted on social fluff that only leads to ingrained loneliness.
But I suppose this never occurred to you, because the utilitarian view dictates that a thing or person has value only as long as it is useful.

I think you are making a whole lot of assumptions. You seem to think that because I know that I was way more intelligent than my peers in school, and because I think Neurotypicals dont have the intellectual and emotional scope to think beyond their own experience/framework I somehow believe I am above them. That would be that utilitarian world view you express, giving what I say an elitist tint. Are you projecting, sir?

I am sure you could have said what you said in a far more aggressively articulate way.
That wont change bit. I still dont want a cure, so I can be "useful" in your utilitarian view. I am fine being me, right here, right now.