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Yupa
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06 Aug 2009, 9:03 pm

One thing I notice when I overhear or participate in other peoples' conversations is that they often have something to say about someone with Autism or Asperger's.... and it's usually something bad.
I don't think you'll meet a person who hasn't had some sort of horrible experience being either minorly irritated or genuinely hurt by an Autistic.
How do you feel about this and what horror stories do you have about your experiences with Aspies/Autistics?



Maggiedoll
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06 Aug 2009, 9:44 pm

Yupa wrote:
One thing I notice when I overhear or participate in other peoples' conversations is that they often have something to say about someone with Autism or Asperger's.... and it's usually something bad.
I don't think you'll meet a person who hasn't had some sort of horrible experience being either minorly irritated or genuinely hurt by an Autistic.
How do you feel about this and what horror stories do you have about your experiences with Aspies/Autistics?


Are these people always completely sure that the person they're telling the horror story about actually did have a disorder? Or might they have been somebody claiming to have it in order to have an excuse for the nasty things they were doing?
Many other times, they'll have had contact with people with AS, but not known it.. do you tell everyone you meet about it? And if you do, do you use the term? I frequently mention symptoms without specifically mentioning autism. I might say "I suck at reading people, so please tell me directly if I do something that seems offensive." or something along those lines.
Also, people who are nasty are just more likely to leave an impression. I think it was Napoleon who said "ten who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent." It's true. Your average aspie struggling to figure out social skills isn't going to be the person that stands out in somebody's mind nearly as much as the one who was loud and obnoxious.
Yes, there are aspies who hurt people, intentionally or unintentionally. I think there are also a lot of people who hear about it, and decide it's be a good excuse. Usually someone with a diagnosed disorder doesn't tell everyone they know about it... Like many things, it's only mentioned if it becomes a problem.
I wouldn't say everyone has had bad experiences with aspies. But again.. the ones that have will probably be more vocal if the topic comes up. If someone hasn't had much experience at all with people with autism, how much are they going to have to say on the topic?



legendoftheselkie
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06 Aug 2009, 11:28 pm

Tonight on the news they showed a YouTube video of some guy who shot a bunch of women in a health club. He was talking about how he couldn't make friends or get women interested in him. Something about his manner of speaking made me think, OMG, I hope he doesn't turn out to have been an Aspie- that's all we need!


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Danielismyname
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06 Aug 2009, 11:50 pm

The story of good old Martin Bryant would have to be the most horrific of anyone diagnosed with primarily AS.

One of his reasons for killing all of those people was due to feeling like a social outcast.



anxiety25
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07 Aug 2009, 1:34 am

I have been lucky... very lucky. Most people I talk with about AS and whatnot always want to learn more, or are interested. They always tell me about every single article they see anywhere, anything they saw on the net (videos, news stories and whatnot) and ask what I think about it.

But I have met quite a few who automatically ask if my son is still in diapers the minute they find out anything about him... whether he's verbal or not, and they act like it's horrible for anyone they know who does have a child lower on the spectrum.

It bothers me, but again, they don't understand things the way we do, so to them taking care of someone with those needs is a daunting task... for us, having to socialize and hear about their troubles with it is a daunting task.



Tory_canuck
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07 Aug 2009, 2:00 am

Ill bet there's a thousand times more horror stories about NT's than there is about Aspies.


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TheDoctor82
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07 Aug 2009, 2:40 am

That's like saying "Apocalypse is evil, so Wolverine will also kill you because of that"



07 Aug 2009, 2:51 am

My mom acts like people with AS are all dumb asses and rude people and don't give a s**t if they hurt someone or if they are boring them with their obsessions. I know that is not true and it's only true for some, they are just jerks then, not the AS making them be that way because they are choosing their actions to act that way and full well know what they are doing.


I have spoken to lot of aspies online so I know lot of them are not the way my mom describes them. I think she got that wrong assumption when she read about it and she mistook not being aware or understanding as rudeness because we don't pick up on social cues and non verbal ones and know the unwritten rules on social skills unless it's been spelled out to us. But yeah there are aspies out there who are that way the way my mom described them while the rest are nice and do give a darn but might come off as rude but they do give a s**t if they found out they hurt someone.



Chronozon
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09 Aug 2009, 2:31 pm

Danielismyname wrote:
The story of good old Martin Bryant would have to be the most horrific of anyone diagnosed with primarily AS.

One of his reasons for killing all of those people was due to feeling like a social outcast.





Was Bryant ever diagnosed with AS?


He supposedly scored below 70 on the IQ tests he was given, so an AS diagnosis seems unlikely.