Should there be an Aspergers (Autism) Anonymous?

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Do you think there should be one since its better for me at least to be with people than to be alone. Its not better, i dont like it, but i feel I can beat this thing... i really do. I will try over and over again. Who says I can't. Who says you cant.

There has to be a way. Alot of it has to do with fear, selfishness, rejection...

Affects my personal relations- self-esteem and security...

I have to accept myself for who I am and I don't want to live the kind of life stuck in a label and falling into it. I want to use it as a strength and grow like lance armstrong did with cancer. He got stronger....

Theres the strength spirit and theres the negative energy oh poor me spirit, today i choose the strength.

I've been choosing strength, for the past 17 years, and I'm glad that you're choosing strength, today.

Unlike alcoholism and cancer you can't recover from autism. You are born that way. Sure you can develop coping strategies but the autism will always be there.

the desease model of addiction makes it
clear that addicts are pre-disposed to
their drug from birth. Hense, once an addict
always an addict.

Their are 12 steps for nearly everything
these days.

All 2 people with AS need to do is to define
what the group is powerless over, get a kettle
and get going.

The concept of powerlessness has been very
complex for many in the spectrum to
understand. So anyone with AS will have to
work hard at what AA means by this
'powerlessness'

In AA and it's affiliated programs, powerlessness
means the individual is powerless over their
condition, but not powerless over their response
to it.

In this contex I would say that I personally
am powerless over my neurology, but I have a
choise as to how I respond to it.

If you're selfish, then perhaps it is a good idea to change, not just sit back and accept it as just 'part of your personality'.

'

co-morbids and AS generally go
hand in hand. By co-morbids I mean
OCD, depression, isolation, lonelyness.

There is nothing selfish about seeking
a group to find self help with one's
struggles.

For people who are trying to quit AS?

No one is talking about quitting AS,
just living more creatively with a
neurology that generally goes hand in
hand with the co-morbids I have
mentioned.

Did you INTEND for the poll to say "your stupid?" Please say you didn't...

I do, for one. Autism is not cancer. You will never be non-autistic, and you will burn yourself out if you try it.

That is not as bad as it seems, because not being autistic is not the same as staying exactly the way you are now. You can learn things; you can resolve anxiety and depression; you can become more skilled in your strengths and learn to work around your weaknesses.

Would you rather be autistic and have a chance to be happy, or spend your life rejecting your own brain, trying to be non-autistic, and failing?

I don't think an AS anonymous would work out very well.

No. Autism isn't an addiction. And there are enough 12-step programs in the world as it is. Such things used to sometimes have a good effect in reducing people's selfishness. But somehow it all got inverted and mixed with pop psychology. And now most of the people I know who are heavily involved in 12-step have learned a zillion slogans to justify their selfishness rather than end it, and many of them expect the rules of the rest of the world to function like a 12-step group (and view themselves as improving themselves even as they step all over others).

The idea of an autistic meetup group of dome kind is a good one. But personally I would never attend a 12-step group, and don't even like most tamer support group atmospheres. I'd rather attend a group that's just for people to meet and talk, or one with focused activities, rather than a support or 12-step group.

You're.

Maybe, but call it something else. AS is something you're born with, not something you develop because of a bad habit.

Sorry to burst your balloon, but there is not a way to repair damage done to the developmental ability of your brain before you were born, that is very likely genetic in origin.

The fact that you think you can WILL your Autism away, only demonstrates that you do not fully understand your own condition.

You need to learn more about what AS is, so that you can learn to accept yourself. You are different, but you are not defective.

Your brain - not your personality - is missing some components that are generally typical to most human brains. This causes you to experience and perceive the world around you slightly differently than most other individuals. This is especially true in situations involving human social interaction. These variant perceptions will also cause you to think and behave somewhat differently than most of the people around you, in ways that will frequently put you at odds with your peers.

You can (and you will over time, even if you aren't aware of it happening) learn certain skills, known as coping mechanisms, that will help you work around these handicaps. However, the handicaps and the resultant missteps and emotional fallout WILL NOT DISAPPEAR.

Just as someone born with one leg two inches shorter than the other, you are not incapable of doing most things that others do, though you may sometimes be restricted as to how you go about accomplishing these things, and there may be areas in which you will never be a competitive champion, but you can accomplish what you need to. However your own personal 'limp' will be with you for the duration of this life.

Believe what you like for now, but I can promise you this, and you can tattoo it on the back of your hand so you'll remember I told you so when the realization finally sinks in: No matter how much you may convince yourself that you have become just like everybody else and that your AS is gone - the people around you who do not have Autism, will always be able to tell that you are not like them. And they will always treat you accordingly.

I say you can't. And here's why: For 49 years, everybody around me - my parents, my teachers, my coworkers, my employers, my spouses, everyone - told me - insisted - demanded - that I be like everybody else, do what everyone else did the way that they did it, because none of those people knew what Autism was anymore than I did and none of us had ever heard of AS, so they did not allow me to be different. But you know what? I was different anyway. Not, as they thought, because I enjoyed being difficult and annoying them. But because I AM different and I CANNOT BE ANYTHING OTHER THAN WHAT I AM, no matter how hard I try, no matter how much someone wants, needs or expects me to, even if they hold a gun to my head and threaten to kill me if I don't change. I don't have the power to become like them, I've spent half a century desperately trying. Well, I'm not trying anymore. And I feel much better about myself.

Good luck with the transformation.

i thnk you can fight the AS. Try to be normal. Or you can accept the AS fully and decide never to be normal. Both ways have great advantages and great disadvantages. I think it s up to the person which way they choose.

Of course you can TRY. You can try until your head explodes. You can even convince yourself that you've succeeded and for a while you'll feel better - until you realize one day that everybody around you is snickering behind your back and asking each other how you can possibly think that weird behavior of yours is 'normal', and you suddenly have this epiphany - that you can't accurately judge whether your behavior is 'normal' because you were born with a genetic disability to read and interpret NORMAL.

If you are unable to SEE half of what constitutes NORMAL social behavior, how the hell are you going to learn to mimic it? I swear, it's like a blind man calmly asserting that one day he'll be a marksman. Not unless the target makes noise, he won't. And this world is not going to start doing things differently just to make life easier for you. That's why they call it a handicap.

Brain. Missing. Components.

ret*d. Development. Of. Executive. Function.


If you think you can 'fight' AS, you don't have a clear comprehension of what AS is.