Going to WP makes me feel stupid

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I mean insignificant, because so many members approach genius level intelligence in their posting, and that isn't even their intense interest. English is my forte and I feel eclipsed at every turn. Though I suppose I'm lucky to have few major problems from ASD, and while I'm clearly not low functioning, I suffer from a large slew of mild issues, and a crippling, only moderately severe but very long term depression which leaves me wondering if I have any interests at all anymore.

As such, I've become increasingly world weary, bored and tired of the world. On whim I chose to travel in Europe for 2 months to expand my horizons, and while it's been great so far, nothing seems to solve my lethargy and overarching problems. I feel that I have practically no strengths, and no desire to work or study anything in particular, as those experiences have been disappointing since they did not align much with any interests (which I don't really have now). I saw the gifted poll and I was surprised that the majority were inn the gifted programs. While I'd assume that most aspies here aren't the stereotypical hyper intelligent autistics, people here seem reasonably well compensated in other areas. Am I in the unlucky, not low functioning enough to be non sentient but not otherwise gifted aspie group?

All i have to say is: intelligence comes in many forms! You don't ask a fish to climb a tree. Maybe you shouldn't compare and label yourself that much to others. I think everyone is unique, and perfect in their own way. Hope you find happiness within yourself, see your quality's and abilities, and do what you are good at and what you like!

I feel the as the OP. Although I know I'm intellectually capable, I often feel too negative and depressed to do anything constructive. My social problems are so bad that they ruin my positives. Also my inability to drive limits my opportunities. My life is really restricted and I feel very helpless.

Your post displays a good level of intelligence, grammatically correct and certainly no indicator of someone unintelligent in any way.

There is a very mixed bag here on WP, you are probably noticing the super-intelligent ones because of your insecurity. There are some who post on here that do so in a fashion to deliberately sound as clever they can, there are some who no doubt are in high-flying scientific positions who talk like that as a matter of course - not to blow their own trumpets, there are others who produce posts that sound like a load of gobbledegook and I struggle to know what they are on about. There are some who's posts display incorrect spelling, incorrect grammar and poor English, some of which may be from countries where English is not their first language. Then there is the majority, you, I, and most of the others.

Don't worry, you sound fine. Read the posts that you feel comfortable reading, reply where you feel comfortable replying and ignore all the others.

I'm not intelligent. Just average really. OK I can write well, make my sentences make sense, and have good spelling and grammar, but that is because I fuss too much over how my posts look and I want other people to read it correctly. And I've always been good at spelling anyway, it's just one of my intellectual strengths. I don't have many. But I have read somewhere that the average person is fairly good at spelling and can spell the vast majority of words by adulthood at least.

I am not very good at maths at all. I've seen a thread on here where there was a conversation about ''pi'', and I remember learning it in school and some famous number connected to it was 3.14, but that's it, I don't know how to work anything out using pi. I felt like more people on WP knew than didn't.

I don't really care how intelligent I am. Intelligence has never bothered me, and I've never desired to compete or compare myself with other intelligent people. I've always just been competitive with my social skills, and I find I compare myself too much with NTs. I wouldn't care if my IQ was 60, but with better social skills (although sometimes IQ can affect the social skills, but not in the same way as a person with ASDs).

Don't feel intimidated. You sound perfectly intelligent to me. It's often the more intelligent people who have the doubts to be quite honest as you are always analysing yourself. You have a high level of self-knowledge so you are intelligent. It's not a competition - we all have value. I feel better offering advice or information to people or replying to posts with no replies - there's always ways you can help others on WP and that is the main thing, not being the cleverest.

Totally agreeing!

I feel like the OP in some regards here. There are several members that throw around elaborate debate type strategies that belittle and make others try to feel inferior in discussions on topics. This is a forum meant for us with autism or who have family members with it, or those interested in autism. It should make these members feel comfortable and accepted within this membership. But yes, I have seen plenty of times where certain members begin telling others how their post is not correct because it is guilty of this debate flaw or that one. And there are members who will not accept certain opinions as even a possibility because it is flawed in some way---so therefore it cannot be true. I have seen good members here in need of friendship be insulted and ridiculed around here by certain other members. Fortunately, there is a good effort from the moderators to patrol such behavior---but it still goes on because it is hard to catch all of it. And, many times, members don't always turn in names of those who disregard the rules. If a member is meant to feel personally belittled or insulted, then that is against the rules.

I might add that no one is impressed by overly intelligent sounding posts that is meant to sound like it is coming from Einstein. Failure to communicate to the membership in general by trying to talk over others' heads is a failure to communicate in general.

I would like to add something in regards to IQ. After joining the WP in 2008 after my diagnosis, I began a quest to learn all I could about AS. I found early on that giftedness can be mistaken for AS as well as co-existing with it. I went into school records to find my IQ---it was 111. I was relieved I was not academically gifted because it helped me in my confidence that my diagnosis of AS by a professional was correct. I wanted closure in why I was the way I had been all my life. High IQs can carry with them traits that look like autism when the high IQ person may or may not have autism. So...although giftedness and really high intellect can co-exist with autism, it also can be its own seperate thing and not be autism at all.

Last edited by glider18 on 03 Jun 2013, 7:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

There is a certain ongoing topic that fits that description. It seems to have hit on some people's focused interests. I think someone said they wrote a paper on just that subject so, yeah, you're going to hear a whole lot on a topic from an Aspie who is devoted to that subject. I'm sure I could wade through the posts and links and figure out what they were on about but I have other more personally pressing subjects I need to be spending my time on.

You sound either burnt out or depressed. Your primary responsibility is to take care of yourself. Don't worry about other people showing off their brains. I got news for you, I used to work at a forensics lab and I can tell you they're all pink and squishy

Long overly-intelligent sounding posts are probably copied/pasted from somewhere else occasionally.

People are what they are. Some people use advanced language because that is what they are used to and how they think, and they fail to make it accessible to the majority. Maybe they don't particularly want to talk to the majority, just to those who know those particular things. Or maybe they actually have a problem with understanding that their audience might not be able to understand what they are saying.

I sometimes feel I talk like a robot. I have a huge vocabulary, and when I want to say something, I try to use words that will get it as close to possible as what I mean, as I can. It's a bit of an obsession. I have this problem more online. My husband has almost no education, so when I talk to him, I remember to say things in ways he will understand. Same with my kids, or anyone else I am facing. Online, you are almost talking to yourself, because you cannot see the audience, so for me, at least, it is easy to just say what you want. What I usually want is precise, careful communication.

If it seems as though someone is more intelligent because of this sort of thing, you have to remember that they probably also have deficits in other areas. Lord knows I do.
And some people come here because they want to engage in a bit of debate, and they may not have anywhere else to go. Like I said, my husband is not capable if that sort of conversation - in fact, I don't have many friends and rarely get to participate in intellectual discussions. I know a few big words, and it is nice to be able to use them.
I have been in a debate or two on WP, and I always aim to be sensitive and respectful to everyone, but I know I have failed to come across that way at least once. I never mean it unless the other person made me feel attacked first, and even then, I try to give them the benefit of the doubt, and respond tactfully.

You should not let yourself feel down about any of it.

I think you may have a physiological reason for the way you feel. I know if you are not getting enough vitamin D for example, you could feel depressed. Thyroid issues can make you lethargic.
Not to say these are your problem - obviously I don't know. But have you looked into it? I felt like that from my late teens through to my late twenties. I have always had thyroid problems, polycystic ovaries because of hormone problems. Do you have amalgam fillings? They can do it.
Check it out - it could change your life. The trick is to find someone who understands this sort of thing. Regular MD's may help, but you have to be careful with them. I find them too drug-happy these days. Make it your quest to solve the riddle of why you feel this way - there is a reason. You can fix it. I used to sit for hours and stare at a wall, just wallowing in depression, convinced my life was a waste of space. I did a thousand things to fail myself, and sabotage myself, and nothing I ever tried worked because I did not have enough resolve to do it.
Crap I feel like I am rambling.
Sorry.
I wish I could go to Europe.

This is a quite accurate description of me, some of the time. I had to modify my typical speech in high school and college in order to avoid offending people, irritating people and generally putting people (including professors) off. I introduced an unnatural (to me) imprecision into my speech and added "like," "you know," and "umm" to make my speech friendlier and more accessible.

I think before that people thought I was putting on some kind of attitude and act. I also simplified my written communications -- and in some cases that is clearly just a superior strategy. But sometimes I forget--particularly online. Something about the online environment makes my spelling worse and my written style more complicated.

It's something to guard against.

As for the smart/stupid part, I got much happier when I resigned myself to the reality that there is almost always someone smarter with more experience and who has studied any given subject more deeply than I have--and that's fine. Since realizing that it's not a competition, I have been much happier. If I find such people in a discussion of one of my interests, I try to recognize the situation as a great opportunity to learn.

You also should watch out for thinking about people not talking about their interests.

I suspect there's quite a few of us on here who have special interests in autism.

I used to feel the same way until now. There was one time that I didn't post much just recently because everybody else were having intellectual conversations and I was making references to The Kinks. Now it doesn't bother me. Those members are being themselves and I'm being myself. What I don't like is when some clever young person starts attacking me on account of my special interests, because they feel they can because they are very intelligent.

Glider18, I really hope that you also consider that:

1)First and foremost what you state of other posters is about your interpretation, not about what other posters intentions are, if they even have any.

2)For me autism sadly means that I am (probably boringly) factual and can’t really be anything else, even if I wished to be. I don’t understand a lot of conversations here, especially those with social interpretations, purposes and nuances. Even the social and psychological aspect that you are applying to some posts in here doesn’t appear to me at all. That is probably also the reason why I personally haven’t read "stupid" or "trying to sound intelligent" posts here, because I somewhat lack that aspect of psychological and/or social interpretation and thus don’t attribute posts with meanings like "trying to sound"... Many people with autism, like me, grasp to facts and argumentation, because that is all they can grasp in communication.

3)People come from varying backgrounds. If you are seventeen, you speak differently and probably of different things than someone at my age.

4)Many are autistic in that sense, that they can’t change their communication style according to the context no matter what. I definitely am.

5)Many are not native English speakers like me. Thus they might make grammatical errors and use language that sounds too formal. They might use too “big words”, because those words came from the dictionary without any knowledge of their contextual use. Also if you have enough autism, words don't necessarily come with social connotations. I used too big words already as a child, because I didn't understand that words had other meanings than meanings.


I hope that everyone could feel welcomed here. It might help if we'd had less these blaming other posters of this and that -threads and posts. I feel I don’t belong here, but of different reasons than you or someone else. If I feel that a lot of the content in here is for people with better social understanding and conversational skills, it’s not other people’s fault. If I feel their autism doesn't quite seem like mine, it isn't their fault either. I am happy that others can have easy and humorous short conversations with an ability to understand social implications. But I am as happy that there are also people who are factual like me, because I can understand them and have a chance to contribute in my own unsocial and impersonal way. This place should be for all. Let's try our best to make it so.

OP, You have an addition - pretty severe anhedonia - not a lack of something.
It is a bit shocking that this would even get brought up here when so many have been forced - and are still forced - to simplify their language and not talk about their interests to have any chance of fitting in. You should know that Hans Asperger's called his research subjects little professors, and it is often not viewed as a good thing - it often inspires resentment in others.
When I was socially active IRL I had to resign myself to being extremely drunk all the time and never talking about my interests. It was very very very boring.
Knowledge is not the same as intelligence. Why are you comparing yourself to people talking about interests that you do not share? Either you find it interesting and partake, or you don't find it interesting and do something else. I do not assume mechanics are more intelligent than me when they talk shop, I assume they know more.
Your view of yourself is your own responsibility. Do not blame strangers.