Poll 24: How do you feel about the benefits and negatives

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How do you feel the relative benefits and negatives of your autistic neurology adds up?


Option A
I feel that, although there are some negatives, there are more benefits than negatives to my autistic neurology and my autistic traits add to my success in my desired field, sometimes I may wish to be normal just for a short while but overall I'm happy to accept myself as I am and I want my autistic traits to stay.

Option B
I feel that I am vastly superior and/or happier and/or excelling at my personal goals because of my autistic neurology and I would be devastated if I learnt that I was to be, in a hypothetical situation, forcibly "cured" of autism.

I like what and who I am and wouldn't change. I am lonely and can't seem to make friends and have a romantic relationship very easily it seems but I am trying and it is very difficult for me. I want the same things NT people want and have but it seems elusive to me.

Personally I believe that we are often lonely because we have a rarer neurology, it's not something that's wrong with our minds but simply that we don't meet likeminded people because there aren't enough of them around. There are a few things like aspieaffection and if you go onto something like ok cupid and type in aspie, aspergers, aspergian, autistic etc you will find some people but not many. Sadly many of us seclude ourselves too much as well making it even harder for us to come together more.

I am not going to write down my feelings instead but rather say that this question needs a different wording and is extremely from a NT perspective, imho.

I'm somewhere between options A and B. Until I was in my late thirties, I wasn't at all comfortable in my own skin. I didn't have any clue as to why I was the way I was, and deep down felt I was defective, and somehow it was because I wasn't trying hard enough.

I suppose it's because I'm getting older, but I'm perfectly happy being just who I am. Right now, if I could strike a deal wherein I would become completely normal in every way, I'd turn it down.

There are certain benefits to being an aspie, at least for me. It's true I still can't deal with social situations, but I have created my own little world--a world I'm very comfortable in, and don't have to worry about what anybody else says or thinks. The only people I allow in my life now are people who are willing to accept me for who and what I am.

AS has some huge benefits for me personally, as I can see society for what it is, minus the cant and hypocrisy. Normal people want to be told what they want to hear--something "socially acceptable". All I want is the truth, no matter how unpleasant or socially acceptable it may be. This puts me far ahead of normal people.

Wow these options are even more limiting than most of your other polls which were already ridiculously limiting.

I am without question disabled by my autism. I have major difficulties because of it, and have been told that even with all the help they can give me, I'm likely to never be able to work more than 20 hours a week, if I manage to find a job that works for me at all. I have difficulties taking care of myself in some ways. I have difficulties going out in public in a city. I'll never be able to drive.

I also have some positive things. Looking strictly by what I'm able to do because of the positive aspects and what I can't because of the negative aspects, its simple, there's more challenges than "good" aspects for me.

However, that doesn't mean that I see it as entirely negative for me, or that I see it as something I'd want to ever remove. I'm not interested in being someone else for even a day. I'd refuse anything that removed my autism. The fact that I will struggle with things that others don't doesn't mean that I want all the positive and negative aspects removed. The fact that I need help doesn't mean I want to not be me.

If you take away my autism, you make me not be myself, even if as a whole my autism makes my life more challenging.

I care far more about being myself than fitting into what society expects of me. If I can never have what's expected because I'm struggling at a level "below" that, that's fine with me.

I just want to be happy as myself.

As I've said in other threads. I'm Tuttle and I am autistic. I am me.

(I would remove my migraines if given the choice though)

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