Neurotypicals, if you had the opportunity to become Autistic

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would you?

I see the reverse question quite often, and have always wondered what NT's thought about this.

Great question!

I can't say much because I'm diagnosed, but I'd have thought many NTs wouldn't, or would for a short period out of curiosity.

My sister (an NT) is obsessed with (not the aspie obession type though) with Asperger's. She always asks me what it's like, the good and the bad traits about it.

I can't speak for her, but if she could do it for one whole day, I'm sure she would become an aspie. She's a major social butterfly though, so I'm not sure how well she could take a lifetime as an Aspie.

Hmmm.

I do have a lot of traits but really, I don't think I'd like to be any more socially impaired than I already am, even if that meant adding a few dozen points to my IQ score(or not).

I just border onAS npw and can't honestly say I'd like to straddle the line any further.

I'm autistic but one of my carers mentioned this yesterday. She said it would make their job so much easier if they could experience autism from the inside for a week or two.

Perhaps the socially awkward individual that escapes from such via introspection and an interest (there's a heap of these people, as it's "normal") might like to think they have it, or to have it, as it'd give them a reason for why they think they're different. They're not different though.

Anyone else? Not a chance. It'd be like poking out your eyes to see what it'd feel like. You'd need to be mentally ill to want that.

There was this girl I knew at my old college who was really into AS and wanted to be diagnosed with it. She was chatty, knew everybody and claimed that she had AS when she blatantly didn't even understand what it was nor had it herself.

Otherwise, if an NT *really* understood what AS was - the NT would have to be already diagnosed with some kind of brain damage.

NTs - don't even think about wishing you had this awful cruel s**t. It is AWFUL to have. It really makes your life miserable, has about a million symptoms, gives you a strong aura around you what makes people stare and laugh at you constantly when you're walking down the street - even when you're not doing f**k all to look unusual, and it is very heart-breaking. Why do you think depression is more common in Autistics?

Please embrace your NT brain. Please!! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! ! Don't you ever wish this f*****g s**t on yourselves or anybody else, having an NT brain is took for graunted too much so I just say please treasure it.

Last edited by Joe90 on 25 Dec 2011, 1:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I think helping someone who is Neurotypical better understand the autism spectrum is better than having someone actually experience it. Something I've been working on for awhile now.

There are several negatives. Doesn't mean we're completely uncapable of doing things, no matter the functioning level.

It would depend on the severity. At the high functioning, aware and trying-to-have -a-social-life end it would perhaps not be so dramatically different from where I am now, although it would be somewhat different and probably not in a good way.

Anything more severe, no way. It's too hard.

That's so true, and I know it. But some people here seem to think that there is no ''high-functioning'' and ''low-functioning'', which really confuses me because I know for sure that I am high-functioning, and I've met/heard of lots of different people who are low-functioning with Autism and they are very different from me, and their traits are very obvious, whereas with me they aren't obvious at all.

But I look at it the same way you do.

I think the people saying there's no high functioning and low functioning aren't saying the differences aren't there. Just that high/low functioning is too simplistic a categorization.

Probably not, only because I know so many people with AS who struggle with things that NTs don't even have to think about like, sarcasm. I do like the intellectual side of AS but things like depression and lacking of social skills puts me off, mainly because I'm a depressed anti social to start with

When I argue against functioning labels, it's not because I deny that different people have different symptoms with different severity. I doubt anyone else is, either. I am kind of frustrated that this same territory has been covered again and again and the next time someone brings up functioning, it's time to go back to the beginning: "people believe all autism is the same." No, we don't.

The problem with functioning labels is that people assume they reflect an even spread of skills. Everyone who's high functioning is expected to be able to do a variety of things that not all of them can do. Everyone who's low functioning is expected to be unable to do a variety of things that not all of them are incapable of doing. Just because I would be described as high functioning does not mean I can hold a job, pretend to be NT, that my autistic behavior isn't noticeable, cope with sensory overload, talk all the time, communicate competently when I can talk, can drive, can remember and know how to do all the things I would need to do if I lived on my own, can manage a relationship, that I want a family, and so on.

Describing someone as low functioning doesn't mean they can't have a family, can't get a degree, can't use public transportation, can't drive, can't hold down a job, can't ever communicate in any way, can't live alone, and so on.

That's why people object to functioning labels. It has nothing to do with believing that all autism is identical or denying differences. If anything, it emphasizes differences even more than using the functioning labels in the first place does.

Would any white American born citizen wish to be a hispanic Mexican immigrant? I'm sure there would be few, but most wouldn't as they have the majority in their residence and the other group has stigma against them.