Before Asperger's

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Before people were aware of Asperger's, what do you think the general population thought of people with Asperger's or High Functioning Autism?

I don't understand the question.

I don't think the general population could give two shiny shites to be honest, much the same as today probably.

I was wondering if people classified aspies as "space cadets", etc. due to executive dysfunction. I thought people under certain categories imposed by family members, co-workers, fellow students, etc. might really have Asperger's and not know it.

I'll never forget being about 12 or 13 and I was being in trouble at school. My teacher was shouting and bawling at me and I was just laughing and looking at the wall behind him.

He shouted "LOOK ME IN THE EYE WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU!" and he whacked me round the head with a great big thick text book.

I swear I span round twice, but I was still laughing.

Ever since then though, I have stared right into peoples eyes when they talk to me.

I don't know who the experience is more painful for, me or them.

I blame everything that has ever happened in my life on that precise moment in time

Some of the good things people said: Quiet, shy, mature for your age, academically gifted, talented, polite (no rowdy behavior), bright future (!), nice kid.

Some of the bad things people said: Awkward, loner, shy, poorly coordinated, paranoid (socially avoidant), "gay" (not as in homosexual - but more into art and music than sports).

Often they said nothing, but just ignored me. I was an easy target for bullies and popular egomaniacs. Most of this made me love solitude even more.

That is horrible behavior by a teacher, showing a lack of self control and maturity on his part. Just awful. Sounds like an old school (pun intended) type teacher with an authority complex.

In grade school once a woman teacher didn't like my lack of attentiveness (or maybe I didn't hear that it was my turn, or was feeling sick - after so long I don't remember) so she came over and physically shook me asking me what was wrong with me. She didn't ask out of concern, but out of anger! I remember feeling extremely embarrassed. I told on her and the next day she actually apologized to me.

I forgave her, but have never forgotten it.

Just diagnosed with something else.

I saw a speech from an ASD expert stating that in her research, people that are now described as having AS/mild autism were more often than not diagnosed with Simple Schizophrenia in the past.

I wasn't even naughty really. I was so quiet, but I used to stack all the chairs in the classroom around me and make like a den. I was just playing. I don't think they knew what to do with me. I was soon sent to a residential school after that where it was just playtime all day and smaller groups.

I couldn't really express myself verbally so what I did in actions was misconstruedled as bad behaviour.

I'M INNOCENT!

In the days before Asperger Syndrome or High Functioning Autism were fairly well known, you weren't 'diagnosed' with anything, you were just told what a loser you were.

Some of the labels I was slapped with: "Slacker," "Standoffish," "Stubborn," "Unmotivated," "Emotionally ret*d," "Strange," "Useless," "High Strung," "Idiot," "Lazy," "Oddball," "Weirdo," "Antisocial," and "Misfit" just for starters.

Psychological labels didn't come into vogue until the late 1970s, when people began to realize that things like ADD and Dyslexia were holding schoolchildren back. Prior to that, you had to be either wantonly homicidal or a drooling vegetable to be diagnosed with any psyche label.

Space cadet was the nicest label. Otherwise what Willard said.

If long ago, before autism was understood/recognized, what would NTs think of someone who displayed symptoms of autism?

Kind of a big question, since not everyone has the same degree or type of impairment. Classic, Asperger's, HFA vs. profound (if that's the right term)...



And wasn't an early term for autism "childhood schizophrenia"?

Last edited by Sethno on 25 Jan 2014, 5:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Mad head, was a name that springs to mind.

I could never figure out what people meant, but I'm a good sport.

Yes, exactly this. I was also called a hypochondriac, selfish, rude, and a drama queen.

In my earlier comment, I had mentioned having been called poorly coordinated. Even while in grade school and knowing that I didn't have a gift for that major bonding team activity - group sports - I remember standing on the sidelines, watching people running after a football, tackling each other, and thinking, "what an uncivilized and stupid form of behavior".

Putting it into perspective decades later as an adult, I laugh at it, though I value how it reinforces, even today, my solitary and analytical nature.

When I was in the 6th grade a teacher told me (thankfully, it was just the two of us in the room) that "You are like a wild animal that's been backed into a corner". I actually appreciated that she picked up on how I felt. It just seemed like an odd thing to say. I had no idea how people saw me, outside of lazy and shy, so I found it interesting.