Would You Rather Have Autism or Another Disability?

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StarTrekker
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17 Oct 2014, 1:17 am

There have been a lot of threads bouncing around this forum's history asking whether you'd rather be autistic or NT. I have a different question, purely for curiosity's sake. If you had to have a disability of some sort, but got to choose what it was, would you pick autism, or something different? Why? I think if I had to, I'd go with social communication disorder, which is effectively autism without the sensory problems and restricted/repetitive behaviour. It sounds easier to deal with than learning disabilities, physical disabilities (accessibility in most areas is still pretty limited), psychoses, depression, or anxiety disorders, plus, I'd get to get rid of my sensitivities, which would be a plus.


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andrethemoogle
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17 Oct 2014, 1:26 am

I'd rather still have Asperger's than anything else.

If I could get rid of anything, it would be my generalized anxiety disorder.



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17 Oct 2014, 1:35 am

I think I'd go with some kind of physical disability.



Skilpadde
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17 Oct 2014, 1:37 am

Interesting thread topic!

My allergies and asthma prevent me from working with animals, so although classified as disease and not disability, they kinda qualify. I may or may not have ADD. I have learning disability in math. So even without Aspergers I would still have one. I'd rather have AS or ADD than asthma, IBS or allergies.
Any psychiatric disorder would suck; losing control over your thoughts (anxiety, depression, psychosis, OCD) would be awful.

The only disabilities I'd want less than those 3 would be retardation, being paraplegic (I cannot lose that kind of control of myself), and loss of sight. Is amputation seen as disability? If so, it can be added to the list here. I don't wanna lose any parts of myself. My body doesn't have a single body part to spare.
Does bulimia and anorexia count here? They are two conditions I would want even less than asthma etc, they really ruin your body.


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Last edited by Skilpadde on 17 Oct 2014, 8:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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17 Oct 2014, 1:50 am

It makes me feel insensitive to say I would rather have something else but I think it all the time. I hate to say it but I would rather be dyslexic. I would also rather have something that causes psychosis. Or the kind of DID that someone I knew had.

If you count depression as an option I already have that so of course I'd rather have it as my only issue instead of being both Autistic and depressed at the same time. If there was an 'instead' option I guess I'd take it. I'm not saying I like having or would want depression but being able to choose one of two evils instead of being stuck with both would be an upgrade.




P.S. I believe that if I actually had any of the things I think I would rather have and sometimes even wish for my attitude would probably be different. I have a personal bias in that familiarity makes things less attractive while unfamiliarity makes me want them. As a result my depression doesn't seem so great. I already know what it feels like to be depressed so it loses a lot of its value. If I suddenly had something that gets a lot of its value in my mind from unfamiliarity it would remain that way for a month or two before it eventually becomes familiar. Then I might not want it in the same way.

I wish I could cycle through so many different shapes and experiences. Give me everything but not all at once. I would voluntarily turn myself into a spider for the sake of an unfamiliar body if it were possible especially since spiders don't live that long. I'd be dead before it became familiar.



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17 Oct 2014, 2:25 am

Autism - but only because of what I know about it now & how to minimize my symptoms and lead a nearly normal life.

Otherwise I might choose to be deaf. I think I'd adapt to it easier than most others because I have some deaf friends I've known for half my life & can read lips and finger-spell.


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corvuscorax
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17 Oct 2014, 5:58 am

Probably autism, but if I had to have another disability, it would probably actually be being born blind, which sounds weird at first, but blind people are capable of doing pretty much almost everything that a non-blind person can these days. Not sure how I would deal with the stigma though, but eh. Note that I would not want to have a degenerative condition, but yeah, you can't pick and choose this stuff lol.


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17 Oct 2014, 10:05 am

Sometimes I would rather have Down syndrome at least they are not dehumanised or pressurised into anything an another thing allistcs working in the learning disability system would not want to make them unhappy. also nothing for people with learning disabilities that improves quality of life is inappropriate. But mostly I don't because they still experience neurobigotry. :arrow:



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17 Oct 2014, 10:29 am

I think that I would choose autism, because of the responsibilities that I believe come with it. If I had to choose something else, it would be being def from birth. the deaf culture is fascinating and embraced by most deaf people[ the majority who are eligible, have opted out of receiving the cochlear implant]



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17 Oct 2014, 11:48 am

I don't know. I've sometimes wondered would I rather be in a wheelchair, but otherwise "normal"? I think the answer would be a "yes", provided there was no autism, no mental illness and no Crohn's. Draw the line at paralysis from the neck down: no offense to anybody, but if that happened to me, I would rather end my life.

I'd consider choosing being deaf, but I think it would be hard adapting to deafness at my age. Blindness I couldn't cope with, so that'd have to be a definite no.



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17 Oct 2014, 12:13 pm

Good question! :D

I'm not too sure. I wouldn't want Down's Syndrome, because they have physical things wrong too, like with the heart. I don't think I would want any chromosome disability really.

But if I could choose, I think I would choose ADHD. Although I think I may have that anyway, I would like it more severely but with less Asperger's. I think most people with ADHD have a few Asperger's/Autism traits thrown in, but I wish I had ADHD enough to be noticeable in childhood and been officially diagnosed with that instead of Asperger's. ADHD has always interested me for some reason.


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nick007
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17 Oct 2014, 12:13 pm

I have physical disabilities in addition to autism & I feel like the physical limit me more so I would pick the autism & all the mental stuff I have like dyslexia & ADD/ADHD & anxiety if I could not have any physical disabilities.


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olympiadis
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17 Oct 2014, 6:00 pm

I would stay the same. I don't like change so much.



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17 Oct 2014, 7:51 pm

Now that is a hard one, many times I have wished that I would rather be mute than have Asperger's, but after thinking about it, I'll take Asperger's, it's who I am, it's a part of me, and I would be a different person without it, so I'll stick to it.


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17 Oct 2014, 9:45 pm

Schizoid PD

Still a super cool hermit, just not as disabled.

(I have a couple of other disabilities. OCD, some other mental things, some relatively minor physical ones; ASD is way worst than those.)



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17 Oct 2014, 9:50 pm

I'd still want autism, but I wouldn't mind having a mild form of CP or something. You know, so people know I'm disabled. Most of my disabilities are relatively mild unless they are triggered. It's hard having special needs, yet not being taken seriously enough. D: Either that, or I wish my disabilities were more on a moderate to severe scale than just mild and what not.


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