Anyone ever feel or have felt...

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like taping a sign to their backs saying "I have Aspergers." Or “I have autism” etc.

Sometimes I feel that way because I feel so misunderstood.
At work I think my office clerk assumes I don’t listen because I always have to clarify what I heard to make sure I understood it right when he tells me to do something because he always says “What did I tell you?” so I repeat what I think I heard and then he tells me once again.

On the internet through email, one of my online friends asked me his wife wants to know why I’m so opinionated and blunt and then he said the whole thing was getting obnoxious and they had lost friends for acting that way and I had no clue what I did wrong. I answered all his question honestly when he asked what are my thoughts on our army, our president and gays and of course about my fetish we both share. But luckily he said it was no big deal because his dad is the same way. I assume opinionated and blunt. Luckily I never scared them away.


I have lost online friends in the past because I would say the wrong things or I took what they said literal and I was also naïve. I remember the time one of them was talking about his weight and it made me wonder if he was fat so I asked him and bam he signed off and few days later I find out he had blocked me because he had said so in a yahoo group we were both in and I was hurt because we had been friends for over a year and we both shared the same condition (AS) and aren’t we blunt so it’s expected of us and yet he still blocked me for it and he said I had no empathy. I have been told when I was seventeen in the autism community it’s not rude to say blunt things because it’s honesty so the rules are different than in the NT community. With other aspies and auties, I don’t need to worry about saying the wrong things because we both are on the same spectrum but luckily the online buddy came back to me asking me to give him another chance. I did.


At my last job, I appeared rude to the guests because I was always in their way because they never told me I was in their way or told me they wanted me to move my cart back or move over just a little so they have more space. My boss kept telling me I need to watch out for guests and be courteous and I would always stop when I saw a guest coming and sometimes I would try to move out of the way but wherever I moved the cart they would move to the direction I moved to. I couldn’t tell what direction people were heading and the constant complaining stopped when my boss hired someone else to pick up laundry and I worked in the laundry room instead. I can remember complaining to my mother about it because I felt everyone was expecting me to read their minds and what more do they want and she said I don’t have a sign on me saying I have Aspergers and I need them to tell me where to stand and I asked her what that got to do with it and she said people with it have troubles judging personal space and I often walk close to people or stand too close and she always has to pull me back when we’re together. She also said it’s something kids learn on their own as they grow up but with us, we need to be taught it and her advice was hold my arms out and stand away from people where my hands reach and that is their personal space and stay that far apart away from them but if it’s crowded, that’s different or if you’re in line, that’s also different.

In high school I was seen as rude and I don’t care about others. I figured I just showed my feelings differently than normal people so they assumed I didn’t care. My shrink told me I didn’t pick up any of their social cues or understood the rules in social conversations and timing in when I could speak and I also said things that didn’t need to be said or I was too blunt or too graphic when kids would be talking about taboo topics such as breastfeeding and how not breastfeeding your child can mess up your baby when it grows up and I mentioned my mother didn’t breastfeed any of her kids because she had breast reduction surgery because they were so big they were hurting her back and my brother turned out just fine because he does above grade school work. My shrink said that didn’t need to be said about my mother.


Sometimes I feel like screaming “I have Aspergers” but I don’t because number one it be embarrassing to do that and number two, I don’t even have it and three it would sound like I’m using it as an excuse. I just want to be understood, not be seen as I don’t listen to people and I do loopholes in words and I’m rude. I just tell people I take things literal and I have troubles knowing when someone is doing sarcasm or when they are teasing and I have troubles getting jokes. I also tell them I don't read people well and I don't know how they are feeling unless they tell me so that they know. I don't need to tell anyone I have a form of autism.

I feel that way, like sometimes I just want people to know to stop thinking I'm so weird, or wonder why I do this or that. But then theres times I don't want anybody to know, yea know what I mean.

Oh holy Ned!
My whole life I have wondered why everyone seems to be playing "the ESP game"?

It is because they have ESP for real insofar as I am concerned. They do stuff I don't sense.

I am tired.

all the time
I have lost countless friends, been mistreated and harassed
it's been hell
and I've always felt like I was wearing a sign

Yes I wish people knew why I am different. That way they might not think I was a rude jerk.

yeah...as it stands I am not even supposed to tell anyone anything about it...because I am not diagnosed...just when People say what's wrong or you must be tired or I want some of what you been smoking or other remarks about the way I look or act, I end up having to say..No no..I am always like this!!

I feel that way often. More than anything I'd just like to be left alone. I don't want people to feel sorry for me, though.

I hate it when people ask your opinion on something and then get mad because you told them what you thought. My mother had me meet her at a store to look at curtains for her house. She showed me some and asked what I thought. I said "they're hideous" (they really were).
The store clerk gave me a mean look, and my mom said "why don't you tell us how you really feel".
Why do they do that? Why ask if you don't want to know? It makes no sense to me.
I'm only now realizing how different my perception of things are compared to NTs, and their reactions to me make me not want to bother talking at all.
(And what is wrong with my parents? When I was 9 things were so bad in school that I barely spoke for over a year. They didn't seem to think there was anything wrong.)

Absolutely not. I would not want to advertise my differences. I have tried so hard to improve myself over the years that I don't want anyone to think less of me.

Anyone who thinks less of you because you are different to them is a small minded idiot, and therefore not really worth knowing.

I always think if it comes up in the conversation, I say yup I have Asperger's like it's no big deal, and that seems to work. But it doesn't often come up in the conversation.

Bluegrass, I agree if people don't want to know the answer, they shouldn't ask the questions. Depending what mood I'm in, I sometimes preface my answer with "Do you really want to know?" That seems to work for the most part.

My mum got a new perm in the early nineties and asked me "what do you think?" So I told her that she looked like a poodle. She did. And now she looks back and possibly agrees with that sentiment. (She doesn't perm her hair any more, anyway.)

Sometimes, I wanna do that. But I prefer people ask me themselves why I'm different.