What do I say to "tough guys" who...

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...blithely claim that it's all in our heads or that it's merely a self-limiting belief, self-fulfilling prophecy, a "crutch", or an empty label?

Perhaps you know the type.

Last edited by WildMan on 20 Apr 2007, 3:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

f**k YOU! Just kidding. Just let them say what they want about it, as their minds are not open to listening. Unless it's in a setting where you are supposed to receive support, then it's an issue of law.

What if they're talking trash behind my back and trying to get others to not believe me?

mase to the face!!

My favorite is when some of the girls in my speech pathology program said that this guy who was in one of our classes last semester can't really have Asperger's because he was diagnosed as an adult. He had self-diagnosed first, and then got an official diagnosis. And let me tell you guys, I've known a bunch of aspies, and this guy definitely seemed like an aspie. What they said really bothered me, because it *was* like they thought it was a cop-out, or a cheap diagnosis, when for this guy, it was really giving a name to a part of himself that had probably always seemed problematic to him. These are girls that should have known better too, since autism is covered in our classes.

Dismiss it as ignorance, either malicious or benign. I had a professor say that things like ADD are all controllable and in reality you can just MAKE yourself focus. Granted, there are ways to re-wire your brain, but only to an extent. You have very little (if any) control over the neurons firing in your brain, and many people don't realize that this is what psychology is. Thinking you can "will" yourself normal is quite a quaint/archaic way of thinking, if you think about it. Akin to drilling the "bad blood" out of the brain in many ways.

I recommend this treatment for those who believe that the thousands of diagnosed autistics and all the doctors studying it are dealing with a figment of the imagination.

I do not have any diagnosis at least yet, but all my life most of the people have treated me so that they do not believe I am like I am and that have brought me a lot of difficulties.
It is like they would be trying to say I am not really existing or I imagine that I do exist.

Knowing who & what you are is the very opposite of "self-limiting". Understanding better what my strengths & weaknesses are, and how these relate to each other, has made an enormous positive difference for me. It's helpful in this context to realize that AS is not a simple, nuclear "thing" but rather a set of related properties, most of which are strongly present in you.

I don't bother talking to people like that and it seems to solve the problem.

You may be an Aspie if...

You know that the word for the archaic practice of drilling holes in the brain is called trepanning. Awful word, awful procedure. Very often, brain surgery in those days was the next to last step to the grave. I actually had a dream I was about to undergo brain surgery to rewire my brain. It was scary.

What sucks is if you're related to 'em or something. Or if they're in some position of power over you.

Tell them that if they believe that so much and there so sure that there right, to go to the next local autism support group meeting and tell that verbatim to all the mothers and fathers in attendance.

I think the milder the side of the spectrum one dwells on, the less of a "pass" people are willing to give. I have found with certain people that they'll actually judge me harsher if I "out" myself to get them to cut me some slack. Not only am I an obnoxious weirdo (to them), but I'm also pulling a b.s. 'condition' out of my buttcrack to try and get away with being an obnoxious weirdo. For every person that gets the picture and tries to set things aright, I get another one who becomes even more meanly critical.

People these days....

I don't want to know I have anxiety about this sort of thing. It is the family doctors that are really behind.

Tbh I was I was diagnosed as and adult very recently and it took a while to sink in. I was kind of avoiding going to a site like this for couple of months. Maybe that is just my procrastination when I’m stressed
n.

You say, "What's your excuse?"
(edit: i actually would not say it in all cases: more of an attitude.)

Why should you care what these people believe?