treated as intellectual disabled due to having ASD

Post Reply New Topic

I wonder if anyone else has this problem.

At times, when i communicate with people from ASD support groups,
some of the "carers" treat me as if i have an intellectual disability rather than a neurological developmental disorder.

I believe that the reason for this is due to various people who work in support industries or who previously worked
with people with what used to be classic autism (now referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorder with an intellectual disability), so are used to people being less able and not used to the people who they are supporting being so bright.

This I feel is one of the weaknesses of the newer ASD relabel, in that the people who previously were employed to support people who had classic Autism now also support people with ASD without an intellectual disability, but instead of retraining or reading up on Asperger Syndrome, they simply treat all the people with ASD as people who have ASD with a intellectual disability / impairment.

Now, where i appreciate the help and support where given, i do find it difficult to put up with when someone, who may very well have a lower IQ than I have speaks to me as if i am a 5 year old child who can't wipe parts of my body without assistance.

That is i feel one of the flaws of amalgamating Autism Spectrum Disorders together.
I understand that it may be hard for some to change their approach to communication when dealing with various different members of a support group, however, it does feel like i have been placed inside a children's tv program when these people attempt to communicate with me.

If you, like i, am a very intense type of ASD person, then you can see how the former approach to communicating with an intense type of ASD sufferer would fail. Especially when considering i am a late diagnosis ASD sufferer, who received my diagnosis at the age of 44, and who has very varied life experience that ranges from being a martial art instructor, getting a degree and experience in drugs (and the unsavoury elements in life) when i was younger.

To go through all that, including much which is trauma, and much that would scare the faint of heart, as some of the care support workers are, to be then treated as a 5 year old child at the age of over 40 odd, is a bit surreal.

Anyone else have any similar experiences.... "if you do... put your hands up children"... (sarcastically put)

John Duffie, NT, wrote about driving to visit a friend in a nursing home. He asked for directions to his room, and the nurse just took him there. She was not used to seeing whiteheads who could follow a corridor to a number on their own.
Most of the people you meet will have run into the Peter Principle - they got promoted until they were beyond their competence, and left there. The smarter you are, the more you have to be self-taught, by simple statistics.

Assuming I didn't want someone to continue to underestimate me, I've tended to provide them with an intellectual shock. Depending on how charitable I've been feeling towards them, this might be as indirect as asking for their opinion on some deep scientific, philosophical, mathematical, or historic topic, "because I've been considering blah blah twenty-dollar-words blah and I thought I should get your input..." or as direct as sharply dressing them down for daring to have that mindset at all, ever, because it's insulting and demeaning.

I remember when I was 16 my social worker made me join this club for teenagers with disabilities so that I can make friends, but it didn't really work for me.
The volunteers that helped out were very nice and everything, but they spoke to me like they spoke to the others, like I was intellectually disabled. I think I was the most articulate and high-functioning out of the others and I actually felt NT compared to them.

The volunteers knew I had AS and whenever we went into a restaurant they kept asking me if it was too bright, too noisy, or the food was not plain enough. Then when we were going to the cinema to watch a movie they asked me if I was feeling excited and was expecting me to not know how I was feeling because I had AS. I wasn't feeling excited as much, so I said, "well, I wouldn't say excited. But yes I am keen to see this movie and I think I'll enjoy it. Thank you for asking." The severely autistic teenagers may have just said yes without knowing if they were excited or not, and the intellectually disabled teenagers probably clapped their hands together and was like "yeah, yeah, yeah!"

Don't get me wrong, the volunteers meant well and were just being friendly and understanding, so I can't really complain. I just didn't feel like I belonged with a group of teenagers that never went to mainstream school and lacked social skills (even the ones without an ASD) and needed to be spoken to clearly and gingerly by the volunteers.

Treated as intellectually disabled due to having ASD?

You bet ya.
Story of my life.
Ironic, huh?

I almost never give a toss what people think, these days.
I just laugh, on the inside, at the irony. -HA!-

I've had to fight for the right to be treated like every other person.

I've spent most of my life being treated as "intellectually disabled." And it's not because I was seen as having autism. I was seen as someone with a "character defect."

45 years ago I worked as an engineer and dressed as a hippie. When a salesman would call, I could see the shock on his face as he understood that I was the client he was calling on. In two minutes there was no longer any doubt of my competence as I grilled him on his product line.

People will always have expectations, preconceptions, and assumptions. These will either be dispelled or substantiated over time by the individual.

Moving Aspergers into the autism category has contributed to many preconceptions of intellectual impairment such as might be expected with classic autism (brain damage).

One of the reasons I continue to use the term Aspergers is that I do not see a neurological variant necessarily as a defect.

What does this mean exactly?

An exact description of anything would be infinite. What sections do you struggle with?

Yes, it is hard being short.

Speaking only for myself: "John Duffie"? "Whitehead"? And, why would the nurse have such an expectation about a visitor?

John Duffie had the experience, and wrote about it. That is his name.
"Whitehead" refers to a person old enough to have white hair - often used to describe slow drivers.
The point of the story is that the nurse saw an old person, and just assumed that he was as feeble as her patients, without giving it any thought.

One hand up here.

Disclaimer: I was diagnosed ASD-1 recently enough that most of the time since the diagnosis has been spent staying home waiting for the pandemic to go away. So I have had little opportunity for such experiences. But, nonetheless, I managed one.

In February I had surgery (well, technically, two surgeries). I noted to them that I was ASD-1 because I believed it to be something they should know (see: "Caring for Patients on the Autism Spectrum: How Autism CanAffect Healthcare"). After I was moved from ICU to a normal-care hospital room I was visited by, among others, a physical/occupational therapist. Sigh...he was the only one there who tried to adjust his communication for me...he spoke very slowly while clearly asking things indicating he was expecting me to be seriously intellectually impaired. It took me about three sentences to describe my credentials, embarrass him, and amuse his co-workers. I am still mulling over how to give a more useful response the next time something like that happens; I think there are things they can do that would be helpful, but treating me as an intellectually-impaired young child is not one of them.

P.S. I am securely, happily retired and I look very good on paper. That is, I can tell a stranger a few things about myself that I suspect would be counter to their expectations regarding someone on the spectrum. Would I be doing a public service by attempting to dispel some of the stereotypes that that therapist had? (And I will concede that sometimes an individual might match those stereotypes, but I think individuals on the spectrum should be assessed individually, not by those stereotypes.)

It seems though that some people with disabilities like being treated like children and are unaware of it, or if they are aware, it makes them feel safe or something. My autistic friend belongs to a MENCAP club (don't know if that exists in other countries but if you're unfamiliar with it then look it up).
They do do some grown-up things like parties and karaoke and stuff, although they're only allowed very limited alcohol even though they are adults (18+).
But some things they do aren't what I'd want to do, like going to pantomimes dedicated for preschoolers or children, and having Christmas discos where they play kiddie games like musical chairs. And they do activities like all hold hands in a large circle and sing nursery rhymes. Not my cup of tea, which is why I wouldn't want to join any MENCAP groups. But I wouldn't mind being a volunteer at one to help out. That is quite a helpful thing to do.

What is the Peter Principle that most people I've met have run into?

What does promoted until "beyond their competence" mean? Give me an example. And "left there," did they literally leave? Where did they go? What did they move on to? Or did they mentally check out?