JamesW wrote:
Netjeru9 wrote:
Why the adult life with Asperger Syndrome is so complicated?
My life is always complicated, since I have the diagnost of Asperger Syndrome in 5/5/2005, here in Lisbon, Portugal. I have soufering bullying between 1983 and 2013. The portuguese society dont care about autism, because the portuguese mind of the half a part of society is, to me, stupid. If you have an answer to my question, I will apreciate your answer.
I think if I had to think of one reason why it's so complicated, it would be: because our minds work differently, and society doesn't allow for that.
It is like an invisible wheelchair. Nobody would ever look at a person in a wheelchair at the bottom of a staircase, and say to them 'Just walk up the stairs! How hard can it be?' But we autistics get that every single day.
I don't ask for special treatment or accommodations. All I ask for is
awareness.
We are different than what NTs consider normal. NTs perceive social rules that we cannot understand. That puts pressure on us to act differently than what we feel, leading to further mental stress such as masking and meltdowns. I wish that NTs could experience over stimulation at least once so that they could understand what a meltdown feels like to us. I hate having meltdowns in large crowds, as I have to explain why I am acting the way I do.
As for having a hidden disability:
When I teach chemistry classes, I have a syllabus routine that I do to get everyone to understand disabilities and accommodations in the laboratory setting. I simply tell them that I have a disability that they will have to accommodate for. I then have them guess my disability. None of them has guessed correctly in 14 years of teaching. Most guess that I am diabetic being very overweight, but not the case so far (knock on wood). I then disclose that I am extremely colorblind, so I cannot use indicators for titrations or pH paper strips. With that, I have shown them that not all disabilities can be seen with their eyes. I do not disclose my AS to them, as they just think I am quirky as a science professor normally can be.