What if NTs are wrong?

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Like I remember reading something that said one of the behaviors of Aspergers is to not acknowledge other people's emotions like when an aspie kid misbehaves and gets yelled at that the child thinks everyone got over it just because he did. But, I got to thinking that NT's as you guys call it does the same thing all the time. Like i have a 4 month old baby and a one year old, and people tell me that it is normal to not get enough sleep, yet everyone talking to me assumes I am as well rested as they are like the no sleep thing only happens whenever they aren't around me. Or that they understand that it would be hard to keep a clean house 24/7 with kids of this age, yet they lecture me on how they are able (with grown kids) to keep a clean house and say I have no excuse for it. It's like they are totally oblivious to what I'm going through and they are that way because they base what they think I'm going through on what they go through.

The more I think about it, every Aspie I ever knew personally were more understanding of people's emotions than normal people because they feel empathy to a higher level. Yes they detach themselves from the world in a manner of showing that empathy, but that doesn't mean they aren't feeling it. I think Aspies understand a difference between what they are feeling than what some other guy could be feeling much better than NTs.

Wouldn't it make sense that Aspies do a better job on the job than NTs that an Aspie would be the one studying the disorder and deciding the behaviors and symptoms that write up the APA manual?

You make a very good point. However, one advantage that NTs have in studying us (I'm not saying that their point of view is more accurate, just pointing out this one thing) is that they are not us, and because of that, they can have an outside, possibly more objective viewpoint. The disadvantage of this is of course that not being us makes it harder for them to understand why we are like we are (and this leads to some really terrible autism research and arrogant and just plain wrongheaded conclusions about our behaviour; I don't have any links at present but if Anbuend finds this thread she'll almost certainly have some good material; she usually does).

Speaking of Aspies acknowledging emotions; I remember once when I was with two NTs and one Aspie and started coughing rather badly. It was the Aspie who actually thought to get up and get me a glass of water. Of course, that is just one example: you can't judge entire populations from one example.

I agree in the fact that Aspies should be included a lot more world wide in decision making, as Tony Attwood said: "I think the main advances have come not from the research literature but from conversations and discussions with those who have Asperger’s syndrome, by reading not the scientific textbooks but their autobiographies. My greatest knowledge of Asperger’s has come from those who have it...."

To many professionals still try and treat us text book style and this just does not work, just like people not on the autism spectrum we are in fact all different, and if you know one aspie you know just one.

For people saying that autistic people might not be as objective about studying autistic people, keep in mind that non-autistic people study non-autistic perception all the time, that gay people can research about being gay by now, and women can research women, and so forth, without at this point being considered too unobjective.

I wonder that as well, although I don't know any aspies in my life.
Often I find myself wondering if I am over empathetic or if most people more callous.
Sometimes it seems that I am more willing than other people I know to lend a hand in any situation (and not act as though I'm being put out) but I figured that was because I had to work hard to be that way in order to "fit in".

I totally agree. I think it's totally false that psychs imply that one of the characteristics of asperger syndrome is a lack of empathy. Aspergians aren't necessarily narcissists. Sometimes an aspie may say something to someone not realizing it will hurt their feelings. But when the aspie realizes he hurt the person's feelings, he may feel very bad about it. Aspies DO have empathy. They just sometimes don't understand the context of the situation they are in. Aspies from what i've seen typically have a greater sense of creativity than NT's also. NT's will never understand how we think, anymore than we can understand how they think. Not to sound prejudiced, but NT's can be very plain and lame compared to the personalities of aspies in certain ways.

i agree also. its not that we have a lower emphatic level, in fact i'd say i feel a lot more than a lot of NTs could in their life. however we just have a lot more problems showing that than NTs, so thats why we can appear callous and uncaring. its the confusion socially that leads to this conclusion, when i fact id say aspies are much more emphatic. the personality point was true also. aspies tend to be much more creative and defined than NTs.