Wear a badge, don't talk

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Each of us knows how much effort requires “to pretend” to be normal. But except for the practical, sometimes ineludible, necessity to get a job, is this effort worthwhile or even is it a real strategy for survival? to survive morally? You may spend all your life in faking, in falsity, in not being able to be recognized for what you really are. To be not reccognized and accepted, if not loved or liked, puts on you a heavy and untolerable burden, worse than that of having to do the effort of feigning normality, Because it deprives you of your real existence and makes of you a sheer shallow appearance.
Holden Caulfield discovered, in his Youletide odissey in NYC that nearly everybody around him was “phoney” and I think that most people are just pretending to be something different from what they are. As a constant eavesdropper I have discovered myself that in conversations happening in the street or on the public benches, or on the buses and trains neraly everybody pretends, or, in other words, lies.
So I am definitely in favor of making any possible effort to have your interlocutor know that you are radically different, that, even if you are able to express fluently in words this is only acting.
But, by God, what effort again that means. Nobody understands what being ASD means, and keeps you prisoner of your fluent, if normally scarse, talking to maintain you in this straightjacket of having to feign. It would be better to be silent, Perhaps wear a badge identifying you as autistic, like the yellow star of the Jews in Nazi Grmany. But in this case it would be you who would decide to wear the badge.

uh...probably not. I know I'm being cliche, but there's a urban legend that every mass-murderer has had a copy of Catcher in the Rye (either that, or a Star Trek fixation). It's not a bad book, but it has some baggage.

I think that the public 'outing' of people, whatever their 'difference', should be on the individual's terms. It wouldn't take long for the badge to start working out like it did for the Jews (and the Gypsies, and the Gays, etc)

Given the choice I would rather not wear a badge or some other sign which can be seen from a distance that I have AS.

I would be interested to know if you have any suggestions as to what the badge should like like, I would also like to know if you have any suggestions for badges for NTs, neurobigots and poor quaility AS/autism researchers.

I am aware that LabPet does carry something which indicates that she has autism, so if someone finds her they will know that she is a NV HFA rather than a drugged up NT. The difference is that LabPet's thing is small and I imagine that it can not be seen from a distance.

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Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !

Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.

It's not so much for me a matter of a badge or not. Thr problem is that if I meet someone who "knows" me and want to engage in conversation, I feel, I am a prisoner. I have to answer. Sometimes I attempt to avoid my uneasiness and anguish trying to take the iniziative and lacture him or her on some subject about which I can talk with some assurance.
The problem anyhow is that nobody knows what ASD is and if you only say three words "I am autistic" people looks at you like if you were joking or demented, Because for most people autism is little children not speaking at all and banging their heads on the walls.

Yes, it's very difficult to stop people engaging you in conversation when they know you but you're not able to cope with words at that time. Perhaps that's where the not making eye -contact thing comes in. I don't look at people when I feel like that but of course neighbours etc probably think I'm rude...it would be nice if there was a universal sign for days like this 'not today, thanks'...until then I'll just keep trying to avoid them and hoping they don't take it as a sign that I don't like them. But I suspect they do think that, how could they not? It's a toughie!

I've found that whenever I tell females near my age that I have Aspergers,they immediately find me non-threatening and therefore open up and are nicer too me.So I my choices are as such;1.keep quiet and get ignored 2.tell them and end up having great pity S*X.


Hmmmm....decicision,decisions.



Where can I get one of said badges?

While walking my dogs I thought of a great badge for half baked autism & AS researchers, I will have to draw it later but I have worked out their motto "ESD >> delta X"

_________________
Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !

Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.

I read once that people who attended Autreat gatherings were issued badges that indicated their communication preferences. Basically, it let other attendees know whether or not to approach you, or if you were willing to approach them for initiating conversation.

My idea is that the badge should be associated to a leaflet explaining what the ASD is, so that when someone asks you "what does that badge mean?" you give him/her the leaflet that you keep in your bag or pocket and say "if you want to know read this when you are home". This would also spare you from being obliged to lecture people about autism impromptu defeating the aim of the badge.
The leaflet might contain also the statement "ASD people have serious problems in engaging in conversation" Perhaps at the beginning, going on to explain why.

Why in the world would you want anybody to know that you're here in the first place?
Advertising that you're a visitor to the real world seems incredibly stupid but that's just my opinion.

Well they already make Autism Awareness cards that you had out if you feel unable to communicate. I was given some by the local autism society. I've never felt the need nor urge to hand one out though, not that I have ever carried them around.

When I'm not interested in talking I find not giving eye contact and walking past them seems to stifle them trying to communicate. I don't think I need a card to avoid conversation and besides I don't want the average joe on the street knowing I am on the spectrum just like I don't want them knowing I have complex PTSD or dissociative diagnosis. Why advertise you're not normal?