People who don't "believe in" Aspergers?

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I can believe there are many people that don't believe--I was one of them that might have questioned it, really. It wasn't until my own son started kindergarten and couldn't mesh that I was forced to finally accept it as something. It wasn't just his school--it was summer camp, catholic school, and the beat goes on. He literally can't start his work, despite his intelligence--he has to be prompted. He gets things stuck in his head all the time. He perseverates--this is not someone trying to be special. On the contrary, it is someone trying really hard at eight years of age to fit in somehow when he knows he's a bit off in some ways.

I don't publicize that he has some autism--but I'm in no way ashamed of it. I was one o fthese nonbelievers and argued with parents that said their kids had one sensory issue after another. I thought the same way, that they were trying to pathologize a normal kid thing. Until you've wwalked in someone's shoes--you know.

equinn

HEY, I wouldn't believe it MYSELF! YET, people seem to SENSE something about me! I am VERY different from the average person. In some ways I seem stupid, and in others I seem very smart. My rate of development compared to others was like girls compared to boys. It started out far faster, and then slowed down to perhaps a bit slower than the others that, by then, started developing faster.

Am I to believe I am an alien? Am I to believe that I have somehow been targeted by others, etc???

NOPE! AS makes it all make sense!

Some people didn't "believe" it when I had Lyme disease, either.

Some people are honestly like, "It never happened to ME or anyone I KNOW; so it can't be happening to you, either!"

Even lots of doctors. It's maddening.

I didn't get treatment for years because my whole school didn't believe I didn't have Aspergers. I did well at school, so they thought I was perfectly O.K.! However I was a social pariah for years (until I found a group of "misfits" who like me the way I am), and I had no clue about high school until I was there.
It's like saying cancer isn't here. Just because it may not be a visible tumour, it doesn't mean it doesn't have effects.

I would ridicule this person mercilessly until I either shamed him into recognizing his asshattery, or reduced him to tears. Perhaps start with something to the effect of, "Hey, no offense, but you are an utter farking tool. I have a diagnosed neurological condition that makes virtually every aspect of my mental life different from yours and often prevents me from understanding social nuance. I literally feel like an alien on a foreign planet. I already have enough problems trying to navigate in this world, the least I could get from an alleged 'friend' is a little understanding." and then go from there. Perhaps mockingly ask what else he doesn't believe in and give absurd examples.

Or maybe that's just me.

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I wouldn't want to hurt their feelings, as I really try to understand all points, even if I don't agree with them. I guess they don't want to think that there are people like us? I would try to explain how hard it is to have such an invisible disorder, to look normal but be so different. But I can't be friends with somebody who's judgemental like that, because he wouldn't be a friend to the true me, since Autism is part of who I am.

Okay my personal take on this is that the ones that deny the existence of Aspergers the most are generally the ones that have AS the worst. You know they're Closet Aspies.

(I've just been noticing this a lot myself).

Another interesting thing I've noticed is one of my doctors has a AS son and she will complain about him endlessly. Funny thing is she seems very much to be an Aspie herself...and you know what they say about medical specialists all being Aspies.

Hey its just like homosexuality where they say those people that bash Gays the most are usually people that are very worried about their own sexual orientation. Secure people do not make fun of others. So if the topic of AS makes others uneasy then stop and think why is this person in denial of AS? Why aren't they able to discuss the subject? Maybe it just hits a little too close to home for them!

hey, I know someone who doesn't beleive in dinosaurs so .....

I don't understand how you can "not believe" in Asperger's. It's a neurological condition, not the sasquatch.

My own sister doesn't believe me dat i have aspergers syndrome she finks i made it up but den she is an NT and wen i called her an NT she said wot is an NT.

I haven't had a problem with people "not believing" in Asperger's thus far. My problem has been with people who have ignorant misconceptions about it. I've pretty much kept it to myself to avoid getting a hard time about it. Only certain members of my family and my closest friends know about it. On an up note, Asperger's came up in conservation with a buddy of mine, and after going through a little of Tony Attwood's book, we worked out that he might have it too. It cleared up a lot of stuff for him.

In the worst-case scenario, the whole syndrome is just a profit-maximization technique, a way to jam snakes up the asses of more-or-less average people in the form of a nondescriptive label, with ordinary "geeks" and "nerds" as its victims. But we should keep in mind that Asperger himself praised his subjects for their unique talents.

Hard time making friends? Okay. There can be many reasons for that. Anyone with traits that cause others to avoid them will have less opportunities to develop their social skills, not solely because they don't try, but also because they are avoided.

So what do you do when you have few friends, and you're alone in your house or apartment? You do the things you like. Hobbies and interests. Nothing abnormal about that.

As for so-called circumscribed, narrow obsessions, there is a perfectly rational explanation for it. It's called specialization. We become good at one thing so we can offer our skills to another in trade. It keeps the economy healthy.