I am 57 years old as I write this, I was diagnosed only a couple of years ago with ADD as well as Aperger's/ASD. Nothing was surprising in the diagnosis, as for years I had been aware of large difference between myself and most other people. I have had knowledge of my differences since childhood. I seemed to be just out of phase with the rest of the world, that is on the outside looking in. I never seemed quite to fit in anywhere, I would come close sometimes but, never enough to quite fit in the group. Despite feeling out of touch and different from the average person, I had never felt broken or less than others.
In the course of getting my diagnosis using company resources, the exposure of my condition to my employer was unavoidable. I was lucky the company made adjustments that made my work life more tolerable but, on the down side I have found my services taken less seriously and have been given less responsibility/opportunity than was the case in the past. Some people that know about my diagnosis seem to regard me as less or somewhat broken as compared to the past. I know I am getting older and that has to be factored into the calculation. But, this change in attitude seemed sudden, more than my changed in age should warrant.
It seems to me that people diagnosed with an ASD/Asperger's are being looked at with a jaundiced eye. How many people in everyday life do you see that openly admit to being on the spectrum. I know there are a few but, I suspect there are many more in the closet afraid to speak for fear that they will lose respect in whatever field of endeavor they represent. We are very fortunate to have many self-advocates that do not fall into the in-the-closet mentality, and they do a wonderful job representing Autistics.
I watched the “First ever congressional hearing on autism” in it's entirety, and was amazed at how dismissive most government representatives were toward the groups that were composed of self- advocates, as though the opinion of autistics themselves had less relevance. The hearing was from my perspective mostly ran by NT's with another agenda, anti-vaccination and cure autism movements. During the proceedings Michael John Carely was not even allowed to finish reading his statement!
Maybe I am a little oversensitive, but I seems to me like our opinions and thoughts are perceived by many others as little more than that of those of “Broken Toys”.
Whats your opinion?
26 Jun 2013, 1:58 am
