KevinLA wrote:
DO NOT ACCEPT WHO YOU ARE. It is natural instinct to do this. Look at reality. You are NOT normal. At your age, I knew I was different but didn't know why. I went through the next 16 years of my life accepting who I was but was an outcast. I was miserable the whole 16 years. No friends, no steady employment (I am on disability now). Understand that you need to change. Observe how other people act socially and at work. At first, it will not feel natural to act like others, but eventually you can become like them. Understand that if you do accept the way you are, a majority of people find you strange and be uncomfortable around you.
I disagree with this. I find much less social rejection now that I've accepted myself for what I am. It gives people much less to point and laugh at if you are able to do a little of it as well. I was miserable trying to make myself act like other people and trying to fit in. I tried really hard (confirmed by my mother last night in a phone conversation), but it wasn't who I was and my attempts always fell flat. It's much easier to understand one of my quirks when I say that it's part of the AS and that's who I am. It's a huge part of who and what I am and why I am the way that I am. I can't just dismiss it. YOU ARE
WAY OFF BASE HERE! And no one has to be a complete social outcast just because of the AS. It just means that you fine tune what your social interaction is. You meet people who understand you and have the interests that you do. Instant social circle. Truthfully, those people that find me strange and are uncomfortable around me are really missing out. I'm a fantastically fun person to run around with. I just have a different idea of what defines the word "fun".
My friend Bridget says that if she had never hung out with me, she wouldn't know how many guys on campus wear boxers. We had to do a public poll for a social geography class and I just went with the first thing that popped in my head. Incidently we were the only ones who got an A on that project because we brought to light several social stigmas and redefined what was socially appropriate. Only my demented mind would have made something so completely inappropriate into a subject for a term paper.
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"All those things that you taught me to fear
I've got them in my garden now
And you're not welcome here" ---Poe