Do you ever wish you had some other affliction?

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SkinnyElephant
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23 Jul 2024, 6:45 pm

I'm going to start by saying I'm aware there are many afflictions worse than ASD (for example: blind, deaf, paraplegic, quadriplegic, amputee, cerebral palsy, autoimmune diseases, etc).

I'd much rather have ASD than any of the conditions I just mentioned.

That being said, sometimes I'm pissed off that I had to be born with ASD, rather than, say, simply being bad at math.

Being bad at math has no impact on your dating life/sex life. On the other hand, being on the spectrum makes your odds of success when it comes to dating/sex plummet.

For that matter, being bad at math is less likely to hold you back professionally than being on the spectrum too.



IsabellaLinton
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23 Jul 2024, 10:35 pm

Dyscalculia is a type of neurodivergence.

Being bad at maths does have an impact on our employment.
Most gainful careers require it in Uni or on the job.

Also, is everything about sex to you?


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SkinnyElephant
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24 Jul 2024, 8:16 am

IsabellaLinton wrote:
Dyscalculia is a type of neurodivergence.

Being bad at maths does have an impact on our employment.
Most gainful careers require it in Uni or on the job.

Also, is everything about sex to you?


If I remember correctly, you're in the UK. I couldn't speak on the UK's job market. For us Yanks, even though plenty of decent-paying jobs require you to be good at math (finance, STEM, etc), there are also plenty of decent-paying jobs with little to no math.

To answer your question of whether everything is about sex to me:

I want a casual sex arrangement, not because I'm a pig, but because I'm too exhausted (both physically and mentally) to even think about a girlfriend/wife when I get home from work.

For that matter, the idea of daily sex sounds exhausting to me too. I'm no sex addict. My ideal, if I were to get a casual sex arrangement, would be twice a week.



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24 Jul 2024, 10:38 am

I'm bad at maths. I mean, really bad at it. Unfortunately in the UK, dyscalculia is not very well known and often underdiagnosed.

I was unable to receive a diagnosis and not through a lack of effort. Often times I was dismissed as 'not the learning disability type', which meant that I was simply not disruptive. My issues were chalked up to laziness, even when I was writing questions backwards.

It wasn't easy going through the schooling system. My spelling was average so the rest of my issues were dismissed and I was simply told that I was anxious but otherwise neurotypical. Which didn't line up with what I was experiencing.

I failed my maths exam three times. I broke down crying the second time around. However, despite this I was able to get into University. The system at the time was more lenient and I was able to get in through doing a foundation year first. Unfortunately, I believe that they have since changed the system and I probably wouldn't get in if I were applying now.

The vast majority of people assume that I have a passing grade in my maths GCSE but I do not. Most jobs don't ask about GCSEs unless you are applying for an apprenticeship. Then in which case they'll ask for your school records. Otherwise you can get into jobs with little maths involved. Although getting into any job is difficult because the job market is a nightmare.


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IsabellaLinton
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24 Jul 2024, 11:19 am

My daughter has it too. ^ Same school experiences but she was dx with ASD after graduation.

She had to quit Chef School in part because she couldn't pass the maths (business math, fractions in recipes, weight conversions for ingredients, food chemistry). She had a tutor and tried so hard. I'm really good at math and helped her all her life but she still has trouble with basics like arithmetic. She can't even read analogue clocks.


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Lost_dragon
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24 Jul 2024, 11:36 am

IsabellaLinton wrote:
I'm really good at math and helped her all her life but she still has trouble with basics like arithmetic. She can't even read analogue clocks.


Neither can I! I can relate.


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24 Jul 2024, 11:43 am

Well, it turns out that my issue is that I'm transgender, and seem to have many female characteristics.
Intersex maybe a more understandable term but I've not been tested for that.
I'd constantly "male fail" no matter how hard I tried. I'd fall into the uncanny valley between male and female and make folks nervous or struggle on their end as their gender caculators ground to a halt.

So, I present female and have no difficulty socializing!
I'm 5" 2" 105lbs with an hourglass figure. No HRT as I don't need it.
If I let my hair down it falls to about the middle of my back.



lostonearth35
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24 Jul 2024, 12:13 pm

I have ASD AND I'm bad at math. I can tell you now, having dyscalculia is no picnic. When I was young I was afraid I could never live like other adults because of things like balancing checkbooks or having to buy groceries and other necessities. And every job that exists requires some knowledge of math.

When I was in grade three, I would cry almost every day because the math would just cause my brain to shut down. It was humiliating. Sometimes I was afraid to come home after school because my eyes would still be red from crying and I'd get chewed out by my mom. It was the 80s, parents were allowed to chew their kids out for crying.



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24 Jul 2024, 5:18 pm

I have lots of various issues besides autism. Some are related comorbids & others are seperate issues. I was diagnosed with dyslexia & ADHD when in kindergarten & my parents were told that being bad at math & other school subjects was part of it. I struggled in so many school subjects that I never had any desire to go to college & I never regreted not going. The only math class I did well in was Business Math which didn't count as a math credit. A lot of the problems were word problems & didn't require memorizing formulas. There was usually more than one way to get the correct answer & I sometimes used the longer more complicated approach but that didn't matter since my answer was right. I found the class to be a lot more practical for everyday life than say Algebra 1 which I only passed because my grade was curved. I find using a graphing calculator to be very helpfull for life math in addition to business math because I can see multiple problems or parts of problems displayed at once instead of having to remember various parts or writing things down. That's also handy for comparing stats in RPG games :nerdy:

It's very difficult for me to know how much autism exactly affects & limits my life since I have various other issues mixed in. When it comes to relationships I think I woulda been able to compensate for having autism if I wasn't disabled in other ways like if I was a poor-man Bill Gates with a decent career in the STEM field. On the flipside I also think I coulda compensated for my other issues if I didn't have autism on top like if I was a charming NT who made great first social impressions. I don't talk about autism offline much except with my girlfriend because others won't understand or relate & I have other disabilities that are more recognizable & understood.


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SkinnyElephant
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24 Jul 2024, 6:42 pm

nick007 wrote:
I have lots of various issues besides autism. Some are related comorbids & others are seperate issues. I was diagnosed with dyslexia & ADHD when in kindergarten & my parents were told that being bad at math & other school subjects was part of it. I struggled in so many school subjects that I never had any desire to go to college & I never regreted not going. The only math class I did well in was Business Math which didn't count as a math credit. A lot of the problems were word problems & didn't require memorizing formulas. There was usually more than one way to get the correct answer & I sometimes used the longer more complicated approach but that didn't matter since my answer was right. I found the class to be a lot more practical for everyday life than say Algebra 1 which I only passed because my grade was curved. I find using a graphing calculator to be very helpfull for life math in addition to business math because I can see multiple problems or parts of problems displayed at once instead of having to remember various parts or writing things down. That's also handy for comparing stats in RPG games :nerdy:

It's very difficult for me to know how much autism exactly affects & limits my life since I have various other issues mixed in. When it comes to relationships I think I woulda been able to compensate for having autism if I wasn't disabled in other ways like if I was a poor-man Bill Gates with a decent career in the STEM field. On the flipside I also think I coulda compensated for my other issues if I didn't have autism on top like if I was a charming NT who made great first social impressions. I don't talk about autism offline much except with my girlfriend because others won't understand or relate & I have other disabilities that are more recognizable & understood.


I'd venture to guess the vast majority of us on the spectrum have other issues that are intertwined with our ASD.

With me for example, the mere thought of asking a woman out is enough to give me a panic attack (heart racing a mile a minute, so choked up I can barely speak, so shaky I could fall over at any second).

As for why I get these panic attacks? Probably because thanks to my ASD, it's practically impossible for me to tell the difference between flirting vs a woman who's "only being nice." As a result, there's a decent chance any given woman I ask out (based on what I think are hints) will turn out to be a matter of "only being nice."

No one wants to be known as that schmuck who mistakes niceness for interest.



nick007
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25 Jul 2024, 7:31 am

SkinnyElephant wrote:
nick007 wrote:
I have lots of various issues besides autism. Some are related comorbids & others are seperate issues. I was diagnosed with dyslexia & ADHD when in kindergarten & my parents were told that being bad at math & other school subjects was part of it. I struggled in so many school subjects that I never had any desire to go to college & I never regreted not going. The only math class I did well in was Business Math which didn't count as a math credit. A lot of the problems were word problems & didn't require memorizing formulas. There was usually more than one way to get the correct answer & I sometimes used the longer more complicated approach but that didn't matter since my answer was right. I found the class to be a lot more practical for everyday life than say Algebra 1 which I only passed because my grade was curved. I find using a graphing calculator to be very helpfull for life math in addition to business math because I can see multiple problems or parts of problems displayed at once instead of having to remember various parts or writing things down. That's also handy for comparing stats in RPG games :nerdy:

It's very difficult for me to know how much autism exactly affects & limits my life since I have various other issues mixed in. When it comes to relationships I think I woulda been able to compensate for having autism if I wasn't disabled in other ways like if I was a poor-man Bill Gates with a decent career in the STEM field. On the flipside I also think I coulda compensated for my other issues if I didn't have autism on top like if I was a charming NT who made great first social impressions. I don't talk about autism offline much except with my girlfriend because others won't understand or relate & I have other disabilities that are more recognizable & understood.


I'd venture to guess the vast majority of us on the spectrum have other issues that are intertwined with our ASD.

With me for example, the mere thought of asking a woman out is enough to give me a panic attack (heart racing a mile a minute, so choked up I can barely speak, so shaky I could fall over at any second).

As for why I get these panic attacks? Probably because thanks to my ASD, it's practically impossible for me to tell the difference between flirting vs a woman who's "only being nice." As a result, there's a decent chance any given woman I ask out (based on what I think are hints) will turn out to be a matter of "only being nice."

No one wants to be known as that schmuck who mistakes niceness for interest.
I've had panic attacks with various other things in life but luckily not related to asking women out. I still felt very nervous at the time & kinda hating myself after being rejected but I was still able to push past the anxiety. Since I couldn't tell the difference between niceness & flirting I figured the only way I'd know is if I tried making a direct move. The idea of being alone for the rest of my life seemed a lot worse to me than being directly rejected & making a foolish a$$ of myself. Sometimes in life I have to take risks in order to have a a chance in hell of achieving my goals. Making the first move never really worked out for me but I think it was better for me than wondering if I missed opportunities & hating myself for being too scared to try getting a relationship.


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SkinnyElephant
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25 Jul 2024, 9:10 am

nick007 wrote:
SkinnyElephant wrote:
nick007 wrote:
I have lots of various issues besides autism. Some are related comorbids & others are seperate issues. I was diagnosed with dyslexia & ADHD when in kindergarten & my parents were told that being bad at math & other school subjects was part of it. I struggled in so many school subjects that I never had any desire to go to college & I never regreted not going. The only math class I did well in was Business Math which didn't count as a math credit. A lot of the problems were word problems & didn't require memorizing formulas. There was usually more than one way to get the correct answer & I sometimes used the longer more complicated approach but that didn't matter since my answer was right. I found the class to be a lot more practical for everyday life than say Algebra 1 which I only passed because my grade was curved. I find using a graphing calculator to be very helpfull for life math in addition to business math because I can see multiple problems or parts of problems displayed at once instead of having to remember various parts or writing things down. That's also handy for comparing stats in RPG games :nerdy:

It's very difficult for me to know how much autism exactly affects & limits my life since I have various other issues mixed in. When it comes to relationships I think I woulda been able to compensate for having autism if I wasn't disabled in other ways like if I was a poor-man Bill Gates with a decent career in the STEM field. On the flipside I also think I coulda compensated for my other issues if I didn't have autism on top like if I was a charming NT who made great first social impressions. I don't talk about autism offline much except with my girlfriend because others won't understand or relate & I have other disabilities that are more recognizable & understood.


I'd venture to guess the vast majority of us on the spectrum have other issues that are intertwined with our ASD.

With me for example, the mere thought of asking a woman out is enough to give me a panic attack (heart racing a mile a minute, so choked up I can barely speak, so shaky I could fall over at any second).

As for why I get these panic attacks? Probably because thanks to my ASD, it's practically impossible for me to tell the difference between flirting vs a woman who's "only being nice." As a result, there's a decent chance any given woman I ask out (based on what I think are hints) will turn out to be a matter of "only being nice."

No one wants to be known as that schmuck who mistakes niceness for interest.
I've had panic attacks with various other things in life but luckily not related to asking women out. I still felt very nervous at the time & kinda hating myself after being rejected but I was still able to push past the anxiety. Since I couldn't tell the difference between niceness & flirting I figured the only way I'd know is if I tried making a direct move. The idea of being alone for the rest of my life seemed a lot worse to me than being directly rejected & making a foolish a$$ of myself. Sometimes in life I have to take risks in order to have a a chance in hell of achieving my goals. Making the first move never really worked out for me but I think it was better for me than wondering if I missed opportunities & hating myself for being too scared to try getting a relationship.


I've had panic attacks in other areas too.

Asking a woman out the traditional way (a woman I already know in person) has only worked once. And she was extremely strange (she carried around a blanket and a stuffed animal at 19). I ended up having to break it off after a week or so.

Moral of the story? If that's all I've ever gotten from asking a woman out, I don't think I'm missing out on much. Especially when you factor in how miserable it is for me to cross paths with a woman after getting rejected. That goes beyond hurt feelings; that's a quality of life issue.

My other successes have mainly come from gals I met online. Some have come from gals I met in person who either made a move on me or it just sort of happened (with neither party making the move).



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25 Jul 2024, 1:45 pm

Lost_dragon wrote:
I'm bad at maths. I mean, really bad at it. Unfortunately in the UK, dyscalculia is not very well known and often underdiagnosed.

I was unable to receive a diagnosis and not through a lack of effort. Often times I was dismissed as 'not the learning disability type', which meant that I was simply not disruptive. My issues were chalked up to laziness, even when I was writing questions backwards.

It wasn't easy going through the schooling system. My spelling was average so the rest of my issues were dismissed and I was simply told that I was anxious but otherwise neurotypical. Which didn't line up with what I was experiencing.

I failed my maths exam three times. I broke down crying the second time around. However, despite this I was able to get into University. The system at the time was more lenient and I was able to get in through doing a foundation year first. Unfortunately, I believe that they have since changed the system and I probably wouldn't get in if I were applying now.

The vast majority of people assume that I have a passing grade in my maths GCSE but I do not. Most jobs don't ask about GCSEs unless you are applying for an apprenticeship. Then in which case they'll ask for your school records. Otherwise you can get into jobs with little maths involved. Although getting into any job is difficult because the job market is a nightmare.


Yeah anyone who is from the UK would know that to get any diagnosis for anything to do with neuro divergence is nigh on impossible so if you're bad at maths then it's thought s**t unfortunately. No ones gonna be bothered about diagnosing you with discalcular. It's hard enough getting a diagnosis for autism/adhd or most things in fact

To answer the op I don't with I had any other affliction. I've got a diagnosises for things that kind of mask my asperger syndrome and to be honest I'd rather just have the asperger syndrome...if that's even a true diagnosis


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25 Jul 2024, 1:53 pm

Quote:
Moral of the story? If that's all I've ever gotten from asking a woman out, I don't think I'm missing out on much. Especially when you factor in how miserable it is for me to cross paths with a woman after getting rejected. That goes beyond hurt feelings; that's a quality of life issue.


How does it feel to these women to cross paths with you after the fact?

It sounds like you want women to do something for you. That's it. There's no sense of wanting to get to know someone, maybe even do something for them, too. Very one-sided. And it doesn't take an NT woman to figure that out.

You have to have some care or interest in people. Otherwise, paying a professional for sex is the best option.


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25 Jul 2024, 4:32 pm

ChicagoLiz wrote:
Quote:
Moral of the story? If that's all I've ever gotten from asking a woman out, I don't think I'm missing out on much. Especially when you factor in how miserable it is for me to cross paths with a woman after getting rejected. That goes beyond hurt feelings; that's a quality of life issue.


How does it feel to these women to cross paths with you after the fact?

It sounds like you want women to do something for you. That's it. There's no sense of wanting to get to know someone, maybe even do something for them, too. Very one-sided. And it doesn't take an NT woman to figure that out.

You have to have some care or interest in people. Otherwise, paying a professional for sex is the best option.


I have experience at being the rejecter and the rejected.

As a matter of fact, I turned down a girl in 7th grade. I attended school with her all the way until the end of high school. Crossing paths with her post-rejection wasn't miserable for me at all.

I've also had to turn down my fair share of gay guys as an adult (on account of me being straight). Crossing paths with these gay guys post-rejection isn't miserable at all for me.

The misery of crossing paths with those I've been rejected by, on the other hand, is unbearable.

You're making an awful lot of assumptions. Who says I don't want to get to know a woman, do stuff for a woman, etc?



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25 Jul 2024, 5:24 pm

babybird wrote:
Yeah anyone who is from the UK would know that to get any diagnosis for anything to do with neuro divergence is nigh on impossible so if you're bad at maths then it's thought s**t unfortunately. No ones gonna be bothered about diagnosing you with dyscalculia. It's hard enough getting a diagnosis for autism/adhd or most things in fact.


Yeah. That's unfortunately true. I know a significant amount of people who were diagnosed as adults with adhd and / or autism but were dismissed when they were younger. Support is definitely lacking here.

I remember a friend of mine went through my University in search of a dyslexia diagnosis. She was referred and was told that she has ADHD, much to her confusion. Her response to that was 'erm, ok, but I thought you were going to test for dyslexia? That's why I'm here?' To which the University replied that she only needed one diagnosis to receive help and that they wouldn't cover any more tests. So, yeah, even if you do receive a diagnosis it may not be the one you were looking for and good luck if you happen to have any other overlapping conditions.

Sorry OP to go off-topic like this but yikes yeah the system isn't great.


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