When U told people about ur AS, what response did U get?

Post Reply New Topic

Did you get a positive or negative response, and what kind of people gave you a positive or negative response? Elaborate =)

I have had mixed responses, none of them have been too negative though.
I get the surprised response where they say they never saw anything in me and I'm normal. I've had the curiosity response where people ask me loads of questions and seem really interested. And if it's someone that knows alot about AS or has it themselves they kind of give me a "thought so" look.
The most common response is the second one, then the first then the third.

This is why I don't tell people.

Back when I was in a relationship, my parents were coaching me that I should tell my then girlfriend at some point, but I felt that was too personal even for an intimate relationship because there's always the risk of breaking up. I figure that in the relationship context (at least from a male perspective), regardless of who your partner is, having something in the veins of Aspergers' Syndrome could be interpreted as something where she would be putting more work into the relationship for less gain. In other words, even in the instance you have found a person who in every other regard accepts you for who(m) you are, Aspergers could just be interpreted as "oh, he's just needy and society told me that's not what I want in a relationship".

Apparently at the high school I went to in 9th/10th grade, after I was long gone, some teacher gave out that I had Aspergers'. As the story goes, it's apparently because a bunch of students were talking about how weird I was and the teacher wanted to break up the argument. Regardless, she had no right to give that up. As I understand it, it seemed the students in question took a more condescending tone after they knew (i.e. "We wish we knew what we could do to repair this, but the person in question moved 800 miles away"). No idea, though.

I haven't told anyone =/.
My teachers at school either know now or will know soon, so I'll be watching to see how they react.
Mum had to tell a lady at work because one day I called in really late and said I couldn't work because of an assignment.
Haven't seen her since, but I doubt she knows what it is anyway.

I don't think I'll tell my friends, I see no reason to. Most of them have known me for a long time; all I can see happening is them poking fun at me sometimes if I tell them. I think I'll tell anyone I get close to (romantic-like), because they're the ones that need to know. I can't imagine a negative response; by the time things progress that far most girls know I'm "different".

Before diagnosis, I researched for several months before telling anyone. I wanted to be sure it couldn't be anything else. The first person I told was my GP and I had no idea what to expect. He didn't seem to have any doubt I was correct and was supportive in obtaining assessments and readily made referrals. Going by other accounts, I was d*mn lucky. However, the services aren't there after diagnosis and we can't do much about that, though are still working on it.

Some people heard about my AS a couple of years ago and at first couldn't understand how high functioning autism could exist. One told me "You're not autistic ." However, as soon as they'd done some reading, they came round to the idea and thought it explained so much of my past behaviour. However, they also pitied me and how my life had been, which felt very uncomfortable. I wanted to keep the diagnosis confidential, but one of them later told nearly everyone they knew who had, or was about to, come into contact with me. They also told me the reactions they'd received, which were generally "Oh, that explains that time when ..." or dripping with pity. Not very pleasant but, since I had little contact with them, I didn't lose much.

I informed one person from my first university who contacted me via email out of the blue one day. Their reaction was to reassure me of all my great qualities and not comment much beyond that. I suspect they didn't really believe it.

Overall, it's been positive. People understand me better and don't automatically assume I'm being intentionally rude.

I remember making a video about how much I hate screaming children and I told people that I had Aspergers, and the NTs made fun off me and said rude comments saying "ASSbergers".

Out of the few people I have told, I have reactions of people being very understanding, and also reactions of surprise because people don't realise I have a disability until I tell them.

older sister - "What? Assburgers? hahahaha." did not follow up with any questions and was not interested.
younger brother (14) - "Haha, Jeff, You have Asperger's, right? Haha. You have Aserger's, Mom, Jeff has Asperger's, I know it!" he was just being a pest and tried to tease me/verbally abuse me about it.

u mean like MathGurl?

p.s. i've told people online up front that I have AS and they seem fine with it. i don't like when they say "I wanna help you [with AS]" people are just not interested in how my mind works and how that affects what i think and say. i have to somehow fit my educational piece about AS in the conversation.

More than half the time, I get something along the lines of "That explains a few things."

Next is the response "What's that?" or "WHAT burgers syndrome?"

Finally, there is the somewhat uncommon "No you don't. You're smart."

I told someone I have asperger's, and they went, "Ass burgers? Like hemmeroids?"