How I will respond to "AS isn't real" comment next

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Next time I hear someone say on a forum I go to they don't believe in AS or don't think it's real and it's just an excuse, bla bla bla, I will just tell them in sarcasm "All conditions are made up and not real, mental retardation is just an excuse to be stupid and lazy and act like a child, ADHD is just an excuse to be lazy and misbehave and lose all your things and not even try in school and get bad grades, Tourettes is just an excuse for rude obnoxious behavior and schizophrenia is just an excuse to make up stuff and be all weird and freak people out with your odd behavior, Bipolar is just an excuse to be a b***h and not work, Down syndrome is just an excuse to be lazy and stupid and look weird and be fat, yeah they all fake their problems."

I would love to see their reaction to that. Maybe they will get the real picture that we don't fake our problems or get the picture how real the condition really is because they would mind as well say that about all the other conditions out there and they would see how stupid they were. They have to be really stupid if they still don't get it after getting that sarcasm from me. Maybe stupidity should be a condition but then they would all have an excuse to be stupid.

When someone tells me "your problems are all in your head", I remind them that my head is attached to and inseparable from my body. I further add there is no such thing as a soul or spirit, and then ask them if they know what a neuron or neurotransmitter is. I also tell such people that obesity can be explained by one simple phenomenon: eating more than the body needs.

I haven't made any friends this way, but I haven't lost any either.

I was told by one person that I faked an EEG test for a seizure disorder (which I have). Much of this rejection of AS (and other conditions) is based largely on ignorance.

I get "all kids do that" all the time from people about my son. Same thing...

I hear ya!

You can't answer it. My experience has been that most people who come out with lines like that are trying to bait you into an argument. Not worth the time of day.

I see your point but I also see this backfiring in two likely directions:
1)they agree with you about ADHD, bipolar and Tourettes because, especially with ADHD, that feeling has been in the air for a while now. I have heard and read many instances of people saying ADHD was an excuse for laziness, bipolar an excuse to be bitchy and Tourettes an excuse to swear at people.

2)they get furious at you for insulting people with Downs or mental retardation. "How DARE you say mentally ret*d people are fat and stupid! My brother has Downs. I hate you!"

It is a good point you are making. But if I were you, I would stick to something that is accepted and not doubted in society and also doesn't have a lot of baggage attached to it. When you put in ADHD, the doubters will agree with you because they doubted ADHD already. When you put in mental retardation, your point will get completely lost because "ret*d" is such a potent and common insult these days that people who might otherwise get your point will just hear "ret*d" and the rest will be a furious ringing in their ears as they get madder and madder at the insults you are hurling at the mentally ret*d. If you say "Tourettes" you'll wind up having to explain what Tourettes is.

If I were you, I'd stick to making your point just using schizophrenia as a counter example. Everybody has heard of it. Nobody doubts it. And it isn't in popular use as an insult so people will listen to your point and won't immediately hear insults.

I don't really bother with people who think like that. Granted I don't advertise myself so I don't have too but I've heard people who have that opinion about AS, ADHD, ADD, etc.

People in general like to think they're smarter than they actually are. These supposed "free thinkers"are anything but and more or less parrot these viewpoints from somewhere else such of movies, South Park, comedians, or whatever they think is cool or smart. There is no use correcting these people because it's not as their real opinion in the first place. It will only hurt their ego and will respond in narcissistic rage.

edit: altho i do agree that this stuff is over-diagnosed because the pressure to prescribe medication. I don't think you can claim it's not real all together though.

I wouldn't even try to argue it I don't think.... when people get it in their heads that something isn't real, and they truly don't believe the condition exists, it just turns into a circular argument. One person trying to explain it's real, or making comments about things, and the other person saying "well, okay, that's real, but AS still isn't".... just from my own experience at least.

But then again, I never see much of a point in making an argument to someone close-minded anyway, because I'd rather not talk to them anyway and it's easier to add them to the ignore list.

I vote for humiliating them if possible, then walk away

I agree that the unaccepted disorders aren't the ones to bring into the argument. I've always tried to use something I know the person or someone they care about is suffering from, if I have the information... crohn's, cancer, whatever. you can't SEE it, but it's still there and it still hurts. even ones you can see, like being overweight or unattractive or divorced or whatever, will work in a pinch, although I really don't like going that route because I don't want to contribute to self esteem issues, although in all fairness it's probably equal value.

usually people think I'm an unpleasant b***h when I do that, but at least they keep their asinine drivel away from me.

These are the same types who swear the Nazi Holocaust never occurred, in spite of the hundred of photographs of emaciated prisoners dead and dying, and being stacked like kindling in mass graves. Apparently the work of Aliens from the center of the Earth, using a Photoshop prototype...in 1944.

Some people hate for the sake of hating - the heat of rage fills the dark vast emptiness in their soul. They doubt (loudly) because to claim another wrong makes them feel they have superior intelligence - of course, if they did, they would'nt have such an insecure need to try and prove it.

on a side note, my partner used to disbelieve ADHD exists, and said if people would raise their kids right they wouldn't have the issues. so I told him to tell me how, in specifics, you raise a child to not have ADHD, which of course he couldn't do. then my daughter was dx'd with ADHD around the same time I was dx'd with AS and I think he went and did a bunch of reading or something because he seems to understand it a lot better now and accepts that she's an airhead and always will be. I think the same thing happened when my son was dx'd NLD. he refused to believe a dx could be made for a brain function deficit without a brain scan and that my son's problems stemmed from his upbringing. I asked him what test he conducts to find out whether the problem is caused by brain growth issues or by having stupid parents, which he couldn't answer. now he understands spectrum issues pretty well, so I suspect he did some reading.

My roommate (of 13 years) didn't believe in AS until one day in a nursing class he heard the teacher describe the condition, and he remarked "That's my roommate exactly!"

"You're not real" could be an appropriate symmetric reply.