What causes more problems for you?

Post Reply New Topic

I've seen a couple of topics lately where people suggested dropping the "autism" label in favour of other words, because they thought that people with AS were being held back by people responding to them according to stereotypes of autism.
This seemed strange to me, because, for me, it's quite clearly the symptoms of my ASD that are the cause of my disability, and not the preconceived ideas that people surrounding me have about autism.
I haven't told most people who I know that I have Asperger's. It still causes problems. Thus, my problems are not caused by people holding stereotyped ideas about the spectrum.

What's your experience? Do you have more problems caused by your ASD, or by people's idea of what autism "really is"?

I've only put the 2 options in the poll (plus the "I am NT/other") because this is about which of the 2 causes you MORE problems; not necessarily about whether either is the MOST problematic aspect of an ASD for you.

Ifor me I have found telling people is a really bad thing - one there simply is no way they are able to understand it and somesay I understand and then look down on you others think so - and two it seems to be degrading to me sense I know me and what I can do and not do they do not. But my problems and success are partly or mostly from AS. I am glad to be one of us but on the other hand it does cause some serious problems

Some of my symptoms, mainly the speech impediments, stimming and particular behaviors like avoiding eye contact or zoning out before I react on something, like a question, make people think I'm mentally ret*d and that's what really sucks, so I could possibly vote for both, dependent on the perspective.

I think both for me. In some areas, it's my symptoms that cause problems for me, and in other areas it's the way people look at Autism, which is such a shame.

I can't get a job, which is caused by both symptoms and interpretations from other people. There are loads of people going for one job, so I don't think the employer wants to pick the one who needs extra support. They'd rather pick someone who they can leave to get on with it. Also my symptoms play against it too because I can't tell the employer that I have no disability because I DO have a disability and it DOES affect my work and it's something the employer needs to be aware of, because inconsideration from other people can also make me feel anxious and unstable. I may be able to hide my symptoms well in general communication, but in the workplace I do need extra support.

I think cutbacks don't help people like me either, but that's a different topic.

People's stereotypes in second place, while the number one problem would be people's intolerance and attitudes towards everything different from them. I'm not generally open (and due to experience I'm not telling anyone IRL, because of their stereotype reaction, so yeah it's a problem), but I shouldn't need to be either, because they should have enough tolerance to accept that people aren't the same. I think a lot would be won really if introverted ways were celebrated and taken as much as given and appreciated as extravert. Society is made for extraverts despite about 1/3 being introverts, and changing the attitudes towards introversion would go a long way to make things easier for us, because most of us are introverts and could be appreciated as such ad maybe not have to reveal diagnosis of ASD in an intro friendly workplace.

People don't cause any problems for me. In fact, they help me out, and I'm thankful for that.

Other - people assuming I'm NT and that I'm doing whatever aspie trait on purpose to be nasty.

I've kind of given up on other people really getting it, so I just go about my life any way I want to. I've had some problems, but I know better now than to depend on others to help me, understand me, or even really notice me. Since my idea of who I am and what I'm worth doesn't depend on others' opinions of me, any ignorance or prejudice can only cause inconvenience--it can't really touch who I am.

I had this same problem when I was in grade school, especially with the zoning out before answering a question (and other times).
The answer to the poll is obvious for me because I wasn't diagnosed until I was about 30, so no one knew I had AS (including me). When I was in school, they could tell I had some kind of social problem but most people didn't know what AS was back then. When it was finally diagnosed, I was kindof glad to have a name and some explaination for all these weaknesses I already knew I had.

I just found this forum the other day, and I think it's funny to call people NTs. Never heard that before.

My symptoms cause more problems. I am quite oblivious as to how others perceive me, so their perceptions have little to no impact on my life.

I chose option 1
Major issues for me are not being able to talk to anyone at all except my parents and 2 or 3 select family members, being unable to tell if something is ok or inappropriate to say or ask someone, and of course, when I'm mad or in a bad mood at home, my verbal abusiveness. I just can't help the verbal abuse sometimes, but it's definitely not appreciated!

This. A thousand times over.

I don't tell most people that I have Aspergers so their judgement of me as 'different' or 'weird' is not linked to them knowing I have it. It's due to me not coming across as 'normal' enough for their liking. I think a lot seem to put me in some kind of learning disabled category as I definitely sense many see themselves as superior but when I speak I will tend to sound more rather than less intelligent than them, which confuses them even further so they just put me in a 'weird/don't know what's up with them but I don't relate to/like them and am going to avoid them' type category lol People who get to know me can change their minds and see me as 'an ok person really' and seem to think they are doing me a massive favour in recategorising me lol I just prefer to avoid 99% of people as they are in my 'not up to my standards' category so the joke's on them really!

Well, that's what they are. NTs mean neurotypicals, it means they have the most common neural connections in their brain, or IOW, that they're not autistic.

Glad I'm not alone. It is, however, a quite horrible way to live.

Other people thinking I'm odd and me thinking I'm NT. Only just realised and self diagnosed