Asperger's & Autism Forum

I am curious how many of you are afraid of children.

I have been afraid of children my entire life – even when I was a child. Hearing children scream sends chills up my spine, terrifying me to near petrified.

I am afraid of people in general, but children are the most fearful. I can generally tolerate calm children that seem to have good control of their behavior, but most seem to be extremely chaotic.

I would LOVE to live in the mountain. I'd like to have a small piece of land, just enough to grow my own flour, veggies and fruit trees (not many), and a small house like a tiny village cottage.

Waking up in the early morning, tending to my garden, walking around the village, near the forest or waterfall or river, playing with animals, then going back and enjoying my coffee.

I love mountains and villages, the whole scenery is ideal to me. The quiet environment away from loud noises, car horns, crowds, city lights,etc.. Plus the climate on mountains is fantastic for me. I love cold winds and clear fresh air.

What's your dream living?

Greetings!

I recently got to read some very interesting stuff on the so called 'ABA' method of 'therapy' and most of it has been negative..and from what I saw..understandably so.

Most recent article was this one: An Adult Autistic Woman Breaks Down the Insidious Trauma Caused By ABA in a Simple Yet Profound Way - Jaime A. Heidel - The Articulate Autistic

It explains the reasons why ABA is causing deep psychological traumas to autistics who have endured it and I found it very insightful as well as horrifying. If all those things mentioned there are true, I'm horrified that anywhere in this world, there would be people who would think that trying to 'subtly force' one's neurology and natural behavior out of them would be considered 'helpful'. And there are experts who actually do these things..

Has any of you been through this? Any first hand experience?

So I'm navigating a well known pictures and albums/pins platform trying to find posts regarding autism and autistic people and I'm suddenly swarmed by hundreds of posts, most of which are about either 1) autistic kids or 2) the PARENTS of autistic kids.

I get it..parents of autistic kids are brave and bad ass for having to 'go through' autism in their kids and they're so tough for defending them and they want to desperately share 'what it feels like to have these struggles' and blah blah blah..but you'd think that in our year you could find more posts about autistic people themselves and THEIR stories and struggles in ALL ages..I'm specifically referring to posts not scientific documents or articles, I can easily find those everywhere even here.

I'm just confused by this because it seems that even in this area of interest, neurotypicals somehow still have the 'most attention' by constantly making it about themselves..you know what it's like for them to be around autistics, deal...

Is it just me or do you also find the term Tragedy to be a bit confusing. Wiki says it has to do with Greek drama and is the opposite of comedy. Do people who use this term even know anything about Greek drama? Perhaps I am very bad at terminology from Greek drama and should know more about this? Or do people use words they don't even understand themselves?

How has asperger's been something positive for you?
I am good at being analytical which can be both good and bad. I do think too much and get stuck a lot but if I am allowed to use my analytical mind I might find the patterns and details that people often miss. People often miss a lot of the fundamentals when they learn something. When you analyse you can find all the details of the fundamentals. Most people skip this it seems.
An example. I took dance lessons and people bassically just wanted us to dance and learn it that way. I wanted to go though the fundamentals. When I looked at all the fundamentals I became much better than the others who took dance lessons. I failed when I didn't do this. Normal people often don't need to go through all the fundamentals when learning something but I have to. I am not talking about perfectionism. All I am talking about is the fundamentals needed in order to even being able to dance at all. Most adults and even children skip the fundamentals....

I mean really laugh, a proper belly laugh. The kind of laugh where my sides ache, eyes water and I can't always catch my breath.

Larry David on Curb your Enthusiasm. It's also a Jewish thing in many ways.

Jackie Mason
Billy Connolly
Eddie Izzard

Sacha Baron Cohen playing Borat

Me sometimes, having seen something I think is absurd, it makes me burst out laughing in the street. Then after having laughed I realise how absurd it is to just laugh out loud at something only I find funny. That also makes me laugh.

Trigger Warning

A man who used a van to kill people is known to be autistic. Lawyers defending him are using autism as the reason he killed people. He was radicalized online by the incel community and online misogyny. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/day6/allen...ntially-harmful-to-autism-community-1.5928577

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/alek-minassian-trial-dec-18-1.5847455

People with autism do understand that having it, does not make us want to harm people. There are associated disorders (co-morbids) that may contribute to a different reality but nature and nurture contribute as well. We need to look at the studies behind why people do what they do:

"... Extensive media attention in the 1990s may have propagated the Western“script” described by Mullen (2004), resulting in a perverse...

I've never really been able to withstand heat. Even in winter I always wanted to have the AC on. After I turned 18 and my mother was no longer worried about family services taking me away, she let me dress however I wanted. I wore shorts in sub zero Ohio winter for years; but that really had nothing to do with the heat.

It was because if something touched my knees when they were unbent, I felt like I was going to pass out. No doctor was willing to take me seriously as a child because they kept saying it was due to the autism and in my younger days.

My father never cared how I dressed, as long as I was modest. One day, in third grade the teacher tells us to wear pants to school the next day becuase there's going to be a big Ohio winter storm or something. I asked her what would happen if someone wore shorts. Mostly I was just curious but this particular teacher took things way too personally. She asked, "Why? Are you planning to wear them?"

In my head I was like, "Lady, I...

I recently watched a TEDx talk by Jac den Houting. really liked what she says. I feel so much of what she is talking about. Especially regarding “fitting in”. It is extremely rare that I fit in any social group. I’m just too weird. I can’t seem to fix that because I have no sense of my “weirdness”, but I can see the reactions of others who are put off by me.

Along that line, I have found inspiration from the movie “The Greatest Showman”. I am curious how many of you here have seen it and if you see in it what I do. It is about a group of “misfits” or social outcasts that come together to form the greatest show on Earth. It is a musical song and dance movie. The one song that touches me the strongest – to tears – is the one titled, “This Is Me”. The lyrics can be found here.