Appearing slow to people.

[WaterLily]

Hi everyone. This is something I have come across before. I am diagnosed with Asperger's disorder. There was a time where I was with my father and he was getting an X ray done. I was in the same room but the waiting area.
The X ray technician asks my father right in my earshot. "Is that your daughter?" He says yes. She proceeds to ask "OK, is she MENTALLY CHALLENGED?" He then tells her I have Asperger's.
I really don't understand why some people make conversation this way to be honest. If anything I feel like it's just rude and impolite. I do have some instances where people are even shocked at my level of intelligence once they get to know me better. IDK. I really don't get it.
Has anyone else had an experience something like what I described before. I'm inclined to believe my scenario was more the X Ray tech than it was me, lol.

 

[AprilR]

Yes, i was called "slow" before too. It seems like people are way too proud of qualities that they are born with and like to belittle people they deem "inferior" Somehow i wonder what that person would think of someone who is really mentally disabled? They are incapable of feeling empathy towards people they deem inferior. When you think that way, those people don't deserve one minute of your consideration or caring.

 

[Calrid]

Well, Einstein probably had Aspergers (he was alive before the condition was discovered though) for example and was considered remedial as a kid so much so that they placed him in a special school because he did not really speak to people until age 8. So I am pretty sure people can relate. I was never considered stupid personally, in fact, I was skipped ahead a year several times in the schools I went to I had an extreme ability to do mental arithmetic almost to the point where I just gave an answer intuitively that was right without even really thinking about it.

I think what the teachers worried about more with me was that I was too far ahead of what they were trying to teach me so they just let me teach myself. That and the fact that I corrected the teachers all the time for being wrong probably also pissed them off.

Sherlock Holmes is based on a real Scottish Detective as well for example and is widely considered to show the traits of Aspergers, like not liking to be touched, very good memory, and poor social skills. I hasten to say like anything and any condition not everyone shares the same "pathology" some people with Aspergers are quite appallingly bad at say maths, and quite extraordinarily good at linguistics.

Mycroft is off the scale Aspergers it's kinda clear. he is basically a human-computer who basically is the government rather than a government department but he hates application and is not fond of outside or dealing with the real world. Again based on a real-life character.

Incidentally, Isaac Newton was widely hated by everyone who came in contact with him and was considered almost impossible to get on with. Probably also had Aspergers. Either that or he was just an asshole. Suffice to say there is a strong correlation if not with genius but with aptitudes outside the norm with Apsergers.

 

[Orange Glasses]

WaterLily -

I am sorry that the technician was such an a** for saying something so rude. If I had a child and someone said something so blatantly stupid, insensitive and insultive, that individual would be on an express train to the ER.

You are perfect just the way you are, and from your writing, you are obviously an intelligent young lady.

Forget about the X-ray loser. You are too important to waste any more time thinking about him.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

If you spoke to me, person to person, I would seem to you to have an infantile mind. I mean it. I have such poor vocabulary when it comes to speech. And during a conversation, it's hard to think in ways other than a very simplistic mindset, because I have to process everything the person said, plus what I was previously thinking, then the thing the person said will make me feel an emotion, and on top of all that, I have to think of a response.

It's very difficult.

 

[Luca]

Yeah, everyone irl, including most of my friends and family, think I’m an idiot. They make this very obvious by talking down to me, overexplaining everything simplistically, and making me the butt of all their jokes. A lot of them have either straight up said, or alluded to the fact that they don’t think I’m intelligent. Or that I’m “slow” or “simple-minded.”

I’m definitely not a genius but I’m not an idiot either. I don’t like rating myself on things like this but I probably have somewhat average or possibly slightly above average intelligence. But I wouldn’t really know objectively because everyone has convinced me (and everyone around me) that I’m stupid.

What that person said about you is really rude and disrespectful. I’m very sorry that happened. I’m with April on this. What would they say to/about a person with a real intellectual handicap?? Why is it so hard for people to just BE KIND???

 

[Judge]

I'm inclined to believe my scenario was more the X Ray tech than it was me, lol.

Absolutely.

 

[Atrapa Almas]

Maybe the tecnician was an Aspie too?

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

Never had people questioning me. What hurt the most was being dismissed. I grew as a teen and young adult when autism was rarely diagnosed and people did not question me because of my intelligence. Yet I was severely socially retarded. People thought it was my choice even as I was silently screaming "help me." My infatuations were mocked, I did not even know that there was a prom in HS, as if I'd have the courage to ask a girl. Then family started asking if I was homosexual. Things only got better as I helped myself. The neglect hurt as much as an insult, except that it was ceaseless.