assumptions/comments/ the non-understand people we meet.

[TS3]

Hello,

I have a question, has anyone had some really weird/bad assumptions/comments made based on the fact that they are on the Autism spectrum?

I've had two case: I had a friend in highschool ask me if I hit people based on the fact she had read the curious case of the dog in the night and I had just gotten an educational psychologist exam with the results of mild aspergers and I went round telling everyone as I thought it was cool.

The second was from my mother who after a clinic pyschologist exam which resulted in the high functioning autism diagnoses said "its like the high functioning drug addict actors who can still act and make shows but then you hear in the news that they are in rehab" (rather mean)

Other times every asks you to describe how it affects you and when you do they brush it off like "oh well I always have to read a book and drink tea before bed" it's very nonchalant.

 

[Judge]

My main human contact (my own cousin) constantly attempts to dismiss and marginalize any mention of autistic traits and behaviors, always citing that everyone has them. Not to mention that she has a cult-like understanding that virtually all behavior is a matter of attitude and can be changed through a force of will alone.

Every once in a while I ponder the possibility that she is worried that she may be autistic as well, as an extrovert. Possible, but not probable. Yet whenever I encourage her to take a battery of tests that might reflect possible autistic traits and behaviors, her response is always a vehement "no". Hmmmmm.

 

[TS3]

i think thats quite bad, sounds like a sheer lack of understanding but then again i think nearly everyone can not see the complexities around social interactions/settings/situations and possible can't imagine how one would find any part of that complexity difficult.

i still dont full understand jokes or sarcasm, ive learnt to laugh when everyone else does and ive shortened the amound of time it takes to get a joke through litterally having hear alot of jokes in my life but occasionally i will either take it way too litterally or just not laugh at all (that makes things awkward for other people) i wonder how a change it attitude would suddenly make me get jokes and sarcasm?

very interesting

 

[Pats]

What I think is difficult for people to understand is that it's the wiring, not the actions. It's not a chemical imbalance that can be fixed. It's not a learned behavior. It's the way our brains are wired. Instead of sending information through the correct channels, it bypasses the correct channels or sends to the wrong places. It's more the intake of everything around us and how our mind processes it. The habits we develop are ways our body and brain protects us and helps us function at all.

I don't know if the rest of the world is like this, but it's hard for me to think that others do not think like I do. My way of thinking is the only way of thinking I can truly understand. I think it'd be hard for anyone to understand a different way of how one's mind works.

 

[Ken S.]

@Judge Before I became disabled (11 years ago) and my SPD went through the roof I was an extroverted weirdo who socialized with many people. At the time I didn't even know what autism was and my many friends either laughed or gave me strange looks for my "inappropriate" comments but none of them gave me grief over it.

 

[SusanLR]

I didn't know anything about autism growing up and the other kids didn't either.
Yet something must have been weird about me in their minds because they were always
making fun of me about something and no one wanted to be a friend.

They would make comments and put downs on anything they could think of.
From how I dressed, how I ate, my make up when I got old enough to start wearing that.
They always got in the I must be crazy comment.

I learned to mask very well by age 18 and continued to do so through life.
And I don't talk about being Asperger or autistic now that I've found out.
Only to doctors if it seems pertinent.

 

[AuBurney Tuckerson]

Hello,

I have a question, has anyone had some really weird/bad assumptions/comments made based on the fact that they are on the Autism spectrum?

I've had two case: I had a friend in highschool ask me if I hit people based on the fact she had read the curious case of the dog in the night and I had just gotten an educational psychologist exam with the results of mild aspergers and I went round telling everyone as I thought it was cool.

The second was from my mother who after a clinic pyschologist exam which resulted in the high functioning autism diagnoses said "its like the high functioning drug addict actors who can still act and make shows but then you hear in the news that they are in rehab" (rather mean)

Other times every asks you to describe how it affects you and when you do they brush it off like "oh well I always have to read a book and drink tea before bed" it's very nonchalant.

I feel ya there. My own mother does this.. She brushes off my sensory stuff..

 

[TS3]

What I think is difficult for people to understand is that it's the wiring, not the actions. It's not a chemical imbalance that can be fixed. It's not a learned behavior. It's the way our brains are wired. Instead of sending information through the correct channels, it bypasses the correct channels or sends to the wrong places. It's more the intake of everything around us and how our mind processes it. The habits we develop are ways our body and brain protects us and helps us function at all.

I don't know if the rest of the world is like this, but it's hard for me to think that others do not think like I do. My way of thinking is the only way of thinking I can truly understand. I think it'd be hard for anyone to understand a different way of how one's mind works.

i like the whole wiring analogy, i always say the pylons in my brain are further apart and connect differently. i got a peice of paper that says i have "slow brain processing power" along side dyslexia and dyspraxia. i guess i use copper wiring haha.