Finish the statement: "I am...."

[Gerald Wilgus]

When I feel compassion with someone I put heart icon. I think it works well because it shows connection.
Unless you wanted to specifically show that you were sad, then yes.

As a teen and young adult I internalized the lies that I was damaged and unwanted. It took me a lot of work to overcome that and now can look back upon a life that I think has been well lived. I am sad for people here who think negatively about themselves.

 

[gigi1919]

As a teen and young adult I internalized the lies that I was damaged and unwanted. It took me a lot of work to overcome that and now can look back upon a life that I think has been well lived. I am sad for people here who think negatively about themselves.

Oh yes. Me the same. I understand

 

[Jumpinbare]

As a teen and young adult I internalized the lies that I was damaged and unwanted. .

As a detached, analytical observer (with no knowledge of autism), it was abundantly clear to me that I was damaged. I never considered or felt myself to be unwanted though.

 

[Masked Man]

I am tired.

 

[gigi1919]

ok guys, here is what I was thinking when I initiated this thread. I was wondering about how autistic folks would answer when I ask the most basic question about the sense of self that starts with "I am.."

My previous assumptions were that the answers might represent:

1. statements that illustrate a shifting sense of self that's based on the current feeling, experience, external factors (contact of being in the forum) or another contextual self definition
2. statements that identify by special interest (I think mine was "artist")
3. statements that display projected and internalised cultural, religious, societal bias

My idea was to compare to contrast with what I recognise in typical people whose statements tend to show quite stable or relationship-anchored, what I often see in NTs, such as "I am a husband" "I am a businessman" "I'm a mother of 4". They also don't easily share or even are aware of their vulnerability so rarely would finish statement with 'I am a wierdo" because they often want to project a self image that's rewarded in society

Naturally, that was just a curious question. There was no right or wrong. No better or worse. I appreciate all your honest answers. I wish I could ask the same question on Neurotypical forum, but I guess the collection of statements I heard in life suffice.

Granted that both my asking of the question that I'm sure could be better, and this very imperfect and very non-scientific post (haha)— it was quite interesting exercise.

I believe that answering within autistic forum might have impacted the way of answering, which might be different if someone asked you the same question at school, work or another situation.

So my conclusions are that my previous hypothesis was somewhat reaffirmed. With the exception of 2 that were more rooted in personal truth (mine and @Outdated ) But I don't know why

I was surprised and very saddened how much (proportionally) pain, suffering and internalised judgment there was shown in answers. I suppose I could have added mine statement that would also say "I'm tired" but I guess I focused on ME statements.

Neverteless, thank you everyone who answered my prompt and wanted to learn something with me.
Did you make any other conclusions I missed? Did you have any of your own hypothesis?

 

[gigi1919]

As a detached, analytical observer (with no knowledge of autism), it was abundantly clear to me that I was damaged. I never considered or felt myself to be unwanted though.

I did.
I guess that internalised bias and the strings of rejections autists often seem to experience have various manifestations.
But I certainly felt unwanted. Maybe far more than damaged. And it's interesting that I often had in me this fierceness that everyone else is wrong but I see things more as truth. Even if I was always the only person I managed to stay somewhat tethered to this. But I knew that others thought little of me. Even hated me. I frequently thought that if I died no one would care or be even relieved.

Now I don't care as much as what people think.