How can you stand it?

[Fino]

I don't mean this to be insulting in any way, but is anyone else's head hurting from all of these metaphors?

 

[SusanLR]

Though quite often if there's ever a metaphor to describe it all, I call it "living on the outside of a bottle always looking in".

Never really feeling like I'm a part of things, though you just learn to deal with it.

And I call it living in a bubble looking out.
Seeing and hearing, but, never feeling attached. An emotional barrier.
Leaves a feeling of emptiness inside. So, no, not fulfilled by my definition of the word.

 

[Autistamatic]

You could just as easily ask how can people who are NOT on the spectrum stand to have such a limited view of the world? How do they cope with all these assumptions they make without thinking things through? Isn't it limiting having such dulled senses? Doesn't it get boring following the crowd and being easily influenced all the time?

There are stereotypes for everything. Being NT and being ASD are two different sides of the same coin. We are different but equal, not inferior or diseased any more than we should regard being NT as a disability compared to us.

Not everyone treats autism as an affliction. To many it's a mixed blessing. We'd like to eliminate some of the bad, but we know we'd lose some of the good in the process.

You also get extremes.

I mean look at the extremes on this forum. We get two different autistic members, who make their introductory posts at the exact same minute of the same day, one full of optimism who says their autism is a blessing and not to regard it as a disability, and then another introducing themselves as someone who thinks their autism is a disease and asks people how they can stand to live with it.

Polar opposite ends of "the spectrum".

 

[All-Rounder]

You could just as easily ask how can people who are NOT on the spectrum stand to have such a limited view of the world? How do they cope with all these assumptions they make without thinking things through? Isn't it limiting having such dulled senses? Doesn't it get boring following the crowd and being easily influenced all the time?

There are stereotypes for everything. Being NT and being ASD are two different sides of the same coin. We are different but equal, not inferior or diseased any more than we should regard being NT as a disability compared to us.

Not everyone treats autism as an affliction. To many it's a mixed blessing. We'd like to eliminate some of the bad, but we know we'd lose some of the good in the process.

You also get extremes.

I mean look at the extremes on this forum. We get two different autistic members, who make their introductory posts at the exact same minute of the same day, one full of optimism who says their autism is a blessing and not to regard it as a disability, and then another introducing themselves as someone who thinks their autism is a disease and asks people how they can stand to live with it.

Polar opposite ends of "the spectrum".

NTs have to be trained too. Til 25 i didn't have a sense of self or others. Id try to be the way i figured to be best. I thought all people have honest good intentions. Part of it was religion and part education, but now I have a path that I make for myself adding in what I want, psychology and not being slave to emotion. An aspie taught me most of it, or rather encouraged me to find answers. I couldn't understand what she was explaining so I started googling scientific answers to all my questions for years now. I feel so much more confident in how I relate to the world

 

[UberScout]

The asperger's. Doesn't it feel like every waking moment you are in detention?

Oh, no my friend. There are good parts to Aspergers, yes. But, wait until someone makes it their goal, their mission in life, their preached purpose that will have no meaning unless it is fulfilled, to work towards the simplistic, yet demonic objective of working to get a rise out of you, every, single minute of every single day, of every single week, month, year and eon.

It could be anybody, and they could choose any single reason, even just for the sake of doing it, just because nobody else is doing it, just because there is nothing better to do. Now, of course, this will mainly reserve itself to places like schools, colleges (maybe), homeless shelters even (hand to god, talking from experience, I was at war with the place because of this), hell, out in public it will happen. And they will find any kind of way to do it, any sort of miniscule, minute, and devious, unnoticeable method of getting under your skin, poking the bear with no claws, and dangling friendship in front of you like a worm on a fish hook, and they will do it in such a devilish way, that NOBODY except you, your family and the person doing it knows that anything is even happening to you at all, or that there's a reason that you're so crabby and irritable all the time; because some neanderthal who picks on innocent Spectrum patients for nothing more than pure fun and amusement has found a way to successfully squeeze it into both their and your schedule, hide it in the most diabolical way, and make it look like mere horseplay when the polar opposite is happening.

Nobody believes you when you explain what they're doing to you.
Nobody trusts you when they get you in trouble for things that aren't your fault, and they take the bully's word over yours.
This person makes themselves out to be the hero of society and you to be the mental hermit that lives in a cave in the outskirts of town, who thinks dogs are alien creatures sent to Earth to control people's minds.
And there isn't a single thing you can rightfully do about it without getting yourself into trouble.

THAT is what tears at our minds, at least mine anyway. Someone else on the spectrum might feel differently, but for me, it's a scar. And yet, parts of that scar have somehow made me stronger, in some areas. I don't know how, but they have.

TL;DR: Aspergers Syndrome is both a gift and a curse. It neither hates you nor does it love you. It is just the half of you that wants to be fully human, but can only be as human as you physically and spiritually are. Dr. Jekyll has Mr. Hyde, and we have our "normal" sides and fully Autistic sides.

You must tame the animal that you feed.

 

[TempeFan]

Detention is a good analogy but it implies the punishment is for some thing one has done, either a wrong for which one is falsely or justly accused or a right that those in power hate one for. With Asperger's one has done nothing , right or wrong, as they were created and BORN for the sole purpose of suffering for the sins and crimes of others. There was never any way to avoid being separated from society, and NO possibility of returning to one's life after the detention period is over because one was never free to chose their lifestyle in the first place.

It's like being that character in that really famous book.

 

[Bronzelincolns]

by validating myself without the need of other's validation.

 

[RachelN]

To me I always just feel overstimulated. All the time. It never stops. I can't seem to figure out what my over stimulation points are.

 

[Oldlady]

I am new here so I will try to tread lightly. If by being in detention you mean limited in what you can do by others, then I would say that applies to everyone. The most challenging thing for me is to try to see the 'limits' imposed by society as necessary evils. The other thing to consider is that everyone is also limited by their own wiring. Everyone.