Aspies For Freedom

Okay, maybe I do need some educating, but isn't that some of the signs?

I am not trying to be funny either...

i got one for ya guys after i recently outed myself "Do you like Basketball"

If anybody in any of my classes is unaware that I have AS it would be because either they weren't listening, or couldn't understand me.

I mention it at every possible opportunity, and talk about it to the point where I make some teachers uncomfortable.  I think I've mentioned it 2-3 times in the four weeks of psych I've had.

I told my mother and dad one after the other on the 'phone. First up was my dad (who I'm pretty certain is aspie as well, and he seems to be coming to that conclusion too):
- Hmm, well, you know, I'm not surprised.

Then came mother (who has... Issues):
- You're joking!!

She then managed to spend the next six months convincing herself that I couldn't be AS because she thinks I wasn't like my nephew who has HFA when I was his age (now 4)  :roll:

When I saw her the other week I managed to put it into words of one syllable and she seems to have accepted it. Her comment?
- Oh, so that means you're depressed because of AS, not because I was such a bad parent! That's wonderful!

Oh dear.

Heh heh, now that's dark comedy.  :roll:

FYI - the archaic is the original.  The Celtic (?) goddess of fate's name was Weyrd.  When something strange happened, people would attribute it to her by saying, "that's Weyrd."  Eventually the usage caught on among people who didn't worship her, the capital letter was dropped and "strange things happened to the vowels," as the linguists say.

Any pagans among us may continue using 'Weyrd.'   :grin:

This is a very interesting topic and perhaps a very important one for us "aspies"

I've only recently felt comfortable enough to talk about AS to others who know me, but I got quickly discouraged when people reacted in strange ways to the news.

I hate sympathy and thats what I got from some, with others I felt like they weren't really listening to what I had to say or my explaining was kind of "disturbing" them.  

What really bugs me is when I try to explain to someone who I haven't even known for more than about a week and they totally deny it and say it's all in my head and I should just "STOP IT!" because i'm doing it to myself.

That gets on my nerves because I've been living for about 20 years and struggling with AS and then someone comes along who hasn't known me for more than about a week and he's such an "expert" that he can detect there is nothing wrong!

Someone even offered to arrange a maid and taxi service after hearing I have AS!!

In my experience NT's respond badly to anything called "Syndrome."  It seems to have some meaning to most of them as if anything called a Syndrome is degenerative.  I like to tell people some of the cool things about being aspie, like thinking in pictures and how every word is an act of translation.  Then I tell them some of the down side, like trouble interpreting facial expressions.  I kind of build a description of it first, then introduce it as "Nerd's Disease," as I call it.  That makes them laugh.  Then they get the idea long before I ever reveal its real name.  If they get weird on "Nerd's Disease," I mention one more good thing about it and let it drop.

When I told my mother that I thought I had Asperger's (I had just read about it in that New Yorker Magazine article--I had never even heard of it before), she cried--not because she was disappointed or anything, but because she knew I was different all along, but wished she had known what made me so, so she could have homeschooled me, kept me from torment in grade school, etc. These days, if I bring it up to her, she's interested in how things look from my point of view. She's a great erson, and has always treated me with respect.

Right after I found out that I had Asperger's, I told a lot of people at my college. Most didn't know what it was, but one of my friends (a really weird, interesting little guy) said: "Oh, I've heard of that. That's like Autism Lite."

These days, I don't talk about the fact that I have Asperger's to anyone who doesn't already know. (Well...except here.) I don't know why; perhaps, because I want to participate in the community of letters as an individual, not a token of a type.

Oh--I thought that "Asperger" meant "sprinkler", from the Latin,    aspergo, (as a verb) "to sprinkle upon or besprinkle with"; (as a participle) "a sprinkling". There's a psalm that goes "Asperges me hyssopo et mundabor, / Lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor": "Sprinkle me with hyssop and I shall be cleansed, / Wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow." I want that on a T-shirt.

(sarcasm) Autism Lite! Tastes great, less alienating!

mmmmm...

Most of my friends have responded with something along the lines of "Oh.  Really?  Whatever."  With a bored expression (or at least what I *think* is a bored expression).  I don't think they believe me.
One friend of mine was sure I didn't have it.  I convinced him (or so I thought) after a lengthy discussion, but then one day he calls me up and says,  "Athene, you know Joyce (our teacher) doesn't think you have AS? And she's been taking seminars, so she knows what she's talking about!"   :!:   Why do people feel a need to go to someone else and find out what THEY think about MY self diagnosis?  Why couldn't he just trust that I've done a lot of research and know what I'm talking about?

:!:  :?:  :!:  :?:

I had a friend call my other friend Hannah "wierd", she was 13 granted, but quickly shut her face when I told her I was an aspie :grin:

I can honestly say that I have never gotten a bad reaction from revealing my Asperger's.  Most people are rather interested in fact.

Oog.  After dealing with the local public school system and my eldest son, I have come to the conclusion that the last people who ought to be trusted with pedagogy are techers.

I hope to get over this conclusion, given enough time and exposure to other teachers.

For me, I don't think that I am ready to tell anyone I'm a mild aspie.  
Especially not on the job.  It has been tempting to tell people on the job but even if you think you have a great job and work with people who are better than the examples portrayed in the TV show 'The Office'- someone will bring up the mental illness stigma.  After that, I think you are finished.  You will get a lot of bad looks or worse, patronising "are you OK?" out of co-workers, or, maybe the office buffoon saying loudly "Let us know if you are thinking of going postal" or "Run, Forrest, run!"  The closest I ever got was explaining to a manager some of my work habits (need periods of no disruption to complete an important project on paper) or (as a child had a speech impediment, and sometimes still have to look away to concentrate on what the other person is saying).   My advice is don't give people leverage or power over you, especially in the workplace or campus.