I've recently told a few people in my life about being autistic/aspie, and have received some of the responses in this poll. I'll be more specific in a subsequent post.
Oops--I realize that I forgot to add the "What is it?" option to the poll.
I checked "ask why I think it's true" since that's been the majority reaction, although I've gotten all of the responses I listed, and also the one I should have put on the poll, i.e., "what's asperger's"? So far, no one has said they felt sorry for me--that's good.
My sample size is still pretty small. The person who said "couldn't be" was basing his argument on the fact that I didn't seem like Temple Grandin to him. I assured him that I don't seem like Temple Grandin to me either.
I find myself getting tongue-tied when I try to explain how it all works (or doesn't) for me. I was curious to see if I could do it, so I picked a handful of people to disclose to, like a couple of neighbors and old friends.
Last Sunday I told a friend I've had for over 30 years--one of the long distance ones--his response: "That's really interesting. How is this useful to you?"
Almost nobody ever believes me--somewhere along the line, I think most of my acquaintances got the idea that AS is some sort of disability. A few people who don't know me very just say variants of "Oh, you poor dear." and start acting as if I can't string two words togather--thankfully, I don't run into those sorts very often.
When I tell people that I am an aspie they just look at me with a weird face and say "what the heck is that" then I have to explain it and they still don't understand. They just go on with their conversations as if I never said anything. They just don't understand what it's like to be soo different
My first reaction after I was diagnosed at aged about 10 was that I was going to tell everyone at school - which probably would've been very unwise but fortunatly it didn't turn out like that. By then I had 2 or 3 very good friends at school; I never had any friends until a year or so before, but by the end of primary (age 4-11) school there were these few others who always stood up for me and respected me for who I was (and knew not to always bother me as well), great maturity for their age, thinking about it. The first person I told was my best friend, I said to him "you know, I've got this thing called asperger syndrome", obviously being just aged 10 as well he didn't know what it was and he instantly said "no you haven't"... now I'm not one to want to get into any conflict, least of all with one of the few people at school who was ever nice to me, I just said "alright, no I haven't then". A bit later he said to me "look, I thought that someday 'they' will tell you that you've got something wrong with you, don't listen to them, theres nothing wrong with you, they don't know anything". Of course I didn't believe him, but I thought that was a very thoughtful, caring thing to say all the same, and I remember that conversation like it was yesterday. I decided then I wouldn't tell anyone who didn't need to know, and thats pretty much been my attitude to date.
These days I never tell anyone I meet first of all. Not that I'm at all ashamed of it, but the way people would treat me differently. Thats not to say that they're bad people, its just a lack of understanding. They would instantly assume that we can never be on the same level as each other and then don't bother - which is wrong but an easy mistake to make, I think. I prefer just trying to be myself, trying to communicate as best as I can (and it does get easier with practice) - and in the end, once I've known people for a long time, I then have no problem with telling them. If it works and if we get along well (which by no means comes easily), by then, they mostly know I'm different anyway; and sometimes even like me for it, so it dosn't come as a suprise, and they treat me just the same. And hopefully in the process I've helped their understanding for future.