I mean, how do you explain the very concept of Emotions and Memories being separate entities? That’s why Autism is so difficult to understand. Because it does things that are by our understanding, illogical or impossible. And not everyone who is autistic suffers the same symptoms. Which makes it even harder to diagnosis or treat.
I just assumed they found my school records. Maybe you’re right and they didn’t use them…
I almost made it to my 30s like you, but I had a genetic disorder on top that they were trying to figure out. That’s where the neurologist came in. What psychiatrists thought were nervous ticks were muscle spasms.
And I hear ya about fighting it. When my therapist first told me what she suspected I told her to F off and stormed out of her office lol
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Its primarily because it is much more difficult to diagnose someone as autistic when they are an adult compared to when they are a child. This is primarily because adults have a lifetime of learning how to compensate for the difficulties that autism causes.
Furthermore, because as Verdre said, the symptoms vary due to its nature as a spectrum disorder, it can be a case of you simply being an odd adult rather than someone who is genuinely autistic.
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Just the negative stigma around it. It took a long time to for me to accept it, and longer still to feel comfortable telling other. It used to be I was okay with it being what people call a invisible disability because I didn’t want anyone to know because I was ashamed. Now days because I understand what it means more. I just get irritated at people that say its something that it’s not and feel the need to educate them on how many people are extremely intelligent or talented with autism. I get so frustrated that people try to link it with retardation, mostly because that link is what made me feel ashamed of it.
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Exactly. And I was one of those people that thought if I was called autistic people would automatically think I’m dumb.
What I find hilarious are the amount of people that confuse autism with Tourette’s and think I’m going to start shouting curse words.
Then sometimes there is the problem of “How do I explain this to my family / loved ones?”
Sometimes they just can’t comprehend. Or they think that the symptoms aren’t as bad as they actually are.
I wish I could say I had the full support of my family. But there are family memories who just can’t understand. While I have their support, its not as complete as it could be. Because some of them just can’t properly understand what I’m going through.
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That is because people don’t see what a active mind draws on it tablet. There are many levels and many vendors stored there constantly working out. Though my mom never was a genus she still without learning (never went to school,war and all ) she still found ways to make end met, she was the fastest crocheter I knew and made beautiful spreads .
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that is strange, I mean autism can have ticks but they are completely different ticks.
Yep. I bet you all have heard, “But you don’t look autistic,” a billion times, as if we should look a certain way lol
This was before the diagnosis. They were treating me for anxiety and depression and thought my anxiety was causing ticks. I was fresh out of college so you can imagine what a broke person trying to get on their feet in a new city can afford as far as health insurance and doctors go.
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From my understanding, retardation and autism are opposites. Retardation limits intelligence greatly, whereas, autism excels in intelligence.
They confuse it with low-functioning autism, or others think it’s downsyndrome like where there is a bit of an appearance to it. With low-functioning they think you are suppose to be this person curled up in a ball screaming if anyone gets too close or touches your favorite toy. It’s silly. Yes there is those in that side of things but there is many many many who are not.
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Thus the difference between sympathy which your family feels, and empathy which links people’s emotions to understanding
I have to literally “live in the moment” just to make the emotions properly attach to the memory. Now, imagine how hard this makes social interactions. Because they’re BASED around emotions.
And then imagine wearing a face mask, and you already have issues with reading expressions and now you have even less of the face to work with.
And yeah … I’ve had people say “you look healthy to me!”
When I get snarky I’ll respond with things like “well, a man with a pacemaker looks healthy as well.”
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I blame Rain Man. Despite being a great movie, that’s the first thing people think of when they hear autism.
Hmmm the reason you struggle with the mask is the reason I like it. People are not able to tell how expressionless I am so I feel more comfortable talking with people because they won’t judge me when I don’t seem to show the expressions they think I should.
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And while this year has been a mess, of staying stable for many … I look back on where I was when I first agreed to talk to the doctors.
I was … pardon the pun, a basket case.
Before that point … I’d learned how to fake the emotions, to make people go away and leave me alone. Now …even if its not always roses and sunshine, I can interact with people. Not all the time, and not perfectly. But I CAN interact without things melting down in unhealthy ways in short order.
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Haha as much as I complain about this year. deep inside I’m actually loving it. I finally feel like the normal one hiding in my house laughing at all the looney people running around outside without their masks.
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I joke all the time that everyone else gets to live in my world now and get a kick out of watching people struggle with a couple months indoors. I’ve been doing this my whole life lol
And … until the day I die, I have to wage that war against my brain.
I think it was Elon Musk who proposed a “cure” for Autism. But … the way he talked about it, he was talking in a way that made it sound like we were lepers or infected. That it was simply a disease to cure.
But … even so … even as twisted as his mindset was … I’m sure if someone offered up a potential “cure” … there are people who live with Autism that would take the risk.
I think those people running around outside have the opposite of what ever social anxiety is. They have this unhealthy need to socialized. Not saying socialization itself is unhealthy but the level of need the people have for it is unhealthy. They need it so bad they are willing to endanger themselves and their loved ones for it. To me that seems like a disability.
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