Have you experienced microaggressions?

[c4e461]

Thanks very much for your thoughtful comments - I really appreciate your feedback. Yes, the survey does apply more to those who have disclosed their diagnosis and have gotten reactions from others. Like yourself, many others make the choice not to disclose - it is a very personal decision. If you don’t mind if I ask, why do you believe you would get negative backlash if you disclosed your diagnosis?

 

[CoffeeCat88]

If I were to apply to a job, and I mention having aspergers, the hiring people might try to avoid hiring me. I think this will happen because they might think that I will use aspergers as an excuse to get out of some aspects of the job.

Also, like many others on this forum, I got bullied a lot for being the "weird" kid. Because of this history, I think people might make jokes and tease me again. Or they might think I am lying. Though they might be "just kidding," those jokes will hurt me. I will have trouble understanding sarcasm and I tend to be very literal without even realizing it. these jokes will make me feel bad, or triggered. And I don't really know how to stop them from making jokes at my expense. I usually shut down when they made the jokes in the past, which made me an easier target.

Not sure if this is a sufficient answer.

 

[c4e461]

Not sure if this is a sufficient answer.[/QUOTE]

Yes, it makes sense - I was just curious (not part of my formal research), but because of my daughter's similar experiences. She was bullied terribly because she did not act like a "typical" girl - and yes,when she shut down the bullying got worse. I'm so sorry you have experienced those things. I appreciate you sharing your experiences.

 

[Boogs]

I think it is how you experience others responding to you - whether they are strangers, acquaintances, or friends. More than likely microaggressions would be experienced from people who know you are on the spectrum. Sort of like microaggressions that LGBT folks experience when people find out they’re gay, trans, bi, etc. I appreciate your comments and interest.

Actually, I think it is a valid, and critical point - is this about someone in the spectrum's reaction to generic microaggressions (as I understand, usually related to bullying, and similar behaviour?) against them due to any discrimination; or is it specifically to do with microaggression's generated against them due to their autism (and presumably how their autism effects that)?

I've not looked at the questionnaire so any judgement on my part is invalid, but I would approach the two very differently, from my own perspective, and without that context (maybe it's in the questionnaire itself?) I'm not sure if I would know how to answer it as it was expected to be.
The term 'more than likely' gives me personally a lot of trouble in knowing what's expected from someone completing it, what is their context and how does it relate to mine, because it's possible the wrong interpretation could be made if the questioner and answerer aren't on the same page, so to speak?
This isn't meant to be an attack, much more my ignorance of how these things work, and curiosity, my brain interrogates me, so I pass that on (being poor at communicating)!

One other point strikes me, is that autism, as I understand (poorly) is a spectrum of symptoms statistically found to be common in a range of behavioural conditions, at certain levels, that can be classed together through displaying a number of these symptoms. It relates, as I see it, to symptoms rather than causes, but this means that it must surely be easy to make false assumptions or conclusions because the factors involved are not all allowed for, and no way to measure how significant any particular unknown exception and/or deviation from the 'set' anticipated by the questionnaires designer? I probably shouldn't be writing this without actually reading the questionnaire, but there again, doing that alone would be unlikely to answer my questions in a satisfactory manner. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯