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top 10 reasons to be proud of your autism

smith2267

smith2267

Well-Known Member
1. Autistic People Rarely Lie

2. People on the Autism Spectrum Live in the Moment

3. People with Autism Rarely Judge Others

4. Autistic People are Passionate

5. People with Autism Are Not Tied to Social Expectations

6. People with Autism Have Terrific Memories

7. Autistic People Are Less Materialistic

8. Autistic People Play Fewer Head Games

9. Autistic People Have Fewer Hidden Agendas

10. People with Autism Open New Doors for Neurotypicals


Read more: Top 10 terrific traits of autistic people | Autism Support Network

Top 10 terrific
 
11. You know how to STIM properly.
12. You know how to mind your own freakin' business.
13. You know how to focus on the subject of your interests for hours to the exclusion of all other things.
14. You like what you like when you like it NOT because some idiot celeb has one or because you saw a glossy advert for it or you want to impress someone.
15. You have a natural affinity for all creatures feathered, furred or 4 legged.
16. You refuse to be physically uncomfortable for any reason whatsoever.
17. You NEVER involve others in your stims or badger them into participating in activities they do not want to do.
18. You have a natural respect for nature including details like the veins on a leaf, the little sparkles in an orchid's petals & the scent of an apple.
19. When you want something done right, you DO it right. Yourself. Until it IS right.
20. You can indulge in a giant chocolate bar, a 2 hour hot bubble bath or any other indulgence without an iota of guilt.
 
Biblio-Love said:
Unfortunately this isn't me. I have wondered about this a lot lately. I have many autistic traits, but not the one I wish I had. I have huge blank spots in my memory from my childhood. I barely remember any of it. Very strange.
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I have blank spots too Biblio. And then I have other memories in detail.
 
My mother is a NT who can cultivate guilt over stuff that may or may not have happened in some foreign country you've never heard of 3 centuries ago! Some of them have elevated guilt to a cultural trait!

Watch a few tv commercials & pay attention to the neurotic guilt messages: you can now feel GUILT FREE over everything from what cereal you eat (because it's apparently heart healthy) to what yoghurt you enjoy (it makes you 'regular') to what hair dye you use (because YOU'RE WORTH IT *about 12$*). You MUST feel guilty if your car doesn't have on star (you negligent child abusing freak!) & if you are depressed (for selfishly inconveniencing others with your misery * Beotch!* take a PILL) . You may enjoy that 2 hr bubblebath BUT only if you first cleaned your entire house quickly & conveniently using SWIFFER products.

There's a pervasive undercurrent of guilt slithering through NT mainstream society.
 
smith2267 said:
1. Autistic People Rarely Lie

2. People on the Autism Spectrum Live in the Moment

3. People with Autism Rarely Judge Others

4. Autistic People are Passionate

5. People with Autism Are Not Tied to Social Expectations

6. People with Autism Have Terrific Memories

7. Autistic People Are Less Materialistic

8. Autistic People Play Fewer Head Games

9. Autistic People Have Fewer Hidden Agendas

10. People with Autism Open New Doors for Neurotypicals


Read more: Top 10 terrific traits of autistic people | Autism Support Network

Top 10 terrific
Click to expand...

1. I wish I can lie less often and be open about my autism. I cannot reconcile between some of my thoughts on my head: I want to be a firefighter, get a degree in engineering or something useful to my career, and I'd like to play basketball with my friends, while having enough dough to buy kicks regularly in the local shoe store. But I was exempted from national service, meaning, I am not fit to do any tasks in the military, police or other security services because of my autism. Between autism and being able to fit into society and my old social circles before I consciously know my autism, now, I wish I had never been true to others once in my life. Perhaps that's just me, though.

2. When you know you aren't covered by any insurance scheme in your economically advanced, but socially backward country, you are just forced to live for the moment - you'd just eat anything that comes to you, refuse to exercise, sleep late every day, and take a lot more health risks than you normally don't. I am sorry if I hurt 95% of the higher-functioning Aspies in Singapore I know, but we live for the moment because we can't even worry for the future, or the now. There's simply nothing to be worried about, for life is already sort of fixed for many of us.

3. Why judge others, when you are being judged? I don't get this.

4. Yeah, passionate in some unmarketable interests, because we are autistic! I didn't say that, Eric Chen (Singapore's most famous Aspie, who even wrote a post on this) did say this in the first place.

5. I am tied to social expectations I can't meet. I am supposed to be a clone of my parents. How's that.

6. When you live with pain, it is perfectly normal to remember what hurts you, and for the happy things, you really cling on to them.

7. I am more materialistic than most people I know. But Aspies in generally are indeed less materialistic.

8. You don't play a game you're weak in.

9. Since others can out-psyche you, don't involve in their game, just do your thing.

10. Well, I guess the NTs diagnose us because we can't be them, and they don't want us to 'do' the things they think they cherish. Learn some laws of opportunity costs, leave the best to others and do the rest.

The most important points, though, are 1 and 10. They matter a lot to me.

I may seem harsh sometimes, but well, Asian societies are less tolerant of Aspies than Western ones. I wish I can learn more from the West in terms of accepting people like me.
 
Does that exempt you from becoming a firefighter? I think here in the US as long as you can pass the physical and other exams you can pass.
Do they have volunteer firefighters in your area? You may be able to join them and gain enough experience to join the regular dept or even a
paramedic since you can get a medical degree autism or not. As far as sports I could always intimidate my opponents! It helps when you could
take down people almost twice your size!:D
 
Im the same biblio, i cain't remember much from my past just little fragment'd, Not that i whant to tbh
 
2. People on the Autism Spectrum Live in the Moment
I'd say it is the opposite. Heavy reliance on routines and planning, we don't handle unexpected change well.

3. People with Autism Rarely Judge Others
I'm not sure I understand this, but from my point of view that is impossible. As people don't possess the ability to read thoughts, everyone has to make presumptions about people. People with autism may be less likely to make premature judgements about people as they have a long history of misunderstandings though.

7. Autistic People Are Less Materialistic
Autistic People Are More Materialistic. We have a tendency to bond with objects more than people, many have extensive collections of objects in specific categories.
 
Actually... re-reading that list a few times.

The sad part is that from the more common NT point of view, all these points actually are "problems", lol. I don't want to get anyone down here, but I'm quite sure that just as much as you think of the good, it's easy enough to think of something and point out why it's bad.

1. Autistic People Rarely Lie
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That might be true, but the non-aspie world relies on telling lies here and there. If everyone was honest I'm quite sure there'd be a lot more stressed out people. People can't handle the truth quite often.

2. People on the Autism Spectrum Live in the Moment
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I agree with Jontish. Most live with routines. I'm not saying all, but some... probably most. I think that one can say something about "they live in their own world"... which at least for me is true. Yet, that makes it harder to be part of society as a whole.

3. People with Autism Rarely Judge Others
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Sure I judge others. But perhaps I'm more gullible. And while that makes your life better (don't knowing things sometimes makes it way better)... you can easily get in trouble over it.

4. Autistic People are Passionate
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Passionate... I don't know. It also means "living in your own world a bit too much". Besides; some aspies are NOT in touch with their feelings as such and passion is an emotion as such.

5. People with Autism Are Not Tied to Social Expectations
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Which is a big problem because everyone is expected to take part in these expectations. It makes communication, marketing and the whole bigger picture aka "the world" go round.

6. People with Autism Have Terrific Memories
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Speak for yourself, lol. Yes, I might remember stuff that is trivial, but other things I don't remember. That's a matter of interest, to where we end up at points 4 and 5 of living too much in your own world and taking only interest in that.

7. Autistic People Are Less Materialistic
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Again I agree with Jontish. I tend to bond more with objects than people. However... if you look at social expectations, peer pressure and what have you, I'm quite sure that most of "us" are more up for just having this that spark our interest rather than having a lot of money, a big house, 3 cars and extreme luxuries as such, which are measures of "success" nowadays.

8. Autistic People Play Fewer Head Games
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Which is a bit like telling lies. Head games are sometimes neccesary. Some of us just don't understand the entire social mechanics. But in some situations that apparently is required. I think a prime example of head games is saying yes or no to something. Some people will try to force you into something because they will play head games which some of us wont understand

9. Autistic People Have Fewer Hidden Agendas
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Of course we don't... we're pre-occupied with interests primarily. Have no job; good.. 24 hours of interests, have a job... good; spare time to pursue interests. Until that one time where you're being judged on not willing to tag along with your co-workers after hours and you're totally open in what you prefer to do in your spare time. Then you end up being "that weird guy" (which might cost you your job; because.. of course, they all want happy, tag along and social people, even if the job doesn't require it in general).

10. People with Autism Open New Doors for Neurotypicals
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Only if people will listen. And since there's a stigma on having Aspergers (or autism in general) nowadays people are likely to write it off as "oh.. it's one of those excentric people who tried to turn his weird behaviour into a condition". I don't agree with that train of thought though. I think that if anything, we can see problems and solutions in totally different ways. The problem however lies therein, that it's not only us that have to work with those methods and solutions. What makes sense to me, might not make sense to the next NT (or even the next aspie).
 
Can anyone come up with 10 more reasons?

I'm going to give it a go:

21. We are free-spirited in our style of dress regardless of social conventions or current fashion trends.

22. We understand & appreciate not only the aesthetic & warmth-inducing power of the hoodie, but appreciate its value as a therapeutic tool that has no undesirable side effects.

23. We do not judge our fellow Aspies regardless of differences in education levels, socioeconomic status, whether or not they're religious, whether they're workaholics or chronically unemployed. This is anathema in the NT world that revolves around such distinctions.

24. We seldom suborn double standards such as I'm a collector: YOU're a hoarder. I'm a connaisseur, YOU're have a pathological obsession.

25. We are almost never blatant overt racists.

26. We CAN bond to and value material objects WITHOUT investing in the delusion that the fact that we own & love said object makes us better than the other SOB who doesn't have one, can't afford one or doesn't want one. Snobbery, status obsession & exclusivity is the cornerstone of materialism: it is NOT an Asperian value. We don't love our ____ because the neighbour doesn't have one.

27. Aspies & Auties do not value or crave one one-upmanship.

28. While many an Aspie is adept at self-defence, we are not bullies.

29. When we demonstrate or express empathy it is SINCERE.

30. We flat out admit it when something is not working for us. We are not ones to pretend things are okay when they're not. No fake smile & empty denials.
 
Was that first top ten list written y an actual Aspie or Autie or by a well meaning NT?
 
Soup said:
Was that first top ten list written y an actual Aspie or Autie or by a well meaning NT?
Click to expand...

I wondered that myself!


32. Don't have to worry about wasting time with friends, 'cos they have none.

33. Rarely have to live up to their potential, 'cos it's hardly ever gonna happen anyway.
 
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@ Divrom: I like #32! Not having friends & in my case not wanting any is really one less complication in life.
 
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