3 ms·

When I was in school I noticed I was off and completely not up to other people's magic sauce - whatever they did that I wasn't able to compete with. As for scho

by mar77i 9y ago

When I was in school I noticed I was off and completely not up to other people's magic sauce - whatever they did that I wasn't able to compete with. As for school it always left me a bit dizzy by cramming in all the subjects and leaving out all the cool details at a pace that just blurred everything for me. I only got to know fun with people in various subcultures, and the more off people around me were, by looks or by spirits, the less I needed to worry about fitting in and learned to simply enjoy myself. Until I realized what the actual problem was. Most people tend to make life hard for themselves by needing to fit in and pretending and aspiring. It's okay. Let go and drop your misery and do whatever the hell you happen to think is best. If you want to build a UFO and take over the world, please go do it. Autism is a terrible name for whatever slight - or not so slight - imbalance of mental traits, and seeing the shit that regular people mutter you're probably better than that anyway - because you wouldn't believe what an autist's mental hygiene is like.

kasey_junk 9y ago
I’m not trying to argue against your premise about fitting in. I would like to point out that autism is an actual specified condition. Being socially different or feeling inept about social situations does not put you on the autistic spectrum. In some ways it’s incredibly insulting to imply that any discomfort in social settings is a sign of autism. Not least because is implies that autistic people can’t be capable, extroverted and able in social settings, which they absolutely can be.
- itronitron 9y ago
  A result of articles like this one which describes experiences of people with autism is that many of the readers without autism will attribute some of those adaptation behaviors as an indicator for autism. It would be nice if the article provided more detail on the actual condition, the tests for it, and how it differs from the common 'i am a human' anxiety. Virtually everyone, men included, has experienced the same things that the article describes as being experienced by women with autism. I think there is a risk with these sorts of articles that many people will make a lot of unwarranted assumptions about other peoples' abilities and behaviors.
draw_down 9y ago
"I do what I want and screw 'em if they don't like it" is great and all, but there are still large parts of life that don't work that way, like workplaces and dating. Having to choose between being oneself and having a career/dating life is still painful and depressing. Casting isolation as a bold act of rebellion and independence in a world full of conformists is just a different shade of camouflage. Regarding subgroups, I found that they were just as unaccepting, they just have different standards for who/what is in/out. I think your comment about autism is mistaking the cart for the horse. This happens because people are on the spectrum, not people are autistic because sometimes they don't fit in. Lastly, I'd just like to mention that I didn't mean to only talk about school or work or situations like that, where there is always going to be some amount of difficulty fitting in. I could also tell that people very close to me, like my parents, thought something was off about me. They later copped to that when I was an adult, as well as their relief that I turned out to live a pretty normal life.

by mar77i 9y ago

kasey_junk 9y ago

I’m not trying to argue against your premise about fitting in. I would like to point out that autism is an actual specified condition. Being socially different or feeling inept about social situations does not put you on the autistic spectrum. In some ways it’s incredibly insulting to imply that any discomfort in social settings is a sign of autism. Not least because is implies that autistic people can’t be capable, extroverted and able in social settings, which they absolutely can be.

itronitron 9y ago
A result of articles like this one which describes experiences of people with autism is that many of the readers without autism will attribute some of those adaptation behaviors as an indicator for autism. It would be nice if the article provided more detail on the actual condition, the tests for it, and how it differs from the common 'i am a human' anxiety. Virtually everyone, men included, has experienced the same things that the article describes as being experienced by women with autism. I think there is a risk with these sorts of articles that many people will make a lot of unwarranted assumptions about other peoples' abilities and behaviors.

draw_down 9y ago

"I do what I want and screw 'em if they don't like it" is great and all, but there are still large parts of life that don't work that way, like workplaces and dating. Having to choose between being oneself and having a career/dating life is still painful and depressing. Casting isolation as a bold act of rebellion and independence in a world full of conformists is just a different shade of camouflage. Regarding subgroups, I found that they were just as unaccepting, they just have different standards for who/what is in/out. I think your comment about autism is mistaking the cart for the horse. This happens because people are on the spectrum, not people are autistic because sometimes they don't fit in. Lastly, I'd just like to mention that I didn't mean to only talk about school or work or situations like that, where there is always going to be some amount of difficulty fitting in. I could also tell that people very close to me, like my parents, thought something was off about me. They later copped to that when I was an adult, as well as their relief that I turned out to live a pretty normal life.