58 ms·

The flip side - I don't think there's a single upside to the ASD traits I have, I don't like myself, and I would absolutely love to know what it feels like to n

by drcongo 2mo ago

The flip side - I don't think there's a single upside to the ASD traits I have, I don't like myself, and I would absolutely love to know what it feels like to not have ASD.

ssl-3 2mo ago
I think it'd be neat to be able to switch it off temporarily. One of my greatest strengths is diving deeply into unfamiliar technical rabbit holes that relate to my own innate areas interest, and get useful results quickly. This is a quality that separates me from most others and I enjoy doing this when the opportunity arises. But I can't necessarily turn it off; I don't always get a choice about whether I'm going to be diving into a thing or not. Overall, I think this has has been a valuable set of traits. But my greatest weaknesses are...just about everything else. For stuff that is outside of the subset of things that are innately interesting, I often find them difficult to grasp. It can be challenging to get my head around some stuff that many others can do without much effort at all. I can usually get there eventually; it just always takes more work for me than it would for a more-typical person, and I don't necessarily learn them in the same ways that a normal person might. It'd be fun to see how the world would work for me if these qualities were averaged out, but long-term it would mean that many aspects of my life would have to be shaped very differently. Therefore, I would not want it to be permanent without first spending some time visiting the other side of the fence.
Scandiravian 2mo ago
OP here First of all, I'm genuinely sorry to hear that you're struggling with you self-worth because of your symptoms I don't know you or your story, so I'm not going to assume that my experience is comparable to yours. This is why I'm conflicted about whether I would want a "cure" My hesitancy against wanting one is based solely on my own life experience. I was diagnosed as an adult and I had struggled with my self-worth and had been chronically depressed since I was a child. If someone had offered me a "cure" so I could fit in at that point, I'd probably have taken it The thing is that after I learned I was autistic, I could start to recognise that the people who over the years had scolded, yelled, and made fun of me; those people were the ones in the wrong. I was lucky enough to be in a position where I could make changes in my life that accommodate my specific needs, which in turn has made it possible for me to pursue the things that I find meaningful I don't want a society where we make autistic people believe that they are broken because of small-minded, inconsiderate bigots. After they've fixed their hearts we can talk about "fixing" my brain
- drcongo 2mo ago
  > I was diagnosed as an adult and I had struggled with my self-worth and had been chronically depressed since I was a child. I've only recently been diagnosed, so I'm possibly still in the phase where I'm reframing my sense of self from "a man with depression" to "a man with ASD traits". I'd never considered that I might have ASD, but once my therapist started pointing out the patterns it seemed completely obvious, and honestly a bit of a relief, so I'm hopeful that given a little more time my attitude might be much closer to yours. Thank you for your reply, it's really nice to hear a similar story to mine with a much nicer resolution.

by drcongo 2mo ago

The flip side - I don't think there's a single upside to the ASD traits I have, I don't like myself, and I would absolutely love to know what it feels like to not have ASD.

ssl-3 2mo ago

I think it'd be neat to be able to switch it off temporarily. One of my greatest strengths is diving deeply into unfamiliar technical rabbit holes that relate to my own innate areas interest, and get useful results quickly. This is a quality that separates me from most others and I enjoy doing this when the opportunity arises. But I can't necessarily turn it off; I don't always get a choice about whether I'm going to be diving into a thing or not. Overall, I think this has has been a valuable set of traits. But my greatest weaknesses are...just about everything else. For stuff that is outside of the subset of things that are innately interesting, I often find them difficult to grasp. It can be challenging to get my head around some stuff that many others can do without much effort at all. I can usually get there eventually; it just always takes more work for me than it would for a more-typical person, and I don't necessarily learn them in the same ways that a normal person might. It'd be fun to see how the world would work for me if these qualities were averaged out, but long-term it would mean that many aspects of my life would have to be shaped very differently. Therefore, I would not want it to be permanent without first spending some time visiting the other side of the fence.

Scandiravian 2mo ago

OP here First of all, I'm genuinely sorry to hear that you're struggling with you self-worth because of your symptoms I don't know you or your story, so I'm not going to assume that my experience is comparable to yours. This is why I'm conflicted about whether I would want a "cure" My hesitancy against wanting one is based solely on my own life experience. I was diagnosed as an adult and I had struggled with my self-worth and had been chronically depressed since I was a child. If someone had offered me a "cure" so I could fit in at that point, I'd probably have taken it The thing is that after I learned I was autistic, I could start to recognise that the people who over the years had scolded, yelled, and made fun of me; those people were the ones in the wrong. I was lucky enough to be in a position where I could make changes in my life that accommodate my specific needs, which in turn has made it possible for me to pursue the things that I find meaningful I don't want a society where we make autistic people believe that they are broken because of small-minded, inconsiderate bigots. After they've fixed their hearts we can talk about "fixing" my brain

drcongo 2mo ago
> I was diagnosed as an adult and I had struggled with my self-worth and had been chronically depressed since I was a child. I've only recently been diagnosed, so I'm possibly still in the phase where I'm reframing my sense of self from "a man with depression" to "a man with ASD traits". I'd never considered that I might have ASD, but once my therapist started pointing out the patterns it seemed completely obvious, and honestly a bit of a relief, so I'm hopeful that given a little more time my attitude might be much closer to yours. Thank you for your reply, it's really nice to hear a similar story to mine with a much nicer resolution.