Boycott Autism Speaks

Post Reply New Topic

autism isn't comparable to allergies.

Already "liked" it.

It's pitiful how this "advocacy" organization is still being misrepresented as a rectitude within the mainstream autism community.

i know. Thank you for entering onto the boat, for real.

It is in the sense that you have to either learn to avoid certain parts of your environment or learn to deal with unpleasant symptoms from it. Not all allergies cause you to swell up and die. Some just cause your nose to run. It's a pain in the butt to walk around all the time with a runny nose, but if you choose to be a vet you have to either learn to deal with it or take something to stop the symptoms.

So yeah, it can be like the allergies that way. Allergies, like autism, make it hard to deal with parts of your environment. You have to make adjustments for them.

Autism involves limitations. Many would prefer to not have those limitations.

Not even officially on the spectrum yet, I can see so plainly that other people know how to form friendships/relationships that are far better interwoven and deeper than anything I can form. It's a total mystery to me how they do it. I can see it, but can't see how it's done. This is distressing. A piece of my brain isn't working the way it should. I want what I can't have. Call me greedy, but I'm human and I'd like to really live like one.

I've apparently developed coping mechanisms and do better now than when I was younger, but that doesn't change the differences I can see between myself and other people. It's like putting on a coat. It keeps you going, but that doesn't change the fact the weather is COLD.

I'd rather be where it's warm and I don't need to put a coat on. I'd rather not need to use coping tactics to try and "'pass" as NT. I'd prefer having it all happen naturally and completely. Not cobbled together with mis-shapen parts and pieces obviously still missing.

The thing about the friendships; OK, I can be someone's acquaintance where we talk about things and hang out and all that, and the relationship isn't all that important and I don't have feelings for them or I can be someone's friend, which means I care for them a lot and we have a deep level of trust and intimacy and it's like family. I can be anyone's acquaintance, as long as I can put up with them and they can put up with me. I've had many, many acquaintances and I've called them "friends" but I've only had about four true friends like that.

My best friend, who I met about four years ago now, by chance, on FB because she worked at the same haunted house as my younger daughter and then friended her on FB cause that was right in the middle of her FB (and other) addictions. It's like we clicked immediately. The first time we talked, both of us felt completely comfortable with the other, and were able to just talk about things we couldn't talk about with others. We were both sober too, so no it wasn't that whole dunk/high "connection" thing. She has a theory, that your true friends are the people you are supposed to meet. Like soulmates but not like a husband or wife type soulmate. She believes in reincarnation and thinks we have been friends or family in past lives before and that's why we are comfortable and hit it off, that we recognized something in each other. Hell, all my weird s**t didn't even bother her at all, and it usually bothers the crap out of everybody. She just laughed it off and said "Everybody's different". And there is love there. We do love each other. Just like I loved and was loved by my very first best friend (RIP) and by two other people who I met back then who I still keep in touch with and who are family and who I still have that "instant connection like we haven't been apart a day" with - my ex husbands other ex wife who I went to school with and met in 5th grade, and the one really popular guy who I went to school with and met in 9th grade and who helped teach me lots of important social skills and who was my ringer always for when I'd end up not knowing what to do in a relationship.

All those real friendships with feelings attached weren't cultivated at all. They just happened. Meet someone and know instantly that you are alike in some ways, even if you aren't ever really alike in any ways but just get along. It's rare. Very rare. In my almost 50 years I've only had four of them. Acquaintances are what most people, and I, normally have. I do refer to them as friends though. My neighbor, who is my friend and who I'd do a whole bunch for, is an acquaintance although she's friend status acquaintance, but not soulmate status friend. In other words, I wouldn't take a bullet for her. But I would for my best friend and I know she would for me.

You can't just find those kind of friends. You have to run across them. I think there are some people out there who are cut out for each person, but it's a matter of meeting them. You'll know instantly that there is a connection or that it's easier, and for the love of God, if you do feel that don't bring it up right then! But, later on as it progresses and you end up in the "why were are best friends' conversation, you can bring it up. You won't automatically feel like you have known them all your life, but it's something like that. A comfort level that you don't feel around other people. Sometimes, that's what causes misunderstandings with friendships between guys and girls. One or the other will want to take it to the next level and it's like "no" because you are actually more intimate as friends than you are as bf and gf. Because bf and gf break up and who do you go to? Your best friend! They are there all the time. Taking it to that next level ruins it, because while you may love them dearly and even find them devastatingly attractive, you know it would be death to be in a relationship with them.

No, it causes a whole lot more difficulties.

Different difficulties. Allergies aren't mild things that rarely cause problems. They're potentially lethal (peanut allergies for example).

I am pretty sure that finding it difficult to impossible to breathe because of exposure to an allergen counts as a whole lot of difficulty.

It depends on the type of allergy. Not all allergies have horrible symptoms. When I was a child, if I had milk in any form my nose would stop up. That's it. Stuffy nose. I could breath. It would run, I would blow it. I would take a decongestant for it and that would help some, then I'd have to take it again when it wore off, until the allergin was out of my system.

For pollen, pet hair, smoke, etc, my nose would stop up worse. I'd also get chest congestion. Sometimes I'd need to go to the doctor, other times I wouldn't. I never swelled up, never had anything potentially lethal, and it was never difficult or impossible to breathe, I just breathed through my mouth.

I was that one kid with the chronically stuffy nose. So, allergies can be very mild like that or they can be lethal. Give me penicillin and I'll swell up and die. I'm still allergic to pollen so in the spring I'll have a stuffy nose, but less than before. But when I had milk, which I had an allergy to, I would get a stopped up nose. That was it.

I guess you could say that my milk allergy could be the same level as mild AS. My pollen and animals allergy to be like more severe AS and my penicillin allergy to be more like "classic autism".

I am only allergic to mosquito and fleas and the bites swell up and I have this big bump on my skin. I used to think it was normal. As a child I would get hives from flea bites and I got sent home from daycare once because they thought they were chicken pox. I can imagine one of my parents having to leave work to come get me and stay home with me using their sick day. My son got flea bites and they are just little spots. Mine never looked that way, they were always big bumps on my skin. My parents did have to get rid of their dog because of me and it was too much work having a big dog in the city and she was unhappy in it and they had less attention to give her because of me. It's tough taking care of a dog and a baby at the same time. Some man who lived out in the country bought her from them and she was very happy living out there so it worked out. My mom said she had a choice between getting rid of the dog or the baby. For some reason I thought that was funny when she said it.

I think my allergies to them have gotten less severe because mine never got that bad compared to when I was a baby whenever I got flea bites. I hear some people grow out of their allergies.

They should make cures for these, not think we're some devoid, soulless, human.

autism also gives you many abilities NTs don't have.

Autism does not ruin lives, the ignorance of those interacting with autistics is what causes the problem combined with arrogant NTs thinking that everyone should be like them or they must be defective.

I still fail to see what is so exciting about having the ability to sit around discussing some sh***y gossip magazine stuff whilst actually learning nothing of any real value at all. Why should I aspire to be like this?

I just don't think NTs are very bright. They are brainwashed lemmings unable to see that they cultural beliefs they have been brainwashed with are nothing but an illusion and do not exist in objective reality. Their social rules are illogical, ignorant and a waste of time...they actually cause so much infighting and competition that i believe them to be highly ineffective as a result.

People say these social rules help them communicate but do they, really? Look at the state of the world out there. I don't see a bunch of people getting long well, I see people arguing over petty things, hurting each other because of the size of their ego, an obsession with social chit chat the point that people constantly make mistakes when working instead of concentrating on doing their job, obsession with social hierarchy to the point that is causes discrimination and prejudice.

Im sorry but their system is slowly failing them and they are just too ignorant to see it.

If people were less obssessed with dominance, hierarchy, ego, chit chat and emotion and were more rational, egalitarian and less egocentric the world would run much more smoothly.

Less chit chat about pointless gossip would help people do their job more efficiently as well.

PN I don't mean all NTs I am sure there are exceptions. there are always exceptions. Please assume there is always an exception to anything I say...it usually works that way.

And maybe it's not just NT's but the system itself.

Either way society is going to hell out there.

I don't know if I am on the spectrum but I don't see where NTs form deep relationships. What I see are relationships fraught with problems, drama and arguments. Relationships where one party only seems interested in getting what they can out of the other person. I personally feel I form deeper relationships than those around me. Why?

I love very deeply
I am fair minded and accept a persons quirks. I don't want the person I love to change for me, I want to love them just as they are.
I am loyal
I am affectionate in my own way (I personally like cuddles from a partner).
I like my partner to be happy. I want them to chase their dreams and feel fulfilled...I will help them find those dreams and achieve them if they want me to.

But I do like someone who is accepting of me just as I am in return and I sometimes need more alone time or space than most people is all. This does not mean I cannot feel deeply for someone or have a very close relationship with them though.

I just find that in this world today what I have to offer is not desirable, otherwise I would not be alone.

Do i want to stop being myself and opt for relationships based on what I can get out of someone else just to find a relationship fraught with arguments and drama? Not really no. If I can't find what I am looking for then I will simply remain single.

ASD or not, I feel I am capable of deeper relationships than most 'normal' people.

But then I like being quirky. Normal is rather boring to me (no offense meant). Sometimes I can come across as offensive or harsh without meaning too.

Even if you do want a cure, Autism Speaks isn't going to help you.

They put a lot of money toward genetic research. The first thing that'll come out of that is a prenatal test to determine the chance that a child will be born autistic. Once that happens, we'll be subject to eugenic abortion.

And once that happens, the research on cure will virtually stop.

It's happened with other disorders, too. Down syndrome, notably. There's not that much research going on with curing DS now, not since they found out that they could test for it and abort before the child was born.

Autism Speaks isn't about helping autistic people. They aren't even really about curing autism. Their main goal is to make sure that autistic people no longer exist.