explaining AS to the average person

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found it! vv

you know its funny i had a weird dream the other night was out to eat with some random person who had aspergers and was explaining it to the waitor because he didnt believe her that she had autism, and she said "I'm highly verbal, high functioning autistic". I thought that is the best way to describe soembody with aspergers, because i notice when people think of autism, they think of nonverbal. Funny that i had that dream and saw this post lol.

You could always tell them to look at the Encyclopedia Dramatica article.

I like this one. I'm going to edit the above post to include it.

This analogy is multi-layered. Some people, with good intentions, do not realize that they are “cheating,” do not know that I am clueless, and believe that they are openly communicating in plain language. Some people are half-awake and are too lazy to explain or are purposely taking advantage, but if you call them on it they will deny it. (Momma will take the time to spell it out, a stranger will not.) Some people are sociopaths (such as corporate bullies) and are fully conscious of everything they do. I believe that most people unconsciously drift between all three positions, not only within the same game but within a single sentence. And then there’s me, the utterly clueless. Throw them all together in the same poker game and you have a mass hallucination involving people who believe that they understand each other, but do not. Everyone is in his own little world and has no idea of what is really going on, but let’s all nod and smile and pretend that we understand each other.

I like that one! I think that's a keeper.

From my experiance that will only make relations worse with the person who asks.

It's like...

... Standing outside of a glass house wherein everyone you know is having a great time, and you can't even find the door.

... Reading a book wherein ll th vwls hv bn rmvd, nt knwng whch vwls g whr, nd hvng t gss t th mnng bhnd th wrds.

... Listening to the radio when the program is a lesson in sign language.

... Watching a Fellini movie with the sound turned off.

... Knowing how the movie ends before you even buy the ticket, but being forced to sit through the whole show.

... Hearing in English, but speaking only in Greek (or vice-versa).

... Carefully crafting a seven-course meal, and being told that everyone else has already ordered pizza.

... Having a digital mind in an analogue world (or vice-versa).

... Having a PBS mind in an Anime world (or vice-versa).

... Teaching science to a room full of artists (or vice-versa).

We are people who have been thrust into a game which we don't want to play, and where we don't know the rules. If we try to withdraw from the game, or have trouble figuring out the rules, we are patronized, treated as outcasts, humiliated and even abused. If we dare to point out that the game itself and most of the rules are totally ridiculous and unethical, we are told we are arrogant, obnoxious, sub-human and mentally ill.

Quite interesting!

I'll also contribute something as I'm in the middle of reading a book called The Soul of Autism and there was a metaphor about issues with motor behaviors that some of us have that I'll share:

"...a similar dysfunction in brain-body communicatoin [is] if you've ever awakened in the middle of the night to the unsettling realization that circulation to your arm has ceased, and your limb is now deadened or 'asleep'; it is, for all intents and purposes, 'cement'. And as much as your brain wills your recalcitrant member to move , it simply will not stir of its own accord. Now, imagine if you felt this same nighttime paralysis in more than one limb--or even your voice box--and someone was firmly imposing their expectation that you follow instructions and stay on task using the affected body parts."

Kind of long-winded but I thought interesting.

Just don't tell them you have it or try to explain it to them.

One the rare occasions I tell people, they generally know what it is, but if not, I just say "I find the unspoken language hard to comprehend."

If someone approached me and told me they had AS or something similar I would tell them but no one ever talks about what they have unless it's something like diabetes. Not to people they don't know very well. I would never confide in someone unless I knew them really well.

The year is 2002, and I'm a Linux machine running kernel 2.2.21, in a Microsoft Windows world. While Wine 0.7 can run some windows applications, Linux cannot do so natively, and Wine, (being an alpha product), is prone to crashing, and the applications running are often unstable. Linux is very good at maintaining overall system stability, crunching numbers, and mostly everything else a Windows machine is, except for gaming. While MS Office 2002 will not be able to run due to the lack of a Win32 compatibility layer, OpenOffice.org 1.1 will run perfectly fine.

I always say "when I am listening to you It's like trying to travel to the moon and getting lost in the vacuum for a while, thinking that nothing can reach you and there's no spacetime and then in all of a sudden the string gets you" in other words: "Can you explain me better?"
When I am talking you "It's like travelling to the moon and never wanting to come back" untill you say: "what the heck?"

That's a very good way of putting it! That's probably a really easy way for others to comprehend it.

just throw a few books their way.

it is far too complex to explain and most people assume geek, maths savant and an individual who looks with their ear -- so i give up.......

i am off the train and building my own tracks these days....