Poll 25: Ok this is my last poll

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And I'm sorry if I upset anyone with the questions and answers or my presentation of them. I will explain more about this and more about the purpose of the polls in more detail later and then I doubt I will use this account or these forums anymore.

Regarding any negative aspects of your life, would you say you suffer more from Autism or from the intolerance and ignorance of other people and/or a less desirable environment, or from other negative aspects of your personality which though associated with, should be separated from autism?


Option A
Most of the suffering in my life is not caused by autism but by other people and or/my environment, it is incorrect to say I suffer from autism, autism is simply a neutral inherent part of my neurology and my suffering is relative to my environment, the people in it/lack of people I would like in it and how these things have shaped/are shaping the negative aspects of my life.


Option B
Most of the suffering in my life is caused by autism, autism is a negative inherent part of my neurology which causes most of/many of the negative aspects to my life and it is correct to say I suffer from autism.


Option C
Most of the suffering in my life is caused by my own neurology however I feel that it is things which go hand in hand with my being autistic such as social anxiety, so for example it is incorrect to say that I suffer from autism, it is correct to say that I am autistic and I suffer from social anxiety

Option D
I have different opinions to the options on this poll and have written them below

Most of most people's suffering is caused by neuroses; holding onto pain. You don't give that option.

Sorry, yes I don't go very deep into the nature of suffering, I guess I mean more relative to how people say "This person suffers from Autism/Asperger's Syndrome"

Most of my suffering is inflicted on me from outside of myself. I am ok with being different or whatever, it doesn't bother me in and of itself, I like who I am anyway, but people tend to be narrow minded and judgemental and can make your life rather unpleasant because of it.

"People don't suffer from Asperger's, they suffer from the ignorance of others."

Intolerance and ignorance is the greatest evil of all.
It makes any burden unbearable.

Most of my suffering is due to ritualised self-abuse. I kill myself in thirty different ways because I'm scared of being totally honest. Neither neurology nor external factors have, in my entire life, had a significant effect on my suffering.

I don't think there is any kind of suffering but self-inflicted and chosen. Triggers come and go, the reaction is your choice alone. The question is mistaken.

I guess I have to go with C, I mean I would like to say the autism in itself does not cause any of my suffering but that's not true........if I was not on the spectrum I might be able to talk to people I don't know without them having to say something first, I would not come off as weird so I would not freak people out or be disliked by them based on that alone.

So yes I would say a lot of my suffering is caused by my environment and other people who have treated me badly, but there are still difficulties with the autism like how it interferes with my ability to interact....I guess if I had no desire to interact with other people it would not bother me as much. But its more like I want more friends or just people I can hang out with but I don't get it.......so it usually ends up being short lived.

I would have to disagree, maybe that is how it is for you.......but not everyone can control how they react to things, or how things make them feel. sorry if you're not trying to generalize but I do have to disagree that the only kind of suffering is self inflicted and chosen on the basis of the fact I did not actually choose all the suffering in my life.

Most of my actual suffering, related to AS is due to my emotions. Worrying about what others feel and think and feeling guilty, bad, less of a person than I really am due to other's feelings about me. I say that I don't let things bother me, but of course I say that. It's part of the front I always put up. I'd look like a raving loon if I went around showing everyone how upset I was at their negative feelings about me, so I act like I don't care. I also react very strongly to anything unfair. I believe that this is due to the AS.

External things that are sensory, I've learned to deal with and also to avoid. I'm in my late 40's and I'm allowed certain eccentricities. No one my age would say anything about them and if someone younger does, I "Mom Voice" them into silence and apology.

You can really get by with a lot more when you hit late middle age and you can say "Now you look here, I'm old so you need to mind your own business! I'm SET IN MY WAYS!" Being "set in their ways" is a hallmark of someone being older, and where I live, once you start looking older at all, you can claim that part of it really fast.

Option A: I suffer more from the ignorant attitudes of other people than I do from my autism. If people would show a little kindness and empathy, than I wouldn't suffer. I'm happy with being different. If I wasn't happy with my differences, I wouldn't be spamming them all over WP.

Option A. I am who I am. It's the fault of others who attach meaning to all of my words when I was just being literal. I used to think about dying every day, blamed my autism for everything that went wrong. Then I thought, what if the problem isn't me not trying hard enough to live in a neurotypical soceity, but other people who are too closed-minded to accept differences in one's neurology? After that I started to look at autism in a new light, looking at the positives instead of the negatives.

I don't think people have that much free will as you seem to say they do. Some are predisposed to self destruction, so to speak, and this reaction is not chosen as such. It is all more complicated. And on top of that there are some good reasons why would someone think that reaction is a choice. There are no choices we are only a tiny bit more complex animals. To rise above it, not everyone can do it.

My life is about many things. I can't say most of my suffering has been from any one cause, though I think at least some of it has been self-inflicted because of my own attitudes and ignorance. I'd have to say that even if I confined my thinking to only the matter of autism, if I have it. People are complex. The question is too simple.

By the way, Arnoldism, I am not particularly upset by your polls so much as wondering about the purpose. Please don't take this as an indication that you should leave or anything.

you are correct that it is a stupid question. There could be an ideal environment created for my current neurology or my neurology could be changed to one which loves my current environment. But I had to ask the question because of people who say "Suffers from Autism/Aspergers". So I want to know what people feel the cause of their suffering is. I do not see your point about all suffering being chosen though, I do not think that any of our reactions are choice, personally I do not believe in free will and feel that we are all just going through the motions