Is it wrong to tell people I'm autistic if Ihave Asperger's?

Post Reply New Topic

I would recommend that you say that you're Autistic, and then if someone says, "really?", you can say, "yeah I have Asperger's Syndrome, its a mild form of autism."

Or you could just say you have mild Autism or are mildly Autistic because a lot of people hear Autism and think of the stereotype that is very extreme, so if you say its mild they might understand you more.

Nope its not wrong, especially after they release the revised DSM is released.

I say "I'm autistic" because people usually ask what Aspergers is and I can't be bothered to explain.

But it is not always mild.

No it's not wrong. It's your diagnosis, so you can call it whatever you feel comfortable with.
I call it ''the Cruel Disorder from Hell'', and abbreviate it CDH but that name's not for everybody.
But out of AS and Autism, I would call it AS myself, because I know people wouldn't believe me if I said I'm Autistic. They would think, ''Autistic? You?'' Maybe other Aspies won't think this, but an NT who doesn't have a clue about Autism will think this. So when I say ''I have AS'', I just add, ''it's a form of Autism'' or ''it's an Autism spectrum disorder''. I can even say ''it's a learning disability'', because obviously there are some things I have struggled to learn, and I'm no more cleverer than average.

I suspected aspergers for 5 years but have since found out that i have HFA. Aspergers is such a horrible word though so even when i thought it was aspergers i'd always just say autistic.

I'll use, "I'm an aspie", "I am autistic", "I'm on the autistic spectrum (on on the spectrum if its known which one is being spoken about)", or "I have Asperger's Syndrome".

These tend to be in order of how formal of the situation is where I use it.

"I'm an aspie" is informal and will only be used in informal situations where the people have an idea about Asperger's Syndrome (which is most people I know).

"I have Asperger's Syndrome" I won't use except in the most formal of situations.

well, due to the negative taste of autism, i usually start out with aspergers, and then, in the explenation, use autism, but only after i'm a bit in with explaining, to take the negative off the word before i use it.

It depends. If I'm trying to impress a gal, I'll tell her I'm a serial killer. Ted Bundy got a lot further with the ladies than Bill Gates. Which just goes to show that it's not just aspies that are kooky.

Actually, I don't have much occasion to discuss this. It's not a thing to talk about, other than maybe certain circumstances where it's legitimate and appropriate to maybe ask for a bit of slack. I'd rather work to keep myself as much as possible in situations where I'm most functional and don't need to make excuses.

Of course, life sometimes sweeps us into arenas of maximum stress and dysfunction. What then? I've wondered whether I should mention this, for example, if I'm considered as a candidate to sit on a jury. "Hey, I'm mildly autistic. Have you heard of Aspergers? I'm good with certain abstractions, but pretty lousy at assimilating the nuances of human communications, and I tend to fall prey to deception. I'm probably a relatively poor judge of contested testimony." Is that a great thing to say or is it stupid? I'm never sure.

I would only use the word autism with people you know very well or people on the spectrum/good proffesionals. An example to show how uneducated the general population is, i recently linked someone to wrongplanet saying he might be interested (since he shows a lot of aspie traits). He told me to go f**k myself after he saw the word Autism, i think he stopped reading after that. The word autism is a very negative word for uneducated people and even offensive. So if you want to lower peoples opinions of you go ahead and tell them you are autistic.

Talking, yes. Walking, no. Most classically autistic kids walk at the normal age. There are two reasons an autistic person may walk late - clumsiness or MR. One of those is thought of as more stereotypical of Asperger Syndrome than autism, and the other is far from universal among autistics (and some MR kids don't walk late anyway because of skill scatter).



No one fits modern Asperger Syndrome criteria, because they have a bit where they say 'must not meet criteria for autism' and autism criteria includes a bunch of language criteria that are mostly synonymous to the social criteria ('lack of social/emotional reciprocity' vs 'difficulty sustaining a conversation' for example).

Some of Kanner's patients said their first words at the usual age, but spoke only echolalia for the first few years. Not sure how that would be counted in terms of speech delay or whatever. But certainly he had some HFA at least. In the follow-up on his original patients, 2 were employed and one of those two was living independently, though none had married (mostly through lack of interest, since in Kanner autism aloofness was required).

I just say that I have Autism because more people know the term Autism than they do Aspergers. Besides I have heard so many people make fun of the term Aspergers because is sounds like a bad word. Poor Hans.

so far, I am able to say "I have a neurological disorder" and that's about all I'm willing to say. And only if I have to. I'm still learning to deal, with this whole deal. Feel free to use that if you wish.

This.

I just say "my brain is weird."

If you think asperger's is hard to wrestle with when talking to an uneducated NT, try telling them you have
pervasive developmental disorder-with classic autistic traits, now that gets some reactions, I tell you. In some ways, PDD sounds rather damning.

Anyway, I just tell them them I have a form of autism

I do get anoyed when I hear NT's talk about asperger's and pronounce it assburgers. So for that reason, I suggest sticking with autism...becides it will all be ASD very soon anyway.

wavefreak...I love the orange analogy!! You have a way of breaking it down to the simplest terms, I like that.


Jojo

What if you have PDD-NOS? I don't feel cool saying I have that, partly because I know most folks that aren't familiar with Autism wouldn't have a clue. This is all new to me, just recently diagnosed over a year ago and slowly beginning to accept it, but I don't know how to explain to others, especially the uneducated ones.