Explaining Asperger's quickly.

Post Reply New Topic

when someone asks what it's like, you could always tell them they should try it. just tell your local neurologist you want to be one, im sure he will hook you right up.


Almost everyone I know believes I cannot be the way that I am, because they think I'm like them. I'm not "showing" problems they can see, mostly because they don't know what they are looking at. I can make eye contact, and shake someones hand like it is all somekind of special skill. if they really care, or want to, they can figure it out somehow, just like we need to do in order to incorporate ourselves into there NT dominant world. I wonder what it is like to be an NT? maybe I should ask one. now that I thought about it enough.... That's a really stupid question.

Mainly I'm going for a quick explanation that would satisfy and partially inform people who are too impatient to understand. Like a hipster could be "a closet yuppie who hates capitalism" even though that's not entirely accurate. I know there's no real answer; I just know that people won't listen to long explanations, and the people who will usually don't require one.

One sentence, it can't be done. You could take the periods out of a paragraph and make a run-on. That would only work on paper anyway.

a boring stone faced social reject person with often (sadly) severe co morbids like anxiety , who rambles on and on about things that are only of interest to them

will never fit in no matter how hard the try in fact the harder they try the worse it looks! does not realise this well in to adult hood due to mental problems.

well that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

That's kind of a really broad characterization without so much data to support it. It's like saying it's not possible for someone who's AS to understand what a neurotypical is, and I'm very skeptical of that. I think most people don't understand and/or have trouble understanding Asperger's, but that certainly doesn't mean it's impossible and personally I take that as all the more reason to try to explain. (It should be noted right now that I may not have Asperger's myself - all I know is that I'm at least BAP - but I think I understand NTs and Aspies quite well.)



Actually, I asked about the pronunciation of Asperger's in an earlier thread and the conclusion I took from it was that no one agrees and no one knows. So I don't think you can say you're pronouncing it correctly, particularly since I don't think your version of the pronunciation came up even once in the thread as being correct. Here's the thread, for your reference: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt241931.html (I am, btw, one of the people who pronounces it "Ass Burgers".)

Also, glad someone else uses Sheldon as an example. It's really convenient!


One of the things I realized in my adulthood is that fitting in is seriously overrated, and once you embrace standing out it's a whole lot more fun.

I think a better analogy for an understanding of AS and a knowledge of AS is to liken a male obstretician who can deliver babies and knows how to perform and the difficulties and anomalies of presentations, when a caesarean is indicated and complications that may be associated with giving birth. Ask him all the questions about delivering a baby and he can answer them and even perform well in the role. But ask him what it feels like to deliver a baby and he cannot tell you.

This is the difference between a knowledge of AS and understanding of AS. The academics can study and poke and describe and learn but they may not be able to understand intuitively like any other person with AS can. It is a role reversal with us having an instinctive knowledge of self and they are now the ones who need to learn how.


Academics do what academics do and describe and use medical or scientific terms that are well suited to describing a condition but what else would anyone expect from someone who does not have AS than just a description of AS. They lack the understanding we own.

My quickest and simplest explanation (not most accurate though) is this;

Having autism is like being "lefthanded", but then on the social interaction level rather than in the physical use of tools. Some things I can do without being noticed, some things require me to use a different tool to reach the same result, and some things will just cause me to smear ink all over the paper.

^ I really like this explanation.

Personally, I really don't like using the "mild form of autism" thing. It doesn't tell anything about a person with AS's behaviours or what to expect from them, and I find that people like to hear something that addresses what to expect. I find that most people are very uneducated about the realities of autism spectrum disorders to begin with, so they could draw the wrong conclusions from statements like that. As well, autism usually presents much differently from Aspergers in terms of behaviors, and recent research shows that the brain structures of those with autism and AS are very much different as well, so I feel it's not really a good comparison.

I think it's a good idea to explain things in terms of general behaviors. I explain it as like seeing social skills as a second language, in that they don't come naturally to people with AS and that most of what they learn socially is not natural, but learned like a second language or like playing the piano.

Last edited by anneurysm on 30 Dec 2013, 3:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Being autistic, but not really.

I just hope others know what it is. Key points: Our brains work differently, we don't naturally understand useless social rules, we are easily upset when our routine is disturbed or our expectations are not met, we hate how loud NTs play music at events, we like to have alone time, we have intense and sometimes odd interests that we could talk about for hours, young Aspies are usually more intellectually mature than their peers but sometimes more emotionally immature, we have trouble making eye contact, we have difficulty making friends and socially interacting.

Did I miss anything super important?

I wouldn't be to harsh with nt's explain any condition they don't have like anxiety , (unless their in health care) and they don't get it , fair enough , what is back pain ?

agreed this is #1 .

Having a cat-like brain instead of a dog-like brain.

The other day I was listening to my two co-workers talk about Sons of Anarchy. I watched a few episodes a long time ago and didn't like it, but these two were addicted to it. So first off, the subject wasn't very interesting to me to begin with, but they were using verbal shorthand from the show and characters' nicknames and clearly had like a kind of invisible ball they were passing back and forth. So I walked away thought how weird it is that most conversations are like that for me, not very stimulating and what is that thing they are passing around that I can't see? That's not one sentence, but that's how I would describe the worst of it for me - well that and sensory overload.

well this is # 1 cause it's even quicker , most people are dog lovers and most people hate cats, sound familiar

It must be true one of our mp's apparently killed his ex gf cat in college Malcom Turnball I've nicked named him Malcom Fur - ball ha ha ha I'm not funny, though it wont stick if it had been a cute puppy it would be a different story!

Social dunceness + compulsory weirdness?