Aspergers not a disability or disease?

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Yes, we may be 'square pegs' but we stack nicely.

WOW, in what context was that paragraph written? I'm going to have to get some of my curiousity back. People used to be upset at my always asking why!

Asperger's is probably closer to being different than a disability for a good portion of the sufferers.

Its cousin Kanner's is definitely a disability for a good portion of its sufferers.

Well, I don't suffer from Asperger's. I suffer from NT's ignorance, attitudes, prejudices, intolerances, manipulations, etc., etc.

am not an aspergers autistic,but am do think aspergers is a disability for some,and not a disability for some,people who say they are not disabled cannot say aspergers for everyone is not a disability as not everyone is as mildly affected as them.
the severest and lowest functioning aspergans live in residential/group homes,or still live with their parents.

They and I may well have started off the same. Perhaps our earliest experiences with the world had a profound effect, as well as our ongoing experiences.

But for all your disagreement, I do find Aspergers to be a disability because I can point to clear and obvious cases where it has held me back in life and denied me the same opportunities as other, neurotypical people. If that doesn't make it a disability, I really don't know what would. However, I nonetheless see people claiming that it has a positive side, a reward for paying a massive price, but no one has yet to tell me what that is (in particular, I am talking about Imipak, whose analogy to Celtic myth has potential provided they come up with a good answer).

To me AS is a challenge to over come and not to be used as a handicap.

to me AS is a disability and something i just need to work with. it doesnt really bother me anymore,but theres alos something specail about it.

Here's why I wrote the above: I am moving 385 miles North, back to the Interior! The reason: PhD program at the Univeristy!! !!
They took me

I am happy.....wish me well, Aspies. I start this fall
I leave tomorrow morning early and will not have Internet access for ~ 1 week.

In order to answer your question for you personally, I would need to know a little more about your life, what you enjoy, what your strengths are, and so on. If you prefer, you could message me with what details you're comfortable with saying. I'll then be able to tell you whether I'm right in my theory and what good you have received (again, if I'm right).

I agree. I am just grateful that I have good and bad days. Better than having bad days and ugly days no?

Well, I enjoy discussing topics like art, philosophy, and language, as well as writing, reading, drawing, and music. As for strengths, though, I honestly cannot think of any apart from having slightly above average intelligence if you consider IQ tests at all accurate. Despite being 20 years old, I have only one real friend, never dated or even come close, and still live with my mother. Is this enough detail or do you need more?

Well, that explains the move also. HEY, Congratulations, and GOOD LUCK! Are you saying in that letter that at one point you didn't seem to notice the outside world? I have to say that that you took what some might see as your worst feature, and put it in a great light! I guess the university felt the same way.

To quote a Gary Numan tune: 'I'd love to be like me if I could feel like you'.
This is a good discussion, and it illustrates that no one is the same, whether your personal traits have been categorized into a syndrome or not. There isn't a mold. This is a band of the larger, all-embracing human spectrum that's being scrutinized because its supposed members stand out.
Some of us are different. Just like Einstein, Edison, Lao Tzu, Jesus...It's all relative, depending on what we're being compared with.
The idea that the 'others' are better or right doesn't hold under analysis.
The myth analogy is a good one. You are your own story. Look into Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung, James Hillman. As with any epic mythic tale, only the hero can win the treasure and bring it back.

That's fine. Let's see... C.S. Lewis combined his knowledge of language and writing to become a major author. (Tolkien used his skills in the history of language the same way). Did you know Sir Isaac Newton (yes, the gravity guy) was also a concert pianist?

I'm not saying that you'll out-sell J. K. Rowling or Mozart - well, this week, anyway - but the skills you have and the knowledge you have can be combined in powerful ways. The above average intelligence is "normal" for aspies, so I do consider that accurate within the areas such tests look at. Because it's normal. it seems to be measuring something consistently, but what that something is, I am no so certain.

I lived with my mother until I was 27. My first ever date spent four or five months getting me to move out. Not just down the street, but across the ocean to the United States. Shortly after, I got my first ever job - with NASA. Oh, and until then, my sole real friend was the family dog. I won't comment on the molecule donors called parents.

I see a strong potential for strengths in the things you enjoy. They can be combined and, together with your intelligence, blossom into something wonderful. That's what happened with me and the people I've mentioned and no doubt many on this board. Very few people have both the ability to appreciate and create art. That is rare. It may not seem useful, but (cue Mission: Impossible theme) your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make it work for you. You can.

I don't believe in destiny, but I do believe in making use of the tools available. You have some superb tools there to work with, tools that can be used in unique combinations to explore whole realms of the creative world that have never been ventured into before, if that's what you want to do. Or refine some existing creative field by drawing on knowledge that exists but hasn't really been looked at in that way before.

Prefer something with a better potential for money? Do you know how much they pay technical writers?? All they want is a person who is skilled in their language, who can write and who can draw. You've got all three. In US terms, that's $40,000 a year minimum. Sometimes a lot more.

Want something scientific? Renaissance master artists developed and used techniques and paints that nobody has been able to identify or duplicate. As with all of the top people of that time, these people were skilled in philosophy, music and usually some chemistry. If the chemistry was important, the problem would have been solved by now. It hasn't. What has generally not been tried is to engineer the exact same mental conditions - the full Renaissance mind - or something close to it, to see if the mystery is not one of technology but perspective. Your own perspective is 9/10ths already there and you may well see many things about the methods of the time that are invisible and impenetrable to modern, specialized minds.

It may be that, for you, these are not gifts, opportunities that you can explore, etc. In which case my theory is incorrect. This part is important to me. It is very important for me to accept when one of my theories is wrong, because it can be too easy for me at times to only look at when my theories turn out to be right.

Let me know what you think - whether there might be something to it, or you give the idea a thumbs-down.