Do you ever feel like people with Autism are treated better?

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To answer.

Are people with LFA treated better? I don't know.

Understood better? Probably not.

Accepted more? No.

Can you describe your experience and have you seen many cases of this?

I have autism. People talk to the people with me about me. It is like I am not there. They tell people it is so sad about me. They say the feel sorry.

Kitten Meow,

My experience with this is that I have seen people with Autism at my school who get treated like angels who didn't do anything wrong and nothing was their fault. On the other hand, people with AS get the tables turned just because of 1 thing: the lack of mental retardation. You see, people with AS want to be accepted by ''neurotypicals'' while people with Autism just want to be left alone most of the time until they socialize. Because AS doesn't include mental retardation, people assume that if you're smart, you're normal. If you have Autism and you don't want to socialize along with having mental retardation, you have the best chance of having NTs feeling bad for you and wanting to talk to you. On the other hand, if you have AS and you're smart and you want to socialize, you will be neglected a lot socially because of your intelligence and your inability to socialize correctly. You never know, you could be right but in my opinion, Autistic people get treated better because of mental retardation and seeming like a ''lost soul'' due to an undesire to socialize. And yes, I have seen many cases of this.

Hope that clears everything up!

Well, yeah, but what about all the non-Aspie autistics who don't have mental retardation? Problems speaking and a normal IQ and people assuming that because you don't talk you're automatically stupid... that sounds awfully annoying to me. Or you're half-way between, you've got speech and you seem awkward and slow, and people know you're intelligent so they expect you to be able to do everything they can do, the same way they do it, and get annoyed because "you're smarter than that" and they think you're doing it deliberately when you freak out over too much information coming in or something unexpected happening, or when you can't follow directions and they think you're being obstinate, or you don't know why somebody's mistreating you and everybody thinks you asked for it, even though you hadn't any idea how you were leaving an opening...

I will try my best to answer this question, but I think people could go either way on accepting you or not. It just depends sometimes on ''neurotypical desire'', which in my words is a neurotypical's desire to talk to someone on the Autism spectrum. If you're disruptive with people and have ADHD-like behavior, people will probably hate you a lot but if you are very quiet and you look happy and confident, a neurotypical will probably say something to you. The key is not to look mad or depressed, because then a neurotypical will want to leave you alone to work out your problems. Sadly, if you want to be accepted, you almost always have to socialize because of ''neurotypical desire''.

I agree. I did actually vote "yes," (though maybe I shouldn't have) because of the fact that people with Asperger's get such skepticism from anyone not on the autism spectrum. People with autism don't seem to have as much skepticism thrown their way.

On appearances:

People with Asperger's can look quite disabled when they interact, and it's immediately evident that there's something amiss with said person. Whereas, you can have someone with Autistic Disorder who doesn't interact, and no one would think any differently.

In reality:

I'd say that those with LFA are treated the worst, followed by the passive individuals with Autistic Disorder (usually HFA, but some are labelled AS). The former due to the massive communication difficulties, a supposed lack of insight, and other assorted problems with knowing what's happening due to a younger mental age and seemingly indifference, and the latter due to gullibility and passivity.

Sorry you feel that way. Try not to let it make you feel like you are upset with the LFA's. It's not them doing it.

I've learned a while ago I can't blend in with NT's. They act like it's just so easy to give eye contact and I'd get less harsh treatment if I did. Try explaining why it is hard and still don't get it. For me, it's always damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Hey, give eye contact! They say.

So I do, end up staring. They end up shivering and turning away.

Hey, don't stare! Just gaze and break eye contact.

Try and my words won't come out.

Hey, speak better while giving eye contact and gazing off

Meltdown about to occur by that time I go somewhere else.

"always damned if you do, damned if you don't. "

Well put Kitten.

I was non verbal and people left me alone. That was nioce. And no one thought I was a faker.

Then I watched and learned to be like others. I could pul it off for a day or so. Then they just htnk I am weird.

THere is no escape

For the sake of posters, I apologize for taking the entire quote and only analyzing a portion of it. I haven't found a forum(and I been on many concerning different interests) which allows partial quotation.

With that disclaimer out, I like to point out, that Kitten Meow, you are making broad generalizations here. Many Asperger's people have given up(myself included) into being accepted by society and decided to accept others anyway. We came to the conclusion that the only way to be accepted by others is to be unconditionally accepting and loving of others. It is a difficult task, one of the most difficult in the world, however it is not an impossible task. I am far from perfect but I try my damandest. Of course, the social conventions are desigend in ways to inhibit this (remember social hierachies and statuses?), but I think that's part of the problem of neurotypical society is that people rely on hierarchies to establish a power structure in order to get things done. Autistic people(and especially AS people can see through this and thus don't need the whole "line of command" thinking that pervades NT thought.

Also, why do we want to be accepted by a culture which is by defination judgmental and conditional? Judging people by money, by the toys they have, the house they live in,etc? Why?

The truth is, we don't! The greatest strength of WP is that every person is entitled to one vote and no one's opinion is held in higher regard then anyone elses. I love that about this site.

Another aspect is that we don't need social conventions to follow. There are no rules of engagement if you will. Be yourself, accept everyone the way they are and don't hurt anyone is basically what I tend to follow, and for the most part(apart from a few sadists), it works well.

Again, I apologize if this sounds like an ode to Autistics being superior to NT or one of nationalism but that's not the point, the point is,why do AS people want to be accepted by a society whoose values and beliefs are in conflict with our own?

I find it irritating the way that there is all the stuff about Autism awareness, (adverts, posters, charities, ect) but there is not one mention of Asperger's. My computer doesn’t even recognise Asperger's as a word! Autism on the other hand.........well.........

Last edited by robo37 on 09 Mar 2009, 12:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I voted as "I don't know." Because people with low-functioning autism may get treated better (as in get more help) while people with higher functioning autistic disorders may get less help. But some would help people with any kind of autism, well that's what I think anyway.

I don't think one is better accepted than the other, but I do think that NTs are able to sympathize with Kanner's autistics' behavior more, since their disability is more apparent. While it's great to be high-functioning and be able to have opportunities that nonverbal Kanner's autistics will never have, I do resent the fact that I have an "invisible" disability, and that people don't often believe how severe some of my deficits are. I'm seen as so "smart" in general, but people are then baffled why I can't do simple, everyday things like drive a car.
-OddDuckNash99-

Which is why I would have preferred an HFA diagnosis, as it would have given me the best of both worlds.. None of this you're so intelligent and can do absolutly anything BS, and none of this complete ret*d BS either. I can't wait for the AS diagnosis to be removed.

You can highlight the part of the quote you want to leave out and hit delete, or cut--leaving only the part you want to respond to, like I did here.

There are more expectations that are placed on people with AS, but it's a small price to pay for being treated like an equal. People with more severe autism are treated like burdens and freaks. I wouldn't wish that kind of treatment on my worst enemy.

Heck, I used to work with a HFA girl. While she was working, people would ignore her. Even when she tried to talk with them, they would go "Okay, that's nice", and then ignore her. When I saw her get on the bus with a bunch of kids from her high school, and when she tried to talk to them, they would ignore her. But she kept on smiling and trying. At least people never IGNORED me like that in high school and at work. Maybe in elementary/middle school, but not later grades. And not now.

The advantage is...people don't expect much of you. The disadvantage is...people don't expect much of you.