Do you feel fragile/vulnerable?

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In a description of Asperger Syndrome I read that "vulnerability" is almost mandatory in asperger people.

I wondered whether this is really true.

I'm highly vulnerable to people I already trust and care about, but the vast majority of the world that lies outside of that circle is going to have to make do with that old adage about sticks and stones.

Actually, I tend to be rather though.
People often tell me that I look arrogant, or scary.
I may look arrogant because I tend to be self-confident, or because I am defiant.
I don't really care about looking scary because when people fear you, they're not going to bother you. In fact, persons tend to just avoid me.
But I guess I'm not really arrogant, nor scary. That's only how people view me.
But I think I do am though.

Once a therapist told me I have this though appearance because on the inside I'm actually a fragile and vulnerable person, but I don't feel it's like this.

You don't feel like you can change to a more soft "autistic" side of you? The tough you is really the tough you all the way through?

This is interesting.

I guess I'm actually though, even though also my mother tells me that I'm actually soft inside, but I don't feel like that.
I don't know. I never think about this kind of things, I only act as my instinct tells me to.

Yes, a part of my personality is a little vulnerable.

I'm vulnerable in some ways - for example, if someone says "I'll love you forever if..." gets me because I've already lost enough friends.

Yeah, it's quite a different being vulnerable, than feeling it.

Since being diagnosed, I have been told that I am a vulnerable adult, many aspects like being manipulated, being physically weak, and open to being emotionally neglected... And other things.

Otherwise I feel quite independent, strong minded, and a tad invulnerable I guess...

I feel vulnerable, because I'm easily hurt and I feel too much emotions.

I seem to convey a vulnerable exterior but inside I reckon I'm a lot harder than many. Most people are hard on the outside but softer inside. I think I'm in the the stronger position.

It is to such an extent that I will only write about it or discuss it in circumstances where someone else is at much greater risk than I am. I have a quality of aloofness in my character and rate very highly on the scale of aloofness. Yet I also evolved an ability for understanding empathy, which at times can be and has been a very painful burden that I've wished I'd never learned. At other times, it has been a gift akin to second sight which has helped me to save the lives of people no one else knew to be in trouble.

To have AS and to see trouble before it manifests and be the messenger who delivers the news people are not wanting to hear is just touching the surface of the vulnerability. I notice things that others don't and ask questions, like: "what are those plastic things hanging in the closets and from the ceilings?" I was told they were a miraculous insect killer -- perfectly safe -- not a single bug had been seen in more than a year! Yet the people living in the home had both suffered mysterious problems: a type of pneumonia which resulted in such severe respiratory shutdown that the person must now use oxygen 24/7; a sudden, strange disorientation that was said to be a stroke, but primarily resulted in giving the person a number of blood pressure medications to stabilize her BP and implant a Pacemaker to control a rapid heartbeat. What is sad is that neither of these episodes are likely to have ever happened.

Both people suffer frequent headaches and irritated eyes. About three months ago, weather was often cold and I was asked to work indoors. My eyes began to bother me, as if they were infected. I see my Primary Care Doctor once a month and at my appointment just over two months ago, I felt ill and was running a low fever. Even though I have asthma, my oxygen level is usually at 98 -- it had fallen to 94. I tend to get "walking" Pneumonia in winter weather due to breathing smoke from wood stoves and my lungs didn't sound good, so I was given an antibiotic. I also learned the name of the hanging insecticide and did the research. My symptoms were consistent with moderate exposure to this pesticide, which is NOT intended for use in homes. It's meant for use in storage lockers, crawl spaces, basements, summer homes, boats. I recovered, but my energy levels remained low and my oxygen level stayed at 94. I had to tell these people who were suffering from persistent health problems: "You have hung poison all over your home" and be treated with disbelief for fully six weeks until I became more emphatic: "I am getting ill from being in your house...and so are you. Here are the facts."

It is strange to be treated with resentment for telling people the truth. It is also strange when people are more afraid of getting a fly in their house than they are of slowly dying from excessive and almost continuous exposure to a Chloinesterase Inhibitor. It is not as if they cannot buy non-toxic sticky strips and hang them in places that aren't visible and I can't take them down for them. And they're not living in a place where Malaria or even West Nile virus is a threat, where an overreaction might make any sense. So, part of the explanation lies in the fact that people will become angry at me for my intelligence, because I notice something that they either didn't notice or chose to ignore. It is painful to care and far more painful to be put down for caring.. When I point out a serious hazard, I'm not trying to show off how smart I am! That is one of the stranger interpretations people seem to have about me -- and this has caused me to withdraw completely from people I once cared a great deal for and be unable to look back.

I'm very timid. It makes certain types of people target me. Sometimes I am aware that I am not tiny in a physical sense and that reduces my fear of being beaten a bit but I'm still cautious.

I am particularly vulnerable to hostility and I can't handle certain forms of criticism. I don't have much self-esteem so it's easy to break me down. I know this and I feel it. I feel vulnerable because I am aware that I really am vulnerable.

I didn't want to answer this, because I admit, I'm a bit ashamed of just how vulnerable I am. I always thought of myself as pretty tough—I've been through numerous traumatic situations in my life and I've come out stronger. However, where I realize my vulnerability lies is in healthy boundaries. I simply don't have them nor do I comprehend how to build them.

Because I am not the most social (well, let's face it, I prefer to be alone or only with a few who are close friends) I'm not really affected by strangers or people I have just met. I am affected by those I consider myself close with (which may be why I am reluctant to get close with many more??). My hubby, for example. I literally can not figure out where I end and he begins. I didn't realize this until we'd been together more than five years and I was feeling rather useless and much of the time depressed. I realized when he'd go out of town or be away from the house for significant amounts of time, my confidence would build, I'd be happy and smiling once again, doing my own thing (like random intensive research on the internet!). Then I realized when he's around, I sort of lose that proper sense of identity. I abandon myself. I believe I've done that my entire life with people I am close with and from what I've read, other Aspie women experience the same. Can you relate?

I'm not sure whether most people would say they are "somewhat" vulnerable.

Or whether this poll actually tells that asperger people are more vulnerable. What do you think?

Seems like the vulnerability one can feel as an asperger actually is due to having aspergers.

Could you provide the context in which the word 'vulnerable' was used here, though? It really doesn't have much meaning to state that people with Asperger syndrome are vulnerable in the broadest sense of the word, unless you specify in what ways that vulnerability manifests.
To put it in perspective, a certain measure of vulnerability is arguably present in everyone with a disability, whether mental or physical.

The above posts seem to reflect my own notions on how a spectrum disorder could put someone in a vulnerable spot.

You are right. The text was not in English so I'll do my best at translating it:




When I read about Aspergers Syndrome I realise just how serious of a condition this is. It sounds like they are describing a war-victim or a seriously mentally ill individual. Not just as someone "wired differently". I begin to believe their assessment is actually correct.