Any people here who are legit /on the spectrum/ who think their lives would have been better if they never knew they were handicapped?
No. It made sense of fucking everything and gave me a word to describe the type of person I was and the type of people I had been seeking out as friends from day 1.
Only by being completely honest with yourself and your weaknesses can you truly hope to correct for them. You want to know as much as possible about yourself and why you behave the way you do.
No, the fall is harder
Source: me
>>29021657
You're talking about from a very very young age, right? Like in kindergarten and shit, you already knew?
>>29021736
I knew I was different pretty early, but kindergarten is a bit early for me to have been self-aware enough to know that I was actually, fundamentally different. People, adults, would often tell me things like "You're different," or "You're special" or whatever, and I knew other kids didn't have people all over them administering tests and shit, but at first, I thought it was just because I was the protag. Seriously.
That's why I was "special," that's why things like learning to tie my shoes or ride a bike or use utensils took me longer and were monumental, storied efforts, that's why I was capable of college-level thought and of understanding/building things like radios and telegraphs in the second grade, and that's why I had so many exceptions made for me. You consume enough media, and you just think, "Oh, yeah. I'm the main character, and then there are my friends, and then there are background characters. I'm a genius." Yeah, my brain was different, but duh.
Around elementary/middle school, I noticed that I liked a certain type of person who was like me. People with similar senses of humor, with certain mannerisms I couldn't quite put my finger on, who liked to rant at me about things and let me rant at them about things. I just thought of them as "eccentric" or "quirky" then. A number of them were in special ed, which didn't even strike me as odd.
"Autism" ties everything together very neatly for me, and I appreciate that.
>>29021925
Well now I just feel bad for having a worse high school experience than the special education people
>>29021736
>>29021925
I will say, though, that the blind overconfidence that came with not having the label probably had positive results for me. I never considered myself disordered, I had no shame in seeking out friends who were like myself, and it prevented a certain amount of shame and cringe that I think would have only inhibited me. For instance:
What I thought because I was oblivious:
"Wow, this girl is super-cute and super-smart and sorta like me! I really like her, I really like the hand-flappy thing she does when she's happy, and I really like how excited she gets over stuff like unicorns and cartoons! I like stuff like that, too! What a great girlfriend! She even talks like me! We should have sex again and again!"
What I probably would have thought if I knew what autism was from an early age:
"Everyone can tell that this girl is autistic, and everyone can tell that I'm autistic. If we get together, people will just judge us and we'll be made of pure cringe. Specifically targeting a girl because I saw her stimming is weird and creepy. Her interests are juvenile and so are mine. We won't even be able to open our mouths without being cringey. At best, we'll be a novelty to people. I'm inferior, which is why I shouldn't date, and she's inferior, which is why I shouldn't date her. I'm going to be a virgin forever."
So yeah. I think blind confidence that I was just different and amazing served me well until college.
>>29021975
I was never in special ed. Many of my friends were, and many of them were on meds. I should have caught on, but again, I wasn't particularly self-aware.
I'm currently undergoing the diagnosis process and it's pretty likely that I'm an asperger's case. Doesn't really bother me that much because it means I finally have a name for my condition and a reason why I'm such a social outcast. Gladly my views on autism don't come from edgy 4chan memes, but from real life examples.
My older brother is a pretty stereotypical diagnosed asperger's case. He's extremely awkward, barely never speaks, has some strange habits, and doesn't really follow the "social rules". He's also extremely intelligent in academic sense, he's supposedly some kind of math wizard and I have never met another person who knows so much about astrophysics. I only heard about this diagnosis when I talked with my parents about my supposed asperger's, before that I just thought he was a normal weirdo.
I always knew I was different but I never knew why. When I was a kid I played alone even when I was asked to play with the other kids. I have these tics or "stims" including picking up small items and dropping them, these weird throat sounds I make when I'm excited, stretching my fingers, tapping my hand when I'm nervous etc.
I'm also sensible to bright lights and sounds. I don't have "super senses" or anything like that, I just feel like I'm drowning in lights and sounds and they feel uncomfortably overwhelming. I've been wearing earmuffs to dinner table for some time now and the quality of my life has improved a little bit.
I don't know how I can explain my social issues, mostly because I never have any "issues" because I'm always alone, but I guess that's an issue on it's own. I'm the type of guy who goes to school for few years and doesn't make a single new friend/contact. I have no friends, never had a gf of any kind, and I'm not that into socializing in the first place.
I have a strict daily routine and I feel obnoxious if I ever skip steps from it. If I don't get to do my daily activities I get depressed and I feel like the day didn't really happen.
>>29021626
Handicapped is relative.
You realize doctors and the media have an incentive to make people think and act in particular ways, right? They're not all bad, but most of them are.
"Weird" and "quiet" people who can think for themselves and don't need to be babbling, watching Netflix, and fucking in their tiny world 24/7 are an impediment to the degeneration of society.
Of course there are legitimate spergs who can barely function, but the majority of people diagnosed with autism aren't ill in any way.
>>29022240
>wearing earmuffs to dinner table
I wear these openly. It's gotten to the point where I don't care what others think anymore.
>>29021626
i've been diagnosed with autism
it's the easiest thing in the world to fake ever, like you just avoid eye contact and don't answer questions and at the end you get free money
i think they overdiagnose it to keep the homeless population down
>>29022490
That's nice.
I'm just genuinely trying to get prespective from the people who may actually be affected.
Please go away for a momeny before resuming trolling.
>>29022240
so your brother gets special science powers and you don't, feels bad
>>29022590
Yeah I never did that good in school. I've been planning to get back to school after I get my shit together, so maybe things will go better now that I'm older and wiser.
My problems with math pretty much fucked up my whole school career.
