Published on 12, July, 2020
I feel like the world is constantly trying to force us to be as "normal" as possible. By this I mean, being like everyone else and not being different, not being our autistic selves.
So I thought this would be a nice space for us to say some of things that make us different from NT people and to be proud of them.
I'll start
I like listening to 1970's Eastern European pop and modern German Schlager music rather than whatever is in the charts
I'm starting to develop my own fashion sense rather than trying to be cool and love wearing football shirts from around the world and vintage 1970's clothes
I have a photographic memory for cricket scores
I use a basic LG keypad phone instead of a smartphone and I avoid most modern tech ( I have a smartphone I keep in a drawer and hardly use just for booking into things etc)
I love ducks and geese and swans and see them as my friends
I have over 200 cuddly animals in a big Ikea unit
I am facinated by Eastern European history especially the former East Germany
I see the world very differently from how most people seem to and I like it that way
I have no interest in social media
I love being autistic and see it as a blessing rather than a disability
Please share your stuff below if you would like to
Love it. I would argue that we are normal. It is those who question a ND persons normality who are the weirdos I'm certainly normal & typical to myself, I dare say that goes for every individual on the planet! F the statistics that subtype society into labelled groupings!
I’ve exhausted myself trying to be ‘normal’ for half a century before getting diagnosed! I’m over it! Hurrah! I’m meant to be like this I can stop trying to fit into a box I was never meant to be in. The more I get to know about people the more I realise that normal is totally subjective and I intend to spend my time being the inside me and not the me that I’m expected to be….
I need to have a good think before I reply!
I'm very comfortable with calling myself weird....and I find that it is the most commonly used adjective that I hear to describe me.
All evidence suggests that I am the antithesis to normal....ie....weird.
I have a theory that no one is actually normal, its just the NT people are better at pretending to be than we are or indeed than we want to be
The world is pretty fkt up in many ways. So the 'typical' way has failed. I think differently and have goals and targets that I help the current state of play. To me, this diversity is a great thing and something I feel society needs to support massively across all neurotypes.
I think "normal" isn't the correct word here because I'm perfectly normal - for me.It's just that socially neurotypicals (allistics can still be dyslexic, ADHD, have OCD, etc) typically fall under the phenomenon of normativity. A preconceived set of expected social rules and "norms" that the seldom or at least not publically deviate from.For example ableism (the form of expecting people to be neurotypical and able bodied by default is a kind of problematic normativity.It's late so I'll just drop the wiki version though there are better definitions IMO:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normativity
I think 'normal' is a set of expectations that are pushed onto everyone and few people naturally meet all of them.
I agree. (Most of) My friends are (probably) not autistic but they are definitely not "typical" people. I would say, by my standards, one or two are a bit "weirder" than me, although I really don't like to use that adjective. (They have said it themselves). But I do feel I have a different world view to most of them. I think of the people I know there's a bit of me in all of them. So I don't actually know whats normal and what isn't. I do think I'm driven in a different way to be social though. I don't feel particularly proud about any differences but I am getting to be more comfortable with them now.
Edit: I feel quite uncomfortable using the word "weird" I'm not saying that they are....they are just different.
I feel uncomfortable with the idea that all allistics are “normal” and identical (seriously, they aren’t). And I don’t think all my abnormality is from autism (being an Orthodox Jew is pretty counter-cultural, and if autistics are the 1%, Jews are the 0.2%. And who knows where personality ends and autism begins?). However, I am slowly coming around to the idea of being OK with being what in the eighteenth century would have been termed “an original” (better than “weird,” I think). I don’t know if I’ll ever see autism as “a blessing,” but if I wasn’t this shade of unusual, my wife wouldn’t have married me, so for that, I’m grateful.
Wonderful car the Austin 7 as it allowed people to be able to buy one at an affordable price. Shame about the brakes though! Yes, old American cars are nice and i would like one if I had access to an oil well.
I want to do this, but haven't really had the courage to even look at how much pocket watches go for or worked out how I would wear one.
My experience has been more Shaun of the Dead tbh.
Sometimes it feels like Dawn of the Dead; out there.
Yeh thats what I meant
I don't think there is a "normal" tbh, so I just read what Billy said as "normative" instead.
I am normal. It's the rest of the world who isn't.
But it's ok, I forgive them
Big plus
Short version is I like being me, I guess.
It's the thought processes and value system I appreciate most. I love my logic and it doesn't occur to me to be bothered about social status. Not bad things, are they. Bit of a plus, in fact.
I love routemasters! I buy two classic bus magazines every month and I love old buses. My favourite classic car is the Austin 7. I think my favourite ones at the show were the big wide 50s American cars