Published on 12, July, 2020
Any one else who was diagnosed later in life feel embarrassed by having an ASD label? When I first found out I guess I was relieved. Then after telling a few acquaintances and getting various responses I decided to stop telling anyone for a while. Where as now it seems that everyone and his (her or whatever) wife are either diagnosed or looking to get diagnosed. So now I feel like if ever I share that I am ASD people will think oh, another one *rolleyes*. I guess part of it is also how people perceive autism too, as an example stimming. I only have very mild stims that I wouldn’t ever do in front of anyone else because of the embarrassment. But I wouldn’t want anyone to think I full on stim as shown in the recent Chris Packham episodes. It’s as if I feel like being autistic makes me less of a person.
This post is purely for discussion and not meant to offend anyone (which seems pretty easy to do these days).
yeah theres another layer in that people can be diagnosed easily with things they are not so they can play the system.... my sister is doing this with her kids so not only do they and her get extra disability money but she also takes carers allowance and so she gets more money lying about things than i do working my ass off.... and i never got help in my life and was seemingly doomed to rot in my parents house then become homeless before i struck some luck. so it kinda makes me doubt and be cynical about the system and these labels too....i dunno, id still be doubtful about people as i hear people claiming to be autistic but yet they have a ton of mates and had lots of relationships and had kids and to me thats not my experience, my experience is being left outside the potential to ever be in any of those kind of circles, locked out of the dome alone so to speak.... i never saw many people on the outside like i was, so i do doubt all the diagnosis being tossed around lightly and densely.... unless the case is the masses are autistic and im the only normal one on the inside alone when everyone is on the outside lol
Re autistic people with wives, kids, lots of friends etc: I can’t help but feel a mixture of scepticism and bitterness
aye it makes me wonder why they went for diagnosis and how they got diagnosed. how they thought it matched them and their experience. as to me its not entirely a label but rather a experience. if people who didnt have that experience all take the label then we need a new label to describe it more accurately lol
I have a wife and children, and a relatively small number of friends. However, I cannot talk to anyone if there is background noise. I have difficulty timing my turn in conversations. Touching nylon textile, the smell of perfume and tobacco smoke all make me want to curl up and die. Dogs scare me because they can make unexpected loud noises. When I am being flippant or facetious, people think that I am being deadly serious. When overwhelmed, I tend to thump myself in the side of the head. I have a tendency to panic attacks if I have to address large numbers of people - I drink alcohol beforehand to avoid this. Anxiety, a fear of becoming mute, prevents me making all but dire emergency phone calls. I could go on for pages about my autism-related traits and problems. Autism is a 'broad church' and though my capacity for maintaining friendships is limited to only a relatively few people at a time, I have never had problems making friends.