AS people, please can you help me?

I am trying, with great difficulty, to understand something. I could really use your help with this, it's literaly taken me over (you know the one) and I need the thinking of others. Call it an intervention!

Before I begin, please can I ask you to look over the following article?;

nymag.com/.../

I have seen many posts from NT parents about 'treatment' for AS.

The question I have asked myself is, 'if I could go back and be changed into an NT by 'treatment', would I choose it?'

My firm answer is 'No'. I am the sum total of a life spent as an AS person. I can't change my past, so my best option is to use the learning that is 'the sum of who I am' to help others if I can, and especially for the next generation. If any of you think that I can be helpful and supportive, understanding and insightful, fine. If you think the opposite, also fine and I am sorry that I wasn't helpful. I do what everyone does - the best I can.

I'm an egalitarian by instinct. I will state my thoughts and opinions, but they are mine alone. When I read other people's posts, I assume the right to agree or disagree, and simply expect the same fairness back.

Thank you for listening this far, and now I've come to my taxing absorption.

I read this post under the title Stem cell treatment for autism: 'Has anyone undergone stem cell treatment for autism?'

I responded with '

This is my personal opinion. I don't argue my personal opinions, just for them.

How about 'tretament' for being NT? Their capacity for being the most illogical, spiteful, self-destructive creature on this planet leaves me staggered. I pity the poor creatures and their lack of insight, but what can you do? No-one is researching 'treatment' for them, because they collectively agree that their unsanity is 'normal'.

The inmates are running the asylum.

Now, I thought that I was humourously disparaging the idea of 'treating' people just because they are different. It is my belief that most people will be able to see that I have reiterated the concepts of the same thing as the poster, with our roles reversed. Here's your mirror, as it were.

I just discovered that I got moderated for this post . Apparently, I should watch my language. A particular word picked out is asylum because it is derrogatory towards past attitudes to mental health (?).

I am totaly confused. I don't know why 'mental health' is being brought into it. Given the various current uses of the word 'asylum' I don't know how it becomes offensive, even in context, 'the inmates are running the asylum' is a common concept and has been the root idea behind several award winning books, plays and films, yet it appears that some ignoramus doesn't like it. And apparently, I'm supposed to know this and understand it in their particular case. Que?

Please, any insights will do. Sooner or later one of you will say something that will help me get a grip on this. You know the one where the more you try, the more you're shaking your head, you're laughing bleakly, you don't know whether to be angry, offended, confused, puch drunk, weakened, disempowered, desperate to understand, shocked, fed up with mods public messages yet again, privacy invaded, and a whole bunch more, and because you can't choose one, you have them all at once instead. That's where I am right now.

Phew! Bit of a maze. Ariadne, the thread!

Parents

longman over 8 years ago

You forget, R'socks, some of the Moderators are on the autistic spectrum.
You would think that would be enough to avoid the problems we have been seeing.
That is to say if they are representative of others on the spectrum and are giving the other moderators the right kind of experiential feedback.
On the whole we (the more active ones) are at the abler end of the spectrum. That bias arises because often those with more marked autism may find the forum more intimidating, or harder to use eg comorbid dyslexia, or difficulty constructing clear sentences. As a result there are mostly abler adults taking part.
It may be that the Moderators on the spectrum have more severe problems than we have. It may be perceived by NT Moderators that our difficulties don't compare (which is a common misunderstanding about autism traits - abler isn't necessarily problem free).
I should hope the moderators are autism trained, but I suspect it goes no further than the Triad, and the training doesn't recognise able aspergers/autism as having any real disability.
In short they seem to think of us as a lot of moaning miseries, and perhaps that the autistic moderators need more support and protection than we do.
Incidentally can I recommend people to respond to R'socks' manifesto on the ideas and discussion section. I think that is an important opportunity.
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longman over 8 years ago

You forget, R'socks, some of the Moderators are on the autistic spectrum.
You would think that would be enough to avoid the problems we have been seeing.
That is to say if they are representative of others on the spectrum and are giving the other moderators the right kind of experiential feedback.
On the whole we (the more active ones) are at the abler end of the spectrum. That bias arises because often those with more marked autism may find the forum more intimidating, or harder to use eg comorbid dyslexia, or difficulty constructing clear sentences. As a result there are mostly abler adults taking part.
It may be that the Moderators on the spectrum have more severe problems than we have. It may be perceived by NT Moderators that our difficulties don't compare (which is a common misunderstanding about autism traits - abler isn't necessarily problem free).
I should hope the moderators are autism trained, but I suspect it goes no further than the Triad, and the training doesn't recognise able aspergers/autism as having any real disability.
In short they seem to think of us as a lot of moaning miseries, and perhaps that the autistic moderators need more support and protection than we do.
Incidentally can I recommend people to respond to R'socks' manifesto on the ideas and discussion section. I think that is an important opportunity.
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