*sighs*

[conuly]

This is a mini-rantling about my life, so if you don't want to read, you don't have to....



Occasionally, in the past few (two) years, I've told other people about Asperger's (carefully not mentioning that I have a self-diagnosis). Quite a lot of the time, people say "no, you're normal! Or really, nobody's normal, so you're normal!" or "What is that? A type of autism? You can't be autistic blah blah blah"

Now, the first comment gets to me, because deep down, these people really don't believe there is no standard for normality, and the second one is based out of ignorance of either me or AS, so let's clear this all up now (and yeah, I know the relevant people won't read this, shut up).


It is NOT normal to be able to tell if somebody is stuffed up or not because when they exhale, you can smell their snot. The person in question wasn't even very stuffed up or else I'd've heard it, but I could smell it anyway.

It is NOT normal to hear the television, the cd player, the heater, and the computer when they are not on, merely plugged in.

Similarly, it doesn't seem to be normal to hear several different tones from the computer when it is on.

It's not normal to have to cut all your tags out of clothes before you can wear them, and to be restricted to primarily cotton in those clothes.

It is really not normal to spend the better part of the day sobbing because your mom suggested you could call the fuel guys if they didn't call you.

It's also not normal to then spend your week pretty much confined to the house (and your room) because you just don't. want. to go. outside. AT ALL. Building up your courage to leave your house is decidedly strange.

Not wanting to attend class because people from that class recognize you, and you don't recognize them, is also strange. So is actually not attending class because you missed the midterm and couldn't talk to the professor about it. Nobody else does these things, not that I know in real life, anyway. Those people are normal in that they do not deviate from the norm. In fact, they create it. Yes, that means that I am *not* normal. Wow. Big flipping deal. My feelings won't be hurt if you acknowledge that critical fact.

Comments

[mhari.livejournal.com]

YES.

*memories for future reference*

[conuly]

*grins*

Of course, the people in question don't know exactly how deep my oddities lie (I doubt they know about my sensitivity to smells, and I know they don't know about my current staying inside trend) but I'm fairly certain they know I'm not normal, they just don't want to admit to it.

I mean, seriously, if a bunch of third graders caught onto that when I was a little kid, college students can't be so blind.

[gingembre.livejournal.com]

On the staying-inside-thing, I think you actually do much better when you have school (or some other outside motivation) getting you outside on a near-daily basis.