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What has the NAS achieved?

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Waterboatman:

An observation, most people with the high end version of ASD either will never want a diagnoses, or will never be suspected. Its possible if all goes well or not too badly to live completely without this dubious tag.

I'm not sure about most, but certainly a lot. But looking back, I only wish I had one years ago, for my life would have so much easier. I feel cheated. I was never suspected but instead I got treated as weird, a loner, a nerd and far worse. I could manage with the support of parents for all those years, but now they've gone my life has fallen apart and I discovered 'executive dysfunction' and why I had it. Far from being a dubious tag for me, I make the most of all the positive aspects of being an Aspie, and wouldn't want to be any different.

Also more obvious high function ASD's are perceived as being 'tiresome' even by others on the scale.

This can sometimes be true, depending on who does the perceiving - but that's their problem, not mine.

People afflicted by this vary quite a bit, it will never be a case of those on the lower end or with very unhelpful 'missing brain functions' running the show.

I don't see my AS as an affliction at all - quite the opposite. Looked at objectively, those who tend to run the show - politicians, business leaders, petty bureaucrats, etc. are the ones with dubious brain functions.

What I have said is not very helpful to well meaning dreamers. Sorry. I have lived in the real world.

*********

 

Laddo:

Well meaning dreamers? I find that quite patronising and rude.

I'm sure that's not intended. Maybe it's just a feeling of bitter realism. I'm a 'dreamer', and it's a fact that it's the dreamers who change the world for the better.

I've seen harsh reality too. I was bullied daily at school for years by both pupils and teachers, been bullied by the official bodies, struggled with depression, anxiety and OCD all my life, have been in several exploitative/abusive relationships, etc. All of this would never have happened had I received and early diagnosis along with appropriate support.

Everyone has to deal with bad things in their life, everyone. Does that mean I should be pessimistic, not bother trying to change, even go on about my bad experiences all the time? No. That is no way to live.

Exactly! I'd go as far as to say that it's our moral duty to fight injustice wherever we see it - if at all humanly possible.

Life is full of horror but also full of beauty. More beauty can be achieved through change.

Yes! And the proof isn't hard to find.

To me, pessimism is one of the ultimate forms of selfishness - a kind of 'Things haven't gone well for me so they'll never go well for anyone.

I've not seen it expressed this way before, but you have a point. A 'friend' of mine has both AS and narcissistic/sociopathic PD and she's the most negative and pessimistic person I've ever known. There's probably a connection.

I am choosing to enjoy life, despite all the negative stuff it throws at me.

Me too, and enjoying it more than ever - now that I at last understand myself!

To be honest Waterboatman, your negativity about so many things and the way you can get quite rude to people you disagree with is starting to put me off coming on this forum. You don't have to bring everyone else down because you're unhappy with your own life.

Actually this is nothing compared with the kind of stuff my 'friend' posts. She takes great pride in insulting, humiliating and her notoriety as troll. Waterboatman, I sense bitterness, rather than malicious intent. Is that right?

I still have a child's emotions; I still have a sense of wonder and awe at the sight of the first snowdrops in the spring. I still feel the thrill of seeing deer in the woods as if it was the first time. Beauty cures bitterness. There's beauty to be found in words too. It could even be found in Auschwitz, for wherever humanity exists so does beauty. It's beauty more than anything that inspires me and gives me hope.

"I can, therefore I am" - Simone Weil

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Mihaela, its a shame we have never met and most likely never will.

The time around dawn, anytime in the year is unmatched by anything else, dew on flower buds, mist just above water, the almost silence, frost in winter.

I am a pessimist by nature, the 'if it can go wrong, it will go wrong' type, but often do not play safe. Being an old computer techie, means that sometimes a wild educated guess is needed, its often quicker than trying sequentially everything that might be. But also I know when something just won't work.

I too have a low opinion of political types. But people do not elect technically able people, its plausible sales types that get elected! It was not quite so bad when the civil service was headed by technically competent people and not political appointees.

It should be noted, that as far as I know being rude or being perceived as being rude goes with the territory?

Its hard communicating with someone who takes things more literally than myself, I misinterpret things myself, but I honestly could never have much to do with someone more affected than myself. People mostly are not a problem. As far as I know, you are more able than me, its just someone forgot to put a maths processor in your head, maybe a mistake on the production line, two language processors instead?

I would say if I was described as a computer system that half my processor boards are in upside down, connected by some very dodgy wiring. I may have written better if I had been told to put the pen in my ear?

If its doable I am game. I really hate giving up.

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It's a twisted view of 'realism'. Obviously things can and will change and to suggest that wanting change makes you a 'well-meaning dreamer' is just sad. The remark about 'living in the real world' is especially belittling. Those who think change will never come are the ones living in a dream world - their own personal nightmare. Maybe my post went off on a rant but it is a result of an accumulation of a lot of negativity and pessimism directed by Waterboatman at me and other members - 'don't grow old', 'I live in the real world', 'vegetarian promoters should be hung' etc. etc. My point is to try and bring others down just because you yourself are miserable is selfish and wallowing in self pity. Look for positives, not negatives. Maybe people starving in Africa and people getting bombed in the middle east have the right to look for nothing but negatives but here in the UK where food is plentiful, heating is widely available and one can still get free health care etc. - no. It's just selfish to only focus on negatives

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Mihaela, its a shame we have never met and most likely never will.

 

Yes, we only really get to know one another that way.

 

The time around dawn, anytime in the year is unmatched by anything else, dew on flower buds, mist just above water, the almost silence, frost in winter.

 

My favourite time of day, when I feel at my best. Few people about, birds singing.

 

I am a pessimist by nature, the 'if it can go wrong, it will go wrong' type, but often do not play safe.

 

I try to be a realist. I try to avoid extremes in optimism and pessimism. They get us nowhere.

 

But people do not elect technically able people, its plausible sales types that get elected!

 

Very true, and this is the great flaw of the modern interpretation of democracy - which isn't democracy at all. The only people fit to run a country are philosophers without vested interests and with virtuous ethics, i.e. deep thinkers, rather than superficial quick-fix narcissists. But then I don't believe in very notion of nationhood - so outdated, but that's another story.

 

It should be noted, that as far as I know being rude or being perceived as being rude goes with the territory?

 

It does, but I think we should strive to say what we want to say without causing undue offence. Not always easy. There's no excuse for anyone to be rude for the sake of it though (like my 'friend' who feels that her diagnosis excuses her; it doesn't).

 

As far as I know, you are more able than me, its just someone forgot to put a maths processor in your head, maybe a mistake on the production line, two language processors instead?

Haha! Yes, but ironically I'm passionate about number theory, mathematical paradoxes, etc. Work that one out! :)

 

If its doable I am game. I really hate giving up.

Me too! The story of my life.

 

************************************************************************

It's a twisted view of 'realism'. Obviously things can and will change and to suggest that wanting change makes you a 'well-meaning dreamer' is just sad.

 

I agree. A dreamer = a thinker. There's nothing wrong with being an idealist. The world needs them.

 

The remark about 'living in the real world' is especially belittling. Those who think change will never come are the ones living in a dream world - their own personal nightmare.

 

This way of thinking leads to a purposeless and wasted life. We only live once.

Look for positives, not negatives.

 

Yes! Anyone who feels they've been given a raw deal by having AS, should list all the good points. I honestly wouldn't want to be 'normal'. I'd hate it. So much of the NT world is irrational, hypocritical, paranoid, hysterical, impulsive, deluded, selfish, vain, pompous, willfully ignorant, addicted to money/celebrity/hedonism/sex/consumerism/status/power.... Need I go on? We need our heads testing if we yearn to be part of such chaotic mass insanity.

 

Maybe people starving in Africa and people getting bombed in the middle east have the right to look for nothing but negatives but here in the UK where food is plentiful, heating is widely available and one can still get free health care etc. - no. It's just selfish to only focus on negatives.

It does well to compare our own situations with those suffering in conditions of indescribable degredation and cruelty. I've done so ever since, at age 10, I witnessed the grotesque horrors of factory farming, and listened to stories of our friend's experiences at the hands of the Gestapo in Paris, and then at the hands of 'doctors' in a Nazi concentration camp (one of very few who escaped). Factory farming and concentration camps reflect identical human moral failings.

Edited by Mihaela

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If the NAS isn't delivering the goods, then perhaps a new organisation devoted to adults with Asperger's should be set up.

Organisations that provide a much better service for people with high functioning ASD than the NAS does already exist but they live in the shadow of the NAS. The problem is that people are attracted to the NAS because of its large size and it's the organisation that the NHS and local authority have as their official ASD service providers. More often than not the NAS turns out to be ineffective or unsuitable but people don't realise until after wasting several years battling with it.

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Back on topic, after a wobble my #39. Sorry.

 

What you say, goes for many organisations.

Its just that a person will not 'see' or 'accept' until they are ready.

Is there really anymore than can be said?

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Some areas of the nas are really good eg the welfare and advocacy departments.

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shall we all reset?

 

we all obviously want the best for people on the spectrum?

 

but we all lack the ability to explain through lack of experience!!! (or the fact we are autistic) how such a benefit for them can be set up?

 

I think that's all what we want.. but Nt's aint going to be interested in that sort of thing, so I think us aspies/ autistics are gonna have to set it up for ourselves.

 

 

look we've all got conditions? so we are saying? yeah?

 

we all at times, say the wrong things, without realising we have?

 

water boat's just got his way of seeing things just like me.

 

he means no harm I bet.

I mean how many is the time we've said something, and had someone kick back at us, and get mean cause they misread us, or we didn't type what we meant.

 

it can go both way's, if someones aspie/ austic?

 

aspie's like me can type something really bad, but it's just cause at the time we don't know the right words?

 

I have been excluded from certain sites for doing that..just cause I picked the wrong words, and didn't even realise I had?

 

I can not dismiss waterboat, because he's just done what we all do from time to time.

 

 

and what is nas?

 

sounds like just another organisation,

 

where people who can't function milk a living off donations?

 

i.e. someone gives £100k,

 

we all know someone will stream £50k of the top of that just to administer it?

 

so that is £50k a year that isn't getting to the punters.

 

so they can have a nice house and car, and autistic's aint getting the benefit of that part of the money?

 

I find those sorts of organisations revolting.

 

I prefer concepts for helpful charitable organisations,

 

where those that run such organisations have enough already, and won't milk the pot.

 

so 99% get's plugged into the charity.

 

(i.e. they aint no point streaming money off, if you are rich already?)

 

does the NAS do that?

 

I don't know,. i'm just asking?

 

 

is anyone in a position to know what percent of nas donations, actually hit the punters?

 

I think we'd all value a statement from nas telling us?

 

 

if anyone is up to setting up a charity for aspergers/ autistic's. I would volunteer my services for zero cost.

 

every single penny that was donated would go towards the cause.

 

i think people have the right to know, that if they donate a pound to a charitable thing, that pound goes to what they donated it too.

 

call me a freak or what ever, but that is my way of seeing it.

Edited by trekster

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The 6 figure salaries of senior officials in the NAS is a very sore point. I do not buy into the argument that such salaries are justified in order to attract the best brains because running a charity should be a labour of love and dedication rather than a means to become wealthy. A person who really cares about ASD is one who is willing to sacrifice a 6 figure salary in the City for a salary of no more than £30k. Running a charity should also NOT be a selling point on a CV for someone applying to a corporate senior management position because it creates a potential of using a charity as a springboard into a lucrative corporate career.

 

Independent support groups often provide better services for people with ASD than the NAS does on a shoestring budget by unpaid volunteers if special schools and residential care services are factored out. It's almost beyond dreaming what these same groups run by knowledgeable and dedicated individuals would achieve if they only had 5% of the money the NAS rakes in each year.

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NAS are over 80% government funded and are a pile of dog muck in my experience as useless as a chocolate tea pot.

If you have bounty on your head and detained under mental health act-£££££

Otherwise they are SCUMBAGS

 

If it hadn't been for MP I would have been destitute, NAS knew and offered NOTHING as they are in bed with DWP/Government.

 

Im quite looking forward to the next time a chugger accostes me to tell them where to go

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If the NAS were in bed with the DWP/Government then they wouldn't have written the assessment criterion for the social aspects of ASD regarding PIP and ESA assessments.

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