Hey there, howdy! I have Asperger’s, was diagnosed at the age of 13. Good, now that's out of the way. I am also a young, CIS gendered woman. I'm not here for a fight.

No, I actually really agree with a lot of the information here. I'd like to share what it's like for me, not to change minds but to help give context that might help people who have to deal with my kind deal with us. Being Autistic is like being a cyborg animal. Part robot, part elephant-lion-bear-wolf, the species doesn't matter. We're not robots or computers, though we think in binary. It's hard to see in shades of gray, it's hard to not see the world as a one or a zero. We follow the program to the letter. But a machine cannot get frustrated or stressed. A computer doesn't lash out. Having autism at all seems to be a lot like being a wild animal in a zoo, circus, or even someone's home. We're surrounded by what we don't understand, having to deal with alien creatures who understand each other, but not us, nor can we understand them. And we preform our tricks when we are able but sometimes it's too much. Sometimes we can't jump through another hoop and we bite the hand that has fed us. Asperger’s is both of these. It's being bound by logic, it's being ruled by emotion. It's living a contradiction and I can see why you guys get hurt.

I once wanted to be a writer, but a machine cannot produce a symphony. I wanted to be an great debater but I cannot be both passionate and civilised. I correct people who have incorrect information about biology, I flinch at fireworks. And I'm not alone. I cannot ask you to be patient with us. Not in good conscience, no. My only advice is to be blunt if you must deal with us regularly, and avoid romance with us if you can. Befriending us is still on the table, we can be entertaining, inspiring, interesting: so would a real, living robo-dog. But you wouldn't marry one, would you?

We're not monsters. Vampires are monsters. Godzilla is a monster. But the basic idea of what it means to be human doesn't seem to be something we can understand. And sometimes this blindness to humanity is deadly. Our computer chip minds and animal fury come to a head when the world doesn't make sense and we have to correct it to stop the scream in our soul. We take up arms, we end lives. Someone once said we are like prey animals, lashing out at perceived threats. No. A zebra kicking a lion in the jaw feels fear, terror. It must fight or die. Adam Lanza was not afraid. He was frenzied. He was, dare I say, rabid. We are not the zebra kicking at the pouncing lion. We are the jealous dog mutilating the new baby. We are the irritated chimp lashing not out on the woman who caged him, but the one who opened the cage door.

Not all of us do this. Very few pet dogs who have lived with babies have eaten them. And the number of people with Asperger’s is certainly higher than people with Asperger’s who are killers. But some of us do. And babying us doesn't help. Neither does babying an exotic pet. We have to be realistic about things.

So that's my tour of the Asperger’s mind, at least, the way I see it.

© M 2017