I have asperger's. I know it sounds scary but I'm honestly not that different to you. Seriously. Asperger's is part of a vast spectrum of Autism, and can also be called an ASD/C (autism spectrum disorder/condition - it only becomes a disorder if it affects your life to the point of losing function). Every single person that has an ASC has different ways it affects them, so I'm not going to go into detail, but I will link some resources for you to find out more here and here.

This post is my way of getting out all the frustration I feel towards NT people that pity, look down upon and patronise people with autism and aspergers. I know you mean well when you share that video on facebook, or that post from buzzfeed, but all it does is say to me that you view ASC's as other. What I mean by that is, when you share a video with an autistic child doing something 'normal' and 'praising' them for it, you're automatically assuming that that child's 'normal' is different to your 'normal' and that your 'normal' is better than their 'normal'. This frame of mind is very damaging to people with an ASD and makes me personally feel less than you, which is 100% not the case. 

A large misconception about people with autism/asperger's is that we don't have emotion. Not true. Sometimes it's difficult to communicate the emotion, but it's still there, and if anything, we feel more emotion that NT people as we don't really have emotional 'filters'. We just feel everything, and then it can sometimes get jumbled and not make sense. 

This idea of people with aspergers allows NT's to treat us as if we need protecting, or that we're incapable of living a 'normal' life. It makes me so angry when people are comfortable with helping severely disabled people, that are recognisably disabled, but then seem to have only two options when dealing with people with an ASD: treat us as incompetent children who can't function properly that desperately need to be helped, or flat out refuse to believe that we have a different way of thinking in some situations and therefore dismiss any problems we might face. There is a middle ground. It is possible to treat a person with an ASD as you would any other NT, but make certain adjustments when necessary - without making the person with autism/asperger's feel stupid, less than you, or in the worst case less human.

You may think that I'm overreacting - and I may be for some - but my experience with NT's treating people with aspergers as charity cases makes me feeling like I'm less than them, which in all honesty sucks.

I don't want pity or sympathy, I want empathy and understanding. But please, do not pity me.