Life of a Neurotypical: Ask away! :)

[Aspie_Gamer]

The above image explains all. To help ease the wait for the next actual episode for my fairly well known comic Life of an Aspie, I thought it would be fun to make a little mini-series called "Life of a Neurotypical" in which Hiroshi, Susan's childhood friend from LoaA takes as many questions as he can handle regarding Susan and her condition and what it was like growing up with somebody who had undiagnosed Asperger's Syndrome till she was 14 (Susan and pretty much all her peers in the comic right now are all roughly 16 years old). Since this limited series is huge on reader engagement, I thought that I may as well make a thread here in the forums so that I can have as much engagement with both my subs and non subs who are nonetheless curious about Asperger's Syndrome.

If anybody here has any legitimate questions, (no joke questions pls) post them here and I will make a short 4-koma-ish episode in response.

[indagold]

Whelp, what do you think of the whole neurodiversity thing? From what I read it's use is just to replace the term "disabled" because apparently it's too "harming" to admit you got something wrong with you. It's also intertwined with anti-psychiatry which brings up red flags for me. I've got multiple mental disabilities including dyslexia that falls under the term and I cannot fathom why this term is now okay to use given disabilities aren't much of a bucket of joy to have. What do you feel about this phenomenon within the autism/disabled community? Do you think this helps those who are low functioning?

[akkoneko]

Well, this is interesting... Hm...

Okay, here are my questions:

• What do you think about people who fake mental illness for attention, especially online?
• What about those who would try to roleplay as someone with a mental illness in order to try and understand them? (It might not be common, but I think there are people who might do that...)
• How do you think it affects actual sufferers?
• What do you think about the portrayal of mental illness in media such as TV shows or movies? If it can be improved, how do you think it can be done?

I've been following some mental illness communities, especially the dissociative identity disorder community, and I am familiar with their stand on it. I'm just curious as to how other neurotypicals think about those issues.

[Aspie_Gamer]

@indagold @akoneko

Here's episode 1 of LoaN for you two. Hope Hiroshi was able to succinctly answer both your questions

Life of an Aspie: Life of a Neurotypical Episode 1

Everyone else, if you have any questions (limit 1 at a time) particularly any concerning what it was like for Hiroshi to grow up alongside somebody like Susan, then feel free to ask away.