Is it bad that DH and I laugh at my autism?

[TigersRoll]

I take very little seriously, I like to have a laugh and am very difficult to offend.

Part of my autistic traits is that I like to gather information. This morning I googled how many people are killed by dogs per year. I found an interesting site that gave the breeds of dogs and numbers of fatalities in USA over a 13 year stretch. I found it fascinating.

So out in the garden sitting in the sun with DH I started reeling off how many people were killed by Rottweilers, German shepherds, pit bulls etc ... complete with numbers and types of deaths. I didn’t realise I was going on or that he was unlikely to be interested in any of this until I saw him laughing. I then laughed and said “sorry, am I being autistic again?” And he replied “just a bit!”

It helps me to laugh at my own condition. If I sat fretting about it all the time what would I achieve? DH used to be so careful around it but he’s finally realising that I do find some of my own traits funny! A lot of people get offended on my behalf (I once referred to myself as Rainman because I was fascinating over something irrelevant in a display) and my friend was shocked and told me not to be horrible to myself ...

I obviously don’t take the piss out of anyone else’s autism or health issues but surely I’m fair game to my own humour? Or am I being unreasonable to make a joke out of it? So many people get offended on my behalf and it’s a bit annoying!

Go for it

My six year old laughs at his own, although he's unaware of the label as such....he'll reminisce about various past obsessions and chuckle fondly at himself. "Remember mum when I used to bang on about roofs all time time?"

I love it, shows superb self awareness!! Humour!! He's very task and project oriented, currently learning to play queen on the piano and has been at it for days. So, no, OP, enjoy yourself!

Oh I hear you!
If you can’t laugh at yourself then what can you laugh at!

Among my group of friends we laugh at all our own little quirks, including MH issues and generally awful things that have happened to us, it’s so refreshing when the rest of the world seems to be freezing over humor wise.

My adult son is severely autistic plus a few other things as well. As a family we have had some of the happiest of times and best of laughs because of his autism. He has also. It suits us and we won’t stop any time soon. Neither should you.

If you are comfortable and it makes you feel better I think it’s absolutely fine. We all do what we can to make our lives a bit lighter.

It sounds fine to me!

No aslong as you are comfortable with it. My son is autistic and I see no harm in him laughing at his own traits when he is older. I laugh at my own forgetfulnessz

YANBU

Yesterday we were out doing the gardening and I lost the scissor things 3 times. I thought it was hilarious - there was nowhere to even lose them too, it was ridiculous!

It’s good to hear of children laughing at their own traits too, a sense of humour goes a long way!

YANBU, some of the best/funniest things DS does are because of his autism. I hope to teach him to laugh at himself as a defense mechanism too - if he's laughing at himself hopefully other people being cruel (which I obviously hope they aren't) won't hurt so much.

Everyone is entitled to be the butt of their own jokes. It’s got nothing to do with anyone else. It’s only when people make others the butt of their jokes it’s an issue.

It’s good not to take yourself too seriously.

I have seizures and laugh at those and make Jokes. I think if I did not laugh then I would cry

There's no problem laughing at yourself. It's good to have a sense of humor.

Dd is undiagnosed but most likely on the spectrum. She stimms when she is excited, it has become sign language in our house for when something is really good. For example

Me: 'how good was the movie?'
Dd: 'It was this good' with rotating hands, if it's really good it might get feet as well.

We would never do it in front of others or if it made dd feel uncomfortable but it makes us all laugh so much. It's a part of who dd is, she quite literally wears her emotions on her sleeve. She is a sulky teen now and when she is moaning about something or complaining that her life sucks, we only need say 'I dont think you are telling the whole truth, there was definitely some hands going earlier' and she is giggling away

Me and my DM laugh about my aspergers. Especially when we are at family gatherings and she's trying to give me a subtle hint about someone or something, I sit there totally unawares to what she's on about until she literally has to spell it out for me. I think it's great to have humour when you have ASD. Yanbu.

Laughing at yourself is of course fair game, i laugh when i read things wrong because my dyslexia and i injure myself by tripping over my phone feet because of my dyspraxia, if you can't laugh about it its harder to deal with.

It’s a constant source of amusement here, DS and DD are both HFA but very different, they laugh at themselves and each other.
It’s great until one laughs and the other isn’t in the mood. Then it’s time for a strategic withdrawal. Of course you ANBU.

How you and your family or people you are close to you choose to discuss/cope/joke about your disability is your business! As long as you are all happy with it.

Now obviously it wouldn't be ok to talk like that to each other about other peoples disabilities even if they are the same as yours.

I can call my self hop along madam walking stick or some other ridiculous title but no one outside my chosen circle can!

DS has severe autism, if I didn’t have a sense of humour about it I would have had a breakdown by now! Laughter is a fantastic coping mechanism.

Dh and I both have autism, and our 6 year old ds has autism. We always laugh at ourselves. It’s fantastic to be around others that get it. I am an expert on true crime and serial killers and dh specialist subject is gold jewellery and random facts about insects - ds has it more severely than both of us and is less aspergers-y but loves road signs and maps. We all understand we need quiet and space and we all have that “oh god it’s other people” terror.

It's great that you can do that!
The only thing I'd slightly worry about is doing so around other people who think it then gives them a pass to ridicule you.
Or making autism jokes about other autistic people who are more sensitive than you, then saying "oh lighten up it's only a joke, my friend tigersroll jokes about their autism all the time!"
I've experienced this with Dyspraxia, people making nasty comments to me and thinking it's a joke because my manager jokes about having Dyspraxia.

YANBU

I have numerous health issues and we laugh about ‘my ways’ all the time. In my darkest days, when I had an awful time accepting this was now my life, we still managed to laugh and this really helped me accept my problems.

I’m sure others would be offended, on my behalf if they overheard some of the things we say, but as PP’s have said as long as you are laughing at your own issues and not those of others I can’t see the issue.

That is true @auntykara.

We only tend to do ours privately.