• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

Do you think people with Down Syndrome look funny?

SilkRoad

Lay the coin on my tongue
Joined
May 26, 2009
Messages
3,932
MBTI Type
INFJ
Enneagram
6w5
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
I notice them but I don't particularly think "funny". I haven't interacted much with many DS people but they are usually very sweet individuals, I know.
 

Lexicon

Temporal Mechanic
Staff member
Joined
Sep 28, 2008
Messages
12,342
MBTI Type
JINX
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
Considering so many people are mentally crippled in some way or another, I don't give it a second thought when I run into someone with DS. I've taken care of mentally handicapped people in the past- including a severely autistic girl & another girl with DS. It's not entirely alien to me. I will admit, I occasionally will have an initial, subtle disgust response, at times, due to encounters with handicapped people who didn't have a fair grasp on personal hygiene or the meaning of personal space. Yes, it's sad some of these people are not looked after properly/can be germy like babies, to some degree-- but I'll clarify that my visceral disgust response to potential exchange of pathogens is natural, & not a judgement on the person, by any means. And sure, there are plenty of unsanitary 'normal' people, but my encounters with this concentrated group have been most consistent, thus the involuntary biological reactions on my part. My feelings are not out on display, as most of my reactions tend to be muted by default, anyway, so generally people are none the wiser.

Overall, I am indifferent. I don't bother with pity; that doesn't accomplish anything-- there is nothing to accomplish, as far as I'm concerned. The reality of the situation is that they exist. So do I. Like any other being, I wish them well. And that's pretty much that.
 
G

Ginkgo

Guest
It's depressing to think that treating someone like they don't exist is also treating them as an equal.
 

Lexicon

Temporal Mechanic
Staff member
Joined
Sep 28, 2008
Messages
12,342
MBTI Type
JINX
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
It's depressing to think that treating someone like they don't exist is also treating them as an equal.

What is equal?
 

Philosorapteuse

right on the left wing
Joined
Feb 7, 2012
Messages
217
MBTI Type
INTP
It's depressing to think that treating someone like they don't exist is also treating them as an equal.

Yeah. Hence the awkwardness between looking and not looking - I don't want to act as if they don't exist, but I don't want to stare and make people uncomfortable either. I think it's one of those things that immediately stops coming naturally the moment you think about it. :(
 

Rex

New member
Joined
Jul 28, 2010
Messages
600
MBTI Type
INTJ
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
I don`t have a spesific reaction to people with downs syndrom. They are people who needs some extra care thats all. They are on occation funny because they are either talking different or look different.

We have a home for them above the bus stop home. One of the guys where allways greeting us when he went past and we waved or greeted back.
 

Lexicon

Temporal Mechanic
Staff member
Joined
Sep 28, 2008
Messages
12,342
MBTI Type
JINX
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
Same on one fundamental level. Aka. All humans are equally human.

While we're all equally human, I guess some people feel the need to recalibrate their behaviors to given situations with different types [I use the term ''types'' loosely, here] of people. Generally, I think the effort to try to accommodate/understand on a basic human level is there, for the most part.. if that makes sense.
 

Rex

New member
Joined
Jul 28, 2010
Messages
600
MBTI Type
INTJ
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
You can`t conversate with dogs so you adjust your behavior. But you can still threat it with respect.
 

Lexicon

Temporal Mechanic
Staff member
Joined
Sep 28, 2008
Messages
12,342
MBTI Type
JINX
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
You can`t conversate with dogs so you adjust your behavior. But you can still threat it with respect.

A thread needs to be created for the most hilarious/awkward posts in broken English &/or typos.
 
G

Ginkgo

Guest
While we're all equally human, I guess some people feel the need to recalibrate their behaviors to given situations with different types [I use the term ''types'' loosely, here] of people. Generally, I think the effort to try to accommodate/understand on a basic human level is there, for the most part.. if that makes sense.

Yeah, it's interesting. It's startling when I understand someone more by how they say things than what is said, bypassing language barriers. However, it's also startling to see a person maimed by autism or some other sort of debilitation when I'm suddenly forced to see our common trait; we're just trying to get by. It's even more humbling than watching a fully functioning bacteria move or a wild animal operate on pure instinct.

Of course many people re-calibrate their behaviors for social or otherwise practical reasons, but re-calibration follows from weirdness, and "weirdness" follows from ignorance in every case. It leads me to believe that people believe they are individualized when they are not. Not that we ought to conform for our similarities, but maybe that we can entertain the thought of being so self-aware that we can function according to the individual and the group, as John Nash was depicted saying in A Beautiful Mind in reference to The Nash Equilibrium.

Salad_platter02.jpg


Eat mah salad
 

Rex

New member
Joined
Jul 28, 2010
Messages
600
MBTI Type
INTJ
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
Replace dog with kid. same stuff different wrapping.
 

Rasofy

royal member
Joined
Mar 7, 2011
Messages
5,881
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
Well, some people treat dogs better than humans.
 

Rex

New member
Joined
Jul 28, 2010
Messages
600
MBTI Type
INTJ
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
Hahaha. threat... oh my.. treat.

and kid is more correct.. depending on the person ofc.

fuckn details.. :p
 

Darya

New member
Joined
Jun 4, 2012
Messages
159
Enneagram
4w5
Mildly annoyed. They should have been aborted. I don't think they look funny.

First, there was no chance or a medical technology existed for the expecting mothers( especially 30 yrs ago) to know that are pergnant with someone with DS,... Also, can you honestly say that we have the right to do that??

If the answer is Yes, what if there was a technology that would enable the expecting parents to know whether or not they were having a child who will grow up to be a narcassitst,... would you then say they should also abort their child????


BTW I am in no ways equatting people with DS with narcassists since they are lovely and kind..
 

Darya

New member
Joined
Jun 4, 2012
Messages
159
Enneagram
4w5
Yes. This. Put better than I would have done. I'd never dream of staring or mocking - what a horrible way to behave. People are people, they deserve my respect and my decency. But even though I believe this, I still often feel deeply uncomfortable around people with serious mental handicaps, in a way that I don't around any other group I can think of. I always have done, since I was a kid. I just find it really difficult for some reason. Something deep-seated - it feels as though it's instinctive or primal. I don't know why. It's irrational and unfair, and I really hate that I react this way because I think it's awful. But taking care not to show it doesn't seem to have any effect on the inner reaction. I wish I knew how to change that. :(

As I said, i believe some of our discomfort with regard to being around people with DS stems from a sense of unfamiliarity. In many ways people with DS have the same mannerism and mood changes that we do. In fact, sometimes i find talking to my sister (who was born wit DS) even more comforting, not just bc she does not judge or gives a lecture,... but also she has a gift to easily detect the moods of people around her ;hence she would react accordignly. For instance, when I am sad or havng a bad day, by making sure my environment is peaceful , ( telling others normal family members to to shut up:) ,she provides the much needed comfort for me ( INFJ). Also, she ( as many of them do) has a great ( dry) sense of humor which she uses in appropriate occasions.. I can not say that about all "normal" friends and relatives..
 

Darya

New member
Joined
Jun 4, 2012
Messages
159
Enneagram
4w5
Redherring wrote:
... despite all my parent's efforts to the contrary and although I could and probably would (about the role of intellect in people's lifes, what makes us human, subjective and objective aspects of quality of life, my own subjective values, the pros and cons of those standards, what I would do if I had a child with a mental disability, what I would do and how guilty I would feel if it turned out I couldn't emotionally connect to them enough because of the lacking mental connection, etc.) So yes, they can trigger uncomfortable thoughts and feelings.
****************

So can you make a mental connection with an intelligent person who despite his/her intelligence chooses to be lazy coach potato with no dreams, aspriation and motivation, using parents' money and others' to survive, ...while intellectualizing and rationalizing his laziness... ?? love to hear your response.
 
Top