I'm not Downs but I have a personality disorder such that I've always felt different. I'm 60 now and yet to meet anyone, M or F, who seems remotely like me. I was married, didn't end well, and have a daughter who doesn't talk to me. I live every day bathed in the knowledge that I am utterly alone in the world, despite having 2 close female friends. It has always been this way. It will always be this way. I try to live a quiet secluded life.

Thanks for sharing. You described the situation well imo, wish you the best

Is it a recognized personality disorder?

(I'm guessing "no" but a lot of recognized conditions have huge variance in individuals, so having a recognized personality disorder also isn't a guarantee that there will be others with a similar mindset...)

More importantly, I wish you peace and happiness. It's a difficult hand to be dealt...

Many individuals also have more than one personality disorder. I have a partner with bipolar + borderline + OCPD and a bunch of other stuff. I have a fair few too (borderline and OCPD at least).

This sounds very difficult. There are so many people who live with loneliness. It reminds me of the "Tin Man" episode of Star Trek TNG.

I wish you well and hope you find your Tan Elbrun.

A personality disorder have nothing to do with Downs. One is a genetic disorder and the other is a maladaptive pattern of affect.

End result is the same though? Cause vs effect.

I was lucky enough to know that all I need is presence in my life. I don't really care for interaction or romance.

Remember that having children, getting married, living a fulfilling life is just the status quo and not the path your life has take. Be or do whatever makes you happy as long as you're not harming others.

Might be a bit late, but it's all about the ride and leaving something behind for others to enjoy is a nice extra.

A nice article.

Please help make life a little better for people like Gabe. If you read or hear someone use the word ‘retard’ as a slur, let them know it’s very offensive. It’s often found on Reddit, the users need appropriate feedback to end it.

Sorry, but is this a joke?

Its defined as offensive: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/retard

> a word for a person with a learning disability (= a condition that can have an effect on someone's ability to learn easily), which was used by doctors in the past but is now extremely offensive

Yes, in that context it's offensive, I agree. But when people use that as a slur they aren't literally talking about or referring to a learning disability so it's a different context

No - there are people that see Gabe's life as an opportunity to make culture war comments. This is a feature of our world now.

Its a nice article and a positive one.

Unfortuna another documentary about people with Down Syndrome were more heartbreaking. A young girl got told from a doctor that not only shouldn't she get to try pregnant, the chance is very low already and that she has other medical concerns she needs to handle.

Not something she could handle without a proper care taker though.

To add a factoid without expressing an opinion: women with Down syndrome are often fertile while men typically are not. The odds of the offspring of a female with trisomy 21 having the same trisomy are 50% theoretically, and between 33-40% in practice due to trisomy embryos having a higher rate of spontaneous miscarriage.

They absolutely shouldn't try to get pregnant, they'll be incapable of looking after the child.

People with Down syndrome aren't all the same. The highest measured IQ of a person with Down syndrome in a scientific study was 117:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3707311/

Having said that, men with Down syndrome are generally infertile anyway.

> But because he has Down syndrome, someone told him he’s different.

Down Syndrome is a quite serious genetic abnormality, pretending it's not with silly statements like "someone told him he's different" is absurd.

>Down Syndrome is a quite serious genetic abnormality, pretending it's not

if you can get past the title, you'll see that this article is not doing that.

[delayed]

> But because he has Down syndrome, someone told him he’s different.

Yes, and him being different is a statement of fact. Stop pretending low IQ is something to be celebrated or ignored.

I don't know why people don't understand this, but something being true doesn't mean it can't also be hurtful, and it doesn't mean it has to be said. Gabe clearly already knows that he is different; there's absolutely no point in telling him this, other than to hurt him.

Ah but they do understand this. They just like hurting people.

We are all different, and have different challenges in life to overcome. That’s life, as they say. You, for instance, have your prejudges to struggle with.

The question is how we all deal with these challenges, and how we meet people who are different from ourselves. I think it is important that we don’t put each other down, or judge based on our assumptions of what a person’s differences entails. Meeting people as individuals, and imagine other people complexly. And cheering on each other as we each overcome our challenges.