"You don't have autism because I met someone w/ autism once"

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I got a similar thing from my dad's cousin. Told me I would be a much better person if my parents had been better parents and she said it so sweetly to me I didn't even notice it was nasty until my mom told me. My dad's cousin is known by my mother for making nasty comments but she says them in a sensitive and sweet way and she is smiling as she says them. My mom doesn't fall for it.

This sounds controversial, but someday I would like to function so well that I can finally leave all the issues of my childhood and even my life as recently as five years ago far behind. I would like to never be defined by my differences. I believe a lot of the comments casual observers make about people on the spectrum are stereotypical and set serious limits on the potential of autistic/Aspeger's individuals.

Yes, it's painful enough to think about this of oneself, but for someone else to say it to you is really unkind, especially since your relation had that "sweet" way of saying such a harsh thing. That's classic passive-aggressive and thus very mean of her.

I dont really tell people im autistic so no

Yeah but they were kinda right about that one. My parents are awful people.

The thing is that I'm still Autistic, no matter who my parents decided to be, I'd still be an Autistic person. In reality though, if my parents weren't neglectful degenerates, I would've fared much better in life.

It pisses me off more that all my symptoms and experiences with Autism are just put down to "poor upbringing". I really hate baby boomers, they believe conditions like Autism and ADHD don't really exist and it's just "bad parenting".

Yes, clearly that's why I can't read facial expressions and noises hurt my ears and send me into a rage.

I get the opposite.

" you sound just like sheldon copper from the big bang theory"
" That sounds just like what abed would do"
" my son used to do the same thing, hes autistic"
" Nice sonic bag/hoodie, my son is autistic he would love that!"
" i have another patient on the spectrum and she had the same problem..."

A few actual things people said to me.

I think i had one case where a woman who was a psychologist, compared me to her own daughter and said i sounded more like NVLD than autistic.

Yea, I've gotten it rather often because of my proficiency with language and my ability to describe issues (even though I honestly have a hell of a time understanding myself). It's just the basic simpleminded thickness of SOME neurotypicals, simple as that. Just let them be I guess, not much we can do. (I know that will offend some NTs but I had to say it, so I'm going to put an emphasis on SOME)

I've had therapists tell me this, and family members still refuse to acknowledge that it's Asperger's. Made it so much harder to accept the diagnosis and start working on my problems than it should've been.

you know what they say: "When you've seen one person with autism, you've seen one person with autism."

we're all different, "you don't have autism because I met someone with autism once" is the stupidest thing I've heard all day

I went through the opposite. Was told it was Asperger's by my therapist but I refused to believe it because it was the opposite of what my mother said and he chuckled at one of my comments and said "Parents like to blame their kids problems on other things" when i told him the reason why I had a hard time figuring out the rules was because I was in the self contained classroom.

But my mom says the opposite so I am going to through it again questioning myself wondering if I was just a failure and everything was my fault and if it was the upbringing that caused my aspie like symptoms and I got diagnosed with it because of the environment and mean teachers and mean kids and because I was trying to be normal and if it was all just anxiety like my mom claims. I said to my mother maybe I am just crazy then and imagining my childhood and she went "you're not crazy, you just have anxiety." And that doesn't explain why kids thought I was weird or mean or rude or a show off or why I had off body positions I sat in or the way I stood or my obsessions, and why I thought one time my speech therapist wasn't unhappy with me when she asked me if she was happy after we had just got through talking about my behavior I did in class and why I didn't know the rules of turn taking or staying on topic and why I always interrupted and why I missed social cues. What other explanation could there be?

That saying really is apt, once you've met one person with autism, you've met one person with autism.

Lol @ that statement.

Someone denied I was autistic because of the way I wrote. I'm a writer. I read loads of books and practice my writing style and I can even mimic my favourite authors perfectly. But when it comes to speech I just slur.

I told him to read up more on autism.

And then there's "he can't possibly have that, because I read about it in a magazine once, and he isn't like the people in the article." As told to my wife by my mother-in-law.

I suppose that the public sees it not as a "spectrum" but as an "either/or" thing. If you're not like RainMan, or if you don't sit and stare at the wall all day without ever saying a word while making origami ponies, then you can't possibly fit that profile.

Pensieve,

I communicate far better in writing than I do with the spoken word. When I'm nervous, upset, or, like now, sick, I sound like a complete fool. I feel like my brain is becoming completely addled from this horrible feeling cold and cough. I'm walking around like a zombie and can't go to work. Blah!