What are some of your least favourite myths about autism?

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Said by my now-former physician: "You can't have Asperger's Syndrome because you don't set fires, you don't wet the bed, and you don't torture little animals."

MYTH: Asperger's Syndrome is a form of sociopathy.

Lack imagination (after being berated all my life for day dreaming too much).

Lack sense of humor.

Cant think abstractly (apparently that IS true of some LF autistics, but hardly typical of everyone on the spectrum).

Myth: You can't be autistic if you have friends or You can't be autistic if you have multiple interests. (I have a very small circle of friends, mostly within my family, and I have what I think is a "normal" range of interests but I get intensely focused on them and go through a lot of "phases" related to my interests.)

MYTH: Every autistic person is exactly like every other autistic person.

Autistic people are "black and white" thinkers.

Autistic people don't understand humor/ have a sense of humor. My family loves sitcoms and stand up comedy and we are all autistic except for my brother.

I'll just go with the traits that don't really apply to me:

-creativity
-imagination
-good memory
-stimming (but do repetitive movements like fidgeting or moving feet while sat down)
-logical (or illogical)
-intelligent

All autistic people are like Rain Man. Paranoid, suspicious, oblivious, fidgety, pacing and unaware of obvious dangers. another stereotype that's tied in with the Rain Man stereotype is that it's okay for our family members to shout at us out of anger and verbally abuse us as a means of trying to change us all that they want. The only way that I'm like Rain Man is that I have a show that I like to watch on week nights between 10 and 11 and I have a helmet that I like to wear as a marker that I'm F to M though I can't afford to transfer.

That autistic people are incapable of sarcasm, conceit, deceit, cruelty and manipulativeness. (Shhh! We mustn't let on to the "NTs" that we can be as flawed as they are! )

Asperger's could be seen as mild autism. I don't see a problem with that.

One is that we neglect our romantic partners, we hate affection from them & rather be by ourselves instead of spend any time with them. I'm the total opposite of this. I think this stereotype is one of the reasons I had a hard time getting a girlfriend.

The other is that we're making good money in the tech industry or will 1ce we go to college & graduate. I'm not great with technology & when I mentioned being an Aspie on dating sites, the only messages I got from women were asking me about the tech industry cuz they were thinking I might be pretty successful in it.

To summarize so far, and with a few additions...

MYTH: Asperger's Syndrome is a form of sociopathy.

MYTH: Autism can be beaten out of the autistic person.

MYTH: Autism can be cured with bleach enemas.

MYTH: Autism can be cured with chelation therapy.

MYTH: Autism is a disease.

MYTH: Autism is a fake disease.

MYTH: Autism is caused by vaccines.

MYTH: Autistic people all have 'psychic' or 'magical' abilities.

MYTH: Autistic people all have handflapping as a stim.

MYTH: Autistic people all use autism as an excuse to be bad people.

MYTH: Autistic people are "black and white" thinkers.

MYTH: Autistic people are all an horrific doppelganger mutations.

MYTH: Autistic people are all emotionally cold, uncaring, and not empathetic.

MYTH: Autistic people are all fidgety.

MYTH: Autistic people are all geniuses, and we are all supposed to act like "Little Professors", "Rainman", or some type of savant.

MYTH: Autistic people are all inherently violent and will become school shooters.

MYTH: Autistic people are all like Rain Man.

MYTH: Autistic people are all mass shooters.

MYTH: Autistic people are all mentally "ret*d", and thus incapable of being educated, employed, or in a relationship.

MYTH: Autistic people are all oblivious to what's going on around them.

MYTH: Autistic people are all Paranoid.

MYTH: Autistic people are all super talented in some way.

MYTH: Autistic people are all suspicious.

MYTH: Autistic people are all the next step in human evolution.

MYTH: Autistic people are all unaware of obvious dangers.

MYTH: Autistic people are diseased and need to be cured.

MYTH: Autistic people are incapable of being manipulative.

MYTH: Autistic people are incapable of conceit.

MYTH: Autistic people are incapable of cruelty.

MYTH: Autistic people are incapable of deceit.

MYTH: Autistic people are incapable of having a job, having a long-term, meaningful relationship, living independently, etc.

MYTH: Autistic people are incapable of humor.

MYTH: Autistic people are incapable of sarcasm.

MYTH: Autistic people can't do anything for themselves.

MYTH: Autistic people can't graduate high school with regular diplomas.

MYTH: Autistic people can't think abstractedly.

MYTH: Autistic people don't understand humor or have a sense of humor.

MYTH: Autistic people hate affection.

MYTH: Autistic people lack empathy.

MYTH: Autistic people lack imagination

MYTH: Autistic people neglect their romantic partners.

MYTH: Autistic people would rather be by themselves.

MYTH: Every autistic person is exactly like every other autistic person.

MYTH: It's okay to shout at an autistic person out of anger.

MYTH: It's okay to verbally abuse an autistic person as a means of trying to change them.

MYTH: You can grow out of autism.

MYTH: You can't be autistic.

MYTH: You can't be autistic if you can dress yourself.

MYTH: You can't be autistic if you can earn a university degree.

MYTH: You can't be autistic if you can handle being in a relationship.

MYTH: You can't be autistic if you can hold down a job.

MYTH: You can't be autistic if you can socialize.

MYTH: You can't be autistic if you display a sense of humor.

MYTH: You can't be autistic if you have friends.

MYTH: You can't be autistic if you have multiple interests.

The "refrigerator mother" myth, autism caused by cold, distant mothers. A lack of understanding can complicate existing problems, but does not cause autism.