Dumb things I've heard autistics say about autism

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We have a thread about none autistics saying dumb things about autism, now how about things autistic people have said about autism? Being autistic doesn't mean we understand everyone with it nor everything about it. I have had some people on the spectrum tell me things I would expect to hear from a none autistic person.

"Stop being literal"

You act like it's something I do on purpose and act like it's just something I can switch off in my head like a light switch. You must not have this trait so kudos to you. If you have had this trait and you outgrew it, you must have forgotten what it's like and how long it took for you to stop taking things literal. If you have found a way to stop it sooner, good for you. Now why not just write about how you did it to try and help other aspies out rather than sounding ignorant about it? Or did you also forget?

"If you can see what you are saying, you know what will offend me."

Also you must not have this difficulty at all or else you would understand that just because you know what you are saying, you don't know how it's going to make the other person feel. Or is it just your lack of TOM that makes you expect other aspies to be like an NT in that area because you are basically expecting them to read your mind? No wonder it would make you sound so ignorant about autism in that area.


"A real friend would give emotional support"

You are expecting an aspie to give you emotional support when it's actually an aspie trait they have made it to be that it's hard for us to give out that support? Isn't that like telling someone who can't run that if you were in danger, a real friend would run over and rescue you from the danger?



All of my former aspie friends said this to me. Two of them came out of the same person's mouth and the first one was said by two different former friends. But good thing I don't talk to them anymore.


My ex boyfriend who was aspie said so many dumb things about it and one of them was "I don't see how you have it" because I wasn't good in algebra and was unable to do it in school and also I wasn't organized enough for him so therefore I wasn't AS. He knew I was on the spectrum but didn't think it was AS because he thought all aspies were the same. It was either I have it and he doesn't or he has it and I don't have it. He even said that members on here weren't AS just because they learned to tie their shoes late or learned to ride a bike late or still couldn't.

"We're the next step in human evolution."

If that were true, then there would be a significant genetic marker that would breed true with each successive generation of mated Autistics. There is no such marker.

"We're psychic."

Believe it all you want, because unless you can back up your claim with repeatably verifiable demonstrations, no reasoning person -- Autistic or Entie - will believe you. You may even be contributing to the false reputation of all Autistics being delusional. Since mere belief proves nothing, no matter how many people believe, it is unlikely that your belief will impress anyone who can think for himself.

"We're descended from Neanderthals."

Who isn't? If you're of European ancestry, then anywhere from 2 to 10 percent of your DNA may match up with Neanderthal DNA. If you're not of European ancestry, then the percentage may be roughly half that.

"We're descended from extraterrestrials / We're 'Starseeds'."

See "We're psychic".

"We're 'Indigo People'."

The only people who see auras are those with ocular disorders, diabetes, brain damage, or schizophrenia. See "We're Psychic".

Here is another:

"Are aspies psychopaths?"

You must be new to the condition because I also had the same confusion as well when I started reading about it and I confused lack of empathy and not understanding how people feel or will feel with psychopathy. Then when I started posting in the community I saw that no way would we go out and torture animals and people and do destruction to harm others or even kill. That isn't autism. Actually psychopaths are aware of how it would make others feel but they just don't care. They also know what pain the animal will go through and they also don't care. Plus since we are known to follow the rules and keep to it, it would keep us from committing crimes and doing other horrible things and we would know right from wrong. Keep reading about autism (I would recommend autism forums) and you will get it soon. I bet you will also feel relieved too and feel better about yourself as well if you were offended about possibly being seen as a psychopath or fear of being one because you thought that is what you've read about autism.

"Is or was [person] Autistic?"

Fill in the blank with your favorite historical person, preferably one who has passed away before AS was recognized by mental-health professionals. If the person was a criminal, then it's a thinly-veiled attempt to equate AS with criminal tendencies. If the person is much-admired, then it's a thinly-veiled attempt to equate AS with admirable traits.

"Is or was [character] Autistic?"

Fill in the blank with your favorite fictional or cartoon character, preferably one that was not based on any person, living or dead. Since these characters are not real, they can not have AS or any other form of Autism.

"Could my [person or pet] be Autistic?"

Fill in the blank with the name of a friend, relative, or pet and give a seemingly endless description that could have been lifted straight from the DSM, and cherry-pick incidents from the person's or pet's history that support the presumption of each symptom.


Bottom Line: People who are dead deserve better treatment, and fictional characters behave the way their creators program them to behave. Leave the diagnostics to those licensed medical professionals who are appropriately trained in mental health issues, especially developmental or perceptive disorders. Asking a collection of strangers on a public website for a medical diagnosis is just plain stupid.

"Does [behavior or symptom] have anything to do with Autism?"

Fill in the blank with any behavior or 'symptom' that anyone could have, and then obliquely assert that the symptoms have a direct causal connection to Autism, either as a cause or an effect. Just because some Autistics may have these symptoms, that does not mean anything more than a correlation, which is not causation, and does not mean that there is a connection.

Well, I am convinced that there are people who were autistic before there ever was a diagnosis for autism. Given that we cannot assess them (since they passed away), there's no surefire way to know whether they were Autistic or not. However, if some persons displayed Aspie/Autie traits, it's only fair for us to acknowledge them. We need a history - ASDs are not a recent invention. It's not a dumb thing to ponder on whether some historical figures were autistic or not. Some people might exaggerate and make unfounded claims about tons of (probably NT) people, but the mere concept of people wondering whether, say, Einstein was an Aspie is not dumb...

Pondering on whether a pet might be autistic or not could be quite dumb, since there's no proof so far that cats or dogs can be autistic.

And, personally, I delight in reading books or watching movies with characters that seem Aspie, rather than NT. I have not known about AS for a long time, yet I created a character who is Aspie by all standards and fits all the DSM-IV criteria, although I didn't know about those criteria when I wrote about him. I guess this happened because a then-undiagnosed Aspie person created a character who experienced the world the way she did, without knowing that this was the Aspie way of experiencing the world. There might be more people like me out there, people with Aspie traits or with an undiagnosed case of Asperger's, who will make up characters they do not intend to be Aspie, but which, however, many Aspies/Auties can relate to... So wondering whether so and so character might be autistic doesn't seem that dumb to me. Literature, cinematography and visual arts are saturated with depictions of NT people and of NT lifestyles, that we feel the need for some depiction of autistic people and lifestyles too.

I also do not think that wondering whether such and such behavior could be related to autism is a dumb thing. I have only one friend who is Aspie (the others are NTs). She's the only person in the world I know to be autistic. And I'm the only person she knows to be autistic too. We are surrounded by the life, the mores and the behaviors of NTs and we only recently found out about AS. All of our lives, we have wondered why we had so many quirks and why, somehow, we were never just like the other people. When we get together, we often talk about our "quirks" and ponder on whether they are related to being Aspie or not. It's not dumb - in fact, it's quite enlightening. We're just discovering what it means to be Aspie and how deeply it shapes our lives. We're not assuming that every Aspie/Autie has the same traits as we do - moreover, we have different traits ourselves too (I have some traits that she doesn't have and the reverse is true, also).

_________________
Probably 75% Aspie, 25% NT... and 100% ADHD

Aspie-quiz results:
Aspie score: 138 of 200 / NT score: 78 of 200 => Very likely an Aspie.

I heard some Autistics say they aren't proud to have Autism because they didn't choose to have it.

The only people who see auras are those with ocular disorders, diabetes, brain damage, or schizophrenia. See "We're Psychic".[/quote]


People with migraines see aura

Dylanperr wrote:

"I heard some Autistics say they aren't proud to have Autism because they didn't choose to have it."

Imo a person being proud of something they didn't even do is not intelligent. That would be what some call false pride, Genuine pride is prismatic of being human and able to create, to make, no matter how simple.

I knew someone who uses his autism for petty excuses, such as not drawing properly, having ill discipline, and not obeying to instructions.
I used to teach him illustration, and he was definitely my worst student.
I've taught 12 year olds who can draw way better than him. (He's in his 20's)
That aside, I've taught him the same things over and over again, and he kept making the same mistakes over and over again.
(Oh yes, I'm a professional illustrator)

If you have success in life either you are not autistic or do not have “real autism” because autism is a curse that dooms one to a life of no sex and no job and basically no abilty to do anything normal adults can do.

Autism gives one a special ability to know that another person is or was autistic.

Autistics are owed(fill in the blank)

Aspergers is not autism.

"99% of the population are neurotypical"

"You are probably doing weird things in public without knowing it"

"Sometime in the future autistics will be thrown into prison camps by Nazis"

"Move on, get over it, grow up"

Can't recall where, but I heard about an autistic guy who complained to his doctor that his meds killed his sex drive, and the doctor responded something to the effect that "well, that doesn't really matter for you, now does it?".