What did you think Autism was...

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I have a younger cousin with it who is pretty low-functioning. So when a doctor said he suspected I might have it (never been officially diagnosed), I just rejected it out of hand. My view of it was probably similar to that of most NTs. Maybe a little more sympathetic, but still pretty misinformed. It took several years, and a lot of reading, before I really grasped the idea of it being a spectrum.

It was the reason I didn't get an art class in middle school, even though everyone else was required to take it.

i only had a vague idea about low-functioning autism. limp hands were one of the things i primarily associated with it for some reason . i think i was in my twenties when i actually found out what it was properly:/. and that was mainly because i was fed up of walking into walls and worried i had a brain tumour

From the impression I had as a kid, an autistic is very disconnected from the outside world, rarely spoke and might have a single ability or talent. I felt a disconnect, but I could speak and could do a variety of things so I always thought that if I had it, it was so mild that there was no way to diagnose it. I also had friends with Aspergers but I never associated it with autism. It wasn't until my counsellor suggested Aspergers as the reason for a lot of my difficulties that I looked into it.

Before I watched the show the Doctors that explained Autism Spectrum Disorders I thought autism was pretty much a person running around in a hockey helmet beating themselves when touched while screaming at the top of their lungs. Sort of like Dustin Hoffman's character in Rainman.

My psychologist: "Have you ever heard of Asperger's Syndrome?"

Me: "Yes. It's when little middle-class white boys are obsessed with train schedules, talk endlessly about topics no one cares about, have no imagination, and are great at math."

My psychologist: "Not quite."

I saw Rain Man when I was younger but didn't remember it, just a few scenes. Back then I couldn't follow movies properly.
It was Mercury Rising that first introduced me to autism. I had a little idea about it and to be honest I couldn't differentiate between autism and intellectually disabled. My mum was actually fascinated by autism, but the autism that was known in the 1960's.

It was her who first told me to look up autism while I was obsessively looking up dyslexia to find out what was wrong with my poor speech. I immediately denied it because I thought as long as I hung out with people (even if I didn't say a word) that I had good social skills. I had to go through the most awkward relationship ever, develop PMDD from the pill and social anxiety with occasional panic attacks from the break up, to finally be convinced I had autism.

I even watched Mozart and the Whale before I even suspected I could be autistic too. Mum said I was never good at comprehending books, TV shows or movies.

Wow, everyone found out when they were so young (so young to me). I was 22 and almost 23. I remember when I got very confused about when someone said they were autistic but they didn't require any help and were a bit independent.

I thought Autistic children were all non-verbal, hated to be touched, were constantly doing weird hand gestures (although I did recognise that, hey, I do that too!), wouldn't look at their parents/siblings, passionately hated random arbitrary things - like the colour yellow, all yellow things for no particular reason.

I wish I were more informed from an earlier age. Especially about the sensory issues related to AS, that would have sent alarm bells ringing in my head.

There was a time that I thought that all people with autism had the same degree of difficulties that Raymond had in the movie, Rain Man. I found out that I'm on the spectrum a year later.

When I was diagnosed with Aspergers I thought it was like membership to some sort of club or something. I want to see some one post something weirder.

I was diagnosed at 10 and told about it a few months later. I had known the word "autism"/"autistic" because there had been a couple of autistic kids I had known; they didn't seem anything like me, though, so I remember feeling weird about it. I didn't really understand AS well until I was 11 or 12.

I saw Rain Man when I was already a big kid, and I didn't know anything about autism before, so I was exempt of any stereotypes like ret*d, rocking in the corner etc.

I genuinely thought I had some traits in common with the character of Raymond, but I saw I was far from the extent of his autisticness, and I also thought I must have had at least one savant skill like counting or good memory for factual information, non of which I had.

One scene stroke me though, when his brother pulled books off of his bookshelf, I felt the pain Raymond did...

For many years I left it at that, and it was not until recently I rediscovered the whole autism thing...

In a simple answer, I'd NEVER have thought I had Autism, and I had a gross misconception of what it is. I guess I recall knowing that Autism had communications problems as a big symptom, but I knew little about it, nor did I know that it was mainly body language and eye communications which are affected. I also need to apologize to my fellow Autistic community members, as I thought it included a lack of intelligence or lack of basic life skills. Obviously it does not need to include those things, and in fact, I know more highly intelligent Autistic people than Autistic people of lesser success or intelligence.

Charles

I'm from the generation that went to school when autism was unheard of, and I'm one of the adults who was introduced to it by Rainman. Doesn't describe me, then.

I've only become aware to the point of being knowledgeable in the last year, and only then after reading about AS and having a lightbulb moment.

I was always the socially inept geek with the classic technical skills. I know this isn't the criteria for a diagnosis and I'm still not certain I'm on the spectrum. No computers back then, so nerds had to make do with being Meccano wizards, miracle bicycle-fixers or skilled machinists in the workshops. For years my metalwork teacher described me as "a lad we once had who could name every part on the lathe and make anything you wanted". But in my schooldays, the only pupils that were labelled with anything were in a special school and rarely mentioned.

Until someone told my family about Asperger's Syndrome, I thought autism was specifically a non-verbal thing. I didn't associate it with mental retardation or most other false stereotypes, but did stereotype it to specifically non-verbal.