Does everyone deny you have a condidtion

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My parents have known something was wrong with me for the ages. It took them years, at least until I was about twelve to get an official diagnosis of autism. However, there have been outsiders who don't really understand how I can have an ASD. Mostly because in some cases, my social skills are rather good compared to most people who are diagnosed. They aren't like... good, but they are maybe a bit below average. I can talk your ear off once I'm more comfortable with your presence and such.

I had one time where I was at the hospital for chest pains. The nurse knew I could speak and communicate on a normal like scale. Well, I'm also deathly afraid of needles, especially IVs and stuff. All she had to was set all the IV stuff down, causing me to fly off the bed, full on panic attack mode. Anyway, she didn't really understand that I had an autistic disorder after my mom explained, so she denied everything and said stuff like, "but she can communicate..."

So yeah. My parents have accepted it more or less. However, there are times when they forget and don't understand my conditions and such.

So true.

1401b ? Just curious - Does acknowledging that a friend (or anyone you associate with) has ASD violate one or more of the patterns identified by Ian Ford in ?A Field Guide to Earthlings??

They should be grateful they can afford to be so ignorant. Not that ASD is all bad, but you know it has its downsides.

People just think I'm odd. Many people say everyone has problems and if they went to the doctor they probably have some sort of disorder to. They see it as excuses for being strange and odd. Not an actual reason.

If I were mentally challenged they would not say it was an excuse but a reason. Being on the high end of the spectrum makes it difficult to find people to understand. I've also found that most people don't really care anyway.

I have also found that most of people that I know lack in empathy not just people on the spectrum. I read that people that are emphatic yawn when the see someone else yawn. The majority of people I know do not do this. My own mother is one of them.

I think most people cannot understand the severity and difficulties of a condition that they have themselves not experienced, and tend to dismiss it as something insignificant, making such comments as "You'll be all right", "Everyone has a problem", "Stop whinging" and so on. It's really frustrating for the person who is suffering from that condition and could even cause a sense of isolation and depression as a result. People on the autism spectrum seem to experience that a lot (probably particularly ones on the HF end), as other people cannot even imagine the difficulties they are facing. They tend to be seen as being "lazy", "difficult", "selfish", "not trying hard enough" etc. I think that's what's happening to the OP. I have myself given up trying to make people understand my problems because they don't even make the effort to understand them.

Regarding whatever issues I have I'm getting help for, they're not denied by people who know me, but I have been told that the reason why I deal with the things I deal with is because I don't have a strong belief in God.

Well, that would explain it for me as well...ROTFLMAO

No. But I am only saying that I have a mild-moderate case. That seems to answer their wondering about why I am 'different'.

I suspect that my dad and stepmom are in some denial....they say that they don't mind that I have some issues with anxiety and depression, but...and I know this is sad.....but sometimes I feel like my dad didn't want a child with any problems. And I feel sh!tty for turning out to have them. I tried not to.

My family members mostly agree that autism seems to run in the family, along with various mental disorders and just generally not being quite right in the head...but I think since we've all taken this for granted for so long as being "normal", they haven't really come around to seeing it as an actual condition or disability.

Outside of my family I haven't told anyone I know in person that I suspect I am autistic. I have only told people I know on the internet, and I didn't like the way people responded to it so I stopped talking about it. But no one has ever denied it or disagreed with me.

After I was diagnosed with ADHD, a couple of friends I went to high school with did deny it. One was a guy who has ADHD himself and he told me he didn't think I had it. The other was a girl who said something like, she believed anyone who had ADHD could get cured of it by getting an ass whooping. And if I ever mentioned it to an employer, they would usually would just deny that ADHD even exists.

I think most people just assume that I'm normal, unless/until they see me have a crying meltdown.

The reasons given by 1401b are so true. I think it can be all of those reasons, plus also perhaps some on the spectrum can "pass" as NT most of the time -- although nobody knows how much this costs them in stress, deep inside -- and people tend to think that if they see a smattering of "normal" the person must be "normal." That's really annoying but it may be what's happening too.

A lot of it is sheer ignorance about what ASD really is and how it actually affects different people.

In the case of one acquaintance of mine who laughed in my face and said with a broad grin and a shake of the head: "You don't have it!" Well, A) he doesn't even know me well enough; we run into each other in passing and have never had particularly deep conversations or spoken of personal history. Lemme tell ya about my childhood sometime.....

And B) He not only doesn't know enough about me but he also doesn't know enough about ASD.

It's incredibly annoying but I try to remember there's little accurate knowledge in the general public, even today.

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