Outrageous asperger myths and stereotypes

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That we lack empathy and don't care about the feelings of others. Many of us have very strong empathy, but actually expressing it is where we run into difficulties.

What book was this?

Anywho, I think the big stereotype that I keep hearing is that autism isn't real, and that anyone who claims to be autistic are just using that as an excuse to be lazy and stupid.

Isn't ignorance great?

All people on the autism spectrum lack empathy and accidentally treat people insensitively.

If anything I'm overly sensitive. I'm much more open and blunt on the internet than I am in person. IRL I rarely hurt anyones feelings unless it's deliberate. If a friend had a giant booger hanging out of his nose I'd be the last to person to mention it because my embarrassment for him would inhibit me. In this kind of situation I'm actually too empathetic.

when i was growing up, there weren't any stereotypes because no one even knew what it was. (progress???)

serial killers? wow. i don't even know what to say to that.

Well, so far, when i've told people that i think i have Aspergers and am getting tested i've gotten the following reactions:

- "You don't have Aspergers. People with Aspergers don't have empathy"

- "I thought Aspergers was only an issue with kids"

I told a client to pound sand after he idiotically logged in as root and uploaded his personal backups to his web server. He intimidated my subcontractor into giving him the root password (the sub working for me had AS). A year later after the incident he tried to contact me and ask me to fix the incompetency of the people that worked on his infrastructure after we ended our professional relationship. He knew I had AS and this was his final reply after I called him on his outward lying:

He also blamed my "incompetency" on my AS. That's funny because he was praising my skill at tactical planning and rational thinking before he ran out of money.

Yup. No one I've told truly believes me, except my wife. They can't understand how a guy who is so outwardly compassionate and caring could have anything even remotely close to an ASD.

Hmm...about the ones proposing Aspies are serial killers? If I ever find who started that, you can bet I'll ruddy well confirm it.


Do I lack empathy? I lack some particular abilities, I cannot see what is wrong with someone if I have hurt them...

YAY! LET'S SPREAD THE VIRUS *takes some of my blood and uses it to create a bio weapon*

Anyone else wanna contribute? I only have mild ASD, my blood doesn't make much of a weapon...

Now there's a bioweapon I can agree with...

*imagines armiesfuls of soldiers suddenly overstimulated by gunfire and fascinated with entomology, computer programming, pokemon, and/or Star trek*

Hey, I think we just found a way to realize world peace!

[Disclaimer: I do not advocate forcibly changing anyone's neurology.]

LOL!

YAY, one of my FAVORITE movies that is ALSO RARELY shown, even though it was FILLED with stars, ect.....


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063799/

All of those are wrong in my life:
-Have a couple friends, somehow am closer to someone with psych and/or health difficulties than one who is not.
-Started college for architecture but never could pass Calculus.
-Have my wife
-Have a sense of humor, wife will vouch for that. Quite twisted sense of humor at times. Sometimes rather oblique. Sometimes delightfully crude.

Why is it everyone thinks I should be stupid because I have AS? WHY ARE YOU HUMANS SO ANNOYING?!?!

Whenever someone says or suggests that all people with AS are good at math or even geniuses at it, I want to strangle the. Math made me have meltdowns and tantrums as a kid becuase it was so hard and no one wanted to take the time to help me with it. As young as third or fourth grade I was told I should focus on being a vet tech rather than an actual DVM becuase the math preresaquits would be too hard for me. My grades got worse and I lost ALL modavation.

Not going to try to read all these so some may be duplicates:

- That all autistic people who can use words in some form or have any obvious talent must be "Asperger's", "mild", "high functioning", and all that stereotypes about those words imply.

- That autistic people can be accurately lined up from mild to severe or high functioning to low functioning and have it make any sense at all

- That autistic people's differences from the norm are all or even mostly about social skills

- That if someone deemed as "HFA" or "AS" has a particular problem, then surely the reason some people get classified as "LFA" is because that problem is more severe for them (or that those labeled "LFA" always have more severe problems in any given area than those labeled "HFA" or "AS")

- That only people diagnosed with non-AS autism are really autistic

- That autistic people always have a particular ability pattern involving finding body language and intonation difficult to understand while (if considered high functioning anyway) finding words easier to understand. And that none of us find the exact opposite to be true, or switch between the two.

- That the Internet always is a good place for autistic people to meet so we don't need to deal with body language

- That autistic people's feelings about being autistic are tied to what kind or degree of difficulties we have fitting into "normal" life. So for instance someone who likes being autistic must be only mildly impaired compared to someone who doesn't. {I don't like trying to rate us from mild to severe in any case but it always ticks me off listening to people with way closer to typical lives than me by most standards tell me that I must be milder than them because they hate being autistic and I like being autistic.}

- That people designated as low functioning are defective and inferior while people considered high functioning are just different and part of human diversity.