Can't have Autism because..........

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The psychologist who ended up diagnosing me told me that I couldn't have Aspergers because I could read faces and wasn't sure that I had special interests (I wasn't sure what counted as that, since I had only heard about it as a "nerdy guy who knows all about dinosaurs and trains" thing.)
He also told me that he knew one who knew the bus plan by heart, and "that was real Aspergers". Oh wait, doesn't it count to know the hymn book by heart? I regret I didn't ask him... btw no, I don't know it by heart literally, but know a lot of songs and hymns by heart. If only you know 2 lines of one, NTs get impressed and think you know it all by heart. Illogical, and kind of scaring that they get impressed by so little....

And when I try to explain others about my executive dysfunction: "Oh, it can't be that bad, you have come through university". Yes, but it took me 2½ years to write a 30 pages long paper, and if I didn't got support for structuring my thesis writing, I might still have written on it today.

Or: "You can't be autistic because you are too aware of your symptoms and can describe them so clearly".

You don't look autistic (said to me by my kidney doctor)
You are too well spoken
Autistic people can't talk and you talk too much
You are not ret*d, autism is a form of retardation
Your shy not ret*d
Autistic people beat themselves on the head when touched you just move away or get mad
Where's you hockey helmet then
Your good with computers autistic people are too stupid to do anything technical
You do not have Aspergers, your not making eye contact because your lying to me (said to me by a cop for staggering when I was walking)

Last edited by Todesking on 24 Jan 2011, 4:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I've had:

1) "I know a guy with Asperger's and you aren't like him!" (I'm a girl)
2) "You have too much empathy. And you show your emotions." (Ok...but I actually don't exhibit proper empathy and YOU had to teach me to let you hug me)

Heh. My mother would tell everyone that I was shy.

Then one day I came across the word "autistic" in a comic book (New Mutants in 1985 - "Legion" appeared as a character, was described as autistic due to a terrorist attack, huh?), so I asked my mother what autistic meant, and she answered "shy."

My mom told people I was just 'painfully shy'. To her, the two weren't at all connected.

I was watching House Of Cards (I think that's the name of the movie) and it was mentioned the little girl was Autistic. When she started talking at the end of the movie, my mom said she 'got over' her Autism.

To this day I have no idea why my mom said these things to me. She suspected my older brother was Autistic and he spoke.

I don't think my mother suspected I was autistic, but it is interesting to me that she'd make this connection. Especially given the popular conceptions of autism at the time - unless to her not speaking was basically being super shy.

And really, I did not speak a lot around people until my teens, and even then not much, so who knows?

I didn't talk much until I hit my teens, as well. My mom just thought it was my PTSD from the abuse I suffered, though.

I´ve heard something like that. A friend of mine told me I couldn´t have AS, because I was "loquacious". Ironically, very shortly before she told me that, I had just read in a book that people with AS are very often "loquacious". Same word and everything.....(I mean, how often do people use the word "loquacious"? Funny....)

Actually, very often people tell me I "can´t be autistic because....." - but then the reason they give why I "can´t be" autistic confirms, rather than disputes the idea! Which just goes to show how little the general public actually knows about it.

Oh, I just thought of another one! This does not apply to me, but I have read, from several of the black members of Wrong Planet, that people tell them they "can´t be autistic"......because they´re black!! !!

I mean, how stupid is that?

Okay... that's got to be the strangest I've ever come across. Even if pure blacks couldn't have Autism, how many are 'pure' anything these days?

How about... "You can't have NLD because you have a Master's degree"?

Yes, I did very well academically despite my NLD. Notice how I immediately started having difficulty once I graduated and had to practice in my chosen field however... Also, notice how I am in your office (employee counseling) because my supervisor figured out I had a learning disability without my disclosing it and thinks it is interfering with my work. But I'm sure that talking with me for twenty minutes has given you all the information you need to un-diagnose me...