What's the worst thing autism has been linked to...

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By the media?

Serial killers seem to get the false diagnosis of "autism" often here in the media... there was also the movie called "Ben X" released by Nic Balthazar here in Belgium that was about an autistic guy that got bullied in school and started going nuts, planning to murder it's bullies (autism = murderers?)...ect...

I thought serial killing was more linked to psychopathy.

Yeah usually they want to see if the serial killer suspects have any mental problems because of the way they refuse to co-operate with the researchers towards their crimes, so they label them with "autism", because they have difficulties communicating with them. I can't really explain it well in english.

It is. It's got nothing to do with autism. But apparently that doesn't stop a few research-illiterate journalists from trying to make the connection anyway.

Cold, distant mothers. I thought we were past the era of parental blame and "refridgerator mothers", but just the other day this article caught my eye because of the headline: "Cuddle hormone which makes mothers kinder could help treat autism". What is that implying? That mothers of autistic children aren't kind? This headline was in the Daily Fail, so I took it with a pinch of salt, but it still got me a little riled up.

For years therapists have been trying to convince me that my problems stem from my relationship with my mother. Every time I saw a doctor, they would ask me if I had been sexually abused because I was so withdrawn and aloof. Eventually, I started to believe them - that I was screwed up because my mother hadn't loved me as a baby. It broke apart our family. I can't help but feel bitter about it; if only somebody somewhere along the line had spotted autism earlier, we could have worked on those issues rather than heaping the blame on my parents.

Ugh, yes. My mother did not refrigerate me, thank you very much. They're kind of lucky they dropped that idea, or they would eventually have been attacked by a bunch of pitchfork-and-torch-wielding autistics who love their mothers very much and do not like having them insulted.

Well, okay, not literally. But we would certainly have written them some very stern letters.

The teachers thought I was sexually abused too. My mother didn't refrigerate me, she lighted roasted me.

That said I believe that this world could turn me into a sociopath. I sympathise with those bullied so severely for it to happen. If worse comes to worse I may just get worse symptoms of ODD. I'm already laying on the pathological demand avoidance.

honestly... nothing significant other than being incapable...

I know that there are stories of people out there who it may be autism that made them whatever... but I have never heard any directly.

The most severe that I can think of is someone being unable to function alone... that's it... Its difficult for me to imagine someone with autism doing anything worse than possibly making a commotion during a meltdown...



edit: I take that back... a kid threatened to kill me once when I tried to connect to him recognizing a fellow outcast. I didn't take him seriously but it was something that could be seen as bad I guess...

I had no idea that he was autistic until later when I look back on it recently but he is one of the people in my life that when I look back was pretty clearly autistic... funny thing is he had a maternal twin brother who was NT so I dont quite know what that is about 0.o

Threatening to kill someone in no way means that a person is a sociopath, especially if that person is autistic. Kids say things like that all the time, and an autistic person probably wouldn't understand the difference between saying something like "My mom would kill me if I did that!" and saying "I'm going to kill you if you do that," or the different circumstances that would make threatening to kill someone acceptable or unacceptable, including joking. I don't understand things like that, but that doesn't make me a sociopath.

I had to process it a bit myself when he said it actually... I heard him say it and was unsure what he meant by it... With time it occurred to me that he threatened to kill me... Sometimes when I think about him I wish that I had befriended him more as I am pretty sure he was more the sort of kid that I hung out with than I had realized at the time.

as an awkward but insistent to be popular kid in my teens I tended to get close with the outsiders and would gather my similarly awkward peers together to be our own group...(which didn't always work lol)

The bullying should be blamed on creating a killer not autism. I have fantasies of reliving my childhood and killing all of those bastards that physically harmed me but I would never actually do it.
That proves that media stereotypes wrong.

I am tired of the media making autistic people look like apathetic,emotionless robots or sociopaths." The curious incident of the dog in the night time" was horrible to the reputation of autistics.
It suggested that we feel no emotions which is absolute crap since I am feeling angry right now.

There have been a lot of bad people throughout history and it only stands to reason that some of them were likely Aspies. I think the suggestion that Hitler had Aspergers is nonsense, but Theodore Kaczynski is another matter. I believe a compelling case could be made that he has Aspergers ... from his anti-social tendencies to the high IQ/interest in math and science to his rambling Manifesto and unusual lifestyle. So in answer to the OP's question, the Unabomber case would be the worst thing I've seen autism/Aspergers linked to by the media.

Or extremely religious fanatics who see autistics as demonic spawn.

I'd greatly love to meet someone like that and see how long they lasted around me preaching.

"Badness"

I don't notice any outstanding media issues against us, other than sometimes they seem to insinuate that Autism = Disability whenever the subject comes up. It's not always a disability, and in fact it can be a gift. Heck, do we think Bill Gates is disabled? He has Asperger's or HFA. People can be born with a disadvantage, but it's how we respond to that disadvantage that counts. Some people would say that being born Black is a disadvantage, and it IS, if a person believes that's a disability. But someone like Magic Johnson, who became a basketball hero, then built up a billion dollar business empire, and then beat AIDS, is proof that a disadvantage does not have to be a disability.

Charles