You can't be autistic because....

Post Reply New Topic

Have people ever given you really strange reasons why you can't possibly be autistic? I've gotten, "... because you have tattoos and piercings." Apparently spectrumites aren't allowed to get bodymods?? I have no idea. I was also once told that I'm not nerdy enough

Can talk.

Yes

Like a carrot I bent myself so creatively around the NT world I deserved an oscar, instead I was always seen as one of them instead of one of us.

Your not AS, you dont like star track

trainspotting
Computers games


Dont look geeky

love art, poetry

The hidden music of the heart

Use figurative language and metaphor

Can walk in a straight line

Sceince is boring

I like NT's

am an Alexander Technique teacher and therapist

I have a child (emmmmm I had sex)

The list could go on and on and on.

I don't tell many people outside of the autistic community, and none of the people I have told has questioned it; in fact, it has helped them to understand why I am so phenomenally bad at some everyday things most people take for granted.

However, people have questioned why I felt compelled to pursue an assessment in my mid-40s, after getting on for so many years without one.

Most commonly, because I "don't look away" (preserve eye-contact, moreso than the NT in most respects), and "very articulate and conversational."

I'm not Rain Man, appearantly.

Because I'm clever, pretty and have nice clothes. Seriously. That is what I was told.

I've gotten that response before. I'm not really that bothered by it, I just take it as a sign that I'm not all that strange to many people (which, in effect, makes it a complement?).

I'm not autistic because I wouldn't look a "professional" in the eye, hid behind my hair, got upset easy and cried a lot. No, really. Those were reasons my ex-school was trying to deny my semi-official dx at the time.

Among other things that made no sense either.

Err.. the "moreso" part is very autistic, isn't it? I didn't think it was uncommon for aspies to make eye contact but make TOO MUCH of it. (or to be studying somebody's eye color)
Yea, I know, that's part of why it's a stupid reason.. But it's still like saying "the reason you can't be autistic is that you do act autistic"



(edited out typo)

Back in the days when I didn't know much about AS, I met an Aspie just like that. I thought it was weird, because I imagined the average Aspie to be more like me. Have an odd physique, clothes fashion from the 50's and... be male.

After I first read The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, I never even thought for a minute that I might have AS, because my AS isn't anywhere near as profound/severe/low-functioning/whatever as the boy in the book. I found out I have AS years later when I met my best friend who has AS, and then when I read the book again, I could see that some of my experiences are similar, if milder, to those of the boy in the book.

Like that thing where he hates yellow and brown - I can't stand the colour orange. I won't go so far as to completely avoid all orange things, etc, but orange things do bother me. One of my earliest memories is of these two plastic juice-holders me and my brother had, that my parents had bought for us. His was red. Mine was, of course, orange. I was really jealous of him for getting the red one. I also hate orange juice for this same reason (I recently discovered it must be the colour and not the taste, because I like the orange-juice taste when it's mixed in with other things of a different colour, like cocktails). Which is annoying because that's a drink that is normally universally liked by children, so it was generally the default beverage at parties and people's houses, etc. And I get annoyed at school if our exercise books or folders are orange. It's just such an ugly colour.

So yeah. It's odd how I never realised this wasn't normal, LOL.

Well as far as my parents are concerned..though I have tried to re-explain autism to them, I couldn't be autistic because I am able to speak..and am not completely dysfunctional...same goes for certain family members...even though they were extremely eccentric and obsessive and lived very isolated lives.

But maybe some think I can't be autistic because of the nature of my romantic relationships...I have been in a handful of LTRs and now I am poly...

Or...maybe I can't be autistic because I have been singing in bands for more than half my life, and help run a venue.

becuase your just copying.... no realy... its true.. just because i had friend who had.. they thought i was pretending to be autistic... lol... you know it may of that becuase we were both austic that we understood ach other..

because you're smart.

Because I don't have a lack of empathy.

I've also told myself I might not have it because I don't seem to have serious or lingering co-morbid conditions.

...or not smart enough.....(to be an aspie=me)