Has anyone ever told you that you don't have AS?

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I get people online who tell me this. It's like, "well you don't act like you're autistic". But how does one 'act' autistic over the internet is my question. I can see how they would be strict about this because people often use conditions to get attention but I have never once used it to gain attention. People found out I had it on a pokemon forum and actually bullied me because of it so I had to leave.

In real life, I've never had this problem except for those who say rude things if I meltdown or don't understand my lack of communication and ability to express myself verbally and emotionally. This has resulted in a huge fear of hospitals because of their lack of awareness for someone with my autistic spectrum... I won't go to hospital unless I am dying... or bleeding to death... or you know... an actual emergency.

So what about you, anyone told you that you don't have AS?

Yes, when I was first trying to prove to myself that I wasn't - but knew that I was - last December and January.

I have empathy, I use too many idioms, I don't come across like this one autistic child they knew (even though I am 41), I am aware that other people have minds and thoughts different from my own, I make too many jokes, I banter occasionally, I have friends, My writing makes me relatable, etc.

I think the one that really annoyed me was this guy who was trying hard to sell me on the idea I could not be autistic because I used idioms. He had this rigid idea about how autistic people communicate (based on reading this forum, but was not even accurate for this forum) and to his perceptions I did not communicate like that, although much of the time I actually do. What also bothered me is that he treated my online presence at 41 years as if this were an enduring part of me. As if the fact that it took me until my mid-20s to be comfortable with any slang at all never happened, just for one example. Or that the effort I make at being diplomatic negates my autism because I couldn't possibly have spent years learning communication principles piecemeal to learn how to do it without constantly accidentally messing up (but I still mess up).

I really get tired of these alleged social ground rules that are apparently supposed to govern how autistic people are allowed to talk to other people, and all autistic people are supposed to be exactly the same, so any other autistic person can be used to undiagnose me and I could be used to undiagnose any other autistic person. It's ridiculous.

Yea. Painstaking effort, time, mistakes. All to learn more effective communication and "normal" behavioral patterns. And then after years of consitent high intensity training and practice....I've been told it is impossible that I am autistic.

I take it as a compliment. The more I get this type of response the better. It means that even though they do not fully understand how much time and effort it took to get where I am, they are justifying the effort all the same.

Quite often when I first tell people I have AS they don't believe me. Even the people who have seen me had a complete meltdown don't always believe me at first.

My therapist said "I can tell you don't have autism, maybe aspergers."That made me feel good.A few weeks layer, he played a board game with me about social skills.Interesting fact:He yelled at me about feeling bad about the deficit in my IQ because of my non-academic learning disability by demonstracting how much he makes a year compared to a geniunly stupid person.

Yes, people have told me I do not have AS.
All of it has been made on the grounds that I am
1. Too intelligent.
2. Can understand/use metaphors (According to one person, it is physically impossible for people with AS to not take "it's raining cats and dogs" literally.).
3. Not afraid of a specific overwhelming color, and I can tolerate being touched to an extent. (My sensory issues express in another way)
4. Caring towards people and I have empathy.
5. Able to blend in or not be noticed as odd in general situations, because I smile and laugh alot, as well as I observe situations carefully and reflect upon them to learn from them.

I also rarely have meltdowns unless I am extremely agitated at not being able to find or do something (Like being unable to express myself). However, I often experience shutdowns and mutism when faced with strong emotional situations or a really chaotic environment.

The fact that the only grounds that are used to "disprove" me as having AS show a clear misunderstanding of what AS actually is makes me see their evidence as faulty and invalid, and only further convinces me that I do have it if faulty evidence is the only evidence that can be used to say I do not have it.

The funny thing is, one person who said I did not have AS, said, "It's not how they look on the outside, it's how much they struggle to appear that way."

I get told often that I can't have aspergers because I smile too much, but when I'm in public I smile constantly. My mom told me to my whole life, and I guess it stuck. Alternately, I've been yelled at for smiling at a funeral and many other inopportune times.

Plus, I've been told I'm too friendly to be an aspie. (maybe because I'm always smiling?)

Yes, a therapist I believe had some kind of degree in psychology. I had gone to him asking for some personal insight, advice and family counseling, and at first he "informally agreed" with my self-assessment. Later on, however, he clearly stated I do not have AS/HFA without even mentioning the virtual impossibility of sorting all of that out in and adult anyway.

I had the opposite problem. I didn't know much about introversion or ASD until about a year ago when I stopped my anti-anxiety drug use/abuse. I was told I might have AS by my closest friends including one who has a kid who is autistic. I didn't believe any of them. I thought I had SAD (performance anxiety). I was also told by some posters in on-line forums because of the way I came across in writing? I'm not sure?

My psychiatrist didn't think I had SAD. He diagnosed me with GAD. It took him months of seeing before suspecting I might have AS, but he's not a big fan of labels/diagnoses. He seems to think it's a continuum and even the criteria are a bit conventional. I tend to agree. The fact that my symptoms interefere with my life/work is my only concern. I'm still having troubles, despite Lexapro use (helps a bit with my anxiety). If I never worked, my problems would be limited to difficulty in social situations and of course sensory issues. Regardless I'm almost as glad as I'm upset about have anxiety/AS/introversion/sensory issues because it feeds into one of my interests and that gives me pleasure. I'm not sure if that makes sense?

Ditto to all of the above.

Yeah. Someone here (I'm not going to mention names), told me that I was a troll and didn't actually have AS when I made a thread about symptoms I didn't have.

It's amazing how so many people have a strict list of traits that you must have to be autistic, and either not having some of them or having them but coping with them well enough they may not be apparent means you can't be autistic.

I remember that thread, and I still do not even know what that guy was going on about. It made no sense, whereas your post made total sense (although what you were talking about is frustrating when it happens).

I last ex said I didn't have it because I was too far into my own world, my self help skills weren't that good, wasn't good with math, wasn't into technical stuff, and I was too childish.

But I was the one who kept saying I couldn't have it because I wasn't like him and after awhile he thought yeah i don't have it because he based it off of what he read on AS and here. But he never said I was an NT nor autistic, just wasn't an aspie and that I was PDD.

And trolls online have said about me not having it.

Someone said it at Yahoo Answers I didn't have it because he didn't like my answer to his question so he blocked me. He asked if it should be legal to help people commit suicide and I answered it honestly by saying no to it and he got pissed at me and two other aspies who were also against suicide. So basically he just wanted to hear what he wanted to hear. I hate those people.

I've only ever talked about it with one person online, and they were one of those types of people that thinks they're smart and logical when really, they're just douchebags. Anyway, he said I can't have AS because I messaged him. I was just messing around anyway, so I wasn't too concerned with the situation. It taught me some of the things people think though.

i had a friend who had a brother with AS and he said i didn't have it.

I get told that by a lot of people. The line that I get the most is, "I would never have guessed."