Myths many aspies believe

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# NTs have no logic
# Empathy means compassion
# The opposite of AS social issues is social skills
# All you need to know about social interaction is in books and feedback from trusted people
# Social acceptance is a function of politeness and generosity
# You have to fit one or more of the currently available diagnoses, rather than diagnoses having to evolve to better describe reality
# NT education about AS is the antidote to social rejection
# Social skills is always about being nicer

Yes, I can agree with this list. May I ask what prompted you to post it?

This is a really great list, very insightful. I may print this out and hang it somewhere, not exaggerating. I think it would help me to be more patient with NTs, and with all the complexities of relating to others when they know my diagnosis.

This is one I figured out pretty early for myself. I realized, "empathy" in this context means something very clinical and empirical, for a psychiatrist to be testing for it. And from the context I gleaned that "empathy" is about social cues and the ability to recognize and have a response to what people are feeling. Compassion is harder to test and verify, because it can be expressed in so many vastly different ways.

Purely selfish reasons - I want for aspies to advance a bit in understanding so I have more interesting posts to read, i.e. so I can benefit more from others' insights.

More myths that many Aspies believe:

• "A self-diagnosis is just as good as, or better than any diagnosis by an appropriately-trained and licensed mental-health professional."
  
• "All Neuro-Typicals are evil."
  
• "Aspies are all gay / lesbians / bisexual / asexual."
  
• "Aspies are the next step in human evolution / descendents of space aliens / descendents of angels."
  
• "Aspies have paranormal or psychic abilities."
  
• "Every celebrity and historical person that I admire is an Aspie."
  
• "Everyone should be nice to me / obey me just because I am an Aspie."
  
• "I am entitled to special privileges and opportunities just because I am an Aspie."
  
• "I should never have to work for a living just because I am an Aspie."
  
• "My Asperger Syndrome is more severe than your Asperger Syndrome - no one else has is as bad as I."
  
• "My experiences, interests, and perceptions are the same as every other Aspie's."

More myths to come...

Don't forget, aspies could never be counsellors or therapists or social workers .. .

... we just don't have any theory of mind, ability to retain information and can't empathise

we only do IT and counting....

lots and lots of counting

and categorising stuff when we're not writing code.

Not always myths, but rather exaggerations.

Surely not all Aspies think that? I didn't. There must be a fairly good number of Aspies who have a good grasp of their own sexuality, who are straight and have typical sexual motivation.

I read an article that discussed AS affecting the Thalamus, which is also thought to have differences when someone's sexuality is different, so that would suggest that there could be a link for some people, but that doesn't mean that everyone automatically acquires an "alternate" orientation or gender identity if they have AS.

It was spreading like an infection for a while there.

This is one which my sister (who's an NT) seems to believe....because she's the first family member who got the idea about me being an Aspie, that means it "must" be true.

-That because they have aspergers they can speak for everyone else with it.
-That they have strange abilities to know more about someone over the internet than that person knows about them self. though maybe that's more a myth humans in general believe.
-That they are the authority on whether or not someone else has it.

If your motive is selfish then I am selfish as well because I think that it is a grand idea. I would dare say it has already bore fruit because I am seeing some interesting post, thanks.

Hmmm. That is, what I believed a few years ago. I guess, I still mix up empathy and compassion.

Aspies can't lie

Aspies are unable to manipulate

Aspies are unable to commit crimes

Good social skills means having friends and talking to people (I believed this for years. Now I know you can actually have friends and talk to people and still have poor social skills and social skills does not necessarily mean having friends and talking to people)

All aspies are organized (my ex believed this)

All aspies are great at math (my ex believed this too)

Aspies are unable to bully

If you are ignorant about autism, you must not be autistic

If you are not like me, you are not autistic

Being born with the wrong gender is an aspie thing

Empathy means caring about others and doing things for them (I believed this too for years, I still have a hard time understanding what it really is)

I dont know, i truly believe this one, i know sometimes im a little obsesive about my health, and over diagnose, but if a person has researched a lot in disease,disorders, mental and psychical, you can, do a propper diagnosis, because you really know what you are feeling, and the psychiatrist has to guess by what you say and show, and try to make a correct diagnosis.

I have been diagnosed with psychotic attack schizophrenia type, when i was having clinical depression( why did the psychiatrist got wrong?, and i was right?)
I have been diagnosed three times with schizoid personality disorder(this can be sometimes confused with asperger, but its just as easy as asking if the person dont want to be with people or doesnt get along with people, i always said i like to be with people, but i often feel anxiety, and i dont understand them and this makes my relationship fail)
I have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder twice(even though i took stratterra, and didnt gone maniac, and i dont show signs of bipolar, just major depressive disorder)
And the last one, this can be true i do fit in the diagnosis, but i dont think i have it, they think i have antisocial personality disorder.
When i was taking antipsychotics to that "psychotic attack", i was having a lot of side effects but there was 3 that were terrible, induced drug parkisonism,dystonia and akathisia, and i went to the doctor so they could take out those thing that i didnt even need, they said that not of those adverse effect existed, and they were going to hospitalize me again, i had to go cold turkey of the drugs, and it was Haldol, i was scared as hell but those 3 months in haldol, were bad as hell, luckily i didnt have withdrawal symtomps, just some insomnia for 1 week, and akathisia lasted 2-3 weeks after stopping the med.


My self diagnosis, when i was 18-19 was(im 20 now and officialy diagnosed)

OCD,Asperger,ADHD,Social anxiety,dyslexia,dysgraphia.

And that is the diagnosis i have now, adding major depressive disorder, and i have to go through a lot of psychiatrist and neuropsychologyst, to get the right diagnosis.

I know sometimes making self-diagnosis if you dont really know about the disease can go wrong, but if you have read a lot, in this case, my interest are science(especially physics and math), and human behavior and related to psychologyst and psychiatry, neurology, etc.

I made a good self-diagnosis , and every time i went to some psychiatrist, i could understand when he would often talk about something he didnt understand or was wrong, but using medical terms to confuse people, and this is not only with psychiatrist, i also read a lot about psychical disease, and the same thing happen here, sometimes the doctors dont even know what the person have and start talking in medical terms to make you believe they know what you have.

My point is, a person that is suffering something and is well informed can diagnose better his disease than a doctor that sometimes has to guess.

I have to agree with a lot of these. Especially ones about social skills, I use to think social skills meant being polite, and generous now I know it is not but unfortunately I still don't understand how to obtain social skills. I also use to think empathy was being compassionate, I now understand what it is but again I still struggle to empathies with people.