Why Are Aspies Suspicious Everyone Is Lying About Autism?

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Bird in flight, I think to be fair to the efforts made to create a more inclusive climate, that it is important to acknowledge the significant changes since 2014. ^

Rabid fox, there isn't a need to feel anxious, no one will attack you, that attitude isn't tolerated here. Though it is fair to say that claims and opinions are open to questioning, which I believe reflects the value placed on critical thinking on WP.
This place tends to be self policing... Stay, post as you please, no need to worry imo.

Sometimes, I believe we should not validate these naysayers by engaging with them.

By virtue of the fact that nobody, really, can "prove" their autism based upon an Internet presentation.

And nobody can determine if somebody is autistic based upon that same Internet presentation.

We are not clairvoyant clinicians.

Moreover, this is an inclusive Site. It is not just for people with autism.

LOL....I am in the exact same boat as Untilwereturn was until he latched on to photography.

I have a degree in English and speech pathology. And I'm a data-entry clerk, a job which only requires a high school diploma.

Having a degree does help these days, though.....any Bachelor's. Many jobs require them these days. Even McDonald's "de facto" requires them if one wants to work in a plum location.

Amity, I can't say I see a change since 2014 -- I was attacked regarding this autism validity issues by two younger members as recently as February of this year, badly enough that I stopped posting for a while. There are still regularly threads posted which are dripping in "how come" cynicism regarding older, late diagnosed or milder people on the spectrum, that almost amount to trolling while falling short of fully being that.

^ It's unfortunate that this trend continued despite your diagnosis, I can say that my experience has been increasingly positive since the emotional spats on this topic ended; but maybe that's because I haven't taken a break and my perspective is different to someone who has had some distance from the site .

If anyone on here tells me they don't believe my diagnosis, I'll tell them they can sick my duck. Sometimes I wish I had the ability to travel through my phone to smack people (<just a joke).

I've felt that way.....but would never act on it, even if I was able to put my fist through a phone.

So guys and now suddenly we have this: http://wrongplanet.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=326885

This person just made this account today. He says he joined WP today to inform the community about misdiagnosis. Like we don't already know that's possible, and like some here don't already use that as a stick to beat others with vis a vis this very thread raises the problem of.

He questions someone's ability to speak publicly and to travel as being grounds to raise suspicion that they can't be autistic. Just happens to be Temple Grandin but it's the same thing we here have been accused of!

Thank you for the reassurance. This is my first time being somewhere like this, so I was nervous. I have trouble with speech, and things can "appear bigger in the mirror than they actually are". I have a really hard time understanding other people's choice of vocabulary and grammar. I have to keep reading things over and over again until I think I understand them.

But, yes, thank you.

That is not what spectrum means it means there are different severity levels of the condition, it doesn't include everyone only applies to people with the condition. Quite a few mental conditions/disorders are considered spectrum's too because not everyone with the same condition has it as severely. Also what about self diagnoses because someone mentions you seem to have traits of aspergers....so you look into and come to find it actually explains quite a few of your struggles/issues that you never could figure out(that the depression and anxiety never seemed to explain) and that you're not the only freak with such issues after all, there is an actual condition that explains it and you want to understand yourself better? I don't really see harm in that, I actually did get diagnoses after a time but its not like I thought of myself as someone without aspergers pre-diagnoses and then suddenly saw myself a someone with it once the diagnoses was on paper.

Honestly, I am growing tired of the constant conflict seemingly all over recently as it is becoming overwhelming even for me.(generalized statement) I never suspected aspergers or autism, I was diagnosed when I was like 14/15 without my knowledge and before I had the maturity or wherewithal to comprehend it's implications so it's hard for me to relate to those who have gone soul searching looking for belonging/acceptance somewhere while it took me years and years to come to terms with something imposed on me and to get to the point where I try to better myself now. I don't care whether such and such poster self diagnosing being here or hold it totally against them, it's just more about relatability and some people are more relatable than others obviously.

I think part of what bugs me is this 'neurodiverse' stuff as I see the spectrum as a collection of impairments rather than something that can taken pride in or anything positive, I have not gotten anything positive out of it in my entire life except maybe the fact that the social isolation kept me from falling into the bad crowds which plagued my earlier youth. Maybe I'd be doing heroin right now if I were NT, I don't know but maybe I'd be happy too I don't know as it's another life. We are all just a sum of our life experiences and the environments we come from, everything in history has led to this moment now so anybody can be understood by exploring such.

I guess I don't understand the spectrum as I see it as categorized by the most severe to the least, if the spectrum is defined as a collection of impairments it would be easier to understand but I feel like others believe something else entirely(most notably the supremacists which I think is the logical conclusion of all identity politics and groupism) which to me doesn't seem like their would be any cut off point. I don't want to disenfranchise anybody but I feel disenfranchised and judged at the same time. I don't know if any of this makes sense, I've woke up pretty scatter brained and shouldn't drink coffee but I do but this is the outlet. I don't want to push anyone away, I don't think I participate in this but maybe some of my viewpoints others disagree with but I'll tolerate theirs if they tolerate mine.

I hate it when people say others are faking autism or don't really have autism. There's no way to prove that unless you know the exact symptoms the person displays that made them think they have it. Those who say that AS is becoming a "trendy" diagnosis never provide any proof for their assertions.

To Jacoby -- regarding your comments that you feel most people here seem to think it's something to be proud of while your experience is that it's a collection of impairments rather than a wonderful thing to have; personally I am not one of those who think of my ASD as something to celebrate or be proud of. I too, like you, feel that for me it's nothing but a slew of impairments that are responsible for difficulties I wish I did not have nor ever had, but I have had.

I am one of the older ones you can't relate to because your diagnosis was given to you when you were too young to even reflect upon it, while people of my generation had to find out for themselves -- something which gives fuel to the fire of your young-diagnosed group feeling suspicious of the ones who had to figure it out by ourselves.

However, I've noticed more younger WP members speak of being proud of their autism or feeling "supremacist" or like being an aspie means they are super new race in evolution --- much more often than the older ones. I've seen older post more about struggling to come to terms with the possibility, or with a diagnosis so late in life, because they are forced to re-frame everything they believed about themselves. Some of that re-framing is good, but some of it is difficult.

The good reframing might be "I'm not just weak after all." But some of the painful re-framing might be more like: "So I'm never going to be free of the struggle I experience with X or Y....."

Personally this was true in my case. I don't think I'm the next step in evolution, or better than NTs, or that I'm a quirky genius of any kind. I just feel like a middle aged woman for whom this was both a really nasty shock and at the same time a huge answer to a question.

Please don't assume that all the people who are either feeling themselves to be on the spectrum or are getting diagnosed at another time of life other than youth or childhood, are all just thinking this is a great thing or a sign of greatness. Some, myself included, don't view it that way.

I still struggle so much with this that I don't even disclose to anyone. I'm not ashamed but I'm not "proud" and i still have a lot to figure out in private.

Would you be "ashamed" of having juvenile diabetes?

Would you be "proud" of having juvenile diabetes?

The answer to both of course would be "no". Either would be absurd.

Sounds like a majority of the people on these boards really don't like themselves much (even more so than I).

For what it's worth, BirdInFlight, I would say that I do relate to a lot of your feelings there and am quite similar in regards to my reluctance to disclose. One thing that I think bugs a lot of younger people and just disadvantaged people in general is the projection of the 'pull yourself up from your bootstraps' mentality that someone who found it out on their own might develop. Equally bothersome is the mentality of acceptance or surrender; I think that might be where some of the prejudice on my part towards those older than me who come from similar circumstances comes from. I had a family member die recently who I would guess was most definitely on the spectrum, it was not a pretty or dignified death nor do I think quite frankly that it was a life well lived in any sense so it scares me to see myself in someone like that. It depresses me to think that these issues may never be solved and that I may be, for all intents and purposes, doomed to suffer. One can accept that life or not, I don't think I can ever be happy the way I am now. One must remember we are all working thru things, I'm not really somebody who goes around questioning people's DXs nor do I want to hurt people.

It has always bothered me the people that bring up Einstein or Bill Gates or whoever, it may make parents feel better about their kids but I don't see it as any bit inspirational as that sets impossible to meet expectations and some(not me) may develop a mentality of entitlement which turns into anger once the reality of adult life sets in. One can react angrily towards the outside world for not matching their expectations or they can turn it inward, I turn it inward probably to an unhealthy degree. I wasn't coddled, I probably didn't have a much better experience in school(maybe worse) than most people older than me before it was even a diagnosis but what made it even worse knowing they had the knowledge and could of done more but didn't which I will forever be bitter about.