What do you think are big misconceptions about autism?

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ASPartOfMe
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17 Jan 2019, 1:05 pm

Autism is either a fake disease or overdiagnosed because it is a trendy excuse for bad behavior and a way to get undeserved benefits.

Everybody is a little bit autistic.

Autistic people can not mature and learn new skills. If an autistic toddler is non verbal and is always melting down this will never change same for an adult autistic that is jobless and relationshipless.


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jenisautistic
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22 Jan 2019, 3:49 am

Lanceeselhombre wrote:
dragonsanddemons wrote:
By "semi-verbal," do you mean that the character has a form of selective mutism (essentially can speak sometimes, but not at other times)? I do, and nobody I've met in person ever believes me when I try to tell them, they insist that I can speak if I try hard enough, I just don't want to, since I'm capable of speaking some of the time - but that isn't true, I'm physically incapable of forcing my vocal cords into action sometimes (especially when I'm very anxious or experiencing sensory overload). That's just as frustrating to me as the mutism itself.

Actually, that happens most of the time I can't meet someone's expectations of me, especially with my dad - I'm accused of not trying hard enough, not wanting to do something, and/or not caring. Because my autism is an "invisible disability," people just don't understand that I struggle at or am not capable of things that are easy for them.


What you described is exactly what I mean. Although he is going to have a very limited amount of words he can verbalize.


I can give you some insight on what it’s like to be selectively mute or partially nonverbal it’s like sometimes I’ll talk a lot to one person but be totally unable to get words to to another.

Perhaps this person couldsee a group of friends but one of them they don’t talk to because of being selectively mute.

Perhaps the they become friends and this person talks to some people in the group and not talk to others and all of them are very close so they wonder why this person is not talking to certain friends .

But hey that’s just my advice


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22 Jan 2019, 11:43 am

The biggest ones in my experience:

1. No empathy, doesn't care about people, etc.
2. "Sensory problems aren't that bad, you're just uncomfortable and blowing it out of proportion"
3. "You're just faking because autism is cool right now"
4. "You're so lucky that you can't work, I wish I was impaired"
5. Autism is a form of mental illness
6. Autism is an excuse for people to complain about how hard life is
7. Layman: "You're not autistic, you just have <insert "expert" diagnostic label here>"


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TrippyRabbit99
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22 Jan 2019, 9:07 pm

I dont know, people seem surprised when I tell them

I'm a girl and a person of color so I definitely dont fit the stereotypes



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22 Jan 2019, 9:18 pm

Fnord wrote:
Let's not forget that we are all supposed to be one or more of the following:

• Able to converse with animals
• Able to converse with ghosts
• Alien-Human hybrids
• Angel-Human hybrids
• Animal-Human hybrids
• Fae-Human hybrids
• Magical
• Neanderthal-Human hybrids
• Otherkin
• Psychic
• Reincarnated animals
• Telepathic
• The next step in human evolution
• Throwbacks in human evolution

:roll:


Ah but the truth is far stranger. :lol:


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TheAP
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23 Jan 2019, 9:54 pm

- That we can't learn social skills/norms.
- That we don't care about others.
- That we're all obsessed with science/math.
- That we're all innocent and childlike.
- That we're rude and unfriendly.
- That we're incapable of lying or using subtext.



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23 Jan 2019, 11:35 pm

It's not a matter of being fully verbal or nonverbal, there are many levels in between.

Some of us actually suck at math.

A lot of things people say are autism are actually comorbids.

Just because you feel good about autism doesn't mean you have it easy.


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24 Jan 2019, 1:29 am

That we can't be around any people.
That we have no empathy.
That we don't have any basic knowledge and we need to have facts stated to us.
That we're all mentally challenged.
That we all bang our heads all day long.
That we can't hold down jobs.


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26 Jan 2019, 10:25 pm

This probably won't be a popular comment, but it is what I sincerely believe: One of the biggest misconceptions about autism, to some degree by the public, but often perpetrated by aspies themselves and held to like a gospel among many but hopefully not all people who are autistic. is that the cause of autism is primarily genetic.



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26 Jan 2019, 10:30 pm

That "you do not care about anyone except yourself!"



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old_comedywriter
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26 Jan 2019, 10:43 pm

Fnord wrote:
Let's not forget that we are all supposed to be one or more of the following:
• The next step in human evolution
• Throwbacks in human evolution

I always say that while Ogg was out hunting, someone had to stay home and invent the wheel. And maybe after dinner, he'd stick those melty rocks into the fire and make a tool or two.

About those misconceptions: Everything is a misconception. We range from bottom to top, from able to unable, from male to female and everything in between including null. The one true generalization that holds is we are human.


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27 Jan 2019, 6:31 am

That autistic people lack imagination and creativity.

I think I am good at maths it's just that most of my topics at school required practical work and I'm dyspraxic.

So, that we can all draw really good free hand technical drawings. We're not robots. Not that I'm calling geniuses who can do that robots just, it seems to come out of the assumption that autistic people are robots.



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27 Jan 2019, 7:29 am

That we understand everything literally and that we don't get metaphors. This may be the case for some of us. I myself find that I usually realize a little too late that something wasn't meant literally, but inexperienced counselors often have a simplistic view of the literal thinking issues.



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27 Jan 2019, 8:14 am

nca14 wrote:
I think that some of common misconceptions may be:
1. People with autism do not know that other people do not think the same as them (I have diagnosis of AS and do not remember thinking so, even in early childhood). But I think that it is true that people with ASD (generally) have no "intuitive" theory of mind.
2. Autistic people can't lie and can't understand the nature of lie.
3. Everybody with ASD is a visual thinker and good in technical matters, physics, 3D imaging.
4. People with autism do not speak or always start to talk lately.
5. People with autism have no empathy, especially affective empathy.
6. Everybody with ASD have sensory overloads, meltdowns, shutdowns.
7. Autistic people have no need of contact with other persons.
8. People with ASD can't have high verbal IQ.
9. Autistic people live in own, fictional, world.
10. Everybody with autism does not like changes.


I struggled with the last misconception for some time. While I believed my diagnosis fully, among the few things that I didn't have in common with many that I've known to be classic cases of autism, I didn't/don't share the dislike of changes- Which I heard is a key factor amongst all on the Spectrum.

I can do and eat the same thing every day and I do have some routines but I'm not tied to them and I welcome positive changes to my environment and schedule. Finding new music and creating new art are among the top things concerning my day-to-day.


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29 Jan 2019, 7:11 pm

That all have melt downs and are non verbal.



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29 Jan 2019, 7:22 pm

That we can't understand fashion and wear tight fitting clothes.