Why do some people deny the existance of AS?

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Santa and high functioning autism are two different things. Autism is real, Santa isn't. Never compare fiction to real.

Yes, but you can't see autism. It's not a physical object whose existence can definitely be confirmed. It's just a word used to describe a certain kind of person. I understand why people have trouble accepting the idea of AS, since I've had trouble with it myself on occasion.

There's a couple more reasons I can think of.

One is that a person actually is autistic, but wants to believe they are "normal", so they claim that it "doesn't exist" because the criteria sound just like them (and they think they're "normal", so they think it's "pathologizing normality").

Another is that there are some parents of autistic people (and some autistic people, for that matter) who want to believe that there's no such thing as autistic people who speak and do a whole lot of other things like that, so they just claim that these people can't possibly be autistic because it's so far from what they think their child is like (or what they are like). Etc etc etc.

There's also some people who believe that everyone creates their own problems in life, and that people saying they're autistic is just an excuse to hang onto their problems instead of solving them. Which sounds like psychoanalytic BS to me.

I've also heard people in the gifted community claim that describing some "gifted" people as also "autistic" is a form of pathologizing the overexcitabilities and hypersensitivities they believe are present in all "gifted" children. Etc. (One time a person told me something like that, and they told me I was pathologizing giftedness, and I told them to quit pathologizing autism.)

Why do people deny the existence of God?

...and you can see Santa!

I have no clue about that.

Santa was real a long time ago wasn't he?


Original topic.
Am have noticed this a lot on other forums,but more so with ADHD than AS and that is probably because of more well known association with medications like ritalin,the children that have crap sugar filled diets being diagnosed with it and the ADHD children that these ignorants have seen showing what they think is just 'bad behavior'.
With AS,a lot of people see it as only having minor social problems because the most vocal with AS tend to be the highest functioning,the ignorants don't see it as much of a difference and difficulty in it's own right as NTs can have social problems to.
Educate them or avoid them and their posts.

What? So I wasn't the only child who stayed up all night pretending to be asleep...
...then woke up in the morning annoyed I'd missed him?

Yeah, I think AS is one of those things that is hard to imagine unless you actually see it, and then you would have to know what to look for. Some people just cant get their head around it because a simple description might be vague, or they may see behavior or movements as easily modifiable. They see a symptom and think it is different. ("Cant that perosn jsut practice walking or talking this way and solve their issue? Why is that a problem?"). When I was younger and in psych class, the tetbook definiton of autism confused me. I didnt understand what it was because all it said was "developmental delays". I couldnt figure out exaclty what that meant before actually seeing an autistic person on tv. Then I thought, "Oh, thats what that meant. "Another person mentioned people don't believe in psychiatry. that's true too. It seems like if people do not have a text book exmple of somthing in their face, than they can't/won't beleive it exists. I've talked to many people who say social anxiety does not exist. They read about it and think the diagnosis is just targeting shy people and introverts. yet when they see a perosn on tv who is a loner, never had friends, cannot socialize appropriately to age, and is housebound, they think, "Oh that's miserable."

A part of it is definitely a result of a conspiracy theory-laden form of technophobia directed against the pharmaceutical industry. The rest is the result of ignorance.

Santa was real a long time ago wasn't he?


He never flew a sleigh or had reindeer or lived up in the north poll.

They've never heard of a thing called medical science.

I'm not too keen on the whole AS thing.
I don't think that makes me an idiot, though. . . or some. . . whatever I was called in this thread.

I do find it sketchy and also feel there's a fad to it too.

I seem to have a good number of the traits but what I gather from checklists and descriptions is the tendency to create a rather dangerous stereotype - and if I look at that stereotype then I'm quite the opposite in some key things.
As some of the checklists are written, it seems like anyone who doesn't fit in socially can be considered as having a mental disorder - provided certain indulgence. Without that indulgence, then a lot of people including myself are not AS. Other than bullying, womanizing and downright criminal behaviour I can't seem to find a personality quirk or gleam of independent thought that couldn't be rationalized as an AS trait.
I find all this too arbitrary and lacking seriousness; and while the label can bring together a lot of non-mainstream people together; saying "we are like this because our brains are not right" doesn't seem like the way to go.

A lot of specific AS traits don't seem to hold water either. When I was around 9 to 12 years old I went through an "astronomy" phase; I had other interests but my astronomy knowledge both weirded out a lot of kids and surprised a lot of adults. I eventually moved on focus-wise just as I had once initially settled to delving into it. During that period I could have been perfectly diagnosed as AS since I also tended to show off this knowledge with a complex, fast and somewhat shrill discourse. I find the possibility ludicrous. Odd mannerisms and interests in a growing child as symptoms of a mental illness while considering "normal"(i.e. desirable!) some random incospicuous couch potato does not seem right. What's normal for IQs reaching the 95th percentile and higher anyway? It just has to show in some way.
Specific traits aside, seeing that many of the symptoms are interchangeable with other "disorders" kinda hints that psychiatry is merely groping at something.

Maybe it's just me and I just don't have it or whatever and some people read an AS checklist and find it suits them perfectly. Personally I'm not satisfied with AS as an explanation for a lot of things and I think there's fad causing people to rush into conclusions.

Last edited by Whisperer on 18 Dec 2007, 11:39 pm, edited 4 times in total.

I hate how people think they have AS just to get attention. That makes us with it for real look stupid. I have it for real, 'cause the doctor said so. SO PLEASE STOP DIAGNOSING YOURSELF!!

Who you talking to? Whisperer? He never really said he has it. Did you see what he has in his profile, "Not sure if I have or Not." Mine would be the same if I was never diagnosed.

Many people on this board are self-diagnosed. I know of no one who claims AS for the sake of getting attention. There are such better ways of getting attention. I have heard of people who did not have AS seeking a diagnosis so that they could receive disability income. I am also aware of a member who was banned for repeatedly attacking the self-diagnosed.