autism myths.

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What myths have you seen about autism? Here are some:

Autism means you're either really smart or mentally ret*d.

High functioning autistic people's issues are just with social skills, sensory issues and stimming.

If a person is autistic, they're likely to also be gay.

Vaccines cause autism.

We are soulless.

Dont have empathy!

You dont look autistic

All supposed to dislike fiction

All grammar warriors

'Stereotyped interests' such as train spotting

'Your an aspie so you must be mentally ill' ( no, but those comments would!)

'oh.. so your a savant then!'.

What myths have I not seen?

Aspergers/Autism is a fake disease put there to make money for big pharma, excuse bad behavior, a politically correct label to describe crazy people etc.

All people who describe themselves as aspies do so because they do not want to be associated with "real autistics".

An autism diagnosis especially a severe one means you will be a lifelong 24 hour, 7 days a week burden to yourself, your family, and society and you will never be happy.

If you have a job, are married, are female, etc etc you can not be autistic.

All autistics are narcissists.

Aspies are more likely to be spree shooters.

Autistics are superior to NT's.

You are not autistic unless you are diagnosed by a professional.

If Autistics just tried harder they would be normal.

Autism is caused by the devil or by a curse.

The refrigerator mother theory.

Found a couple in this 2004 article: Undiagnosing Gates, Jefferson, and Einstein

- Autism means you regress in speech. It doesn't count if you had delayed speech.
- Autistic people are incapable of speaking quietly.
- If you are a calm person, then you can't be autistic.

You're not autistic if you have a sense of humor, understand abstraction and figurative language, etc.

Everyone is on the spectrum in some way; you just need to get over yourself.

Last year my 25yr old aspie son got into an argument with a women in his tafe course who while giving a presentation on why TV and modern media are bad for society claimed autism is caused by watching too much TV.
She said this was true because her doctor told her.

People on the spectrum...
...are usually religious
...can only think in "black and white" terms
...can be easily spotted (sorry, but there are some stealth aspies)
...are emotionally unstable
...are all introverts
...all can't read facial expressions