Autism Denial

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Hello, I'm a newcomer here so please be gentle!

Do you think that most autistic people know they are autistic?

In childhood I was a loof but happy. During my teenage years I became really insecure because I felt different than everybody else. Now that I’m out of high school I have been making some progress towards self discovery.

Looking back I think my closest friends were on the spectrum. However now that I’m more self aware I notice that a lot of people with Autism are oblivious or in denial. None of my friends who I think had Aspergers ever admitted to having it but a few times mentioned that I did. Personally I never got offensive but anytime I suggested they may also have it they didn’t catch on...

My only concern about people that are unaware of their autism is that I find them more out of touch then people that more understand Autism in general.

Do you think it is bad that people are unaware of their autism or do you think that it doesn’t matter that much?

Also, in your personal opinions are people who know they have autism higher functioning or less functioning?

Thanks for the time! I enjoy reading the site.

Hello and welcome to WP

I think that there are some people who have autism who are unaware that they have it.

Personally for me, I have gone through stages of denial, but that was just a coping mechanism.

Yeah, I understand your situation. I'm pretty sure my best friend is an aspie, that's one of the reasons we get along so well in the first place.
You asked if not knowing is bad or not. Well, it totally depends on the case. In my situation I decided not to tell her myself, she's kind of emotionally unstable right now, she's been through anorexia, depression, lots of issues. So in this case I believe it's better for her not to know, but in other cases it may be better to tell the person to go see a specialist, for example, if she/he has been misdiagnosed, or is trying to find himself/herself. Each individual and case is unique.
I don't believe finding out for yourself makes you high or low functioning, but I believe too severe cases would not find out for themselves, for instance, I know a girl who has severe aspergers, she is so blind to social clues I don't think she even realizes she is doing it differently. I could be wrong of course.

Ah, and welcome !

I think and I am probably going to get lambasted for it, that people on the spectrum who find out later that they are, begin to do something that everyone naturally does. Which is to look for qualities in themselves in others.

It is a way to feel more at ease and to deny in a sense that they are different. Who wants to be different than everyone else around them? I would be careful at analyzing anyone including yourself. While I am sure you see the similarities to yourself, you are also only focusing on that and not taking into account the broader picture. I am guilty of it too, and I remind myself this very same thing.

autistic people were always thought to be completely oblivious of theyre behaviours and few doctors today know this. i can tell you that indeed, aautistic people all over the spectrum are 100% aware of what they are doing.

I just realized you made three questions. So here it is to the first one.
I guess most people with autism and aspergers don't know they have it, specially girls. I don't know how it's like in the US, but here in Brazil nobody even knows what aspergers is. And according to statistics an average person would know around 4 aspies. Ask a random person how many aspies he/she knows. Here where I live most answers would be 'none', at most 'one'. Oh wait I'm being too optimistic, chances are the answer would be 'asp what?' Imagine in lots of other places in this vast world with even less medical care. People don't know what it is, and don't know what autism is.

You may not know what it's called, but I'm not sure it's possible to have autism and not know that there's something wrong with you. You can just look around you and see that virtually none of the other people that you know are dealing with the same problems that you have, when it comes to functioning socially or dealing with sensory problems.

Not to mention the fact that when you can't function up to everyone else's expectations and standards, they will tell you loudly and often that there's something wrong with you, though they may call you "lazy," or "slacker," or "stubborn," or claim you're always making excuses or not trying hard enough.

I knew from the age of 7 or 8, when my parents forced me to play Little League Baseball even though I couldn't catch or hit a ball no matter how much I was made to practice, that I was not like the "normal" boys my family wanted me to be.

The first time I saw kids on television with Classic Kanner's Autism, I knew immediately that I had some form of whatever they were suffering from, but it was another 25 years before I discovered what Asperger Syndrome was, and realized that was it.

Over the years, people at work would jokingly ask me if I was autistic, because of my constant stimming and though they never realized how right they were, I assumed that they weren't far from the mark.

Whatever you may choose to call it, I don't believe you can have a disability like autism and not at least be aware that something about you isn't quite the way it's supposed to be.

For most of my life I assumed that I was like everybody else, and that I had no excuse for being such a complete failure at socializing and functioning in general. Everyone else managed to have friends, hold down jobs, and have a stable life, but I just failed for no good reason, and it was my fault.

It never occurred to me that I was dealing with challenges that other people don't have. But then when I was about 30, I heard of Aspergers Syndrome for the first time, and yeah, it was glaringly obvious to me that it described me perfectly. (Though it took me another 10 years to finally take it seriously, and get diagnosed!)

That's how it worked for me too. I think even though autistics may notice there's something different they don't know there are other people out there like them too if there's no autism awareness. Then it's not like they know they are autistic or something. They think there's something weird about them

autistic people were always thought to be completely oblivious of theyre behaviours and few doctors today know this. i can tell you that indeed, aautistic people all over the spectrum are 100% aware of what they are doing.

People who are autistic but don't realize they are exist.
I only knew about Asperger's when I was diagnosed at 13.
As a child I think I knew I was different but I just was too absorbed by my obsessions to realize I knew it. I didn't think much about how I was different from other children and therefore I didn't consider much the situations in which, looking back, my "difference" showed itself crearly. I didn't have much self-awareness back then.
I started to realize I knew I was different when I was diagnosed with AS.

I do not think knowing about your autism makes you any more high-functioning. My bother has LFA and he knows he's autistic while my father has AS/HFA and he thinks he is perfectly fine and doesn't have any disorder.

I don't understand what you're trying to say. Is this an answer to something I said or someone else said? Or are you giving your opinion on the topic?

You can't know unless the label is discussed, although I think you notice there are things going on that you don't understand. I think the being out of touch probably has more to do with maybe a connection between how one is raised and parents who help get the diagnosis made and support the child.

I don't think it's a good idea to tell someone they seem to have ASD unless one is a professional in a helping role who is supposed to do that. But I think it's ok to encourage someone to ask the question of professionals if they are struggling and asking for help and it seems relevant.

I'm not sure about the higher versus lower functioning question except to say that if one grows up getting all kinds of services because of having more trouble functioning, it might be more likely one would have had all kinds of evaluations and know one had ASD. But not sure about that.

The first year I got diagnosed I assumed society was attempting to label me so they could pass off my unique personality as a disease. Now I'm not nearly as angry about it, and don't actually care a large majority of the time.

I've known from the age of 5 (around 1965) that I was different but it is only a few years ago that I discovered Asperger's while doing a google search for some of my lifelong symptoms. However, I didn't realise just how different I really was regarding things such as recognising body language and facial expressions. I never knew that people could detect so many emotions by looking at someone's face (I can see around 6) but apparently "normal" people can detect more than 40, some well over 100!

So I wouldn't say I've spent the last 53 years in denial so much as in ignorance of the nature of my condition. To other people I've always just been an eccentric, highly intelligent, lazy, scruffy social misfit who waves his arms around when talking. Frequently compared to the mad scientist stereotype.