Do we ever forget we have autism ?

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Do you ever go a week without thinking about your ASD?

How do you do it?

I rarely interact with the outside world, and still, alone, my mind wanders to thoughts that I am this way because I have an ASD.

It seems like we will be keenly aware of our ASDness , until we die.

I do forget but for me ASD is only a small part of me. I try to adapt how I am. For me knowing I have ASD has helped me to find alternate ways of doing things and understanding why I have more trouble than others with people and such. In my case it's mild though. Also my personality probably plays a part.

I can't say I ever forget that I am autistic. I interact at work now, and that reminds me much more than when I was not working. At best, when I am alone for a long time, I might forget for a few moments that everyone else is not like me.

I forget about that in daily basic but I become painfully aware of it when my routine changes and/or I have to interact with people.

Yes, I forget .

It isn't something I think about all the time, though it has been an extreme interest for the last few years.

But when I am thinking about math, molecules or stars, I am not thinking about autism.

When I was swimming yesterday with my family, I was not thinking about autism or thinking "I have autism" or "I am a person with autism" or "I am autistic" -- not even when my son got very enthusiastic while playing with his friend and had a life guard tell him to chill out--that was just: keep in mind the pool rules and life guards keep a close eye on rambunctious teens, not "darn that autism."

But I do almost always think: play it cool. Try to blend in. Don't be too weird. That's a habit from school days that will never go away and that is about trying to conceal autistic behavior as much as possible. It doesn't mean that "having autism" is on my mind directly, but managing the social consequences of being different is a fairly constant background calculation.

Now that I have the pieces together, I do think about it when I have moments of difficulty about eye contact, or awkward encounters and communications with people.

I am a bit self-centered though. I basically still think that my perspective is normal and most people are weird because they are not quite like me... Knowing intellectually that it's the other way around doesn't change that basic sense.

Reading the title my answer was yes.....but to go a week? That's a really long time. I don't go a week. I am happier when not thinking about it though.

My perspective is normal to me, so although I work at doing what seems like it will be normal and socially more accepted, I don't really see other people as any different from me. I am aware they often feel otherwise or try to fit me into some category I am not because of not understanding, of course, but if I am happy and content, I am not thinking I am weird, I just am.

I forget other people aren't autistic.

I went most of my life unaware of what Autism is (I pictured somebody like Steven Hawking). I was just an Odd-ball in school or "you are just Unique" is what my parents said. The recent discovery of precisely what is different with me, has fixed my incorrect view of Autism as a whole while adding discouraging words like "disorder" and "disability". There is part of me that wants to go back and just be the unique odd-ball and forget all about it. I know my wife never wants to hear the word Asperger's again.
It does not seem possible to me to go through a day without thinking about what is happening (bits of knowlege). I dislike the idea that something is wrong with me so I choose to view Autism as an error in classification rather than the subjects being out of order. The way you say it, "...we have autism..." is part of the problem, like you have a disease or have some cake. It makes it seperate. Can we forget that we are autistic? Sure. If we can change the way we understand what it is.

Imagine,
Taking a large group of people and arange them by hair color. Allow them to interact for some time and then tell them that their telephone area code will be the determining factor from now on. Watch what they do.
There is no more thinking about hair, it's all about the numbers these days.

Your Point of Concentration is your life experience. Controlling this is imperative. You could be a brunette with an odd phone number or you could disregard the rules and classification game and just be yourself, no matter what.

I find it very difficult to stop thinking about autism. Especially as I have sensory issues that constantly remind me. And spending lots of time on WP doesn't exactly help me forget I'm autistic.

But it's kind of important to think about it, especially in social situations, otherwise I wouldn't apply my coping strategies and I could end up very unpopular.

One place where I'm free of it is when I'm dreaming. I've never yet remembered having a dream in which I'm aware of autism.

I'm a rather distractable person with not the best memory... I forget that I have fibromyalgia even though it causes me constant pain. I'll be sitting there wondering why I hurt so much and why I'm so tired, and it takes me a while to remember it's because I have fibro and hypothyroidism -_-
I don't automatically think of why I am the way I am, but more or less try to analyze certain situations. When things get busy, I don't usually think about the stuff I have, but more about the stuff I need to do and how to make sure it all gets done.

Yes, I think I forget about it when I start comparing myself to NTs. I sometimes forget when I look at my past failures and forget that I had lots of social problems due to Asperger's, and that was my main problem, not that I was physically unattractive, which I thought for so long, until I learned that I have Asperger's. It is still difficult to remember at times that my life is going to take a very different trajectory than most people's due to AS.

It´s two years since my dx, and of course I have been thinking about it a lot, having doubts, thinking back, analyzing situations and so-on-and-so-forth, because it´s a whole life, that has to be rethought.
Lately I only think of it, when I get hit from behind by memories of a situation or am having one of those moments with failing communication, sound sensitivity, exessive worrying/anxiety for ridiculous reasons and so.
But...I frequently go "...but, everybody feels like that. Everybody does that once in a while. Everybody....."
I have lots of doubt, so I guess I haven´t forgot....yet.

I haven't forgotten about it for a whole week since I first learned of AS in 2008. It's probably on my mind every day (although maybe not just after my pet Nemo died).

The philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said, "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a human experience.

Today I can say that "I am a spiritual being having a human experience of which autism is an integral part." Knowing this is enables me to be free and living this enables me to often forget completely I have autism.

Having unconsciously hidden all expressions of autism for most of my life - diagnosed in 2007 at the age of 42, I often forget my limitations until they wake me up through exhaustion or what is otherwise known as Aspie burnout.

However, with Mindful awareness I can live more creatively within my limitations....... so, yes I often forget, but it took me 5 years to not get so obsessed with autism.