Why dont people understand autism?

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Maybe it sounds selfish or neurotic, but I want people to see it the way I see it, and the way I understand it. It seems impossible, but being stubborn, I keep trying to find ways to achieve that.

I think Patience is a good starter. You can try whatever from there onwards.

sorry here last reply posted in 2010 and i'm again bumping this old topic but this question is evergreen!

why they don't understand something like autism exist?
here in india when i try to say something about it nobody take seriously and even sometimes people laughing if i explain such a things!!
really fee very sad:(
when people will understand?

That's actually exactly why.....I mean how is someone with a normal functioning brain possibly going to understand autism?

I agree, most people don't understand what it is or only have a misconceived or stereotypical view on what it is from reading the newspaper, it sounds even worse when they mention that some killer or internet troll is on the spectrum as if their diagnosis was the sole reason that they committed the crime.

People don't understand autism for many reasons. One is that there is not a lot of accurate information out there about it, amongst the general population. Loads of stereotypes and all that out there. Another is that there is usually nothing visibly wrong with us. At first glance, we appear like anyone else, and many of us can blend in just fine - we often just appear to be strange people.

There are also the vile people who think we're all faking it or that autism does not exist, etc.

There's a reason I pretty much never tell people about my diagnosis.

Me too.

A favorite quote of mine from the movie The Mothman Prophecies:

John Klein: I think we can assume that these entities are more advanced than us. Why don't they just come right out and tell us what's on their minds?
Alexander Leek: You're more advanced than a cockroach, have you ever tried explaining yourself to one of them?

Right on. I wish the same thing. I really wish I could SHOW other people what I'm thinking and why, and then maybe they could understand why I tend to be so confused by their words and actions. Having to try and spell it out with words is sometimes impossible, and most times I don't even try.





Has this actually happened?

Hopefully with a few more movies out there this will make an awareness of it. There is a Nobel prize laureate on the spectrum.

Depression was at one time only for the weak minded and was scorned as Freudian quackery, but nowdays one can't help to not be bombarded with these Pharma commercials, (thus a mainstream consensus of legitimatcy via education).

My nephew's is aware of a fellow classmate on the spectrum. "He has autism and we played together in band."

I recenty learned someone in my extended family has been diagnosed early at 8, and his un-Dxed mother certainly is on the spectrum ( to me).

I've got the impression that 1 in 100 ins't far fetched.

The ignorance should lighten.

It's because people are idiots.

an NT perspective of Aspies' perspective:
"People with Asperger's syndrome perceive the world differently from everyone else. They find the rest of us strange and baffling. Why don't we say what we mean? Why do we say so many things we don't mean? Why do we so often make trivial remarks that mean nothing at all? Who do we get bored and impatient when someone with Asperger's syndrome tells us hundreds of fascinating facts about time-tables, the individual numbers carved on lamp posts in the United Kingdom, the different varieties of carrots or the movements of the planets? Why do we tolerate such a confusion of sensations of light, sound, smell, touch and taste without getting to screaming pitch? Why do we care about social hierarchies -- why not treat everyone the same way? Why do we have such complicated emotional relationships? Why do we send and receive so many social signals to each other and how do we make sense of them? Above all, why are we so illogical compared to people with Asperger's syndrome?"

Foreword, Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals, Tony Attwood

I'm sure this has been said but the answer seems fairly obvious. The only people who are really equipped to explain AS to NT's...well...have AS. We are not renowned for strong public speaking. Hmm, it's kind of zen if you think about it As long as you don't think too hard.

Because most are not only not autistic, but also NT, i.e. most have no need to understand something other than NTism.

I am autistic, and I don't understand NTism like NTs do, but I do have to learn about NTism to interact with the large majority of NTs.

Agree with this. They are as ill-equipped to understand us as we are them. It is not malice that prevents them from making much of an effort, it is simply that most have far less incentive to try.

^^This.^^

I think that makes it both interesting, but also double annoying for someone like me. I feel as though I think both ways, but at different times. I understand both sides, but I can't seem to be one or the other. Trying to explain myself to anyone is so difficult, plus I get people from both sides telling me I'm lying or faking it or putting on airs.

Or maybe because we're normal. I really don't understand how the complex social interactions that NT's go through (especially the bits the don't do, like tell the truth and speak straightforwardly) could be the natural default.