"Autistic people can't realize they are autistic."

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Well, in my case, my Mum kept going on about it to different people, like doctors, teachers and the like, so I guess I just accepted the fact that I'm not like other people, "Autistic people [CAN'T] know they're Autistic" is a common misconception that I've heard coming from the mouths of many NTs, children in particular, and they don't seem to think I'm telling the truth, it's like "He must be lying because people who are like that don't know they're like that", that notion appalls me.

(Forgive me if that's not the right way of explaining it, but it's what I know from experience)

I'm not diagnosed but as a child I knew other people understood things that I didn't. I felt my separateness very keenly.

Ok sorry, maybe I am the only person on the spectrum that doesnt think its possible to know. There is actually a possibility that they know and that I just lack that ability, so what do I know anyway. Didnt want to insult anybody, Im just talking.

Some can. What about the Aspies?

ruveyn

I agree.

The sort of people who believe that assertion are the kind who in ages past would have been riding about in white costumes with burning crosses... - it belongs in the same stupidity bin as asserting that non whites are inferior...

But you do know your autistic.... you called yourself a "person on the spectrum". You have to know you're on the spectrum to say it, right? Either you know you're on the autistic spectrum, or you're wrong and you aren't on it. What you can't be is someone who is autistic but doesn't know it. How can you say you are on the spectrum and yet say you don't know you are autistic? That's pretty much the same as saying "I'm autistic, but I don't know it", which is contradictory.

Let me add, some of the more nuanced statements made in this thread I think may be true. And I even myself stated a different idea that maybe is what people actually mean when they say that, one which I won't say isn't true (see page 3 of the thread). But, the quote in the subject heading, taking it as stated without reading anything into it, I think is most definitely, and clearly, false.

I'm autistic, but I don't know it This!

I think I am on the spectrum because I can relate to you guys, and not because I understand my condition. I have a new moment every second, how is it possible to know which defined psychological issue Im just experiencing? Actually I have also spoken to a schhizophrenic person, which I very well relate to, as well as ADHD and even psychopathy. But, but, but... Im always not completely definable, I just can relate to almost anything, but I also disagree with a lot on every spectrum. How can I realize that I have it if I dont have anything to compare it with? There are issues that I relate to, but only sometimes, and other times everything was different. My point was just that I think I cant know because I cant have the opportunity to compare an autistic brain to another brain, and therefore I cant know the difference in its nature.

Yeah, the assertion referred to in the OP I think is different (as has been pointed out a few times at least) than saying an autistic person might not REALISE they're Autistic in the first place - which is entirely likely - ie. I've always been RATIONALLY aware that it must be ME who has something wrong - even tho I always FELT (and still do to be honest) that it's everyone ELSE who is strange and not quite right. I didn't know what was going on tho until learning of AS - AS explains what's been going on the whole time...

I think you are understanding "know" differently than me. I don't think people who say ""Autistic people can't realize they are autistic.". Mean "know" in the deep way you are talking about. I think they mean it in the way you do know you are autistic, not in the way you don't know your autistic (which I would word as, "can't know fully for certain") Of course, since we don't know who said in, when, it's impossible to make an informed guess about what whoever said it meant. But, at least know I get what you mean.

Last edited by Mysty on 10 Jul 2011, 8:39 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I know I'm autistic because the doctors and my mom tell me I am.

Yeah same here!