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

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Does anyone know where that sort of belief came from? I've seen people make that assertion in other parts of the internet, and some people here have reported that psychiatrists or psychologists have said similar to them. The entire notion strikes me as nonsensical.

I mean, it's obvious to me that autistic people may fail to realize they are autistic (being an autistic person who failed to notice I was autistic until it was explicitly described to me). But this is not the same as being unable to know at all.

When I was a kid there was no way I would have ever thought I was autistic in a million years. Maybe that statement rings true for kids?

I never knew that I had it but when they told me the symptoms I said "That describes my whole life."

Or, maybe that means we have a hard time figuring out that we are having an autistic moment (or many) and changing it. Like, in public for instance.

Here's an example of what I mean:

From this thread:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt167175.html

This would be completely irrelevant to me if people weren't also reporting medical professionals insisting that this is the case (although Didacticity's brother is not a medical professional).

That is absolutely ret*d. And, by that logic, cats aren't smart enough to figure out that they aren't humans.

So, an adult with Asperger's Syndrome cannot possibly know what Asperger's Syndrome is, even after having it explained to them or reading a book about it? I strongly disagree.

I don't agree with it and I agree it is completely wrong, but I am wondering where this belief comes from. Who asserts it and where? Why is that taken as authoritative by anyone?

I saw a show with two grown women, twins, who are diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome in adulthood but appeared a bit more autistic in childhood. They watched Price Is Right a lot and could recall things by rote about the episodes. They were not asked directly about autism during the documentary I watched. If they were asked, I wonder what their response would be? Like, if an interviewer asked one of them, 'what does Asperger's Syndrome mean to you?" I wonder what she would say? The twins seemed different than I in terms of how they are affected. They appeared more severe, so I wonder if they understand they have Asperger's Syndrome or can give a definition when asked?
This level of severity might be where some medical professionals get the idea some with autism cannot realize they have it.

There are plenty of people who are what would be described as severely autistic who realize they have it and what it is and write about it at some length. I wouldn't assume that the two you describe would be unable to understand that they have Asperger's Syndrome or what it is.

I am kind of hoping for some kind of academic citation.

That example came to mind because I had the impression from the documentary all the twins could talk about with ease was the Price is Right. They had communication difficulties except when it came to that show and then they knew a lot they remembered from watching it. It's hard for me to imagine them talking about Asperger's Syndrome like they did the Price is Right. They might not be able to give a definition of AS or autism. If they can, it might not be as concise as the info about that show.
To be sure, someone would need to ask them, on camera, about Asperger's and Autism to see if they can tell what it is and if they realize they have it and no one did.

A lot of autistic people have verbal communication difficulties that do not reflect their cognitive abilities and comprehension. A lot of autistic people also have a tendency to talk at length about their interests and go into extreme detail about said interest, possibly to the point of appearing to be unable to talk about anything else. After all, I was in my mid-20s before I started to realize I needed to learn how to consistently talk about things other than my interests if I wanted to hold coherent conversations with most people. I am not sure what people thought when I talked about nothing but vampires or science fiction. And I still have difficulties talking about topics I'm not interested in.

I also still have difficulties talking about things I haven't already written, read, or heard about. I do not have the same difficulties with writing.

My point is, it's impossible to conjecture what any autistic person can comprehend or communicate on the basis of speech alone.

But, it's easier for you and I to talk about other subjects than our own interests. Some people have more difficulty with it and only talk with ease about information they have gathered in their memory about their special interest. You trained yourself to talk about other things but some people cannot train themselves.
It could be difficult for such a person to comprehend what autism means. How can you know for sure if they do? I am not saying it's bad they don't comprehend it because everybody's different. I am not implying anything negative in this. Some people might be truly innocent in this regard.
I am certainly not saying all autistic/AS people are like this. although I admire the memory ability of people who are.
I understand, somewhat, how AS affects my life and influences others reactions to me.

I don't talk with ease about things other than my interests. I can manage it for a few minutes before I can't really continue. Mostly I let other people talk and tune them out while pretending to listen. But I mean I had to figure out that this was a good idea and work on it. Prior, I hardly talked about anything but my interests, but I was usually around people who shared my interests or who, I guess, suffered in silence.



I never said I know for sure if they do.

But what I do know is:

* Many autistic people - some more autistic than they are - know what autism is and know they are autistic, and can speak about it at length
* Many autistic people who were assumed to be incapable of comprehending a great many things surprised people when they finally communicated (via computer or speech or other method),
* You observed these two in an environment where they were focused on their interest and given free reign to talk about it. I am not sure I would come across any more well-rounded if someone started questioning me about any of my interests.

I am not saying that they can or cannot comprehend what autism is, although my inclination is to assume they can unless demonstrated otherwise.

But none of this answers my question, as it is speculation about a couple of people in a documentary, and I am wondering if, when, and where this has been explicitly stated by professionals.



I understood you weren't saying all people on the spectrum are like this, I'm just unable to take the conjecture at face value because experience with other autistic people differs. Perhaps I have trouble understanding hypotheticals about how other people think. That last sentence is not sarcastic.

I've never heard this stated by professionals, but if it is, it might be based on people such as these two ladies who only communicate their special interest and not much else.
There are plenty of autistic people who communicate, in some form, at great length, their knowledge of autism and realize they have it and know precisely what it is and means. Apparently they do not influence the professionals who believe otherwise, for whatever reason.

Now, this makes sense as a possibility, as researchers rarely look beyond the surface with autistic people, and tend to ignore behavior and communication that doesn't fit their assumptions. So it's not even relevant whether or not they could understand they are autistic, a researcher may assume that they cannot because they are fixated on The Price Is Right.



Things autistic people say rarely influence professionals, I think. I like to reference a daydream study in which researchers determined that autistic people are incapable of daydreaming by observing their brains in comparison to NT brains while switching from idle to doing tasks and back to idle again. Apparently, no one thought to ask any of the autistic people if they were daydreaming, nor try to do a brain scan while they were.