This community

Post Reply New Topic

Hey everyone, sorry for the unexpected thread out of nowhere like that. There's just an important question I must ask, and I can't figure it out myself.
Well, I joined this forums community just a day or two ago, and have kinda lurked for a certain amount of time before that, without taking part.
I understand it's aimed for autistic people, but, is everyone who participates here actually autistic?
Because, I've read around and have seen many intelligent people with strong social skills, making detailed comments on various topics and quality posts, etc. They seriously don't sound like they have autism or anything.
Obviously I can't hear their voices through text, but still, that's the impression I'm getting.

So you think autistics are cognitively deficient?

Not you, Fnord...lol the OP

Most people here have some relationship to someone with autism----whether it be themselves, friends, relatives.

Most of the remainder have an interest in autism because---it's so interesting at times.

A very few want to denigrate people with autism, and have nothing better to do.

One good thing about WP: you don't have to fax over an official diagnosis to Alex (the Site founder and administratrator) in order to be a "member in good standing."

While this forum is geared for autism. Not everyone who uses it is autistic based on things they've said in other threads. Some have autistics in their lives like a sibling, romantic partner, child, parent ect. Others have issues similar to autism in some ways & feel like this forum is an ally to them.

Not everybody with autism has zero social skills.

There is not a LACK of social skills within many people with autism.

There's more an "ODDITY" about how these social skills are manifested.

I have an official diagnosis. Many on the spectrum have average or better intelligence, and even level three people can become very good at expressing themselves online.

I mean, we could go through the same thing against you, on your profile in you interests it says "Too many", and that doesn't fit the "Restricted interests" (Focused and better than average passion) part of autism.

The spectrum is wide and diverse, and this forum shows it.

I think a majority of members do seem to be on the Spectrum, but are the high-functioning which is what might have given you the impression of them not having autism. As previous people have said, there is also a lot of people who are parents/partners of someone on the Spectrum trying to understand them better, which is a great benefit of the site IMO. That is why it's called a spectrum; it encompasses a large amount of different people of all sorts, there isn't any one thing or behavior that proves you have autism or not. Also, yes, I am officially diagnosed .

I don't know if I have Autism or not, although it's likely. And like I've seen others say, we're all on the spectrum somewhere. The reason I joined Wrong Planet is mainly to learn more about Autism/Asperger's and to make new friends who may also be able to help me. You don't have to have Autism in order to be a part of this community

I remember when I first came on this forum I didn't understand that much about those with more severe cases of autism, even though I was diagnosed with Asperger's at a young age. So I assumed that everybody on WP were as high-functioning as me just because they can type posts rather well on an internet forum. I learnt the hard way that I was wrong, and I'm glad I did. Now I know that any member on this forum could be anywhere on the autism spectrum, or even not at all.

I was once told here by a member (who I don't think is around any more) that all autistics have a social mind of a newborn baby. That is not true at all, maybe for some (doesn't mean ret*d though), but not for all. When I was 2 I had the social mind of a typically developing 2-year-old. My social development slowed down a bit at the age of 4, but I was only about 2-3 years behind my peers socially growing up, but even then not in every way. It was more behaviour-wise I was socially behind, not so much social instincts.