Accusation

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I'm a user of the site Deviant Art where I add my artwork and use the message boards. One day I posted a thread about Aspergers in hope that I would meet other Aspergers or Autistic artists on the site. Instead I was met with abuse and accusations that I didnt have Aspergers and that I probably got the symptoms of Wikipedia.

You could imagine that I was really upset about this. I've officially been diagnosed with Aspergers so I didnt see why I had to prove my self to people on the thread. The one thing I know for sure about Aspergers is that its different for each person and there isnt really a defined way that a person with Aspergers should act or behave.

So my question is has any other people encountered similar abuse like this, have you ever been accused of not having Special Needs or have you known anyone to think or pretend that they have any form of Special Needs.

Hello and welcome.

I haven't encountered similar abuse because I don't communicate on other sites, but I've certainly seen posts by other members here detailing the abuse they've received when mentioning their diagnosis or the subject of AS.

I haven't known anyone who pretended to have any form of special needs. Quite the opposite.

This is easy to say but hard to do, but my advice is if these people are just carping pests on the web is to just ignore them. Do not waste your time thinking about these people.

I've never had that before. But I heave heard alot of it, especially on deviantart

I've been met with alot of "no you don't" stuff because people think of autistics as non verbal flappers who sit in corners and drool all day. I guess it's best if you stick to safe sites as this to express you autistic side. Just know that there are a lot of immature little geeks on deviantart who have nothing better to do than to criticize people for the way that they are. You be comfortable with who and what you are, and don't worry what others think. You shouldn't have to prove anything to anyone except for people who are treating you for some aspect of your spectrum disorder.

When i told someone i have known for nearly all my life that i had been diagnosed with autism, he didn't believe me.

Back in the day when i was 7 years old (Of which i have no memories, i can only recount what i've been told by others), i would walk into his house without knocking on the door, i couldn't speak, i would scream non-stop if i came across someone in his house i'd never met before, and instead of using the toilet i'd use his sand-pit.

I guess i'm trying to say it doesn't matter "how" many symptoms you show or have shown. They'll always be idiots who think you are lazy or attention seeking. I'd suggest you just ignore anyone who doubts you.

UncleWoodstock,
it's probably because of the amount of people who diagnose themselves with something [commonly it'll be about an ASD or ADHD] on big forums like dev/art,and also because not all users don't amount to someone elses stereotype.
Sometimes,users will say things like that to troll.

A diagnosis off some online users [especially when have not even asked for it] is worth nothing,to be able to understand whether have got some sort of diagnosis or not- would need personal understanding [offline] of what self is like,as well as understanding of own history and current situation,they're not the doctors-which is a good thing.
Just ignore them-they're not worth it....or educate them that ASDs are a unique experience in every person,some people are also atypically Autie or Aspie-as in,don't meet the stereotypes,but that doesn't mean they aren't Autistic.

It's very silly,but probably all due to ignorance more than anything.

One Autism forum am have used refused to believe anyone apart from one popular user had classic autism, because they think it also means all of us are unable to communicate on a forum or use a computer,then again,people in autistic communities have had that view,so it does show that ignorance does not discriminate,and will find it in any community,autistic based or not.

I remember one day in highschool where I was having a particularly rough day with Tourette's Syndrome. During a class (keep in mind, this was at a special ed school), I was shaking my head a lot and the teacher asked me why. I told her that I had Tourette's Syndrome and that I couldn't stop it. The response I got back from her was "There really are people who suffer from Tourette's, and they wouldn't appreciate you making fun of them, now stop shaking your head". I said "Yea, I know that there really are people with Tourette's, I'm one of them". She said "You're not being funny, keep it up and you'll be in detention". I said "look, when I was 5, I was diagnosed at the New England Medical Center's Floating Hospital as having both Tourette's Syndrome and I still clearly remember the extensive testing". She said "alright, you're not gonna take this seriously, so go to the director's office". I got to the director's office, and he wasn't there, so I ended up with the assistant director, who went through all my files, saw that I did have Tourette's Syndrome and told me that I should go back to class, and to never make up a story about a teacher just to get out of class again. When I went back, I asked the director to go with me, when we got back the teacher said "now I hope you thought about what you were doing, how would you like to have to suffer with a disease like Tourette's?" Luckilly, the AD intervened.

I've never had much of an issue with people not believing that I have Asperger's, but I've gone through all kinds of crap with the Autism Awareness groups since they don't believe that Asperger's has anything to do with Autism. I've had hate mail, people becoming my friend on myspace and facebook so they can flame me, etc., all because I call myself Autistic.

Yes. I've been proclaimed to be a number of different things by those who consider themselves experts; and quite a number of people have refused to believe that I am AS, for purely irrational, and to me totally incomprehensible, reasons. I ignore it. They're not really saying anything about me; merely proclaiming their own ignorance and prejudice.

When I have to deal with those sorts of comments online, I simply delete or ignore them if I don't feel that the person is capable of being educated. In person, I attempt to educate, and if that's not possible, then I simply walk away and no longer have anything to do with that person. And yes, I have lost friends over this. While disappointing, the problem is theirs not mine. I'm well rid of narrow-minded stupidity like that.

I'm sorry those people are such ignorant idiots.

People can be full blown autistic and seem completely normal. I had a friend who was diagnosed as HFA...only thing I noticed that was weird about her was that she talked about vampires a lot with huge intensity, like the subject was really important to her. But in the goth community, that isn't too abnormal, it's a common interest. I never would have thought she was HFA.

People are stupid and dumb asses. How can they possibly know you don't have AS?


I have been accused of not having AS myself but then I stopped caring because lot of aspies get "You don't have Aspergers." Even LFA people get "You don't have autism" so why should I let it bother me?


I bet kids in my high school thought I was faking my problems because then that would explain why they were so ignorant towards me. Even me being in special ed didn't tell them I had a disability or else I wouldn't even be in that class or have an aid folliwing me around in every class until I was 17. They were just stupid but my mother said "No it's because they're children so they don't know any better." So I asked her how can they not know, they know I'm in special ed and she said "oh because they think you are in there because they think you don't listen and try hard enough bla bla bla."

That could have been my mother's guess of course and the kids didn't think that and they were just stupid.

Some people are stupid, some are ignorant, some are deluded and some, some rare rare jewels of people, are kind, caring and desire to understand those who are different than themselves. It is a pity that many people fit into the first three catagories in some way or another.

My Uncle and Aunt are all "Problem, what problem, you were the first in the family to get a degree. You have to be normal". I had to live with them for about two months (arg, being told off for being 'rude' after a tiring days work), I could find an apartment when I got a good job, being told to quit said work because it made me tired and rude (arrrrrrg).
Then getting an apartment with a truly insane person (Aunt told the crazy b***h I had AS), crazy person then thought that I was about the same as a dog and should act accordingly. Tried to damage my relationship my lover, all but destroyed my links with my extended family, and all because she thought she could.

Though, above experience considered, I have not had to prove I had AS online. Though I rarely say about it online and this could be the reason.

I also have Tourette's as well as AS, and have received some accusations myself. For a while there, I was popping my jaw as a tic. My grandmother refused to accept that it was a tic and even once physically grabbed my jaw, right on the TMJ nerve, to try to make me stop. I'm biting my lip as I type this because, four years later, it still hurts to think about it. It really hurt, but she refused to believe that it even hurt me. She blamed me, because she wouldn't believe that it was my TS, that it was a tic. She also believed that my AS wasn't any big deal. It took me having an almost complete mental breakdown to get her to realize that I did actually have a problem. Now she thinks that I can't ever get better.

Trolls are everywhere.
I used to get in fights on the photography forum on DeviantArt.

If I bring up AS people usually ignore me or call it the trendy dx to have, like ADD.
By the way I think ADD is real but there are people out there that think it's a dx given to bratty kids.

I would suggest you not let this upset you at all. Don't give in to the "victim mentality". Its just too easy to give in to and gets you no where really quick. There are bullies and people who don't understand others who are different everywhere. Such is life. Deal with it. I don't mean to sound harsh, but I think it is beyond you to give this any credence. If I feel that way about you (and I don't even know you) then shouldn't you feel this way about yourself? There are certain injustices in life that just have to be overlooked. Be driven by thought, not emotion. You'll be wiser in the end. It will be to your advantage to overlook the offense. I don't like it when it happens either, but there really is nothing I can do about it, so I go on with my life. Take the high road. Also, you don't have to tell everyone what is wrong with you. I'd rather people think I'm just a little weird than put a label in their head for me. Truth is, especially on the internet, most people won't notice anyway. Truth is, most people have accepted me just the way I am without me telling them all my dirty little secrets. And, I like it that way. Be OK with yourself.

Chin up.

Last edited by jdn74 on 07 May 2009, 8:11 am, edited 1 time in total.

Just to add. I have had people saying stuff like "you aren't any different" or "everyone does that sometimes" it's usually friends and I think they want me to feel better about it, doesn't work though.
Most of the people that know didn't do that though, they were more curious than anything else and asked me a bunch of questions like "does it run down or family" or "what's your obsession" etc.