The weird thing about autism is that people automatically think that means you can't be self-aware of it "or you wouldn't act like that". 😅
Self-aware is rarely the same as in-control.
"You can't be autistic, you're too pretty!"
Yeah, I hear that literally everyday 🙂
Humble brag
It's a real thing. If I hadn't been handsome, I would have never had a girlfriend, period. I had absolutely no confidence whatsoever until I was in my mid 30's. And that was learned through extremely embarrassing trial and error.
Make sure to watch the video before commenting. It's not a video about debunking autism, it's about the kinds of things autistic people hear from neuro normative people telling them why they aren't autistic.
Its a spectrum right?
(I'm assuming this was a genuine question. If you're trying to make a point I'm afraid I missed it 🤷)
Yes, it's a spectrum. Autistic people are as a varied a group as any other, and you'll see different traits in different individuals, or even in the same individual at different stages of life or different settings.
And that means you can't point to one stereotyped feature and say that disqualifies you. Which was - ha ha! - the point of the video!
"You can't be autistic because you have a PhD."
Excuse me, PhD is just a special interest that's been officialized via an academic process.
"You can't be ADHD because you have a PhD."
Excuse me, it took me 7 years of anxiety due to feeling like I was going to let down my dissertation committee and finished it in spurts of working on it intensely for days at a time with weeks/months in-between while depending on someone else to manage all my ADLs. I also paid someone to edit the format because I was not capable of setting that up within a reasonable time period.
The more helpful comment, if they have to say anything at all, would be, "Wow, you earned a PhD despite all of the difficulties you had to overcome!" Or...we could talk about whatever historical fact I'm obsessed with at the moment 🤷♂️
Excuse me, PhD is just a special interest that’s been officialized via an academic process.
Yes!
But hilariously (not really), this is against the definition of ICD-10. A special interest must be problematic.
Had a frustrating discussion with my child's psychiatrist about this in a followup session recently. She was adamant that my daughter now had less ASD symptoms because instead of Pokemon (which was special interest at original diagnosis) she is now really REALLY into makeup. And makeup is socially conformant. So she has no special interests.
