Things autism isn’t

There is a lot of misinformation about autism out there, fueled and perpetuated by stigma — especially from the non-autistic community.

There are also some late-diagnosed autistic people trying to find out everything they can about autism or theorizing really harmful things, then sharing those things with other people.

1. Autism isn’t a disease.

Cancer is a disease. Autism is not a disease.

Autism is a disorder, which essentially means a deviation from the norm as is defined by the majority of society or an abnormality in how your brain/body functions.

I consider autism to be a deviation from social norms.

Either way, it’s still a neurological and developmental disorder and not a disease.

2. Autism is NOT the next stage of evolution.

This theory started out a decade ago, when research was seriously lacking, in an Asperger syndrome forum that no longer exists. It’s evolved to being an autistic theory, rather than Asperger syndrome, due to Hans Asperger’s ties to the Nazi regime and their eugenics program.

Looking at autism as if it’s an evolutionary event posits autistic people as “better” than non-autistic people. It also presumes autistic people are “new”, when that’s not the case at all.

Autistic people have always existed, but we used to be institutionalized or murdered, or hidden away from society in some other kind of way.

There is no such thing as a “next stage” or “next phase” of evolution. It’s all around us, everywhere, all the time.

Autistic people have always been around, but they and/or their autism have been hidden from society. Only recently have autistic people been noted as important members in society.

Similarly, people think life-threatening allergies are new. I’m no historian, but I’ve watched enough historical fiction to know that royals had food testers to check for poison. Sometimes, those testers died or a royal died instead, and I can’t help wondering how many people were wrongly executed for what was instead an allergic reaction, not poisoning.

Not hearing about something, or something not being recorded into history, doesn’t mean that that something is brand spankin’ new. Human history is left to the people who write it, often influenced by their own bias/prejudice.

3. Autistic people don’t have actual superpowers.

This is a two-part one:

1. Some autistics believe they have have actual special powers.
2. Some people (autistic and allistic) perceive autistic people — especially those who don’t think so themselves — as thinking/behaving as if they have special abilities.

I love fantasy and supernatural books and TV shows, but damn. Having a post of mine wind up on a Mastodon instance because someone presumed I think I have magic powers was a doozy.

First of all, literally nowhere did I imply that AT ALL, and second?! WTF.

Autism is not evolution at work, so why TF would it be something that turns us into supernatural beings? Seriously.

I surmise the concept of “autism is my superpower” originates from autism warrior moms needing to feel better about their children’s autism by focusing on the positives and calling things “superpowers” — as if there was no other way to empower or nurture their children’s self-esteem.

4. Autism isn’t going away.

Autism doesn’t go away in adulthood. I know there are a few articles out there because some allistic practicing applied behavioral analytics (ABA) took an autistic person’s masking at face-value, deciding that that was “less autistic”.

I don’t care what allistic people ignorantly claim and try to make a reality. I don’t care that allistic people want autism to go away.

Autism isn’t going to ever be eradicated, even if you took all the autistic people off the planet — which you can’t do, because you don’t even know how many autistic people are undiagnosed and unaware.

And even if you did, if you were seriously THAT passionate about it, OMG you might be autistic yourself because that’s OBSESSIVE. That is what the allistics and neurotypicals call a “limited interest” or “extreme obsession”, while autistics call it a “special interest”.

5. Autism isn’t being shy or awkward

My family presumed I was shy and needed people to go with me because I was “too shy” to do something on my own.

Actually, I needed someone there to help me make sense of the words/understand something when it was out of my typical interactions.

The most helpful thing ever was when someone not only took me to get a temporary one-way registration on my car, but went into the building with me to help me get it.

Prior, she’d helped me file a police report when someone stole my tail lights by explaining things in terms I understood.

There’s a big difference between being shy and being aware of certain prejudice against you — the latter exacerbated by your own ineptitudes, especially when you’re aware of them.

What makes me “awkward” as an autistic person is not my autism, but rather the social constructs and expectations of non-autistic people and struggling to interact with people who know nothing about me.

Someone once described me as “funny, but only once people get to know you,” which I didn’t understand then but do now.

She meant that I have a sense of humor best understood and enjoyed once people know my mannerisms enough to comprehend what they mean, rather than relying on the “default” ones a neurotypical society relies on.

I’m “awkward” or “shy” only around the people who perceive me to be so and accept that as fact, regardless of how I truly am. Ergo, when I do something that challenges that perception of me, they’re shocked and say, “And here I thought you were shy!”

6. Autism isn’t black-and-white thinking.

Actually, autistic people tend to think of all possible outcomes.

The rigid thinking likely comes from how someone was raised and the struggle to deviate from those ideals they were raised on, or try new things — because autistic tend to despise change or struggle to adapt to change because we don’t habituate (get used to things easily).

I find non-autistic people more likely to adhere to black-and-white/rigid thinking.

I wonder if the rigid thinking trait of autistics is actually a projection from non-autistics because autistic people are more likely to stand firm in their values regardless of how it affects their social status or whether someone’s watching.

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Do you have anything to add to this list? I know I didn’t add everything. 🧐