Autism Stereotypes about Intelligence...

Post Reply New Topic

The stereotypes about autism and savantism and genius probably stopped me from recognising the fact that I too have autism. I was diagnosed quite recently, at 41. The handflapping Rainman, with his K-mart desires and his genius as a gambler. All those ill-informed TV shows about autism in the '80s when I was still growing up. That awful movie Cube, with it's mute autistic survivor. And I also had a job in disability support for a while. One of my clients had Aspergers. His sensory issues meant he couldn't leave the house, or even look at his carers, but he had a prodigious knowledge of stellar systems. I couldn't identify with that - at the time.

Now that I know I have autism, i am spinning out about how cruel people can be. All my life I have had to live up to the great expectations of others because I'm so brilliant in certain areas (my IQ is 140) that they couldn't understand my spectacular social fails. They just thought I was being stubborn, confrontational, an a***hole. I've been accused of mocking the less fortunate, of being lazy, being a malingerer, being high on drugs, having an attitude problem, when I needed love, and reassurance, and understanding.

I was just at an event today, a faction meet of my team in the google smartphone game Ingress. Most people I met today are diagnosed on the spectrum. What a nice diverse crowd of interesting people. And all my other friends and loves, many of those are on the spectrum. They too have a wonderful variety of strengths, quirks, and failings.

Up until the time of my diagnosis, I had to learn more and more about autism. And what I discovered is that autism is so not like what we are led to believe.

We had a discussion in class about Autism a few years ago, and they all said ridiculous things. "Autistic kids are ret*d but they're really good with numbers and stuff" "I've met someone with Autism and they thought they were better than me because they thought they were a genius" "Isn't it like ADD where they can't sit still?" and me and the two people who knew me just sat there quietly, listening to all the lies. I finally said "Well, you all know one now." and they all looked at me like I had three heads until one of them figured it out.

Show this person this
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xsfNrG5Bnw.[/youtube]
This should be shown to every parent of a kid on the spectrum, every expert, and every "hopelessly low function autistic"

Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 26 Oct 2013, 4:59 am, edited 2 times in total.

Must've been awkward, but the more people realize who we are, the less likely it'll be that they spread misinformation, rather it'll be more likely that they'd say "oh, no it's not that at all, I know someone with it and they're just like us (mostly)..." and they'll go on to explain a few things (as long as they're well informed).

Information is the only weapon/defense against ignorance and lies and the more we use information, the less people can continue with ignorance and lies. Getting them to see the real face of the autistic spectrum is important in the battle for acceptance by them.

my IQ is 30 and I could care less

OMG that brings back memories!! I never understood why people thought that. Then I remember one idiot telling me, "Well your eyes are so small..." and I got mad because I thought he was being racist. In retrospect--knowing what I do now--I really don't think it was only because of my small eyes because of so many similar comments, but back then I just took them at their word.

People have told me the same (on drugs). I personally take offense at it because A) They don't know jack about me and they've applied a stereotype based on nothing more than 5 seconds of seeing me, and B) I've never, nor will I ever, do/done drugs. I have a hard enough time focusing on things without being hindered further by illicit substances.

I can recall swapping tales of San Francisco with a colleague who had recently visited the city. I told him of the afternoon my wife and I went for a walk in Golden Gate Park and noticed that low clouds were coming in off the Pacific and hitting a wall of hot dry air directly overhead and evaporating. It was an amazing, dynamic sight with vast swirling air masses forming a variety of patterns reminiscent of both Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities and Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities. We lay on our backs and just watched this amazing spectacle for at least an hour.

As I was describing this, my colleague suddenly asked me about my drug experiences. Somehow my rapt appreciation and enthusiasm for the awesome beauty of the atmosphere only made sense to him in terms of his own experiences with psychedelic drugs. He was genuinely shocked when I told him I had no such experiences!

I see what you're saying, other people see my symptoms but only have experienced the same or similar while (possibly) stoned or seeing other people act the same way when stoned, so that's what they automatically think is going on.

Thank you for helping me realize this, it has brought a new perspective that I hadn't considered before.

I know someone who works with autistic young people with high support needs who says that most autistic people are unable to live independently and often have learning disabilities as well. She generalises from her own limited experience.
She also says there are some aspergers people who are savant, but there are very few and also unable to live normally.

I wonder why she has done so little investigation beyond her own narrow field which might enable her to understand and support her clients better.
I wonder how I could possibly ask for understanding from someone who thinks people like me don't exist.

I've seen people who assume that autism = retardation, but I haven't seen many who believe any form off ASD is any kind of genius. That may be an older view since I've only hung out with younger people during my high school years and I don't hang out with any NTs at all anymore.

In my school, someone was talking about Asperger's Syndrome, and trying to tell people about how "people who have it will hear a joke and not laugh until the next day" and how "people with asperger's syndrome are emotionally unstable" - ORLY?

I stared at him the entire time until he finally paused at which point I chewed him out. The entire class then learned simultaneously that I have AS, and I was respected as the quiet kid who happened to know everything (this was Physics, my best subject). He then tried to defend himself by saying, "Sorry, if I knew you had AS, I wouldn't have said anything" - which prompted another tirade against his ignorance.

He never said anything about mental disorders again that year.

Welcome to my world. Every single person I know of thinks that because I'm autistic means I'm smart. Every time I ask someone for help on a bit of schoolwork or homework, no matter what person, how much I'm struggling with it, or ANYTHING, I'm guaranteed a "you can do it" Excuse me? I've been struggling trying to think for ages what the answer could be, I come for you to help, and you say I can do it? Wow. Wow. Wow. Doge gave up his incorrect english because of the amount of wow.
And when they actually bother to help me, when they've finished letting me answer that harder than I Wanna Be The Guy on impossible mode question, they say "Now you COULD do it, couldn't you?" Um, earth to [insert name here], you gave me the answer to a question I was biting my nails at.
And this is every. Single. Person.

That sounds more like they're encouraging you to try harder, not expecting you to be a genius, but rather trying to get you to see that you can do something if you try hard enough (I know, that's annoying, I get that sometimes from people who don't understand the daily struggles of having Aspergers).

...Wowwwwww. I'm trying so hard that my brain could catch fire.
Please get out. I've had the worst day you could ever get, and that post just made me nearly break my monitor.

Never have gotten the genius label because of my Autism because people do not know I have it. Has happened numerous times with people who know I am Jewish or because I wear glasses. Better to be positively stereotyped then negatively stereotyped but the best is not to be stereotyped at all. I have had what I now know to be zone outs, partial muteness or have just been plain not knowledgeable about a topic and people have thought I have said something profound.

Wrong answer. You'll find that I don't respond well with people who respond in the way you just did.
I'm going to put this as plainly as I can: I don't care how bad of a day you've had, don't you ever come on here and try to tell me to leave a topic just because you have a problem with my input. If you can't handle a response from people, then don't post anything because like it or not, you're going to get a response from people and you're not going to like some of it, fact of internet life, get over it. Furthermore, if you're so d*mn p*ssed off to the point of nearly breaking things, that's a clear sign that you need anger management.

I try to offer input on how others might be thinking so you could possibly understand why they say things, and you respond with this. You better rethink that position and try again, until then, get bent.