I don't believe anyone when they say they are autistic.

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I'm 26 years old and I am autistic. I don't say "Asperger's" because I don't believe in using the term. I tend to believe that various instances of autism don't differ so highly between each other that giving high-functioning autism its own label is helpful to the understanding of autism in general. Autism is confusing enough to most people as it is. But I digress.

First, I want to give some background. I lived a miserable first twenty years of my life full of heavy neglect, child abuse, reform schools, botched diagnoses, failure to obtain therapy and any form of useful intervention, and countless other problems. I find my self-worth in life by thinking, writing, and talking about my experiences with child abuse and neglect, autism, and various sciences that contribute to various forms of world progress. I have read about and personally seen a lot of terrible crimes, terrible opinions, and terrible lack of caring. And after all that's happened in my life, I don't trust people.

That is, I don't trust people to make educated or objective opinions. I am an optimist concerning the character and kindness of people and I have many friends. But I don't trust people to be smart and responsible. And after all I've seen and studied, I tend to have a lot of opinions that differ from the most popular ones.

. . .

Now that that's aside, let's talk about autism itself. I have observed that tons of people are diagnosed with autism. Many people are diagnosed as young as two or three, which I find absolutely ridiculous that people think they can come to a reliable conclusion about what developmental problem a child may or may not have when they're that young. I firmly believe that the majority of people diagnosed with autism simply do not have it. In fact, one of the things I've very commonly seen when talking to teenagers and adults who think they have autism is that they "were diagnosed when they were three", "they don't know much (or anything) about autism", and "nobody's made any kind of a deal about it in years". These people don't even have life-complicating cognitive and sensory walls, and both they and I know it. That description is a dead ringer for someone who doesn't have a developmental disorder or anomaly of any kind, let alone the super-overdiagnosed "autism". And I get this description from people all the time.

Furthermore, I'm tired of people not knowing the difference between mental retardation and autism. I even find often that people use "autism" as a euphemism for mental retardation itself, or confuse it with fetal alcohol syndrome, down's syndrome, or tourette's. How many people actually know what autism is? Almost nobody, it seems. It's really not hard to define autism (as I've done so clearly on my blog several times) or to describe the very specific and unique challenges autistic people have. But with everyone having a different definition and all these people narrowing it down to the ridiculously uninformed and useless "social impairment and repetitive tasks"-- and with the money-grubbing psychiatry department loosening the definition in order to diagnose every child they can-- how are you going to get everyone in the same unconfusing boat?

You know, whenever I read a blog written by some parent about their child with autism, the first thing I do is roll my eyes and say "Prove it!" I have seen a lot of things and I have long come to the conclusion that most people are ignorant and irresponsible. The last thing most people are going to know how to do is tell some doctor or psychiatric foundation, "No! My child does not have autism and there are so many things wrong with how and when you are diagnosing him!" And if nobody says "no" about having autism, then when do they know that they do have autism? And by extension, how can they know what autism is?

Does anybody share any of my concerns or gripes? Even if you don't agree completely, do you understand where I'm coming from?

I will never know for sure if a person is autistic. I can and often after some time suspect some people are and some people are not.

If I went by your attitude and assumed everybody I interact with is not autistic there would no reason to join Wrong Planet. Never mind every member, I would have assume my diagnosis is incorrect and I am not autistic also. That would not change my black and white, literal thinking so I would go back to believing my problems are the result character flaws that have to be solved by trying harder, and trying smarter. But trying smarter attempts would be greatly handicapped by the assumption it's not autism that I am just lazy or fooling myself and using my Asperger "fake syndrome" diagnosis as an excuse.

If you expect all autistic individuals to express themselves or behave similarly to yourself, then you're doing a great disservice. There's as much diversity within the autistic community as in neurotypical people. There are autistic people of color, autistic people with and without different disabilities, queer and straight autistic people, etc. That's not to say that you're completely wrong. To be sure, neurotypical people aren't very understanding of our needs, our strengths, and our weaknesses. But I don't think I'd trust you to determine whether or not I'm autistic enough to meet your standards, because I already know that I differ a lot from most straight autistic people I've met, in my interests, my coping mechanisms, my appearance, et cetera.

I lived undiagnosed through a several decades when there was a very strict definition of what was autism. The strict definition was not the result of cynicism but lack of knowledge. While living without the diagnosis had it's good points it was all the negative assumptions about myself I mentioned above. In the last couple of decades knowledge and diagnosis increased. Now due the cynicism we are going backwards and losing the gains achieved. Some days I am so frustrated by this trend I think to myself why doesn't the DSM just get it over with go back to the original 1980 infantile autism diagnosis and undiagnosed 85% of the people diagnosed. Money will be saved. All the Autistics that are convinced that there are hoards of wannabees usurping there real autism will be happy. The diagnoses are so not believed it is pretty much useless at this point either there is no help if you are older and the help you are given when young is counterproductive then cut off. Then I remember what it was like and I don't want to go back there and remember many of those cynical "real autistics" will be undiagnosed also and be institutionalized or out in the street.

I know I have said this this often before by why is autism so different that unlike many things in life sub categories are offensive?

Most of the diagnosed autistic people I know appear to be autistic, whether they were diagnosed as adults, teenagers, or children.

I do think that the diversity of the spectrum of overstated.
Autistic people are not as diverse as people say.
There are many commonalities amongst people on the spectrum.

It's a tricky issue.

On one hand, it does seem that "Autism" is slowly becoming a catch-all for any sort of negative impairments, rather than seen as co-morbid. ID and/or muscle problems, does not make an AS person. Nor does tourette's, or brain damage, or whatever other nonsense they want to lump in.

On the other hand, you have a situation, where you can become so proficient at NT mimicry, that your experiences and knowledge becomes invalid. People might say things like you've "overcome Autism", or that you're not an AS person, "you don't have "it"" or even the more offensive version "cured of Autism".

This will be solved once the vile stigmas are no longer being spread, when the majority correctly views AS as the person.

I agree its a tricky.
In the us they lump other neurological conditions like dyspepsia as autism and ADHD can also be misdiagnosed because ADHD is hard to diagnose before age 6. Some schools will also label kids autistic to get the kid services.
They are also better at diagnosing younger because there are better tools. Even if autistic children are one in 55that is less than 3% of the population. I believe its more like 2% The rates of autism aren't as high as people think its just how they choose to look at the math.

Also autism is family of neurological differences its not just one thing. Its a related family of learning differences.
A child can have mild autism and an intellectual disability or they have severe autism.
Some with severe autism have normal to high IQS and have lower IQs.

Doctors have better diagnostic tools. My child who was nearly 3 when autism was first suspected would have probably been diagnosed at 18 months now.