Does autism invalidate your opinions?

I have strong opinions on a lot of things.

I'm also autistic. But I'm really afraid of letting anyone know I'm autistic, because I think it would prevent them from taking my opinions seriously. Should I reveal my autism status, and risk other people treating me like I don't have a voice?

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healthline.com/health/autism-in-adults#highfunctioning-autism
twitter.com/AnonBabble

What good will it do telling them you are on the spectrum? You don’t have to be open about everything.

>'m also autistic. But I'm really afraid of letting anyone know I'm autistic, because I think it would prevent them from taking my opinions seriously. Should I reveal my autism status
People already know. Autism isn't something like depression or anxiety that you can hide and fake your way through the day.

>I have strong opinions on a lot of things
no one likes strong opinions, it's kind of fun to get into shitty internet arguments but don't bring that into the real world.

>Autism isn't something like depression or anxiety that you can hide and fake your way through the day.

Speaking from experience you actually can hide it somewhat with High Functioning Autism, but only for a limited amount of time before your real personality slips out.

That's the thing about HFA, or "Asperger's" even though no one professionally says that anymore. It's not some mental affliction or disorder that *affects* your personality, it *is* your personality.

>Should I reveal my autism
I would respect your opinion more if I knew that it was coming from a less average point of view. So, yes. Maybe that's just me. Idk.

You can’t hide autism people probably know your “strong” opinions are a reflection of being on the spectrum or being a nerd. Get over yourself. No one is taking you seriously because they are busy thinking about themselves.

Don't go around declaring to strangers that you're autistic. Your friends will respect you anyway.

My boyfriend is a huge Aspie and he's pretty respected by his peers.

>people probably know
>thinking about themselves
One of these has to be less true.
I can't relate to people very well and they just think that I'm a dick. Not OP

My opinions are shared by other, non-autistic people.

But if they're "other" in any way, like if you're a liberal in a conservative community or an atheist in a very religious community, people are going to attribute your different opinions to your autism instead of to your own life experience and critical thinking skills.

I'm assuming you are gay then?

What? Kek.
No, I'm a woman. Not even a tranny.

Oh.
How did he manage to get you to date him?

We hanged out in the same place a lot.
He's cute. He's really smart, witty, and I kinda like how passionate and rambly he gets.
He was too autistic to flirt with me, so he ended up treating me like any other person in the group. As someone who is used to get treated like some sort of retarded little princess just because I'm fuckable, it was pretty refreshing to have someone engage with me like a human being.
I asked him out.

"Maybe autism isn’t a gift, but YOU sure are" -Natalia Marin
How isn’t anyone in these thread laughing their fucking asses off at this???

my advice is whatever you do, make sure you tell one of your friends first just to see what they would say

How do I get this to happen to me?
What place were you together? I don't really know if I could pull that sort of attitude off, given I haven't really had such a chance, for all I know I would crumble if I actually had an attractive female friend.

We are both really into politics. We went to a lot of conferences/talks from politicians and professors at our university, it was something that happened twice a week or so.
He was friends with a good friend of mine, so after the talk we went out for a beer and discussed.

>for all I know I would crumble if I actually had an attractive female friend.
I mean, he just talked to me like he talked to his other friends. It didn't take any special skills.

Well autistic people can be eminently logical, but frequently life is not logical or the logic autists focus on is too narrow, so opinions of autistic people are almost always garbage.

You see this in dumb ideologies on the left or right: communists and libertarians are full of autistic morons who think trey are correct, but aren’t even close

Autism isn't really real. It is a diagnosis slapped onto socially awkward people or people that society will reject because they behave strangely. Otherwise there really is no value except that the diagnosis makes some people feel their problems are real. But the truth is their problems are real regardless of diagnosis or not.

>people are going to attribute your different opinions to your autism instead of to your own life experience and critical thinking skills.
ding ding ding you have discovered the whole reason it exists as a diagnosis!

Nah dude. I agree that it is often over-diagnosed and everyone a little odd is now autistic, but autism is a real thing.
It's not social awkwardness alone.

Only low functioning autism is real. The other forms are real in the sense that yes some people are really bad at picking up social cues and all of that. You really don't benefit from a label except maybe it forces some parents to be more understanding that's about the only use I can see which is honestly just pathetic.

Yeah this is the other problem with autists, limited self reflection.

Autistic people almost always have garbage opinions because of their limited understanding of people and how life works.

It’s why nobody cares what “philosophers” say, it’s unrelatable garbage

That’s why it’s called an autistic spectrum

Nah most neurotypicals as they say are actually way worse at self reflection. Honestly that should be a diagnosis itself "neurotypical" then everyone will be mentally ill!

Yes and schizophrenia is a spectrum, depression is a spectrum, anxiety a spectrum. You know why? Because psychiatry is bullshit and the diagnoses are completely arbitrary.

Most neurotypicals have their own set of issues, where self reflection in a deep sense is lacking. Hence why both autists and neurotypicals are typically unhappy

But...neurotypicals DO have an amount of self reflection vis a vis society: they know better how to relate (on a surface level) with other humans, and the “status” of everyone. Autists can’t do that .

>Autists can’t do that .
Uh excuse me autism is a spectrum and yes some of us autists CAN do that.

A lot of it is bullshit, but we have given the name “autism” to something that is very clearly identified in humans. It’s very clear when someone is highly autistic vs not. It might be shorthand but “autism” is very real

Low functioning is very real yes probably not really related to the rest though in all honesty. I think even many parents of low functioning autistic people are upset by the expanding definition. But "high functioning" is just arbitrary bullshit. I have met plenty of high functioning autistic people and they are just nerdy and awkward but I can easily understand them.

Some autists can, but it takes work. Neurotypicals can do it from a very young age innately.

Autists also have magical thinking, a lack of understanding social cues, etc

Again on a spectrum so someone mildly autistic would be better than someone severely autistic

That's not true.
I work with autistic children and even the high functioning ones are fucking off.
Communication skills are often completely off. It's not just "social awkwardness" - they don't pick up on the tone of voice and can't replicate it (very monotone speakers), they can't keep eye contact, they don't understand how normal communication works (turns, questions, relevancy). They don't seek others to play, which is absolutely abnormal for kids. They have weird speech patterns. Young children often don't even recognise their own name.
Cognitive patters are weird. They get obsessed over stuff. They can't fucking stop doing the same action over and over. They have stereotypical movements.
Their relationship with food, routines and other shit is weird.
It's more evident in low functioning because often they're mentally retarded.

It's overly diagnosed, especially by adults who like calling themselves autistic because they're socially awkward, but autism is a thing.

They won't take your opinions seriously anyway: they don't listen, don't care and don't respect.

Well that’s where autistic vs aspergers comes in, but it’s all under the general rubric of autism.

“Awkward” just means they don’t understand social cues, that’s what autism is.

>magical thinking
lol I guess my grandma is autistic then? Jesus christ these things psychiatrists tell people.

I think a sign of a psychiatrist is lack of empathy, obsessed with meds, inability to cope with trauma, inattentive. That is the Psychiautism diagnosis right there.

>“Awkward” just means they don’t understand social cues, that’s what autism is.
Exactly and what is more accurate a diagnosis or a description of the personality trait?

Maybe what you are describing is the "low functioning" kind but also I am not even sure if some of what you say is so bad. Even so yes you are right there are low functioning autistic people which is the "real" autism.

All those things are also in play with high functioning autistic, you just might not see it initially. For people that you know that are “awkward”:
What do they obsess over
Do they have verbal or other tics
How do they interact with people
Etc

It’s everything low functioning autists have, just much less severe and obvious. But still there

A great % of psychologists and doctors in general are on the autistic spectrum.

Along with artists and scientists throughout history, which are actually very similar

Those are all also traits that traumatized children have.

lol okay well autism as a diagnosis is one of the least harmful it just leads to people not taking you seriously. Schizophrenia as a diagnosis is the most harmful and leads to incarceration, forced medication, ridicule, and economic troubles.

Not all of them. Traumatized kids have fear of some social interactions, whereas autists don’t know how to act in social situations. Traimatizedbkdis could have a normal relationship with someone they trust, like a fellow child. Autists would not, depending on the severity

Diagnosis of autism or not, neurotypicals will be able to spot autists from a mile away. Especially women who are more adept than men at social cues

Yes but what I am trying to say is that some portion of the spectrum is no different from the rest of mental illness diagnosis in that it is BS. I understand that the really low functioning, self harming, can't understand language kind of people have something really seriously wrong with them. But someone like in OP doesn't really "need" the diagnosis.

Yes, I know. I never said it's unique to low functioning, I said it's more evident in low functioning.

No, I'm describing autistic.
Some high functioning can hide it a little better because they're smart, but it's very noticeable if you pay attention to them.

I agree a lot of people call themselves autistic because it's fashionable, but autism is very real.

>I agree a lot of people call themselves autistic because it's fashionable, but autism is very real.
Okay where is the line drawn then? Where does "real" autism and "fake" autism begin and end? The point I am making is that it is arbitrary. Also I am sure that the real reason high functioning autistic people get diagnosed is because some people weren't understanding towards them as people so they needed the diagnosis so people would stop bullying them.

Agreed. Autism has been around with humans a long tome, you could even argue it’s necessary to advance the species. Science, art, etc.

Autists have given the technology to neurotypicals to rule the world.

To move forward, we need a balance between autists and neurotypicals. Can’t have autists rule because we will end up with a bunch of unhappiness like Facebook

There are actual guidelines for diagnosis. Some doctors might not respect them or not be objective in the diagnosis, some people self diagnose, but there are guidelines.

Most of the autistic people I work with are pretty high functioning, and trust me once you spend time with them you can tell they're off.

What you are really saying is women will spot nerds from miles away. That is much less harmful than saying a nerdy guy has something wrong with his brain. That's just fucked.

There are guidelines for depression and bipolar and they are subjective and open to interpretation and thus arbitrary. And in the end the characterization of these conditions as illnesses has done nothing to help them at all. SSRIs do not work, anti-psychotics just destroy your brain, and anyone who criticizes psychiatry especially while suicidal or psychotic is ignored and treated like the illness is what is doing the talking. So essentially if you have valid criticisms while being one of the "tough" patients you have to hide them in order to get out and to safety. So psychiatry and psychology create an illusory positive feedback loop in their system. Maybe autism is less harmful because as far as I know there are no drugs used to treat the condition but nevertheless I am sure it is used to dehumanize and delegitamize autistic people's opinions and views on life.

Never ever admit you are autistic. Only someone legitimately autistic would even ask if they should.
People aren't as socially retarded as you - they *will* notice that you are weird, often long before you'd think.
If they notice and then you say "yes I am autistic" then you are firmly put in the charity case box.
If they notice and then you carrying on acting "normal" then they will just put it in the weird guy box.

Every diagnosis made by a human is subjective to some degree, unless there is a specific biological test to determine it 100%. And for a lot of diseases, especially psychiatric ones, there's none.
It is stupid to say "mental conditions aren't real because there aren't perfectly objective ways to determine if you have them or not".

The characterization of them as illnesses helps treating them. There are plenty of ways to help patients with autism learn or improve their communication skills, or strategies to help them sort their thoughts, etc.

>The characterization of them as illnesses helps treating them.
Not in my experience. In my experience it got in teh way. I was never able to talk to anyone about my suicidal thoughts and I was sent to a hospital against my will where they put you in prison garbs "even though they pretend it is just an outfit" and then pressure you to take drugs. I have not gotten better from them i am getting better through my own means now. Like acknowledging the trauma I experienced. (which to be fair my therapist did acknowledge which is what made it harder)

>There are plenty of ways to help patients with autism learn or improve their communication skills
I am worried this is code for making autistic people more "normal" when they probably don't need to be beyond survival purposes of course.

Autism is a very isolating condition. Autistic people don't enjoy being so alone, and by giving them the means to interact with others we help them to some degree.
Then if they want to use them or not it's up to them.

If that is really all you do yeah that sounds fine but in my experience psychiatrists and psychologists do not care about helping their clients grow as people they just want them to be "normal" Also why is the only way for them to not be alone through diagnosis and treatment? That's the kind of cultish shit I don't like about psychiatry.

They don't have the means to interact with others on their own. They have huge deficiencies in the communication skills part.
Most of our communication is non verbal: tone, face movements, body position, eye contact. Autists just don't get that. We can teach them to get that, and to practice it, so they can communicate with others and feel less alone, which makes depression worse, and ease social anxiety (they don't get what happens and feel anxious about it).
So that's why treatment is necessary. Diagnosis is necessary because you can't just treat people because you want to.

Yeah whatever. I'm sure i could get myself diagnosed with autism if I went to a doctor even answering questions totally honestly. Because it is fucking bullshit.

Welp. Pic related.

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I took a quiz and got autism possible. lmao. When I got diagnosed with depression they literally give you the equivalent of an online quiz on paper so it probably is pretty accurate. I guess I can't understand people unless I get treatment.

I'd suggest reading some stuff written by autistic people.

It's not really a "disorder" or mental illness although it's often misunderstood that way by ignorant people. It is, however, an explanation of why a certain personality type just doesn't fit in.

So, it exists an excuse to gaslight dissenting opinions?

To be fair, that makes sense in historical context. Hans Asperger was a known Nazi collaborator actively looking for new groups of people that Hitler and his minions could gas.

>It is, however, an explanation of why a certain personality type just doesn't fit in.
Maybe if that is all it is used for then fine but I just can't help but think most people will just wind up judging you as the "autist" once you adopt that label.

Diagnoses aren't arbitrary, but they are socially constructed based on normative bias.

This is the same reason that shrinks back in the 50s-70s believed (and some alt-right morons on Jow Forums still do) that non-hetero sexual orientations are a mental illness.

lol I am reading this article and pretty much have a lot of these traits. But I can't help but think these bullet points were written by someone who wants someone to behave the way THEY expect. I don't think this makes me "mentally ill"

healthline.com/health/autism-in-adults#highfunctioning-autism

Pretty much yeah. Actually all of psychiatry is a system of enforced normality.

> It didn't take any special skills.
I don't know, it might be hard to pull off if I wanted to be with her. I guess this thing isn't so hard for women since they get a lot of male attention

Not having a rational argument to support your opinions invalidates them.

People on the autism spectrum usually fall into one of two categories: very creative, anal-expulsive personality types, or rigid and systemic thinkers. The former usually end up as starving artists, the latter as professors of pure mathematics.

But it is usually one or the other of those two extremes.

it is a good idea to hide your strong opinions regardless of having autism or not. People who go around exposing their strong opinions to everyone either end up getting told to shut the fuck up or considered an asshole by everyone
times were its ok to share your strong opinions are
1 when you are having a conversation with someone who shares them
2 when someone who doesnt know much about it one way or the other asks you about them
3 when someone with the opposite opinions than you is making a scene
your opinions are like your asshole, do you want to show your asshole around?

There's a place for activism and free expression in a (to a greater or lesser extent) democratic culture. People may not like it, but you're not doing it to make people comfortable, you're doing it to get the word out about something you care about and make your voice heard.

This desu, you can hide the ’tism for a bit and then fade in your real personality as people are warming up to you

The biggest difficulty is gauging when it's appropriate to let your "real self" slip out. Sometimes you get lazy, which can be really bad in a workplace or school environment where you're dependent on the people around you to manage your money and time.

Your opinions are probably wrong, specifically because you are autistic. It's common for autistic people to not understand simple cues that lead to them forming strong opinions.

Think about it this way - would you trust a math professor that can conceptualise math but sucks at simple arithmetic? Probably not.

This is the dumbest shit I've ever heard, and fails to understand basic shit about high functioning autism.

I would implore you to actually talk to an autistic person about some big issue like the environment or healthcare policy to get an idea of how they form opinions - it's often the product of extensive reading and study, and maybe even personal experience.

Yes, having a neurological deficiency does make your opinions seem less valid. This should be obvious, are you autistic or something?

>He's cute. He's really smart, witty, and I kinda like how passionate and rambly he gets.
In other words, you enjoy studying retard Chad's bone structure while he one-sidedly rambles at you about sonic the hedgehog. I want to kill myself, human sexual selection is broken

It does to people who

a. Know you're different, in a way that they're indoctrinated to think of as a "deficiency" or a "problem"

Most ignorant fucktards think HFA/asperger's is a "mental health problem" and if you tell them you're autistic it will color their understanding of you in a very dark and nasty way

I was diagnosed with Asperger's when the label still existed. It's without a doubt a deficiency.

It's something that describes how other people mistreat and abuse you much more than anything you do yourself. "I have asperger's" really just means "other people bully me and push me around a lot and I never realize it until weeks or months after it's too late."

Which is a deficiency. You don't actually become the bigger man if you suffer through people fucking you over, you're just their bottom bitch

Incel shit is so reaching I can't tell if this is a meme or not lmao.

most people have no idea what autism is and think it either means you are severely learning disabled who cant dress themselves or an unhinged violent person who'll shoot up their school if you let them play fortnite, and the ones who know what it is are even more obnoxious since they're usually sjw types who want social points for babying and condescending to you and wont treat you normal after getting to know you like completely ignorant people eventually do

just keep it to yourself unless you trust someone very close to keep it to themselves or have some legal problem you can use the autism card to get out of

>or have some legal problem you can use the autism card to get out of

This just worsens the reputation of people with autism and makes life more difficult for other people with that diagnosis. You'd have to be pretty lacking in compassion or empathy not to consider that.

For some people it's right to tell people, for others it's not.
I tell people I'm autistic because it's letting me away with asocial behaviour, I can do pretty much anything and just pull the autism card to get away with it. But if you're a boring normal person there's no reason to let others change their view about you. If it will benefit you, reveal it, otherwise don't.

anons, what percentage of neurotypicals would you estimate make negative assumptions about people on the spectrum? i'm starting uni and looking forward to people not knowing, though i don't want to make friends with a bunch of people who hate people with my condition

activism is fucking retarded, nobody likes activists at all and the dont actually influence anyone they just scream the loudest

University is one of the places where it's easiest to hide in the crowd as a mildly autistic person, especially if you can figure out where all the gamer nerds, anime geeks etc. hang out on campus. There's also always something to do if you're the budding intellectual type or really into some other aspect of your group identity like your religion, political views, etc.

And aside from the few professors who obviously have much more serious issues of their own, as long as you have a good work ethic most faculty will just assume you're a highly engaged student instead of atypical in any way.

Honestly, being HFA/Asperger's wasn't much of an issue for me at all during my Bachelor's and Master's degrees, but really explained most of the problems I had once I entered the workforce and ended up having almost daily career-destroying personality conflicts with management and colleagues.

Dont tell anyone, people will make fun of you and look different at you forever, Theres nothing wrong with autism but NPCs make such a big deal out of it.

>Thinks he can hide depression and his anxiety
Oh sweet user. They know but hide knowing it.

Keep that shit bottled up, no good will come of it. I have autism and I haven't even told my parents, let alone my peers. People will patronize and demean you, even if they think they're doing the right thing. Trust me, some things aren't worth sharing.

I expect this kind of ignorance from Jow Forums trolls, but not from someone who knows. High-functioning autism is NOT mental retardation. All it is is an inability to do instinctively what most people can - read non-verbal cues and therefore be smoothly adept in social situations. .

(In fact, all the things you "can't" do are learnable skills and you could learn them with a lot of effort - and probably have already to some extent.)

To imagine that this particular difficulty in doing something others can do easily somehow deprives you of the right to opinions and judgments is nonsense.

Look - I personally am the worst athlete in the world. I suck at every possible sport, though I know that if it really mattered to me I could work hard and get at least passably OK. Does the fact that I can't throw a frisbee disqualify me from having opinions on politics or any other subject?

There are certain circumstances where it's your trump card to explain why everybody hates you for seemingly no reason and needs to stop being a dickhead to you, but it should be used sparingly.

One of the major problems with high functioning autism is how people will think of you if they know you have high functioning autism.

There are industries and academic fields that you can go into where autism is easy to hide but not everyone on the spectrum does that and many autistic people end up in situations where it's more difficult to hide than others.

hey jeremey whatcha doin??

You already posted on your pic the answer you want. Greta is winning at life, be like her.

>tfw diagnosed sperg as a kid
>no friends, abhorrent social skills and the only kid in the class capable of remembering what he reads in the textbook? SPERG!
>saw therapist for social anxiety in college because it was covered under government grant and needed help (still do)
>after a few questions about childhood trauma he told me he questioned the Asperger diagnosis, it sounded more like isolation/neglect as a child coupled with post traumatic stress disorder once I got into school and the symptoms of prolonged isolation affected me socially, getting bullied/beaten by other kids and blamed for it by school staff
>discussing past behaviors he told me to read up on feral and isolate children
>only had the grant for therapy because of the Asperger diagnoses, without it, no therapy.

I seriously question if autism is real or if it is just a failure to recognize abuse/neglect. A lot of basic social skills are learned from parents/siblings. When you have no siblings, no father and your mother doesn't want to deal with you, you don't fucking learn. Cats and dogs are really bad at teaching human social skills.

A lot of my "autistic" traits came from teachers screaming at me, punching me, putting me in a headlock etc. at school

Got bullied a lot more by school staff and teachers than peers, even threatened with anal rape although none of them acted on it