Weird misconceptions I had about autism and various mental disorders

[mysterionz]

Weird mental health/disorder misconceptions I had as a kid/adult that I later learned the truth about.


Autism only affects boys (I thought this as a kid because my only exposure to autism was my male friend getting diagnosed with it roughly at the same time as I did


You grow out of autism as an adult (linked to the first misconception as I was only exposed to autism in young boys and the representation for autism back then stereotyped it as a disorder that only young boys have and grow out of as soon as they reach adulthood)


Girls can't have autism (I thought it was weird that girls could be diagnosed with autism despite me identifying as a girl at the time, being roughly in early elementary school years in terms of age)


I will be cured of autism once I reach my teens (linked to the misconception above talking about growing out of autism as an adult, this didn't occur and the symptoms became worse and more covert as l grew older)


Bipolar disorder is just feeling happy one moment then sad the next (I was an impressionable kid. My only exposure to bipolar disorder was the media, aka Hollywood, stereotyping it. Found out the hard way when I began experiencing unusual behavior that wasn't normal for me and erratic emotions/moods that made zero sense such as anger that would last for days on and off that made no sense, to unexplained impulsive behaviors like excessively spending money on and off for a year and a half).


If l sought help for my symptoms above my mom and dad would be mad at me: this was why I waited to seek help too late.. which was about six months ago.


Anxiety doesn't take up your entire day, it's just little worries about trivial things: lol no, I learned this recently when I began having severe panic/anxiety attacks at work and I had to be put on stronger medication to treat my GAD. I would spend the entire day worrying about every single little thing to the point my mind was void of normal and happy things.


I was a weird kid.

 

[Cutesie]

Do you realize that 1 & 3 are identical, as are 2 & 4?

I've personally known dozens of people with autism, and still know no females with it in real life. (I'm not counting those seen once or twice at a support group.)

Anxiety can present in various forms. If I have small bouts of it throughout the day, every day (which I usually do), it adds up to more than just an annoyance. But yes, the more severe episodes that we have are a whole different story.

 

[mysterionz]

Do you realize that 1 & 3 are identical, as are 2 & 4?

I've personally known dozens of people with autism, and still know no females with it in real life. (I'm not counting those seen once or twice at a support group.)

Anxiety can present in various forms. If I have small bouts of it throughout the day, every day (which I usually do), it adds up to more than just an annoyance. But yes, the more severe episodes that we have are a whole different story.

Should I merge the ones that are similar/possible duplicates into the same category?

 

[Cutesie]

Should I merge the ones that are similar/possible duplicates into the same category?

I guess, unless you can show differences between them. If you decide to do that, make a note that the post was edited.

 

[Misty Avich]

If only it were true that females couldn't have autism, because then I wouldn't have it.

 

[Rodafina]

I was a weird kid.

Weird or not, you certainly were just a young person trying to figure out the world. It can be hard to dismantle the things that we were told and learned to believe as children.

I think the important thing is allowing your thinking to adapt over time as you do start to see things differently and acquire new information.

Maybe there is no such thing as "too late." Seeking help, finding answers, figuring out a new way to live is something that can occur throughout our whole lives and if we take the opportunity to adapt based on new understanding, then it is never really too late.

 

[Cutesie]

If only it were true that females couldn't have autism, because then I wouldn't have it.

Well, if that were true and you were "meant to" have autism, you'd have been born male! Better yet, you would be male biologically, so that you could have autism, but also be transfemale, so that you could be the female that you were supposed to be. If I offend anyone with my joke, I give a half-hearted apology, or maybe a third-hearted one.

Due to your stated preference, I didn't call you "autistic". It is interesting, though, that you acknowledged having autism here.

 

[Misty Avich]

Due to your stated preference, I didn't call you "autistic". It is interesting, though, that you acknowledged having autism here.

I prefer not to be called autistic but it's inevitable that I will be referred to as autistic on an autism forum, by myself or others, in some contexts. Or maybe I'm just one of those people who prefer to be known as "a person with autism" rather than "autistic", but again it's best not to get too bogged down with words.

I will try to avoid using autism when referring to myself in future so that I don't have this "but you said...now you're saying..." conversation again.

 

[Cutesie]

I prefer not to be called autistic but it's inevitable that I will be referred to as autistic on an autism forum, by myself or others, in some contexts. Or maybe I'm just one of those people who prefer to be known as "a person with autism" rather than "autistic", but again it's best not to get too bogged down with words.

I will try to avoid using autism when referring to myself in future so that I don't have this "but you said...now you're saying..." conversation again.

It may just be my curiosity concerning your stance that led to the comment. Is there a place that I can see more about your ambivalence towards having the condition - why you don't like it, whether you really don't think that you've got it?

 

[Misty Avich]

It may just be my curiosity concerning your stance that led to the comment. Is there a place that I can see more about your ambivalence towards having the condition - why you don't like it, whether you really don't think that you've got it?

I written something in my blog here about it.

 

[FayetheAspie]

I don't think I ever believed any of these condition stereotypes except perhaps the one about bipolar. There are some that I did just not these.

 

[FilterFreq]

I was a weird kid.

I think everyone thinks this about themselves. Maybe humans are just weird, but we're more normal than we sometimes think we are because it's hard to compare what we're feeling to what the next person is feeling


I think it's extremely normal to have misconceptions about autism and neurodiversity, because the research around it continues to evolve all the time. Back when I was younger, there really wasn't a "high-functioning" bracket at all, so even getting a diagnosis was next to impossible.

I remember my best friend getting diagnosed when I was a teenager and I couldn't tell there was anything "wrong" (as others put it) with him. He seemed perfectly normal to me, which should've been a red flag that I was also on the spectrum, but you typically had to get a serious evaluation to get a diagnosis.

Life is weird, I think. Good thing we're all in this together