Being asked if you're autistic

[vergil96]

Does anyone get annoyed at being nagged whether you're autistic? How is that a polite question to ask? How do you react to that?

 

[Judge]

Never happened.

Though if it did, the first thing that would pop into my mind is how society can so easily prioritize social conformity over any sense of good manners. And that such a question would not likely lead to a positive interaction.

 

[Outdated]

I have been asked by a few people, but only after they're starting to get to know me. Never from a stranger. It didn't annoy me, I was pleased that they'd figured it out.

 

[TBRS1]

If people ask me if I'm something, I just say "yes."

Are you autistic? Yes.
Are you allistic? Yes.
Are you a communist? Yes.
Are you a capitalist? Yes.
Are you gay? Yes.
Are you hetero? Yes.
Are you male? Yes.
Are you female? Yes.
Are you kidding? Yes.
Are you serious? Yes.

I figure that they are trying to put me in a box, and I'm just not gonna go in easily. If I answer "no," they argue, and tell me that I really am.

If I say "yes," they have trouble figuring out what to do next.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

Does anyone get annoyed at being nagged whether you're autistic?

Has never happened. I am the type of person that is often concerned about misinterpretation and false accusations (having had a lifetime of it) that often I will get out in front of it and tell people...often with some humor.

How is that a polite question to ask?

Depends upon the perspective and context. If it is going to be weaponized against you, then NO, it is not a polite question. If you are a kindred spirit and would genuinely like to know so that you can have something in common with another, then YES, it can be polite to ask.

How do you react to that?

Again, depends upon the perspective and context as described above.

 

[Vesta]

Yes, I remember a time when I was about 12 years old and I was in the hospital. There was a woman there with her daughter, who had a high-functioning form of autism. I remember the girl avoiding eye contact. One day, woman asked me if I was autistic. I said no. However, she seemed to be convinced otherwise, but she probably changed her mind because I was making eye contact with people. This episode has almost faded from my memory

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

No one has ever asked me pretty obvious once I start talking.

 

[UFO]

I am actually happy that I have heard such comments. Otherwise I would have never began to suspect it, remaining just with some vague understanding that there is something different in me.

 

[UFO]

One day, woman asked me if I was autistic. I said no. However, she seemed to be convinced otherwise, but she probably changed her mind because I was making eye contact with people.

My final tip-off was when my coworker came to me at the company's Christmas party to tell that I resemble his little sister who was diagnosed with ASD and that I should get diagnosed as well

To be honest: I never get that diagnosis. Tried this year. Public health care system don't take me in unless I am really suffering from symptoms (I am not) and private sector gets so expensive that it really don't feel worth of it to my kind of nearly 50 years old guy who has already learned to cope with it.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I coped for 56 years fould a credible on line test did it out of curiousity had no dea what it meant. Now it makes no difference 70 and retired. Bigger fish too fry like walking any distance.

 

[vergil96]

I wish people got off me with this label, it doesn't reflect me at all. They assign personality traits to autism, or intellectual disability and behavioural issues. It doesn't mean any of that that someone seems to have a neurological condition. It's just a draining health condition, not a personality.

 

[vergil96]

I sometimes worry about seeming too disabled. I went to the office to do some paperwork and the lighting there was so bad that I almost had a meltdown and everyone wanted to help me. I ended up sitting in sunglasses inside and couldn't stop stimming, because I was so nervous. I didn't hear a single thing well on top of that, the office worker had to shout to me and I noticed that she exaggerated her mouth movements (she must have noticed that I'm paying a lot of attention to her mouth), which made her easier to understand, but yeah. I'm just ashamed of myself and ashamed of being a burden. I don't know what else I was supposed to do, I really needed those formalities.

 

[Crossbreed]

In a favorable context and in the interest of brevity, I would give the answer "mildly." (I am not downplaying its difficulties. I just have ASD2 & 3 children to compare my condition to.)

 

[Dagan]

I usually do something that makes it apparent. For example: I'm with my daughter at an outlet mall. They have a "Guess" in one suite. I walk in there, stop, look suspicious and then say, ".....it's a clothing store!?"

 

[Jumpinbare]

No one has specifically asked me. I have gotten odd stares. My wife TOLD me I was almost certainly. Only one person I TOLD was surprised.