11 Things Not To Say To An Autistic Person

1 'You don't look autistic'

'Yes, and you don't look stupid.'

The first thing that comes to mind when I hear people say this. To be honest I haven't told many people that I have autism only a few close friends. Three to be exact.

The first time I told someone was when I was 18 years old. I told my best friend whom I'd known for almost six years. She didn't exactly say those exact words but more like: 'O wow, I never would have guessed it.'

Sometimes I regret telling her. The biggest fear I had was that people would not take me seriously anymore. Like because I am autistic I can't make important decisions or am unable to do certain things. My friend always said that nothing would change. But things definitely did change.

She was trying so hard to know what was best for me that she even started to 'advice' me what decisions I had to make. Dicisions I had always managed to make on my own. I know she was only trying her hardest to take account of my autism but it only made me feel worse. It was only when she started to treat me different that I started to feel different. I didn't feel different before she knew it.

The second time I told two friends of mine from church and it was pretty difficult. My biggest fear was that they were also gonna treat me different after they would know like with my other friend. Luckily that didn't happen this time.

The problem with this sentence, 'you don't look autistic', is that most people probably mean well but are actually saying that my mostly normal behaviour didn't match the stereotypes they have of autism. They say things like: But you have a lot of friends, don't have weird obsessions or don't take everyhing literally.

It's good to know that society still thinks these are all the symptoms for asd. (That was sarcastic)