I just got done reading a blog post from someone claiming to be autistic.  She was very eloquent in her description of how “neuro-typical” people treat her and how she acts around them.  Now, I don’t know what it’s like to be autistic but I sure know what it looks like.  You know, just because you’re socially inept that doesn’t mean you have autism.  I mean, you could just be really annoying.  You know?

I always explain autism this way, and I could be wrong but this is how I see it.  Imagine you have been abducted by aliens.  They come and grab you in your sleep and whisk you off to their planet.  They dump you off right in the middle of their society and leave you.  Now what do you do?  They communicate in ways you don’t understand.  They do things that make no sense to you.  They get angry at everything you do because everything you do is considered wrong in their society and you are incapable of learning to do what they do.  I ask again, what do you do?  How do you get along?  How do you react?   Do you turn inward?  Do you become frustrated and then angry?  THIS is autism.

I don’t know whether that blogger is autistic or not.  Autism is a spectrum disorder so one can be mildly or severely affected.  That being said, being rebellious is not autism.  You can’t start acting anti-social and then just declare yourself autistic.  My son is autistic and he hates that label.  I don’t look at him as autistic.  He’s just my son, and he’s pretty cool.