Dealing With People Who Don't Understand

Grace McGrath

This is hard to ever get used to, but you have to know it is not about you but about how they have seen autism presented in the media.  I have had a doctor tell me when I told them I don’t look autistic, so it couldn’t be.  This was very invalidating, but I just powered through.  It is not your job to educate people about autism.  If this person cares, they will do the proper research and then talk to you.  For many folks, you may be too successful for them to understand that you have autism.  That is a problem in and of itself, but if this is presented, you can talk about the ways you do struggle not for sympathy but to show that you are affected.  Just make sure you are proud of yourself, then it won’t matter what anyone says because they can’t get into your head.