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I spoke to a young woman yesterday who didn't think she could be autistic because she experienced empathy. Once more for the back of the room: autistic people do not lack empathy.
The misapprehension comes - I think - because maybe we don't always express our empathy in ways that non-autistic people immediately recognise. But it's there, trust me. We're sometimes overwhelmed by it.
I think this imagined lack of empathy is often used to de-humanise us: we're not rounded people; we have something lacking. It's just plain wrong.
I can't express how stigmatising it is to be assumed to have no human feelings. It's a way of downgrading me as a person. It's an easy route to dismissing us.
And there's evidence of the damage: it's acting as a barrier to this woman exploring a diagnosis which could help her enormously.
The world would be a better place if we all recognised this:
How people appear to feel on the outside ≠ how they actually feel on the inside.
How people appear to feel on the outside ≠ how they actually feel on the inside.
But then, I guess not everyone has had the privilege of expressing a minor worry, and then having the whole of #ActuallyAutistic twitter flooding you with unicorn gifs and socially-awkward love :)
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