So I’m autistic, Level 1, and today I want to talk about autism and self-awareness. Because there is a pretty big misconception that autistic people lack self-awareness.

So I want to take a minute to explain why I think that is and to also explain why autistic people don’t lack self-awareness, or at least not because of their autism.

I’ll start with this, anyone could lack self-awareness.

Now why I know it is not tied specifically to autism is by just looking at how autism is diagnosed.

And if you look at the autism section of the DSM and you search for the words “self-awareness,” you will not find them. They are not there.

Now here’s why I think there’s a misconception around autism and self-awareness.

I think it has a lot to do with how autistic people behave in social situations.

So let’s take, for example, an autistic person having a conversation with someone… and they’re mistaking certain social cues. Okay, so let’s say they don’t realize that it’s not their turn to talk yet.

Or maybe they’re just not picking up on the other person’s facial expressions.

And maybe they’re just not realizing that the other person isn’t all that interested in what they’re talking about.

That could look like the person lacks self-awareness.

But… if you think about what’s going on in the autistic person’s mind, this is not a self-awareness issue.

This is not the autistic person not understanding *themselves.*

This is the autistic person not understanding the social situation they’re in.

And I think that’s the case for most situations where an autistic person might appear to lack self-awareness.

Where it’s really not about their misunderstanding of their own brain.

It has to do with them having a discrepancy between their internal experiences and what’s going on around them.

That’s not a self-awareness issue.

That is a discrepancy issue.

Now back to what I said at the beginning of this video…

Anyone can *lack self-awareness.* So there are going to be autistic people who do lack self-awareness.

But it won’t be because of their autism.

And what I find personally interesting, and this is somewhat anecdotal, is that all the people that I know that are autistic are actually extremely self-aware.

The amount of thinking they do about their internal experiences and why they’re having those experiences is crazy.

So yeah, autistic people don’t lack self-awareness.

At least not because of their autism.

Anyway, I hope you found this helpful, and that’s all I got. 

Happy Sunday!