Type 3: Perceived Stigma
Perceived Stigma is the belief that others have negative beliefs (or Public Stigma) about autistic people. This goes hand in hand with the previous type, Self-Stigma, because humans tend to believe that others think the same way they do.
So if you believe autism is the Autism Speaks' brand of evil possessing demon, you tend to also assume others believe this as well. If you happen to be autistic and you believe this, even unwillingly, it can feel like others believe you're the devil incarnate. Needless to say, this is incredibly destructive to a person's wellbeing and ability to trust and enjoy other people.
I haven't run into a lot of autistic people that believe they're possessed by an autism-devil. What I do tend to see is people that self-sabotage or at least have beliefs that hold them back from living their best lives. They have internalized significant self-stigma, and then make the classical human error of assuming everyone else believes the same things.
So rather than saying, "I'm evil and everyone believes I'm evil," they might say, "I'm incapable of holding a job because I'm autistic and everyone knows that, so there's no point in trying to get a job." The person will then only halfheartedly apply for jobs, not seek out opportunities, and even not take advantage of options directly in front of them.
Or they may hide their diagnosis, believing, "I'm terrible/worthless/incapable/a failure because I'm autistic and if anyone finds out I'm autistic, they'll believe I'm terrible/worthless/incapable/a failure also." This also crosses into next time's stigma, Label Avoidance.
You can also see this stigma in parents of autistic children. When your kid is having a noisy meltdown in a public place, the typical assumption made by the parents of that kid is that everyone is staring and making the assumption that it's a tantrum because those parents are lazy and terrible. This assumption may or may not be true. People do tend to look at a source of noise, and there are certainly enough personal stories of passersby accusing the parents of poor parenting. (An aside: "Control your child" is about the dumbest demand I've ever heard, given that a child is literally a small human and all humans have free will.)
In all honesty, though? My understanding is that a lot of parents see that meltdown situation and go, "been there, done that, it sucks to be those poor people." I personally (not a parent) just tend to pay as little attention as possible. The screams hurt my ears and wreck my brain, but if it's a tantrum I don't want to signal the kid that this is an acceptable method of getting what they want. If it's a meltdown, more attention won't help but could very well make the meltdown worse.
I haven't run into a lot of autistic people that believe they're possessed by an autism-devil. What I do tend to see is people that self-sabotage or at least have beliefs that hold them back from living their best lives. They have internalized significant self-stigma, and then make the classical human error of assuming everyone else believes the same things.
So rather than saying, "I'm evil and everyone believes I'm evil," they might say, "I'm incapable of holding a job because I'm autistic and everyone knows that, so there's no point in trying to get a job." The person will then only halfheartedly apply for jobs, not seek out opportunities, and even not take advantage of options directly in front of them.
Or they may hide their diagnosis, believing, "I'm terrible/worthless/incapable/a failure because I'm autistic and if anyone finds out I'm autistic, they'll believe I'm terrible/worthless/incapable/a failure also." This also crosses into next time's stigma, Label Avoidance.
You can also see this stigma in parents of autistic children. When your kid is having a noisy meltdown in a public place, the typical assumption made by the parents of that kid is that everyone is staring and making the assumption that it's a tantrum because those parents are lazy and terrible. This assumption may or may not be true. People do tend to look at a source of noise, and there are certainly enough personal stories of passersby accusing the parents of poor parenting. (An aside: "Control your child" is about the dumbest demand I've ever heard, given that a child is literally a small human and all humans have free will.)
In all honesty, though? My understanding is that a lot of parents see that meltdown situation and go, "been there, done that, it sucks to be those poor people." I personally (not a parent) just tend to pay as little attention as possible. The screams hurt my ears and wreck my brain, but if it's a tantrum I don't want to signal the kid that this is an acceptable method of getting what they want. If it's a meltdown, more attention won't help but could very well make the meltdown worse.
The trick about this type of stigma is that it's not required to be accurate. There is a significant public stigma around autism. However, most people don't have a full or even partial understanding of that stigma, or even the ideas behind it. Most people just don't know a lot about autism at all, in fact. Autism, in addition, is often an invisible disability. So assuming people are automatically demonizing you isn't productive or even accurate.
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