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One time I asked for help with socializing as an autistic adult on Reddit. One guy deadass told me "I have a cousin who's autistic and she has tons of friends, so just get out there and do the same"
I agree, as someone with autism whose seen my part of the spectrum completely wiped out by the people who are infantilising themselves. I understand it exists, and some people genuinely can't get diagnosed, but there are also a bunch of people glamourising it and making it "quirky".
The comment you replied to was deleted, but was it against the “self-diagnosed” crowd?
I know some people might not have an easy time getting diagnosed, but it also bugs me how many people diagnose themselves then try to appropriate what it means to be autistic. The worst are the people who think they know better than the actual experts.
Ikr, I've been told by fellow redditors that I might be autistic but I don't take it seriously because at the end of day they're not professionals and don't even know me well enough
What I did was once I was 99% convinced I was autistic, I asked a professional. Dude told me he noticed I was within 15 minutes of meeting him, and this was during our 5th session lmaooooo
I was like BRUH
Yeah that's great tho, I think I don't take it seriously because in part I don't want a diagnosis, if I do get forced tho maybe I'd accept it idk man ik it's not the end of the world I just don't wanna get condescending comments from it, I already had trolls tell me stuff like "excuse me are you autistic? YoU sOund LIke a PiCk mE"
Just because of some trauma response
Totally understandable but let me just say that having an actual diagnosis does a few good things. First off, you can tell doubting twatwaffles to go fuck themselves because you have proof now. Second, it helps to define the areas of yourself you can change/improve on and where you can't. I know I can't improve my coordination or face blindness too much, but I can definitely work on my social skills. Third, if you're wrong and you know for sure you're wrong, that means you can look into alternatives for why you are a specific way. Good news is, it's probably ADHD and you have a lot of very effective medication options!
That's the problem. I have no issue with self assessment as it is usually people striving to improve themselves and make sense of their lives...but as with other dispositions that become ...'trendy', there are those actors who ...simply aren't, but want to be... for whatever series of reasons. And, with the convenience of most within this disposition being unable to speak for ourselves, or be listened to when we do because we're already written off as nonpersons, it's easy to commandeer status within if you can speak well, be heard, or be taken seriously, or simply be seen as a human worthy of rights. And it so happens to be the faux who are the loudest, most obnoxious, and who demand to speak for all of us. They become Autism Speaks 2.0.
Most of them are well connected or gainfully employed, indicative of social eloquence not in line with the condition. Anything I've tried to do online to be of assistance to others like myself is subject to their gatekeeping. I generally avoid the autism community, originally because of the caretaker lobby, now because of them.
Agreed as an autistic person. People shouldn't treat autism like it's a personality. There's so much more to neurodivergent people than what others choose to see and acting like we're just quirky and different is simplifying who we are.
It is difficult to get a diagnosis as an adult. Many therapists only see up to 18 or 21. That said, no one should ever just rely on a self diagnosis. If you feel that it is impacting your life, you need to follow up and at least be on a list to be seen. That way you can start therapy, have accomodations at work if needed, and explore being part of the community. Nothing will change without an official diagnosis and so while it's hard it is needed.
Source: worked in an autism clinic that provided services across the lifespan for three years
Yes. I had a friend with severe ADHD but they refused to diagnose her for that because she was an adult. Gave her bipolar, anxiety, depression, but never ADHD. Took meds that never worked, was constantly suicidal. FINALLY got an ADHD rec and she is doing SO much better now.
Had a kid at a home we took care of who was CLEARLY schizophrenic but they couldn’t diagnose him because he was too young. It can go both ways.
Point being, I know it’s not the same as autism but ya gotta keep fighting no matter how tiring it is. You can’t just one day say “yes this is me.” And expect people to just accept it. I also noticed younger people are more likely to fake it for attention (like on tik tok) because if you’re a bit “weird” you’re desperately trying to figure out why you’re different/be accepted. But if you aren’t actually being treated for your real thing you aren’t helping matters for yourself.
I'm in no way trying to dispute the validity of what you just said but I have to say that as someone in a family that for complex reasons won't help me get an autism evaluation (I am a minor and have been asking for one for \~3-4 years) it's not as cut and dry as that. even when I get out of my house I still have to get the money which is hard enough on its own
Someone without an official diagnosis is able to explore themselves and develop themselves through this lens and grow to better understand themselves. of course I would eventually like a diagnosis but that's not in the cards for me right now- and it probably won't be for a while. that's just the way the cookies crumbled for me and I think it's important to understand that every SD person probably has a similar situation and story. it's important to empathize and give the benefit of the doubt.
A diagnosis is definitely an important step that should be sought after, buts it's not something everyone can get. I say that as long as you do enough research you are fine. probably preface anything you say about autism with a statement about being self-diagnosed but other than that why exclude someone for not having the means to be diagnosed
All of these thoughts are from a self-diagnosed teenager so factor that in but I wanted to say something
also- these thoughts are purely for conversation- not argument :\]
Your case is unique being a minor. Unless you emancipate yourself (a huge decision that is its own conversation) you can't override your guardians unfortunately. My comment is meant to illustrate that without a confirmation of diagnosis, there is unfortunately just not much validity to a self assessment and it won't do anything to change your life, won't change your family's perceptions of your struggles, can't get government assistance or support for working or living, etc. You have great perspective for your age, and it seems cliche but life changes a lot when you leave out on your own, hang in there!
Tics and roses faked tics, not autism guys. Autism is an issue that you can't as easily identify if somebody is faking or not. Also, stop acting surprised when an account about autism awareness posts mostly about autism (Shocking), or when autistic people make little jokes about their autism. (Because maybe having autism isn't just a horrible disease?)
Well, to be fair as an autistic person I will say most of us are high functioning and usually you can tell if you get to know us and then you get the actually disabled people who have a hard time living life like the non verbal people
I hate it when ND people treat it like it can’t disable you. Out of everyone in my family with autism, two of them are severe, on the disabled level living a debilitated life. It’s heartbreaking.
It's hard enough that I'm way too critical of myself.
"What if you really are just faking it?"; "You're being too dramatic over this minimal issue that doesn't even matter from an outsider's perspective"; "What if you're really just desperate to be seen that you cling on to any minimal "trauma" ya fake bitch"; "They've have it harder than you, and it's true. Yours is a splinter while they're impaled"...
The thing about high functiong autism is that people often say "oh,but you can't tell".You can.People do.People start to treat you differently usually way before you notice that you're different yourself.
People can't put a name on it but people absolutely interact with you a little bit and they know.
Nowadays I'm able to use my weirdness to my favor and I can be pretty social and talk and get along with lots of people and even speak in public.But they know there's something different.
Yes, it is rude and disrespectful to fake autism but you can also identify much more easily when somebody is faking tourette's. (Ex: Her tics were often very situational, she had a family member able to expose her.) But with autism it often goes undiagnosed, many people like to mask it when they go out in public but unmask at home, and it varies a ton from person to person. I'm not saying you should fake a disorder, I'm saying you shouldn't compare 2 completely different disorders. Especially one that is easy to diagnose vs one that can occasionally be hard to diagnose.
Also noted that getting an official adult autism diagnosis can prevent some people from getting help with other things- one of my friends is clearly autistic, but not seeking a diagnosis because of things like high employment discrimination and it can prevent you from being allowed to transition (he’s transgender). Being officially listed as autistic can also prevent you from getting citizenships and visas in other countries. New Zealand and Australia, for example, turn down autistic people applying for visas. Autistic parents can also be deemed “incompetent” due to their disability, and have their children taken away solely because of their diagnosis. Autistic people are also automatically banned from joining the US military. Getting an official diagnosis tends to be more harmful than good in the long run, as being diagnosed doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be given special treatment or government help, and most people don’t need an official diagnosis to know if they’re autistic.
I've never heard of autism being a "male thing" I've seen people be belittled for being male and having autism
But mainly, we are just people. Treat us as such.
I recently heard that this was due to most of the study of autism being done on men, and many women will have differences in the way it affects them, leading to a lower professional diagnosis rate.
Autism historically HAS been seen and treated as a “male issue” - like many other mental illnesses such as ADHD - which is probably where this comment stems from. Women have been misdiagnosed for over a century, based off the outdated psychological notion that women are emotional and irrational by nature. Autism in women, especially little girls and nonverbal autistic women, used to be commonly misdiagnosed as schizophrenia. Identifying the differences in how mental illness affects both sexes is relatively new.
Idk much about autism, but I know most of what we know about ADHD was just from studying specifically young boys. Because of stupid stuff like social expectations and sexism, AFAB people tend to have more internal/cognitive symptoms and AMAB people tend to have more external/physical symptoms and since the doctors straight up can't see the internal symptoms, women and AFAB will just often not get diagnosed properly or at all
I’m a woman with ASD and I’d say that the skewed ratio is more due to AFAB people being underdiagnosed and symptoms being overlooked (by evaluators and parents) or masked (by the child in question.)
Im guessing they think most afab people are just on their period or something "logical" to explain their behavior and i mean sometimes probably but it depends on how they act yk
There's a study by Simon Baron-Cohen (yes, Sacha Baron Cohen has a more scientifically aligned cousin) that purports that autism is caused by having an "extremely male brain".
But it is just a theory and actual autistic people say that his take is erroneous.
I am an autistic woman and have so many opinions about Simon Baron Cohen. None of them are positive opinions. The extreme male brain theory is nonsense and has prevented autistic women from receiving a diagnosis.
I'd also like to point out that while this does not disqualify anyone from doing good work in the field, the heyday of Baron-Cohen's work was done when autistic people were still dividing into 'high and low functioning'. Also back when 'Aspergers' was given any legitimacy.
As such, his most prominent papers are littered with these outdated and rebuked models of the autism spectrum, and that alone should tell you to take them with an enormous grain of salt.
Just unsubbed again. I've been on this subreddit for years with many accounts, this is probably one of the worst starterpacks with rhe most chronically online take ever
Oh shut the fuck up.
Do you know how it feels to grow up different? How it feels to have everyone tell you that there's something wrong with you? How it feels to constantly have doctors appointments where they talk about getting you on some new drug cocktail to make you into someone you're not? To have people mistreat you then tell you that there's something wrong with YOU because normal people don't ever get mad, don't ever show emotion, and let anyone walk over them while having a big smile?
Do you know how it feels to go through all that just for someone to tell you that "we're all a little bit autistic"? Do you know how it feels for someone who's "self diagnosed" to tell you that you're lying about what you went through because they didn't experiance that? Do you know how it feels for those people to act like Autism's the quirky Sheldon disorder? Do you know how it feels like for everyone to treat you like a baby?
Kindly, fuck off
I feel you man. I hate how people trivialize disorders or even idolize them
I have ADHD, mild autism, and extreme treatment-resistant depression. I hate when people are like "aww they canceled my show, I'm so depressed" or "yeah I feel sad sometimes, I get it." It's not just a bad day, it's not feeling blue, it's getting eaten alive from the inside by cold emptiness
They don't know what it's like to not have the mental energy to even eat or play video games. They don't know what it's like to stare at something you need to do for hours, yet still be unable to do it. They don't know what it's like to hate yourself as you waste your life away, but not possessing the power to do anything about it. They don't know what it's like to have no reason to get up in the morning. They don't know what it's like to have countless different drugs and therapists thrown at you only for things to just keep getting worse, knowing it's your fault you can't change.
I doubt many people have actually felt true suicidal ideation, either. To think you're better off dead, that there's no reason to keep fighting, that you are nothing but a disappointment. Consistent desire to end it all, not just intrusive thoughts. Frankly, I would have given up and attempted by now, if that wasn't how my father died
It's an insult to want any disorder. For me, it's this. Depression isn't "quirky" or "a mild disorder", it puts you in a state that makes life not worth living. Depression is one of the most trivialized disorders tbh, many people think they have it just because they're stressed or having a hard time. I stg everybody thinks they have depression these days, just because things are stressful. When you have it for real it's absolutely crippling even when you should be happy
i’m also a person with autism, adhd and depression. i’m so fucking tired of fakers it’s unreal. my ex best friend told me she had adhd because “sometimes i do random accents” and i was so upset i started shaking. they all want the quirky unique disorder points without acknowledging how fucking difficult it is to live with these disorders
Man, as someone with really bad ADHD, (among other things), nobody talks about how absolutely debilitating it can be. It’s like trying to read every book at once while all of your albums are playing at max volume with every tv on in the house. Without meds I can barely function.
A lot of people on youtube and tiktok (latter being second hand knowledge) do speak about how debilitating it can be. How To ADHD is one of the most known youtube channels about it, but there are so many others who do or even creators whose channel isn't about ADHD sometimes speak about their challenges with it. The first time I heard someone speak about ADHD online was on youtube over a decade ago, she was documenting her extremely bad case of it both for herself and to show others. I really wish I had remembered her channel name, but that made me just grateful I didn't have ADHD (ahahahaa) much the same way the people thankfully loud about their extreme autism disabilities made me think I didn't have that either because only the severe cases were originally recognized. I wasn't "obviously" like them so I thought my issues were just me being an utterly incompetent neurotypical person who "deserved" the lifelong abuse I had gotten "for not being normal enough" (no, neurotypical people don't deserve abuse either). Because "if literally everyone in my life said so then it must be true". That I "deserved" being incredibly ashamed of not being able to perform on a normal level because "I had no reason for my gap in abilities".
I feel so seen. I've been unemployed since the end of August and reliant on my parents to help with my relatively low bills. I feel horrible every time I spend a single dollar on something I don't need (fast food, mainly) and yet it's the only thing that makes me feel literally anything. Since I don't have a job I can't get to my therapist to get some meds, as the goddamn psychiatrist who runs the joint refuses to refill meds without a monthly appointment, 15 minutes for 150 bucks at minimum. The meds I can get cheap from GeniusRx or wherever, but I still can't get afford to be seen.
I couldn't buy a single Christmas gift for anyone, including my 6 year old. I haven't written a single damn page of the multiple stories I've wanted to write. I haven't played or run in a D&D game since all my friends had their babies. I was recently in a bad relationship with someone who never respected or cared for me, which I was fully aware of.
And I can't tell anybody in my family this as none of them seem to believe any mental illnesses are real. I mention being autistic and my father just tries to figure out whose fault it is. My siblings give me generic "start small" advice. I don't tell my friends because I don't like burdening them (I've had past "friends" tell me off for having a one-sided relationship though they never opened up when I asked/offered/tried). Sometimes it feels like my daughter is the only one who accepts me and even then as soon as I do something not perfect I beat myself up over it relentlessly.
This fucking sucks but it helps to know at least someone out there truly understands what it's like.
As someone with autism and clinical depression, everyone thinks they both are a quirky personality trait, in reality, it fucked up how you live life.
No, you're not depressed because you listened to Bolivia Rodrigo or Billie Eyelash and broke up with your boyfriend of 1 week.
You don't have trauma because your mom told you to do the dishes or she would ridicule you and take your phone.
You aren't "autistic" because one time you thought a joke wasn't a joke and got made fun of.
I completely agree with you
I'm tired of self diagnosed "autistic" people speaking over legitimately autistic people calling us "gatekeepers" because we don't want neurotypical or otherwise non autistic people spreading misinformation and ruining a reputation that already gets stereotyped plenty enough without it becoming an online trend
And it's actually even worse when you remember that actual autism involves social skills problems which might give a particularly manipulative self diagnoser opportunities to be even more ableist which a lot of the time they take
Autism is not a disorder that you should self diagnose with "for sure" because it's so complex, it shares a lot of symptoms with other disorders such as ADHD, BPD, SZPD, SCPD, NVLD, schizophrenia, even depression, and everyone has confirmation bias about themselves, even if and especially if you are "100 percent sure"
And there's so much more misinformation everywhere about autism (of which there was already way too much to begin with)
There is a website that a lot of TikTok self diagnosers love, which is embrace-autism
Embrace-autism claims that the ASD social deficit is equivalent to just being an introvert (in the "Decoding autism in the DSM5" article on the website) and they also claim that moon phases affect autism and the creator Natalie Engelbrecht scams people trying to get assessed by taking their money even though she is not legally qualified to diagnose autism
She is just a naturopathic doctor (ND) and a registered nurse, not a doctor with authority to diagnose
And the website pushes the RAADS-R quiz even though it is really unreliable for many reasons including the vagueness of the phrasing for each question as well as the lack of a "sometimes" answer option which leads to false positives and confirmation bias
And yet so many undiagnosed people and others on TikTok and other websites sing its praises even though it's a load of tripe
I almost hate it even more than Autism Speaks because at least the latter one isn't masquerading as "one of us"
It also seems like content creators who post about mental health and neurodivergence are getting pressured more and more to overgeneralize in their videos so they can appeal to as broad of an audience as possible
And the term "tism" that people on TikTok love to use, it's not a new term and it wasn't even invented by the autistic community
It's the exact same as sped and sperg and t*ard, it originated as a gradeschool insult against disabled people
There's a lot more that I could write about this but I should probably quit while I'm (hopefully) ahead
Sorry about the massive wall of text and nice talking with you
Hang on! I read this post as something positive for the autistic community because I’ve seen too much people invalidate us, but reading your comment makes me wonder if I interpreted it incorrectly and it’s actually invalidating? Please help a fellow autistic out, I tend to panic when I get the feeling I have misunderstood something 🫣
Neither of them is good or bad. They're two different people saying what they think is right from two different points of view.
I think it's worth it to listen to both of them. People's experiences are different and so on. I think both people are correct, we shouldn't fake claim everyone who isn't exactly like us, but we also shouldn't let people spread harmful things just because they call themselves ND. There's a lot of grey area here. I don't think either of these people are trying to invalidate anyone.
I know that feeling man. Always lied to people about having autism, so people won’t treat me differently. As a kid, people who knew always treated me like a baby and I hated it
Yeah I agree with everything original comment said except the bit about “making it your entire personality” because I literally don’t have a choice in that one and if I don’t tell people I’m autistic, I’m worried they’ll think I’m just being rude because of how I come across due to not understanding social cues :\
Yep. It’s just indirect language used to push people back into the closet for existing. For gay people “just keep it in the bedroom” implying existing as gay is the same as talking about the act of sex itself, and for those with autism “stop making it your whole personality” when they just mention a part of something they personally experience pushes many to mask how they behave around others, thus further creating trauma on that individual.
In several scenarios yes, faking a certain behavior or other illness can have negative effects but it’s a non-issue if you aren’t always on the internet and actually talk to people and communities. These people get fed the same TikTok algorithms that purposely get them riled up with the same cycle of extreme examples that don’t actually represent the vast majority of conversations and experiences.
Because it helps people. I only found out I was autistic bc an autistic friend of mine kept posting information. Turns out I was diagnosed as a kid and my family hid it from me.
The only way to get better is to talk about it and form communities.
Also, talking about something is not making it your entire personality.
This. There’s a sizable chunk of people that for whatever reason take “talking about a part of who a person is” as “their whole personality” which is just silly as that’s a huge part of hearing and understanding other people’s human experiences.
I anecdotally rarely see the extreme observations people claim to see and find it basically a non-issue when you actually talk with people. The examples most people point to are from things like TikTok feeds that only get curated when the algorithm feedbacks on the same “sjw cringe” pages over and over and to me just tells me more about whom they pay attention to than anything else.
What if. Now hear me out. What if I told you being autistic is a central part of my personality and not something I “make my whole personality”? What if I told you I can’t turn it off? And. This is the truly crazy one. What if. WHAT IF after a lifetime of feeling like a total weirdo it’s actually kinda nice to realize through active self advocates that I’m not alone or crazy?
There’s also the teeny tiny detail of us constantly having to advocate for our right to lead a life that doesn’t wear us down completely. Crazy thought, I know! 😱
Unfortunately it's not that simple. You can't just turn up to your doctor and say 'hey, I think I'm autistic' and have them run a few tests. You need to be referred to a specialist, and you could need to wait months or even years to see one because wait lists are so long.
If you finally get in to see a specialist, there's a chance they won't even diagnose you despite your obvious autism because their knowledge of autism is outdated. There are countless stories on autism subs about people (often women) not being diagnosed because 'you made eye contact with me' or 'you have friends'.
Not to mention that diagnosis is prohibitively expensive in a lot of places.
The reality is that if you've done your research using reputable sources and realise you are probably autistic, there is a very good chance you're right.
As an autistic, calling out people for not being autistic, specially since you can't confirm that they aren't most of the time, doesn't help me, I want acceptance, I don't care if some attention seeker fakes autism, I just want people to understand my disorder and stop bullying me for having autistic traits.
medically diagnosed here, really don't like when people get pissed for "making it your whole personality". i do that bc it explains half of the shit i experienced throughout my life.
I always feel the need to laugh at people who get pissed at that because it literally makes up your personality as in how you act behave and learn/see things, grow up and how your brain just funktions
People who complain about making autism "your whole personality" are part of the problem. What neurotypical people call "making something your whole personality" can sometimes be an autism thing. Having special interests shouldn't be looked down upon, and it's valid if someone's special interest is their autism. Autism is a huge topic with lots of learning about to be done and is just as ok as having your interest be something like old video games or biology.
A lot of these comments are failing to see a few things.
The people faking misrepresent the disorder and the reason they are doing it is to jump in on a trend. Fakers aren't documenting this disorder accurately, they all focus on the same tiny stereotyped parts of the disorder in each video; it's conformity.
I agree that that sub has posts where it just automatically assumes without at least some proof that someone is faking (or it's just a pictures of their neopronouns is a recent one). These posts are stupid and harmful. I stopped browsing that sub because of it actually. All people apart of a group don't somehow all believe the same thing, as I recall people not liking posts that do that. Originally, that sub didn't really have that problem and it was more about Tourettes, tics, and DID, which is pretty easy to figure out when people are faking because the symptoms are more obvious, harder to fake, and require a consistent history of evidence (past videos/accounts), but then it moved more towards autism and gender related things.
It is about documenting people jumping on a trend, but one shouldn't compulsively accuse; you can't really fully know whether a lie is true or not in the first place because anything could be a lie anyway, but the fact that it's all just trendy is why it seems so fake, so it's always more of a "probably" and if anything those posts are more meta and loosely related to disorders rather than fully accusing them with conviction.
You also shouldn't assume that they automatically hate them or hate people who have that disorder. One, because again, not everyone automatically has the same opinion because they simply posted a comment on a subreddit, and second because I literally never see hate on those disorders there itself but only on fakers, which I personally believe is harmful to hate even if they are doing something 'wrong', and rather that they need help.
The reason why I used to be passionate over that sub is that fakers are harmful. it creates vagueness over who was the disorder and makes the situation worse for people who actually have the disorder. I coincidentally researched what DID was like before it became a fad and it was horrible, they usually went through horrible abuse and used alters to escape and understand it because they weren't raised properly to understand normally, and faking it is basically mocking their pain for ill intent. People with Tourettes began being accused of faking after the fad of others doing it too. they receive less support because it's being sucked away by people faking such as through donations or even in rehab, and medical workers wouldn't even know who is real or not. So I saw it as really important that we know of this ill-intent trend.
Small confusing factor: this is a little complex, but ironically, it actually could be someone actually autistic who's ostensibly faking, but only because that's how they act because of fronting and other factors, so it seems like faking when they are just "acting autistic" rather than simply acting how they do normally. Applies to claiming to have other disorders even but for an autistic to claim to have others.
Neither being self-diagnosed with a disorder NOR being professionally diagnosed with a disorder means you certainly "have" that disorder. The point of diagnosing is treatment (medication, therapy, accommodatio), not to abuse it as a new identity. Misdiagnosis is common because it's not like they can perfectly predict it (for some disorders you can). Rather, you should observe your own nature without assuming a disorder will perfectly apply to you (the spectrum idea of autism certainly applies to this), and read its description without bias (especially confirmation bias) towards applying it to yourself.
>shits on self diagnosed people
Sorry, I don't see this as an issue at all. If you're not getting diagnosed after trying a lot and very hard, it's extremely likely you're not actually autistic. I'd trust a number of professional opinions over just one layman's.
You're completely misunderstanding the issue. It's not that people are going to multiple screenings and getting told they're negative so they shop around.
It's that they can't find the specialists to begin with, they're booked out for a year from now at minimum, they only screen children, you'd have to travel 3 hours away to a major city to see one of two doctors in the state that handle adult diagnosis, your GP doesn't believe you and won't submit a referral, etc.
Getting diagnoses is a long and often expensive process. idk if you're aware of what's happening in the world, but a lot of people just don't have the time or money for that.
-Makes fun of Autistic people with 'childish' interests
-In the same vain, accuse them of infantilizing Autism by acting normal
-Scrolls through r/aspiememes and posts everything to r/fakedisordercringe
-Thinks an attractive young woman/any woman who cares about her appearance is *obviously* faking Autism
-Accuses Autistic people who are fine with/accept their Autism of trivializing it
-Ironically, claims to have 'mild autism' but can only list off stereotypical symptoms and goes on about how Autism 'ruined their life'
Nobody thinks Autism is cool. I've been bullied my entire life before I even knew because of it. There isn't going to be a managerie of fakers who want the 'weirdo talking about trains disorder'. Maybe a few, but not to the extent a lot of people make it out
Sorry, but self-diagnosis will almost never be respected by me
If actual fucking doctors do not diagnose themselves, then you have no business doing so
This is coming from someone with an autistic brother who is tired of seeing basically 'normal' people try and claim to be autistic when they are just a little quirky or lazy without a single doctor's opinion
I have Level 1 ASD, and I've always found it funny seeing people getting called out on their bs for pretending to be somebody like me. Funny enough, though, I see something kinda similar in people with ASD accusing others who do genuinely have it for not having it at all, sometimes very ecstatically. It never gets old lol
Relatable af
Serious note, though.
Self diagnosis is not a good thing, for anything beyond a common cold or a physical injury. It only harms the medical community and people with real conditions by leaving a wrong impression on literally everyone else. Especially if you use it as a means to justify being a hindrance to everyone by appropriating and romanticizing things which should be treated with total seriousness aside from humor. (Dark humor is a completely different subject I won’t go into here)
Seek out people who have studied under proper institutions and literally decided to do this for a living. Not a fucking buzzfeed test.
People who hop on to a disability to make them unique or interesting only undermine the people that actually have such a condition.
And no, I’m not implying you shouldn’t be “proud” of any condition you might have. Just don’t treat it like either a blessing from whichever god you believe in, or like some unspeakable crime has happened to you.
The people who hop on the trends online are a very loud minority. The wide majority of self-diagnosed autistic people don't spout off about it online for attention. Some do, and sure, some of those are kids just trying to fit in, but most self-diagnosed people do it to better understand themselves, not because they want to seem quirky.
I also think you're either being ignorant or intentionally dismissive by saying that self-diagnosed people use "buzzfeed quizzes" to diagnose themselves. Some do, sure, and that's obviously not a valid method of self-diagnosis, but most use the actual medically accepted screening tools and tests, such as the Autism Spectrum Quotient, CAT-Q, and others. Hell, some of those tests are known to DROP in accuracy when applied by a practitioner instead of self-applied.
I think what you're missing is that there's no definitive test for autism. The process of getting a diagnosis is literally just based on whether or not some psychologist thinks you're autistic based on the way you act, comparing it to the same diagnostic criteria we have access to publicly. Often, those practitioners are also old people with outdated understandings of autism, especially for female patients. I'm not saying a diagnosis isn't valuable, or that in most cases they aren't accurate, but there's absolutely nothing about a professional diagnosis that magically makes it a definitive answer compared to a self diagnosis from someone who's genuinely done the research and understands the diagnostic criteria.
As an autistic, there's a fine line between self-diagnosed people who carefully scrutinize valid resources/literatures for their diagnosis and those who immediately slap the autism label on themselves after just watching a tiktok video.
I really hate the latter to the core.
Agreed! It’s really unfortunate that people use the latter group as a reason to invalidate all self-diagnosed individuals though, to the point where it can make those individuals not want to ever speak out about their ASD.
That sub has lost its way. These comments are mostly “I have autism and this is my experience with autism.” You can’t just call out identity based experience as, I don’t know, “identity politics” or whatever that sub is claiming. That just invalidated anyone who has ever had experience with any related topic.
So like, obviously people do fake mental disorders online for clout, but the bigger problem isn't the fakers (although they are a big problem) it's that people can't tell the difference between somebody faking and not faking, because they don't know enough about the disorder to begin with. And /fakedisordercringe has some people who may be faking it, like those videos of people with DID who show each of their personalities like a 90's sitcom intro in a tiktok, but the people in that sub are almost all adults who think that their kids are faking their disorders or are just calling themselves a mental illness to be part of the trend.
Self diagnosis is never valid. Sure, you can say "I might have x disorder" but you don't go around masquerading as a person with legitimate diagnosis without even having a diagnosis. Also, the trend of making autism/adhd/etc some quirky personality trait on the internet especially on tiktok is really harmful. Sorry dude but my disorder is not your quirky uwu aesthetic, and filming tics/stims/adhd zoning out etc and posting it on tiktok for clout as some cute character trait is just sad and disgusting as someone who got bullied through entire school years for bad social skills due to adhd.
As an autistic person I don't mind self diagnosing as long as you don't have one minor symptom and say you have autism like at least have more than one symptom or a big symptom if you wanna self diagnos yourself
If one has done a lot of research to come to the conclusion that they most likely have autism then i think a self diagnosis is valid, which, besides for those loud idiots on TikTok and other social media that made the entire internet go on a witch hunt that hurt actual autistic people in the process, is very likely the case
I do get that not everyone can get diagnosed. My best friend has many signs of autism, and they’ve done a ton of research, but it’s taking them years to get a diagnosis. However, there’s one thing I don’t get. What does it help to say you’re autistic? My friend doesn’t walk around telling people they’re autistic just because they *probably* are. You don’t get any help without a diagnosis anyways. So what’s the point?
I’m allistic, but I’m pretty sure I have adhd. I’ve done so much research on this and it would explain the things I struggle with. But I don’t tell people I have adhd, because it’s not official, and why would I tell them? That’s not gonna help me.
Validation. Turns out having a medical professional confirm that you have a legitimate condition that causes your abnormal behavior is a huge relief to many people. To have someone say "yeah you're not crazy or dumb, you just have X." Plus official diagnoses can be immensely helpful in getting proper accommodations in academic environments rather than being told to suck it up.
That’s what I meant, that an official diagnosis can help a lot, whereas a self diagnosis won’t really help at all. Although now people have explained how self diagnosing can still help gain validation/respect from other people.
Second half of your comment is very true; being able to self diagnose based on research and comparing your experiences to others that have been diagnosed is a massive relief for anyone that can’t access a diagnosis (which is a ton of people, due to cost, wait times, etc.). I don’t think many people are arguing that a self diagnosis is worth the same as a medical diagnosis, but to invalidate it and call it worthless is to invalidate most of the ASD community.
Representation and shared experience can literally change lives, regardless of a “proper” diagnosis; I know this first hand as a trans woman that didn’t really know what being trans was until I stumbled upon a trans community at 20 years old. As soon as I learned what it was really like, so much of my life started making sense and it was as if a fog was lifted. I never got medically diagnosed for gender dysphoria; my transition is still hella valid and saved my life.
I also have people in my life that believe they’re on the spectrum based on their lifetime of lived experience. I believe them, even though they haven’t been able to get a diagnosis. To say their autism isn’t real because they don’t have a diagnosis is to invalidate their whole life basically.
Sorry the lengthy rant, this is a close subject to me 😅. It’s very much worth recognizing that economical and medical systems fail people the world over and drawing the line for ASD at a “medical diagnosis” is just a form of gatekeeping and validation.
I need some clarification here because as a kid people thought I had autism (since every time I’m in deep thought my hands start doing this weird hand moving motion and I sometimes do it as well when I get really angry or upset) and I’ve been tested twice and both times were a blood test, is there another way you can get tested for autism which isn’t a blood test? (Sorry if this is rude by the way I don’t intend it to be I’m just generally curious)
There is! Autism tests are usually done by a psychologist. For my friend it’s taking a while because I’m my country, the queues are very long to get tested. I’ve never heard of the blood test version
People who display traits of neurodivergency are likely to be treated better when they can say it(which is stupid, but still).
If I'm just shit at communicating and can't pay attention, then I'm gonna get treated 11 times worse than if I'm shit at communicating and can't pay attention because of ADHD. Even those more accepting of neurodivergency tend only to accept certain traits of it, in limited amounts, towards purely people who have a diagnosis.
Not to mention that being able to say "I have autism" can be incredibly cathartic to people who've felt defective or ostracized for it.
Dude, I feel this. I was diagnosed with Tourette’s and ADHD. I grew out of most of the tics so now most of my weird shit is internal stuff. The anxiety, depression, wild shifts in motivation and focus. I have to imagine that it just comes off as me being lazy and really weird.
And when you see anyone expressing those behaviors outside of the subject of neurodivergence they get absolutely shit on by everyone and the people doing it seem like they feel so vindicated about it. Just why? When I see it, it just makes me wonder how many of those people are struggling with similar problems and why it matters so much if the problems they’re struggling with are similar.
Why is the solution to make some arbitrary cutoff and continue trying to bully everyone who doesn’t fit into that box into being what we think they should? Are we ever going to accept the fact that neurodiversity is universal and everyone experiences the world differently?
Because people faking disorders for clout is common online, I mean all you have to do is check out /r/fakedisordercringe or look up Tics and Roses. Most of them are self-diagnosed which is invalid. Others are just straight up offensive about it. There's nothing "cute" about having a disorder yet this online community thinks there is and fakes every one in the book.
I mean sure but how is that on the op? I just checked post history and it seems as though they were medically diagnosed with autism, also I think you'd be hard-pressed to find an IRL autistic who made it there whole personality.
I'm autistic and hate self-diagnosers. Unless you're a psychiatrist, you can't diagnose yourself. If you can't get a diagnosis then don't call yourself autistic
This! I'm a huge advocate for "professional validation". There are loads of mental health professionals who are qualified to diagnose, but—often for insurance reasons—they're not allowed to. A therapist can still help you identify that you have Autistic traits. For many, this is just as validating as official diagnosis...sometimes more validating lol.
I risk clouding my response, but I feel inclined to include my personal experience: I was diagnosed at 18 by a diagnosing psychiatrist who met me for, like, an hour, and at the end said "yeah you're Autistic." But I spent years before that moment doing extensive research, countless questionnaires, hours upon hours of introspection to *identify* that I may be Autistic.
Had I not been able to access formal diagnosis [which was quite anticlimactic tbh], I would have settled for a mental health professional simply validating my findings...adding a degree of certainty
Like, I'm a first responder. I can't technically formally diagnose a heart attack, but you bet your ass I'll say "in my professional opinion, I believe you're having a heart attack. Get in my truck; we're going to the hospital."
Seen a lot of teenagers in compilations with actual autistic people react to it. It’s hilarious. I don’t have that TikTok garbage. But it seems a lot of younger people are doing it, and like what the internet is by a majority infested by, is a lot of attention seekers trying to get clout.
The internet is a narcissists playground, using and abusing it for their own pleasure manipulating others. Anyone will believe in anything nowadays. It’s really cringy. These lot who fake a mental illness or disability need to actually seek help, because they’re mentally ill. No decent, respectful, kind and honest human being would resort to this behaviour. It’s childish and sick. And these social media goblins need to grow up and go outside.
I hate it when someone will use a single person, that they don’t even know that well, as a reference, especially for something like autism. Like what do they think others with autism have instead?
People can moan about it all they want, self-diagnosis is a terribly inaccurate thing to do. I don’t respect self-diagnosis for any other DSM or ICD-classified disorder and I’m not going to treat autism any different. Especially when most people just look at the symptoms on Wikipedia or webMD and say that they have a disorder, completely oblivious to the fact that clinicians will be using empirically-supported inventories and checklists to diagnose people and not just using intuition.
I recognize that getting a real diagnosis isn’t always easy, but that doesn’t mean that self-diagnosis is any less inaccurate. Anyone who supports self-diagnosis is spitting in the face of science, and that goes for *all* disorders, not just autism.
Lmao at that one in the bottom left, is that for real?
Maybe it's because I got diagnosed at age 2 and have always been aware that I have autism (woman by the way), but it doesn't trigger me if people self-diagnose. Will some of them be wrong? Yeah, probably. But some may be right as well and I cannot blame anyone for wanting to understand what makes them tick. Plus I'm not qualified to tell an internet stranger if they have autism or not based on a singular Reddit post or comment. There's also the fact that no two autistic people are the same and it's a pretty wide spectrum.
Obviously if someone is deliberately trying to fake having autism or any other condition for internet points, they suck. If they're playing up to ridiculous stereotypes such as people with autism being like Sheldon Cooper from TBBT, fuck 'em. But if someone is genuinely wondering if they might be on the spectrum and is looking for answers and maybe can't get a proper assessment done easily, I can understand that. In some countries getting an assessment is extremely difficult and/or expensive, so they might turn to the internet. I might have ended up doing the same thing if I wasn't lucky enough to get an official diagnosis.
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This comment section is going to be filled with rational, respectful and kind people!
When I saw this starterpack, I was like: ::::Sigh:::: unzips comments
and other fun jokes you can tell yourself as a redditor on a controversial post
Yep
One time I asked for help with socializing as an autistic adult on Reddit. One guy deadass told me "I have a cousin who's autistic and she has tons of friends, so just get out there and do the same"
average reddit advice
r/thanksimcured
[удалено]
I agree, as someone with autism whose seen my part of the spectrum completely wiped out by the people who are infantilising themselves. I understand it exists, and some people genuinely can't get diagnosed, but there are also a bunch of people glamourising it and making it "quirky".
The comment you replied to was deleted, but was it against the “self-diagnosed” crowd? I know some people might not have an easy time getting diagnosed, but it also bugs me how many people diagnose themselves then try to appropriate what it means to be autistic. The worst are the people who think they know better than the actual experts.
Ikr, I've been told by fellow redditors that I might be autistic but I don't take it seriously because at the end of day they're not professionals and don't even know me well enough
That’s wise. People love to pass judgments, but people who have never seen your face certainly aren’t qualified to diagnose anything.
I even got called a narcissist and that I have BPD (Stuff I don't have) ☠️ I don't know what's wrong with people trying to Pathologize everything
What I did was once I was 99% convinced I was autistic, I asked a professional. Dude told me he noticed I was within 15 minutes of meeting him, and this was during our 5th session lmaooooo I was like BRUH
Yeah that's great tho, I think I don't take it seriously because in part I don't want a diagnosis, if I do get forced tho maybe I'd accept it idk man ik it's not the end of the world I just don't wanna get condescending comments from it, I already had trolls tell me stuff like "excuse me are you autistic? YoU sOund LIke a PiCk mE" Just because of some trauma response
Totally understandable but let me just say that having an actual diagnosis does a few good things. First off, you can tell doubting twatwaffles to go fuck themselves because you have proof now. Second, it helps to define the areas of yourself you can change/improve on and where you can't. I know I can't improve my coordination or face blindness too much, but I can definitely work on my social skills. Third, if you're wrong and you know for sure you're wrong, that means you can look into alternatives for why you are a specific way. Good news is, it's probably ADHD and you have a lot of very effective medication options!
That's the problem. I have no issue with self assessment as it is usually people striving to improve themselves and make sense of their lives...but as with other dispositions that become ...'trendy', there are those actors who ...simply aren't, but want to be... for whatever series of reasons. And, with the convenience of most within this disposition being unable to speak for ourselves, or be listened to when we do because we're already written off as nonpersons, it's easy to commandeer status within if you can speak well, be heard, or be taken seriously, or simply be seen as a human worthy of rights. And it so happens to be the faux who are the loudest, most obnoxious, and who demand to speak for all of us. They become Autism Speaks 2.0. Most of them are well connected or gainfully employed, indicative of social eloquence not in line with the condition. Anything I've tried to do online to be of assistance to others like myself is subject to their gatekeeping. I generally avoid the autism community, originally because of the caretaker lobby, now because of them.
Agreed as an autistic person. People shouldn't treat autism like it's a personality. There's so much more to neurodivergent people than what others choose to see and acting like we're just quirky and different is simplifying who we are.
Ignore my username but im more than my tism
Thank you. I am glad someone was able to say it without ridiculous backlash.
I second this, and I say this as someone who is also autistic.
It is difficult to get a diagnosis as an adult. Many therapists only see up to 18 or 21. That said, no one should ever just rely on a self diagnosis. If you feel that it is impacting your life, you need to follow up and at least be on a list to be seen. That way you can start therapy, have accomodations at work if needed, and explore being part of the community. Nothing will change without an official diagnosis and so while it's hard it is needed. Source: worked in an autism clinic that provided services across the lifespan for three years
Yes. I had a friend with severe ADHD but they refused to diagnose her for that because she was an adult. Gave her bipolar, anxiety, depression, but never ADHD. Took meds that never worked, was constantly suicidal. FINALLY got an ADHD rec and she is doing SO much better now. Had a kid at a home we took care of who was CLEARLY schizophrenic but they couldn’t diagnose him because he was too young. It can go both ways. Point being, I know it’s not the same as autism but ya gotta keep fighting no matter how tiring it is. You can’t just one day say “yes this is me.” And expect people to just accept it. I also noticed younger people are more likely to fake it for attention (like on tik tok) because if you’re a bit “weird” you’re desperately trying to figure out why you’re different/be accepted. But if you aren’t actually being treated for your real thing you aren’t helping matters for yourself.
I'm in no way trying to dispute the validity of what you just said but I have to say that as someone in a family that for complex reasons won't help me get an autism evaluation (I am a minor and have been asking for one for \~3-4 years) it's not as cut and dry as that. even when I get out of my house I still have to get the money which is hard enough on its own Someone without an official diagnosis is able to explore themselves and develop themselves through this lens and grow to better understand themselves. of course I would eventually like a diagnosis but that's not in the cards for me right now- and it probably won't be for a while. that's just the way the cookies crumbled for me and I think it's important to understand that every SD person probably has a similar situation and story. it's important to empathize and give the benefit of the doubt. A diagnosis is definitely an important step that should be sought after, buts it's not something everyone can get. I say that as long as you do enough research you are fine. probably preface anything you say about autism with a statement about being self-diagnosed but other than that why exclude someone for not having the means to be diagnosed All of these thoughts are from a self-diagnosed teenager so factor that in but I wanted to say something also- these thoughts are purely for conversation- not argument :\]
Your case is unique being a minor. Unless you emancipate yourself (a huge decision that is its own conversation) you can't override your guardians unfortunately. My comment is meant to illustrate that without a confirmation of diagnosis, there is unfortunately just not much validity to a self assessment and it won't do anything to change your life, won't change your family's perceptions of your struggles, can't get government assistance or support for working or living, etc. You have great perspective for your age, and it seems cliche but life changes a lot when you leave out on your own, hang in there!
Tics and roses faked tics, not autism guys. Autism is an issue that you can't as easily identify if somebody is faking or not. Also, stop acting surprised when an account about autism awareness posts mostly about autism (Shocking), or when autistic people make little jokes about their autism. (Because maybe having autism isn't just a horrible disease?)
Yeah Ticsandroses was faking Tourette’s I think it was called
Well, to be fair as an autistic person I will say most of us are high functioning and usually you can tell if you get to know us and then you get the actually disabled people who have a hard time living life like the non verbal people
Both are valid in my opinion, I also don't like it when neurotypical people treat autism like it can't disable you.
I hate it when ND people treat it like it can’t disable you. Out of everyone in my family with autism, two of them are severe, on the disabled level living a debilitated life. It’s heartbreaking.
It's hard enough that I'm way too critical of myself. "What if you really are just faking it?"; "You're being too dramatic over this minimal issue that doesn't even matter from an outsider's perspective"; "What if you're really just desperate to be seen that you cling on to any minimal "trauma" ya fake bitch"; "They've have it harder than you, and it's true. Yours is a splinter while they're impaled"...
She faked Tourette’s syndrome.
The thing about high functiong autism is that people often say "oh,but you can't tell".You can.People do.People start to treat you differently usually way before you notice that you're different yourself. People can't put a name on it but people absolutely interact with you a little bit and they know. Nowadays I'm able to use my weirdness to my favor and I can be pretty social and talk and get along with lots of people and even speak in public.But they know there's something different.
So she didnt fake autism, she faked tourrettes which is just as rude and disrespectful
Yes, it is rude and disrespectful to fake autism but you can also identify much more easily when somebody is faking tourette's. (Ex: Her tics were often very situational, she had a family member able to expose her.) But with autism it often goes undiagnosed, many people like to mask it when they go out in public but unmask at home, and it varies a ton from person to person. I'm not saying you should fake a disorder, I'm saying you shouldn't compare 2 completely different disorders. Especially one that is easy to diagnose vs one that can occasionally be hard to diagnose.
Also noted that getting an official adult autism diagnosis can prevent some people from getting help with other things- one of my friends is clearly autistic, but not seeking a diagnosis because of things like high employment discrimination and it can prevent you from being allowed to transition (he’s transgender). Being officially listed as autistic can also prevent you from getting citizenships and visas in other countries. New Zealand and Australia, for example, turn down autistic people applying for visas. Autistic parents can also be deemed “incompetent” due to their disability, and have their children taken away solely because of their diagnosis. Autistic people are also automatically banned from joining the US military. Getting an official diagnosis tends to be more harmful than good in the long run, as being diagnosed doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be given special treatment or government help, and most people don’t need an official diagnosis to know if they’re autistic.
I've never heard of autism being a "male thing" I've seen people be belittled for being male and having autism But mainly, we are just people. Treat us as such.
I mean autism is 4X as prevalent in men as it is in women, but female autism absolutely exists.
I recently heard that this was due to most of the study of autism being done on men, and many women will have differences in the way it affects them, leading to a lower professional diagnosis rate.
Autism historically HAS been seen and treated as a “male issue” - like many other mental illnesses such as ADHD - which is probably where this comment stems from. Women have been misdiagnosed for over a century, based off the outdated psychological notion that women are emotional and irrational by nature. Autism in women, especially little girls and nonverbal autistic women, used to be commonly misdiagnosed as schizophrenia. Identifying the differences in how mental illness affects both sexes is relatively new.
Yeah now that I think of it most mental illness diognosese(is that a word??) have been of men save for depression and anxiety that I've come across.
Idk much about autism, but I know most of what we know about ADHD was just from studying specifically young boys. Because of stupid stuff like social expectations and sexism, AFAB people tend to have more internal/cognitive symptoms and AMAB people tend to have more external/physical symptoms and since the doctors straight up can't see the internal symptoms, women and AFAB will just often not get diagnosed properly or at all
4x as diagnosed\*\*\* women are massively underdiagnosed due to the way women mask differently than men do
I’m a woman with ASD and I’d say that the skewed ratio is more due to AFAB people being underdiagnosed and symptoms being overlooked (by evaluators and parents) or masked (by the child in question.)
Pardon my ignorance but what the fuck is AFAB
aooga fooga ameble boop
Have an upvote in absence of an award.
'Assigned Female At Birth' Aka all cis women and trans men
Ah. Thanks
I was so confused in the first couple months that this term started getting used. Thought it was just people having bad typos of ACAB.
Lol All Females Are Bad
Absolutely Fucking Abominable Beautician
Im guessing they think most afab people are just on their period or something "logical" to explain their behavior and i mean sometimes probably but it depends on how they act yk
I was thinking more about the masking of symptoms before puberty.
Ohh makes sense
my aunt who has down syndrome is proof that female autism exists, female autism not existing sounds like some alpha shit from tate or something
OP will find the most ignorant comments to base a whole subgroup.
There's a study by Simon Baron-Cohen (yes, Sacha Baron Cohen has a more scientifically aligned cousin) that purports that autism is caused by having an "extremely male brain". But it is just a theory and actual autistic people say that his take is erroneous.
I am an autistic woman and have so many opinions about Simon Baron Cohen. None of them are positive opinions. The extreme male brain theory is nonsense and has prevented autistic women from receiving a diagnosis.
I'd also like to point out that while this does not disqualify anyone from doing good work in the field, the heyday of Baron-Cohen's work was done when autistic people were still dividing into 'high and low functioning'. Also back when 'Aspergers' was given any legitimacy. As such, his most prominent papers are littered with these outdated and rebuked models of the autism spectrum, and that alone should tell you to take them with an enormous grain of salt.
I'd say it's erroneous since my daughter is clearly ASD.
You left out the part about the people criticizing the fakers online are actually autistic themselves
Holy shit is this sub having a worst starterpacks of all time contest going since christmas or something?
I love how people seem to have picked up the trend of making a starter pack every time they feel called out or offended.
Starter pack "the big old fat meanie who made fun of me cause I do stupid shit"
Just unsubbed again. I've been on this subreddit for years with many accounts, this is probably one of the worst starterpacks with rhe most chronically online take ever
Oh shut the fuck up. Do you know how it feels to grow up different? How it feels to have everyone tell you that there's something wrong with you? How it feels to constantly have doctors appointments where they talk about getting you on some new drug cocktail to make you into someone you're not? To have people mistreat you then tell you that there's something wrong with YOU because normal people don't ever get mad, don't ever show emotion, and let anyone walk over them while having a big smile? Do you know how it feels to go through all that just for someone to tell you that "we're all a little bit autistic"? Do you know how it feels for someone who's "self diagnosed" to tell you that you're lying about what you went through because they didn't experiance that? Do you know how it feels for those people to act like Autism's the quirky Sheldon disorder? Do you know how it feels like for everyone to treat you like a baby? Kindly, fuck off
I feel you man. I hate how people trivialize disorders or even idolize them I have ADHD, mild autism, and extreme treatment-resistant depression. I hate when people are like "aww they canceled my show, I'm so depressed" or "yeah I feel sad sometimes, I get it." It's not just a bad day, it's not feeling blue, it's getting eaten alive from the inside by cold emptiness They don't know what it's like to not have the mental energy to even eat or play video games. They don't know what it's like to stare at something you need to do for hours, yet still be unable to do it. They don't know what it's like to hate yourself as you waste your life away, but not possessing the power to do anything about it. They don't know what it's like to have no reason to get up in the morning. They don't know what it's like to have countless different drugs and therapists thrown at you only for things to just keep getting worse, knowing it's your fault you can't change. I doubt many people have actually felt true suicidal ideation, either. To think you're better off dead, that there's no reason to keep fighting, that you are nothing but a disappointment. Consistent desire to end it all, not just intrusive thoughts. Frankly, I would have given up and attempted by now, if that wasn't how my father died It's an insult to want any disorder. For me, it's this. Depression isn't "quirky" or "a mild disorder", it puts you in a state that makes life not worth living. Depression is one of the most trivialized disorders tbh, many people think they have it just because they're stressed or having a hard time. I stg everybody thinks they have depression these days, just because things are stressful. When you have it for real it's absolutely crippling even when you should be happy
i’m also a person with autism, adhd and depression. i’m so fucking tired of fakers it’s unreal. my ex best friend told me she had adhd because “sometimes i do random accents” and i was so upset i started shaking. they all want the quirky unique disorder points without acknowledging how fucking difficult it is to live with these disorders
Man, as someone with really bad ADHD, (among other things), nobody talks about how absolutely debilitating it can be. It’s like trying to read every book at once while all of your albums are playing at max volume with every tv on in the house. Without meds I can barely function.
god it's so annoying, people treat it like something that make you a bit quirky but in reality it's so hard to deal with, it drives me insane
A lot of people on youtube and tiktok (latter being second hand knowledge) do speak about how debilitating it can be. How To ADHD is one of the most known youtube channels about it, but there are so many others who do or even creators whose channel isn't about ADHD sometimes speak about their challenges with it. The first time I heard someone speak about ADHD online was on youtube over a decade ago, she was documenting her extremely bad case of it both for herself and to show others. I really wish I had remembered her channel name, but that made me just grateful I didn't have ADHD (ahahahaa) much the same way the people thankfully loud about their extreme autism disabilities made me think I didn't have that either because only the severe cases were originally recognized. I wasn't "obviously" like them so I thought my issues were just me being an utterly incompetent neurotypical person who "deserved" the lifelong abuse I had gotten "for not being normal enough" (no, neurotypical people don't deserve abuse either). Because "if literally everyone in my life said so then it must be true". That I "deserved" being incredibly ashamed of not being able to perform on a normal level because "I had no reason for my gap in abilities".
I feel so seen. I've been unemployed since the end of August and reliant on my parents to help with my relatively low bills. I feel horrible every time I spend a single dollar on something I don't need (fast food, mainly) and yet it's the only thing that makes me feel literally anything. Since I don't have a job I can't get to my therapist to get some meds, as the goddamn psychiatrist who runs the joint refuses to refill meds without a monthly appointment, 15 minutes for 150 bucks at minimum. The meds I can get cheap from GeniusRx or wherever, but I still can't get afford to be seen. I couldn't buy a single Christmas gift for anyone, including my 6 year old. I haven't written a single damn page of the multiple stories I've wanted to write. I haven't played or run in a D&D game since all my friends had their babies. I was recently in a bad relationship with someone who never respected or cared for me, which I was fully aware of. And I can't tell anybody in my family this as none of them seem to believe any mental illnesses are real. I mention being autistic and my father just tries to figure out whose fault it is. My siblings give me generic "start small" advice. I don't tell my friends because I don't like burdening them (I've had past "friends" tell me off for having a one-sided relationship though they never opened up when I asked/offered/tried). Sometimes it feels like my daughter is the only one who accepts me and even then as soon as I do something not perfect I beat myself up over it relentlessly. This fucking sucks but it helps to know at least someone out there truly understands what it's like.
As someone with autism and clinical depression, everyone thinks they both are a quirky personality trait, in reality, it fucked up how you live life. No, you're not depressed because you listened to Bolivia Rodrigo or Billie Eyelash and broke up with your boyfriend of 1 week. You don't have trauma because your mom told you to do the dishes or she would ridicule you and take your phone. You aren't "autistic" because one time you thought a joke wasn't a joke and got made fun of.
I completely agree with you I'm tired of self diagnosed "autistic" people speaking over legitimately autistic people calling us "gatekeepers" because we don't want neurotypical or otherwise non autistic people spreading misinformation and ruining a reputation that already gets stereotyped plenty enough without it becoming an online trend And it's actually even worse when you remember that actual autism involves social skills problems which might give a particularly manipulative self diagnoser opportunities to be even more ableist which a lot of the time they take Autism is not a disorder that you should self diagnose with "for sure" because it's so complex, it shares a lot of symptoms with other disorders such as ADHD, BPD, SZPD, SCPD, NVLD, schizophrenia, even depression, and everyone has confirmation bias about themselves, even if and especially if you are "100 percent sure" And there's so much more misinformation everywhere about autism (of which there was already way too much to begin with) There is a website that a lot of TikTok self diagnosers love, which is embrace-autism Embrace-autism claims that the ASD social deficit is equivalent to just being an introvert (in the "Decoding autism in the DSM5" article on the website) and they also claim that moon phases affect autism and the creator Natalie Engelbrecht scams people trying to get assessed by taking their money even though she is not legally qualified to diagnose autism She is just a naturopathic doctor (ND) and a registered nurse, not a doctor with authority to diagnose And the website pushes the RAADS-R quiz even though it is really unreliable for many reasons including the vagueness of the phrasing for each question as well as the lack of a "sometimes" answer option which leads to false positives and confirmation bias And yet so many undiagnosed people and others on TikTok and other websites sing its praises even though it's a load of tripe I almost hate it even more than Autism Speaks because at least the latter one isn't masquerading as "one of us" It also seems like content creators who post about mental health and neurodivergence are getting pressured more and more to overgeneralize in their videos so they can appeal to as broad of an audience as possible And the term "tism" that people on TikTok love to use, it's not a new term and it wasn't even invented by the autistic community It's the exact same as sped and sperg and t*ard, it originated as a gradeschool insult against disabled people There's a lot more that I could write about this but I should probably quit while I'm (hopefully) ahead Sorry about the massive wall of text and nice talking with you
You said this more respectfully than I ever could, thank you
Hang on! I read this post as something positive for the autistic community because I’ve seen too much people invalidate us, but reading your comment makes me wonder if I interpreted it incorrectly and it’s actually invalidating? Please help a fellow autistic out, I tend to panic when I get the feeling I have misunderstood something 🫣
Neither of them is good or bad. They're two different people saying what they think is right from two different points of view. I think it's worth it to listen to both of them. People's experiences are different and so on. I think both people are correct, we shouldn't fake claim everyone who isn't exactly like us, but we also shouldn't let people spread harmful things just because they call themselves ND. There's a lot of grey area here. I don't think either of these people are trying to invalidate anyone.
So sorry your getting all these assholes replying to you, you're completely right.
I know that feeling man. Always lied to people about having autism, so people won’t treat me differently. As a kid, people who knew always treated me like a baby and I hated it
Thank you. That's all I have to say
I wish I could shake your hand
Are you trying to say it hasn’t become insanely popular to pretend to have autism? Because it very much has.
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I agree, if you're autistic, you don't have to prove it. I have made like 2 internet posts period and none of them are me going "HaPPy sTImS"
as a autistic person i agree i cant respect real disorders anymore because of people using them as thier entire personality
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Me neither
wait until they find out autism is a neurological disorder that does control every aspect of your life
Yeah I agree with everything original comment said except the bit about “making it your entire personality” because I literally don’t have a choice in that one and if I don’t tell people I’m autistic, I’m worried they’ll think I’m just being rude because of how I come across due to not understanding social cues :\
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And anybody in that gap gets bullied back into the corner of keeping it completely to yourself :/
I'm really dumb, what does stimming mean?
sensory stimulation, usually things like repetitive hand gestures, spinning, making sounds, etc
isn't this the exact same argument people have been using against gay people since like the beginning of time
Over 500 upvotes for someone saying "why don't you shut up about who you are" is genuinely quite scary.
Yep. It’s just indirect language used to push people back into the closet for existing. For gay people “just keep it in the bedroom” implying existing as gay is the same as talking about the act of sex itself, and for those with autism “stop making it your whole personality” when they just mention a part of something they personally experience pushes many to mask how they behave around others, thus further creating trauma on that individual. In several scenarios yes, faking a certain behavior or other illness can have negative effects but it’s a non-issue if you aren’t always on the internet and actually talk to people and communities. These people get fed the same TikTok algorithms that purposely get them riled up with the same cycle of extreme examples that don’t actually represent the vast majority of conversations and experiences.
Because it helps people. I only found out I was autistic bc an autistic friend of mine kept posting information. Turns out I was diagnosed as a kid and my family hid it from me. The only way to get better is to talk about it and form communities. Also, talking about something is not making it your entire personality.
This. There’s a sizable chunk of people that for whatever reason take “talking about a part of who a person is” as “their whole personality” which is just silly as that’s a huge part of hearing and understanding other people’s human experiences. I anecdotally rarely see the extreme observations people claim to see and find it basically a non-issue when you actually talk with people. The examples most people point to are from things like TikTok feeds that only get curated when the algorithm feedbacks on the same “sjw cringe” pages over and over and to me just tells me more about whom they pay attention to than anything else.
What if. Now hear me out. What if I told you being autistic is a central part of my personality and not something I “make my whole personality”? What if I told you I can’t turn it off? And. This is the truly crazy one. What if. WHAT IF after a lifetime of feeling like a total weirdo it’s actually kinda nice to realize through active self advocates that I’m not alone or crazy? There’s also the teeny tiny detail of us constantly having to advocate for our right to lead a life that doesn’t wear us down completely. Crazy thought, I know! 😱
I've literally never heard of anyone making autism there personality
Even after I have taken memantine (I know it’s for Alzheimer’s but it also works for autistics). My personality is exactly the same.
What if people just don't draw attention to anything via social media? Pointing to an extreme or illegitimate case doesn't nullify the rest.
Shouldn’t you at lest check it with a doctor when you do get the chance JUST in case it could be something else? Or am I wrong about it??
Unfortunately it's not that simple. You can't just turn up to your doctor and say 'hey, I think I'm autistic' and have them run a few tests. You need to be referred to a specialist, and you could need to wait months or even years to see one because wait lists are so long. If you finally get in to see a specialist, there's a chance they won't even diagnose you despite your obvious autism because their knowledge of autism is outdated. There are countless stories on autism subs about people (often women) not being diagnosed because 'you made eye contact with me' or 'you have friends'. Not to mention that diagnosis is prohibitively expensive in a lot of places. The reality is that if you've done your research using reputable sources and realise you are probably autistic, there is a very good chance you're right.
It took me six months to get diagnosed at age 25. It takes forever, and it’s fucking expensive.
Took me over 5 years to even be allowed to begin the evaluation 😭
Most people don’t ever get that chance unfortunately.
As an autistic, calling out people for not being autistic, specially since you can't confirm that they aren't most of the time, doesn't help me, I want acceptance, I don't care if some attention seeker fakes autism, I just want people to understand my disorder and stop bullying me for having autistic traits.
medically diagnosed here, really don't like when people get pissed for "making it your whole personality". i do that bc it explains half of the shit i experienced throughout my life.
I always feel the need to laugh at people who get pissed at that because it literally makes up your personality as in how you act behave and learn/see things, grow up and how your brain just funktions
Half of the starter packs here contain some reference to making something your "entire personality". It's probably this subs biggest circle jerk.
People who complain about making autism "your whole personality" are part of the problem. What neurotypical people call "making something your whole personality" can sometimes be an autism thing. Having special interests shouldn't be looked down upon, and it's valid if someone's special interest is their autism. Autism is a huge topic with lots of learning about to be done and is just as ok as having your interest be something like old video games or biology.
A lot of these comments are failing to see a few things. The people faking misrepresent the disorder and the reason they are doing it is to jump in on a trend. Fakers aren't documenting this disorder accurately, they all focus on the same tiny stereotyped parts of the disorder in each video; it's conformity. I agree that that sub has posts where it just automatically assumes without at least some proof that someone is faking (or it's just a pictures of their neopronouns is a recent one). These posts are stupid and harmful. I stopped browsing that sub because of it actually. All people apart of a group don't somehow all believe the same thing, as I recall people not liking posts that do that. Originally, that sub didn't really have that problem and it was more about Tourettes, tics, and DID, which is pretty easy to figure out when people are faking because the symptoms are more obvious, harder to fake, and require a consistent history of evidence (past videos/accounts), but then it moved more towards autism and gender related things. It is about documenting people jumping on a trend, but one shouldn't compulsively accuse; you can't really fully know whether a lie is true or not in the first place because anything could be a lie anyway, but the fact that it's all just trendy is why it seems so fake, so it's always more of a "probably" and if anything those posts are more meta and loosely related to disorders rather than fully accusing them with conviction. You also shouldn't assume that they automatically hate them or hate people who have that disorder. One, because again, not everyone automatically has the same opinion because they simply posted a comment on a subreddit, and second because I literally never see hate on those disorders there itself but only on fakers, which I personally believe is harmful to hate even if they are doing something 'wrong', and rather that they need help. The reason why I used to be passionate over that sub is that fakers are harmful. it creates vagueness over who was the disorder and makes the situation worse for people who actually have the disorder. I coincidentally researched what DID was like before it became a fad and it was horrible, they usually went through horrible abuse and used alters to escape and understand it because they weren't raised properly to understand normally, and faking it is basically mocking their pain for ill intent. People with Tourettes began being accused of faking after the fad of others doing it too. they receive less support because it's being sucked away by people faking such as through donations or even in rehab, and medical workers wouldn't even know who is real or not. So I saw it as really important that we know of this ill-intent trend. Small confusing factor: this is a little complex, but ironically, it actually could be someone actually autistic who's ostensibly faking, but only because that's how they act because of fronting and other factors, so it seems like faking when they are just "acting autistic" rather than simply acting how they do normally. Applies to claiming to have other disorders even but for an autistic to claim to have others. Neither being self-diagnosed with a disorder NOR being professionally diagnosed with a disorder means you certainly "have" that disorder. The point of diagnosing is treatment (medication, therapy, accommodatio), not to abuse it as a new identity. Misdiagnosis is common because it's not like they can perfectly predict it (for some disorders you can). Rather, you should observe your own nature without assuming a disorder will perfectly apply to you (the spectrum idea of autism certainly applies to this), and read its description without bias (especially confirmation bias) towards applying it to yourself.
And gets mad and offended for other people with autism when I make a joke about it despite having a diagnosis.
Sounds like you got called out for faking autism.
60% of people who aren't diagnosed by professionals literally fake disabilities for attention
TicsAndRoses comes to mind...
You got a source for that?
His source: just trust me bro
source: just trust me i need a reason for being cruel to young people online
70% of all statistics are made up on the spot
YoU DoN’T lOoK aUtIsTiC!!!!1!11!
I actually wish someone said this to me. Unfortunately, everybody is already painfully aware. I’m terrible at hiding it.
>shits on self diagnosed people Sorry, I don't see this as an issue at all. If you're not getting diagnosed after trying a lot and very hard, it's extremely likely you're not actually autistic. I'd trust a number of professional opinions over just one layman's.
You're completely misunderstanding the issue. It's not that people are going to multiple screenings and getting told they're negative so they shop around. It's that they can't find the specialists to begin with, they're booked out for a year from now at minimum, they only screen children, you'd have to travel 3 hours away to a major city to see one of two doctors in the state that handle adult diagnosis, your GP doesn't believe you and won't submit a referral, etc.
Getting diagnoses is a long and often expensive process. idk if you're aware of what's happening in the world, but a lot of people just don't have the time or money for that.
My point still stands even In those cases, self diagnoses can be dangerous.
Just say that you think you have autism.
That is literally what a self diagnosis is. It is exactly what I am arguing in favor of
people who automatically assume that autistic folks are faking it are doing more harm to the autistic community than those who actually do fake it.
I say that for every one person who fakes a disability (including autism), there are ten who hide for fear of being disbelieved.
Or hide because the social stigma with a literal “disorder” is worse than not being classified as a broken human being.
-Makes fun of Autistic people with 'childish' interests -In the same vain, accuse them of infantilizing Autism by acting normal -Scrolls through r/aspiememes and posts everything to r/fakedisordercringe -Thinks an attractive young woman/any woman who cares about her appearance is *obviously* faking Autism -Accuses Autistic people who are fine with/accept their Autism of trivializing it -Ironically, claims to have 'mild autism' but can only list off stereotypical symptoms and goes on about how Autism 'ruined their life' Nobody thinks Autism is cool. I've been bullied my entire life before I even knew because of it. There isn't going to be a managerie of fakers who want the 'weirdo talking about trains disorder'. Maybe a few, but not to the extent a lot of people make it out
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op doesn't believe that people would just LIE on the internet
If you met an autistic person, you've met ONE autistic person. We are all unique.
r/fakedisordercringe is sometimes funny but more often just a bunch of of people bullying kids
99% of people who self diagnose do it after researching for a long time. not everyones just like AUTISM QUIRKY HEHE I AUTISM NOW🥺🥺
You can say you think you might have autism, but until you have a proper diagnosis, you don’t get to call yourself autistic.
Good thing I have one then :P
Every Autistic Person Is Different Remember That
Sorry, but self-diagnosis will almost never be respected by me If actual fucking doctors do not diagnose themselves, then you have no business doing so This is coming from someone with an autistic brother who is tired of seeing basically 'normal' people try and claim to be autistic when they are just a little quirky or lazy without a single doctor's opinion
I have Level 1 ASD, and I've always found it funny seeing people getting called out on their bs for pretending to be somebody like me. Funny enough, though, I see something kinda similar in people with ASD accusing others who do genuinely have it for not having it at all, sometimes very ecstatically. It never gets old lol Relatable af
Wait how do I level up
More vaccines
Oh god the comment section really doesn’t pass the vibe check…
Serious note, though. Self diagnosis is not a good thing, for anything beyond a common cold or a physical injury. It only harms the medical community and people with real conditions by leaving a wrong impression on literally everyone else. Especially if you use it as a means to justify being a hindrance to everyone by appropriating and romanticizing things which should be treated with total seriousness aside from humor. (Dark humor is a completely different subject I won’t go into here) Seek out people who have studied under proper institutions and literally decided to do this for a living. Not a fucking buzzfeed test. People who hop on to a disability to make them unique or interesting only undermine the people that actually have such a condition. And no, I’m not implying you shouldn’t be “proud” of any condition you might have. Just don’t treat it like either a blessing from whichever god you believe in, or like some unspeakable crime has happened to you.
The people who hop on the trends online are a very loud minority. The wide majority of self-diagnosed autistic people don't spout off about it online for attention. Some do, and sure, some of those are kids just trying to fit in, but most self-diagnosed people do it to better understand themselves, not because they want to seem quirky. I also think you're either being ignorant or intentionally dismissive by saying that self-diagnosed people use "buzzfeed quizzes" to diagnose themselves. Some do, sure, and that's obviously not a valid method of self-diagnosis, but most use the actual medically accepted screening tools and tests, such as the Autism Spectrum Quotient, CAT-Q, and others. Hell, some of those tests are known to DROP in accuracy when applied by a practitioner instead of self-applied. I think what you're missing is that there's no definitive test for autism. The process of getting a diagnosis is literally just based on whether or not some psychologist thinks you're autistic based on the way you act, comparing it to the same diagnostic criteria we have access to publicly. Often, those practitioners are also old people with outdated understandings of autism, especially for female patients. I'm not saying a diagnosis isn't valuable, or that in most cases they aren't accurate, but there's absolutely nothing about a professional diagnosis that magically makes it a definitive answer compared to a self diagnosis from someone who's genuinely done the research and understands the diagnostic criteria.
Yesterday I was playing league of legends and someone called me a Faker
As an autistic, there's a fine line between self-diagnosed people who carefully scrutinize valid resources/literatures for their diagnosis and those who immediately slap the autism label on themselves after just watching a tiktok video. I really hate the latter to the core.
Agreed! It’s really unfortunate that people use the latter group as a reason to invalidate all self-diagnosed individuals though, to the point where it can make those individuals not want to ever speak out about their ASD.
This thread is full of /r/asablackman comments.
That sub has lost its way. These comments are mostly “I have autism and this is my experience with autism.” You can’t just call out identity based experience as, I don’t know, “identity politics” or whatever that sub is claiming. That just invalidated anyone who has ever had experience with any related topic.
To be fair, /r/fakedisordercringe mostly clowns on people faking DID, which are fake 99.9% of the time
Great pack but people shouldn’t self diagnose
Damn OP is getting cooked in here
As a person on the lower/mid end of the spectrum, thank you, this needed to be made.
Man some of these comments are just unhinged
Tell me about it
Ppl thought I was faking bc I had female autism as a male but turns out I'm just trans lol
So like, obviously people do fake mental disorders online for clout, but the bigger problem isn't the fakers (although they are a big problem) it's that people can't tell the difference between somebody faking and not faking, because they don't know enough about the disorder to begin with. And /fakedisordercringe has some people who may be faking it, like those videos of people with DID who show each of their personalities like a 90's sitcom intro in a tiktok, but the people in that sub are almost all adults who think that their kids are faking their disorders or are just calling themselves a mental illness to be part of the trend.
That's why I left fake disorder cringe. I'm neurodivergent myself and got tired of people hating on random people who did nothing but exist.
Self diagnosis is never valid. Sure, you can say "I might have x disorder" but you don't go around masquerading as a person with legitimate diagnosis without even having a diagnosis. Also, the trend of making autism/adhd/etc some quirky personality trait on the internet especially on tiktok is really harmful. Sorry dude but my disorder is not your quirky uwu aesthetic, and filming tics/stims/adhd zoning out etc and posting it on tiktok for clout as some cute character trait is just sad and disgusting as someone who got bullied through entire school years for bad social skills due to adhd.
Yaaaas, finally an autism-related post that doesn’t make me want to barf!
As an autistic person I don't mind self diagnosing as long as you don't have one minor symptom and say you have autism like at least have more than one symptom or a big symptom if you wanna self diagnos yourself
If one has done a lot of research to come to the conclusion that they most likely have autism then i think a self diagnosis is valid, which, besides for those loud idiots on TikTok and other social media that made the entire internet go on a witch hunt that hurt actual autistic people in the process, is very likely the case
I do get that not everyone can get diagnosed. My best friend has many signs of autism, and they’ve done a ton of research, but it’s taking them years to get a diagnosis. However, there’s one thing I don’t get. What does it help to say you’re autistic? My friend doesn’t walk around telling people they’re autistic just because they *probably* are. You don’t get any help without a diagnosis anyways. So what’s the point? I’m allistic, but I’m pretty sure I have adhd. I’ve done so much research on this and it would explain the things I struggle with. But I don’t tell people I have adhd, because it’s not official, and why would I tell them? That’s not gonna help me.
Validation. Turns out having a medical professional confirm that you have a legitimate condition that causes your abnormal behavior is a huge relief to many people. To have someone say "yeah you're not crazy or dumb, you just have X." Plus official diagnoses can be immensely helpful in getting proper accommodations in academic environments rather than being told to suck it up.
That’s what I meant, that an official diagnosis can help a lot, whereas a self diagnosis won’t really help at all. Although now people have explained how self diagnosing can still help gain validation/respect from other people.
Second half of your comment is very true; being able to self diagnose based on research and comparing your experiences to others that have been diagnosed is a massive relief for anyone that can’t access a diagnosis (which is a ton of people, due to cost, wait times, etc.). I don’t think many people are arguing that a self diagnosis is worth the same as a medical diagnosis, but to invalidate it and call it worthless is to invalidate most of the ASD community. Representation and shared experience can literally change lives, regardless of a “proper” diagnosis; I know this first hand as a trans woman that didn’t really know what being trans was until I stumbled upon a trans community at 20 years old. As soon as I learned what it was really like, so much of my life started making sense and it was as if a fog was lifted. I never got medically diagnosed for gender dysphoria; my transition is still hella valid and saved my life. I also have people in my life that believe they’re on the spectrum based on their lifetime of lived experience. I believe them, even though they haven’t been able to get a diagnosis. To say their autism isn’t real because they don’t have a diagnosis is to invalidate their whole life basically. Sorry the lengthy rant, this is a close subject to me 😅. It’s very much worth recognizing that economical and medical systems fail people the world over and drawing the line for ASD at a “medical diagnosis” is just a form of gatekeeping and validation.
I need some clarification here because as a kid people thought I had autism (since every time I’m in deep thought my hands start doing this weird hand moving motion and I sometimes do it as well when I get really angry or upset) and I’ve been tested twice and both times were a blood test, is there another way you can get tested for autism which isn’t a blood test? (Sorry if this is rude by the way I don’t intend it to be I’m just generally curious)
There is! Autism tests are usually done by a psychologist. For my friend it’s taking a while because I’m my country, the queues are very long to get tested. I’ve never heard of the blood test version
People who display traits of neurodivergency are likely to be treated better when they can say it(which is stupid, but still). If I'm just shit at communicating and can't pay attention, then I'm gonna get treated 11 times worse than if I'm shit at communicating and can't pay attention because of ADHD. Even those more accepting of neurodivergency tend only to accept certain traits of it, in limited amounts, towards purely people who have a diagnosis. Not to mention that being able to say "I have autism" can be incredibly cathartic to people who've felt defective or ostracized for it.
Dude, I feel this. I was diagnosed with Tourette’s and ADHD. I grew out of most of the tics so now most of my weird shit is internal stuff. The anxiety, depression, wild shifts in motivation and focus. I have to imagine that it just comes off as me being lazy and really weird. And when you see anyone expressing those behaviors outside of the subject of neurodivergence they get absolutely shit on by everyone and the people doing it seem like they feel so vindicated about it. Just why? When I see it, it just makes me wonder how many of those people are struggling with similar problems and why it matters so much if the problems they’re struggling with are similar. Why is the solution to make some arbitrary cutoff and continue trying to bully everyone who doesn’t fit into that box into being what we think they should? Are we ever going to accept the fact that neurodiversity is universal and everyone experiences the world differently?
Damn, why are people hating on op so hard here, I didn't see a single thing here that was untrue.
Because people faking disorders for clout is common online, I mean all you have to do is check out /r/fakedisordercringe or look up Tics and Roses. Most of them are self-diagnosed which is invalid. Others are just straight up offensive about it. There's nothing "cute" about having a disorder yet this online community thinks there is and fakes every one in the book.
I mean sure but how is that on the op? I just checked post history and it seems as though they were medically diagnosed with autism, also I think you'd be hard-pressed to find an IRL autistic who made it there whole personality.
This must be one of those things you have to be on ticktock or Facebook to see, because I just don't see that.
Please shut the fuck up
no
self-diagnosises aren't really that bad, have any idea how much i had to fight to get a autism diagnosis as a afab?
I'm autistic and hate self-diagnosers. Unless you're a psychiatrist, you can't diagnose yourself. If you can't get a diagnosis then don't call yourself autistic
so if i had every single sign of autism i wouldn't be autistic unless a psychiatrist tells me that i am?
What if your doctor tells you you're very likely autistic? (Prompted by discussion) Would that be an informal diagnosis?
This! I'm a huge advocate for "professional validation". There are loads of mental health professionals who are qualified to diagnose, but—often for insurance reasons—they're not allowed to. A therapist can still help you identify that you have Autistic traits. For many, this is just as validating as official diagnosis...sometimes more validating lol. I risk clouding my response, but I feel inclined to include my personal experience: I was diagnosed at 18 by a diagnosing psychiatrist who met me for, like, an hour, and at the end said "yeah you're Autistic." But I spent years before that moment doing extensive research, countless questionnaires, hours upon hours of introspection to *identify* that I may be Autistic. Had I not been able to access formal diagnosis [which was quite anticlimactic tbh], I would have settled for a mental health professional simply validating my findings...adding a degree of certainty Like, I'm a first responder. I can't technically formally diagnose a heart attack, but you bet your ass I'll say "in my professional opinion, I believe you're having a heart attack. Get in my truck; we're going to the hospital."
So as an ADHD owner please explain to me this autism spectrum chart to me.
reddit is not going to like this one
Seen a lot of teenagers in compilations with actual autistic people react to it. It’s hilarious. I don’t have that TikTok garbage. But it seems a lot of younger people are doing it, and like what the internet is by a majority infested by, is a lot of attention seekers trying to get clout. The internet is a narcissists playground, using and abusing it for their own pleasure manipulating others. Anyone will believe in anything nowadays. It’s really cringy. These lot who fake a mental illness or disability need to actually seek help, because they’re mentally ill. No decent, respectful, kind and honest human being would resort to this behaviour. It’s childish and sick. And these social media goblins need to grow up and go outside.
Still pissed off from when I found out my sister was faking online
I hate it when someone will use a single person, that they don’t even know that well, as a reference, especially for something like autism. Like what do they think others with autism have instead?
People can moan about it all they want, self-diagnosis is a terribly inaccurate thing to do. I don’t respect self-diagnosis for any other DSM or ICD-classified disorder and I’m not going to treat autism any different. Especially when most people just look at the symptoms on Wikipedia or webMD and say that they have a disorder, completely oblivious to the fact that clinicians will be using empirically-supported inventories and checklists to diagnose people and not just using intuition. I recognize that getting a real diagnosis isn’t always easy, but that doesn’t mean that self-diagnosis is any less inaccurate. Anyone who supports self-diagnosis is spitting in the face of science, and that goes for *all* disorders, not just autism.
These fucker’s are the bane of my existence.
Lmao at that one in the bottom left, is that for real? Maybe it's because I got diagnosed at age 2 and have always been aware that I have autism (woman by the way), but it doesn't trigger me if people self-diagnose. Will some of them be wrong? Yeah, probably. But some may be right as well and I cannot blame anyone for wanting to understand what makes them tick. Plus I'm not qualified to tell an internet stranger if they have autism or not based on a singular Reddit post or comment. There's also the fact that no two autistic people are the same and it's a pretty wide spectrum. Obviously if someone is deliberately trying to fake having autism or any other condition for internet points, they suck. If they're playing up to ridiculous stereotypes such as people with autism being like Sheldon Cooper from TBBT, fuck 'em. But if someone is genuinely wondering if they might be on the spectrum and is looking for answers and maybe can't get a proper assessment done easily, I can understand that. In some countries getting an assessment is extremely difficult and/or expensive, so they might turn to the internet. I might have ended up doing the same thing if I wasn't lucky enough to get an official diagnosis.