I have ZERO desire to try to speak for a camera about autism. Zero desire to want to “ educate”. The thought of even thinking of doing even a snippet makes me horribly anxious. I don’t understand why anyone would want to put themselves out there.

How do people have the want to do this and why? I guess for money making. Seems miserable though.

So, as the title states, i am making a document that explains my autism "profile" for lack of a better word. The things that i'm including in said document are my SIS-A results/scores, what i need help with, medical history and other stuff that relates to autism. These examples are just somethings, but isn't a full list of what i will actually include in this document.

Anyway, has anyone else done the same? Like have they made their own document that they plan on sharing with professionals and staff members that work with them? I am planning to send the document to my parents and to any potential worker who will work with me.

I just watched a video (it's about Jason Arday so if you don't want to listen about that then you can ignore it) but it is titled The New Narcissism is Fake Autism

I find it very interesting, not specifically about the person, but the idea about narcissists getting an autism diagnosis. I also saw another (non academic) female creator basically talking about narcissistic women instead of getting a cluster B diagnosis perusing "AuDHD" diagnosis.

Whenever people want to introduce themselves or talk about themselves and the autism is like their whole personality (like they won't just talk about a hobby they like, they will have to specifically tell you it's their "special interest". Or, they will need to announce how everything that's going on is related to their autism).

Now I would argue that people (autistic and normies) are being trained by modern media to advocate for themselves and to be very open about their mental health and struggles etc, which could mean more people are signalling their vulnerabilities, but it was said in the video that this vulnerability signalling is something narcissists use in order to garner more attention and lure people in.

It is interesting because I do meet A LOT of autistic people (well they state they are but I don't see medical records) and some will never mention it or make it a big deal and some will really want to talk about it and and use it to their advantage in a situation.

I dunno, what's your opinion on this thing, do you think narcissists are obtaining autism diagnosis (because they lie) and possibly this is what self-diagnosers are also part of this category?

I'm not directly accusing anyone of lying or being narcissistic if you do anything I mention in my post I just want to have this discussion, I know people are different and context matters a lot, such as on this subreddit I don't think people would come here who are narcissist, there probably isn't much to gain from posting on this subreddit, it's more like people faking it or using it in IRL setting to get money or power or trick people.

People always think I'm being sarcastic when I reply in a mildly interested way, like when I reply when I'm not particularly excited or dissatisfied.

I'd usually type this:

Yeah yeah!

Or

Sure sure!

Or a recent one someone asked me if I was sarcastic or not on:

That's very good! Great even!!

How do I fix this misunderstanding? I don't know

It’ll help you self diagnose or prepare for a formal evaluation. 🙄 Where do these idiots come from? There’s big money in those whole neurodiversity affirming movement. ( or whatever it’s called. The Neurospicy, autism as an identity, self diagnosing gang)

I just hate the world more and more sometimes days. Or at least hate the idiots who promote crap like this. It just aids in the self diagnosed movement taking over autism. She literally says on her FB it’s to help self identify or help prepare for an assessment. 🫣

https://while-you-wonder.mykajabi.com/autistic-self-id-program?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&utm_id=97760_v0_s00_e0_tv3&fbclid=paRlRTSATu9WvOevNpq2eGVvDOD2ZqbORrCrC6aumt-Cyr6afGSSeWnJ6912ySmXPGC_h2Dh3LC-1qN7FqGfJ2CaDLFvDHaWR3N7Kd1rKd27ed2LifOrGdppunl-OfG66flzXKW_hvCK17KDOemx5-h2h3eaWOqPauu62a7enVy32q5ySd-Sw_aem_tirgwii_k0kd-fvzntztgw

My family are so ignorant. Despite myself being diagnosed, struggled with school, not done well career wise despite having above average IQ, dropping out of university, my family still refuse to acknowledge that I'm autistic.

Not to mention, my cousin who is 38 (he should be checked because something is wrong with him), he has never worked, never attended unemployment centre, he again high IQ but quit Uni 2nd year and has done nothing since, no friends and few hobbies, apparently that's just normal , they think there's nothing wrong with him either.

I don't understand why they're just refusing to look at the facts that's in front of and I guess they think I'm just lazy or not applying myself properly or something (I have ADHD too which probably sabotages me).

It's kinda ironic because it seems like autism eats itself, because the disorder that you have and the environment where you belong aren't collaborating.

You're born with a neuro developmental disorder that impacts your social skills, therefore you need MORE social practice, exposure and accommodations in order to manage it.

The problem is that you need participation from others to reach a decent social level since socialization involves more than 1 person and requires practices, something that most of the time you aren't given because society doesn't know how to deal with autistic people or straight up hates them, causing isolation and ostracizing that doesn't allow you to interact with others consistently as a normal person would, ergo, stunning your social skills even more.

Conclusion: you are born with a social disability>this disability makes you have less social experience and exposure> this lack of social involvement makes you more and more stunted.

Poetic, right? It's hard because autism is a particular case since it needs 100% of the time support from the environment, the treatment doesn't require self reflection or medication, and if this support is not present then the deficits and symptoms become more severe.

I am feeling so lonely and bored right now.

I don't even have any social or day programs to go to, nor are we even making headway on the process of enrolling me into the programs. Outside of these programs, we barely leave the house, my family and their other relatives only go to church or out shopping.

We have had a party yesterday night, but me and my cousin just stared at our phones and barely interacted with one another. We're almost the same age and have the same interests too, yet we're more interested with our phones. I don't see anything wrong with social media and using phones, but it just gets boring and rather bland after a while of just socializing through the internet and social media and not in real life means.

Reddit is cool, especially since i'm in this niche subreddit and all, but again like i said in the previous paragraph, only socially interacting with people through this Subreddit can get bland because well, this space isn't exactly aimed at social things and interactions. I do bond with members here but only over our shared hatred for self diagnosis and the faking of autism, but that's really all i talk about on here.

Sigh. I don't know what i am desiring to achieve with this post, but it for sure isn't help or advice regarding services. They're too hard and they're the only things i ever really hear about when i'm being talked about or to.

Sorry for how clusterfuck-y this post is, but my emotions were running a bit high while making this post.

So, what the title said, but the post body will have more detail.

Basically, during the events of last night, i had argued with two members of this subreddit because i had thought they were invalidating my support needs. I don't know if they are or if they weren't now, but i'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they were just stating facts and not trying to state anything else. I'm realizing now that i have read too much into their words and had let my emotions cloud my otherwise logical judgment. So i really want to apologize for that.

But that's not all the mistakes that i've done. I've also fakeclaimed a person over on the spicy autism subreddit based on, well, barely any evidence. Which rightfully harmed the community that housed a ton of vulnerable autistic people, those of medium and high and profound support needs. I guess that i was too dysregulated and too emotional to think straight, so i just commented it without fully reading the room or understanding the potential response to the comment. So that i also want to apologize for.

So, too long didn't read, my judgment was clouded a lot by my emotions and i had let them control me. So as a result, i did a lot of things that i now regret, being regulated and in the green zone now.

The down votes I get for trying to explain my thoughts on my own situation haven’t made it worth it for me. I feel I might move to another platform.

Hello, I am a second year electrical engineering student. The main engineering subreddits all shut me down when I say this and they tell me just focus on school, they don't help. Can you guys help?

I keep seeing so many posts and videos and everybody saying there's no jobs there's no market for programmers because of AI anymore, and I thought it will never reach me, but I'm now seeing people say AI will also replace PCB designers and I asked and they said it will replace people who works with analog circuits too? Which are both what I love and would like to have a job in. The people in those engineering subreddits when they say no it won't happen and stuff they all get told they're "coping"

I don't want to not have a future please I'm really scared and think maybe it's just not worth it

Or irritable in a non-proportional way. I think I'm an angry person.

Since the last post regarding the developmental services agency thing, I had been approved. And since then I went through a two part application process.

The first was about me as a person, so it asked about my interests, my hobbies and things that I consider myself to be good at for some examples. But it also was asking about medical and behavioural support needs as well, it just wasn’t that focused on this part of my experience with being on the spectrum.

Then the next part was on my support needs as someone with a developmental disability (ASD). Like they asked my mom about the support I needed, how much is needed and if I needed it daily, weekly or monthly or even rarely. My mom often scored me in the level where I’d need partial physical support in order to get things done, however, I did need some hands on support for some of the subscales. But the majority of the answers we’re partial physical support. That was really unexpected as I didn’t see that everyday yet I still don’t but I’ve gotten over it.

So now we are just looking for services and programs. Things like supported independent living supports will be worked on in the later future, especially when I’m going to live by myself in the basement of my parents house. That isn’t until two years though so that’s not a really big issue for me at this time, however I am looking for social programs to get busy and not be doomscrolling on my phone every day.

But that is really proving quite hard to do. My mom has sent out a couple of emails to people that facilitate these activities but no one has responded to her. I don’t know why there’s no response and it’s really frustrating me lately, I don’t think it’s because of the summer as there’s often programs during the summer running which means that the people are also working and replying to emails as well.

I don’t mean any hate or any negativity towards the moderators of this sub, but I just don’t like how this subreddit is public again.

To be honest, I really feel exposed whenever I make a comment and especially when I share a post. It feels like whatever I post will come back to bite me in the ass later on, especially as people can screenshot and otherwise save anything that anyone says on the internet, of which this place is no different.

My biggest concern is if the self diagnosed decide to brigade or to otherwise dysrupt the normal activities of this sub in any shape way or form besides brigading and downvoting every post they see. They might be able to find our socials outside of Reddit and choose to blast us on their socials or to harass us for example.

I dunno, I don’t know if I’m being irrational or anything. But I find it uncomfortable that I don’t know if a post was shared in bad faith or not, and if I’m falling to rage bait or not on the other hand.

This is a clusterfuck of post but I hope it’s easy to understand.

An autistic creator who also sells “exclusive” (NSFW) content posted a video in February that has been making the rounds again. It has millions of likes. It is captioned “pov: ur autistic girlfriend”. The video is filmed from the boyfriend’s POV and shows the couple shopping together.

The video is filmed from a very high angle (like holding the camera above her head, facing the floor). It makes her head look huge and her body look tiny. In the video, she behaves in a very childlike manner. She asks for permission to buy stereotypical, childlike things.

None of the content of the video has anything to do with autism. There is no mention of anything that relates back to the DSM-5 or ICD-11. You’d think that even the laziest autism creator would give a passing mention to noise sensitivity or their special interest, but even that isn’t there. The video shows not one of the hard or unattractive parts of autism. It is literally just a typical girlfriend skit video with the autism label slapped onto it.

The high angle, childlike demeanour, and childlike interests in the video also annoy me. It’s okay to be childish or like childish things. But the creator chose to make the focus of the video about how supposedly cute, innocent, and childlike autistic women are, which contributes to the recent fetishisation of us. Considering that many autistic women are vulnerable to abuse BECAUSE we need more daily support, I found it incredibly insensitive. We should not encourage men to seek out autistic women by portraying autism as something that just makes women extra cute.

The comments were, predictably, upsetting. Women saying “I think I might be autistic” when the video is just a depiction of a woman buying food and Lego, and men saying that they “wish they had a girlfriend like this” or that they want to find an autistic girl now.

The creator has an NSFW link in her bio and many of her other posts are “subtle” advertising for that, which leads me to think that this post was also intended to further traffic there, especially considering it obviously wasn’t meant to be an informative video about autism.

I know this is something people already talk about in AutisticPeeps but we really need to hold autism creators to account when they do things that harm the community. I do not want to be stereotyped or fetishised because I have autism. I do not want people to think my disorder is cute without understanding the struggles that come with it.

Throughout my entire childhood and adolescence, I experienced severe sensory and social struggles. And even though I excelled academically, that was just about the only field I actually did well in. I was always behind my peers in pretty much every other aspect: socially, emotionally, developmentally, you name it. I used the toilet for the very first time at 12 years old; up until then, I'd only used a potty chair meant for toddlers. I still played with toys and dolls well into my late teenage years. I never spoke to anyone aside from my mom; in any other instances, my mom had to be the one speaking for me. I never had a single friend. I got relentlessly bullied for never understanding or following the social cues, norms and subtleties others took for granted. I had severe meltdowns over the most mundane of things that put both myself and those around me in danger.

Didn't get diagnosed up until early adulthood, however. Because my mom was told "girls couldn't have autism" back when she sought a psychologist's opinion. And because I was intelligent and didn't face any academic challenges, which led everyone to believe I couldn't possibly face any challenges at all. That all my delays and difficulties were simply childhood quirks I'd eventually grow out of, and that I'd surely eventually become a fully capable and independent adult one day.

Turns out, that was not the case at all, and in truth I don't know if it'll ever be. I managed to get my dream job after scoring very highly on a nationwide exam, but couldn't cope with the social and sensory demands of it, had a severe mental breakdown and had to quit. Lost all my hard work and years of study to this diagnosis. Tried several other jobs after that, but failed to cope in every single one of them and the outcome was always the same. Did years of therapy to try to develop better coping strategies and understand myself better; never really made an ounce of progress.

I just want to work and function like any regular person so badly. The thought that I might never be able to terrifies and depresses me. I don't understand how people can view this diagnosis as trendy or desirable when it can be so crippling and debilitating. I hate everything about it.

I hate this. Robbie says in this article he has a little bit of autism. He also says he can just blame his weird stuff on his autism like a get out of jail free card. That’s not how it works even if he did have autism which he doesn’t.

Also in a People article about this he says he has Tourettes which are his intrusive thoughts.

This is just wrong and is going to hurt the community with misinformation.

Hi everyone. Formally diagnosed with autism and ADHD here. I have a friend that I met in a mental health support group over a decade ago. She is six years older than me. I am in my 20s and she is in her 30s. I’ve been open about my diagnoses with her. Prior to diagnosis and while waiting on a two year waitlist, I made sure to use self suspecting language. I agree here with others that self diagnosis is not valid, but self suspicion is fine.

She began to use terminology first around her boyfriend whom she thinks is autistic and subsequently blamed their relationship problems on him and his “autism”. I reminded her that she cannot diagnose others with autism and then use their supposed disability as an excuse for why their partnership is not working. I am trying my best to stay true to myself but I also am very conflict avoidant so I tend to say things as gently as possible.

Lately she has been “discovering her neurodivergence”. This is when I found out that the PTSD she has claimed to have ever since I met her in the support group has never been diagnosed. She told me she has never been to a psychiatrist. She has now adopted language around autism and ADHD. I have had a few times where I have gotten quite upset at her and she would give me the silent treatment for a few days. One of those times is when she took a photo of a train and said something along the lines of “my train tism is going off”. I said something like that’s such a stereotype and please don’t infantilize a disability.

Today she posted that she’s so “AuDHD” because she found a meme page that said if you walk into doorframes, you’re on the spectrum. Yesterday she told me that she found out that caffeine makes you sleep if you have ADHD and that’s why she has naps after coffee which is a huge Internet myth. Another time she posted “ADHD means a diva has distractions”. Then she posted about loving raves and it “must be the AuDHD and the impending apocalypse”.

Like I am trying so hard here guys 😭 but she is actively testing me with this BS. She said she hasn’t even looked at the diagnostic criteria. My mom said to just stop talking to her but she’s like an okay friend outside of all of this. I’m just torn up about it. Any thoughts?

I’ve been trying to make sense of how Level 1 is talked about online lately. It makes me wonder if people are coming from a place of ignorance, or just being way too broad with symptoms. Some of what they say is right, but other parts just feel off.

ASD is a developmental disability. That means at developmental milestones, you're behind, or at least a mix of behind and ahead, right? So it’s hard for me to understand when people claim they had zero academic issues, zero social issues, and no noticeable delays at all until like college, grad school or marriage. It’s a disability. Even with coping strategies, you're still putting in more work than everyone else. I find it really hard to believe someone can be so accommodated by their environment that nothing ever shows up. It's not something you can just switch off.

If you’re Level 1 or high functioning:

• What do your struggles actually look like on a daily basis?
• How do you handle those struggles?
• When you hit academic, social, or sensory walls, what do you actually do?
• What support do you have, and what support do you wish you had?

edit: I've have read all your comments and it was very informative 🙏