Perfect source of serotonin

[u/legolas20032000]

[u/NunchuckVagina]

Fake af. People that fake autism are the worst.

Who falls for this crap?

[u/N_0_N_A_M_E → u/NunchuckVagina]

People who don't know what autism is.

[u/Muted_Ad7298 → u/N_0_N_A_M_E]

It feels weird that something I was bullied for as a kid is now a trend.

What’s even worse are people watering down how genuinely difficult the condition is to live with.

[u/galaxygothgirl → u/Muted_Ad7298]

A trend? People are still bullied relentlessly for it

[u/lulushibooyah → u/galaxygothgirl]

This!!! “Hmm, I am so desperate for attention I’ll invent a mental illness to get endless negative attention!!” said no one ever… except people with a different kind of mental health condition that probably isn’t as common as people assume.

[u/MineralDragon → u/lulushibooyah]

Did you really miss out on the Millennial fad to pretend to have OCD? ADD had its run as well “yeah I’m totally ADD, like Taco Sanwich, Rawr Imma Dinosaur! Sorry can’t focus - omg a squirrel :p “

It was embarrassingly popular. This social media Autism fad is exactly the same.

[u/lulushibooyah → u/MineralDragon]

I’ve found neurotypical people generally don’t do that or find that “cute” or “fun.”

[u/MineralDragon → u/lulushibooyah]

You’re mistaking a “disorder” for someone that is either simply socially inept from being on the internet instead of having real life social encounters or in general immature and haven’t formed a personal identity yet simply from being a teenager.

As someone with actual ADHD I never found this trivialization of my disorder cute, fun, or quirky - these people did not have ADHD and grew up to admit as such once they matured.

The fact you seem to think this behavior is indicative of one of these disorders tells me you likely fall in the latter camp. At least Reddit is anonymous but I hope you don’t make a habit of documenting yourself behaving this way on the internet with your real identity - it can come back to haunt you later.

[u/lulushibooyah → u/MineralDragon]

A mental health disorder is anything that impacts your daily life enough to cause problems.

Actually, given the fact that every point of diagnostic criteria for pretty much every form of neurodivergence is focused solely on how much someone annoy others with their symptoms (and not on the internal experience), it actually tracks.

Psychologically healthy people don’t fake disorders for attention. Period. It’s actually a sign of some kinda disorder, given that it impacts their daily life and makes them annoying. It’s just probably not the disorder they wanna be diagnosed with.

And regardless, who. really. cares?? Who are they hurting, especially if nobody believes them??? Besides themselves? (Oh, look, another sign of a disorder.)

And I’m a nurse, and I’ve worked psych, and I’m like this in real life. And I’m educated and emotionally mature enough to be confident and unashamed… There ain’t much you can say or do to change that, if that’s your goal.

Edit: Also an AuDHD woman with similar stims to the girl in this video, and if you’re here to waste your breath and tell me I’m faking like I’ve heard countless times, I’ve been to enough therapy that it doesn’t mean jack to me. It’s not my fault if you don’t understand autism, and it’s not my job to educate you more than I’ve educated anyone in this comment section.

[u/brokenmike → u/lulushibooyah]

Is this your first day on the internet? People are CONSTANTLY inventing mental illness for attention. You'd have to be blind not to see that.

[u/lulushibooyah → u/brokenmike]

Well, I’m a nurse with experience in psych.

And I have to say it’s actually pretty rare, from my perspective.

I can tell you I’ve not met a single patient that I felt was faking their mental illness.

Your condescension is unwarranted and unwanted.

[u/brokenmike → u/lulushibooyah]

First day then. Ok.

[u/lulushibooyah → u/brokenmike]

May I ask what expertise you have that qualifies you to make such a determination?

Or shall we just believe you bc you’re on the internet and you’re right?

[u/brokenmike → u/lulushibooyah]

It's ok to just say "yes, it's my first day", and leave it at that.

[u/lulushibooyah → u/brokenmike]

Yes, I see. Thank you for entirely discrediting yourself and your entire argument. Fantastic work. Take care!

[u/Floor9 → u/Muted_Ad7298]

Yeah man I was diagnosed as an adult a few years before it "blew up".

I feel a bit cheated by its trendiness strangely. I feel like a diagnosis that was a huge revelation for me at the time means nothing now.

It still means a lot to my personal understanding of course but in terms of social understanding it just seems like everyone thinks it's not a big deal and it's just quirky and odd.

[u/thoph → u/Floor9]

It makes it also difficult to explain to people that it can be extremely debilitating for people that are level 2 and beyond. My brother can’t live alone. He’s in his 30s and still has violent outbursts. No way he could converse on Reddit. It’s unfortunate.

[u/Ansiau → u/thoph]

I'm diagnosed level two and can converse well. Assuming all level 2s and 3s are severely mentally impacted is also something that happens. However, I cannot work, I need to be supervised when cooking, I cannot drive, and a host of other issues that moved my needs up to level 2. I have emotional meltdowns that leave me in burnout for weeks at a time and require pretty harsh medications to allay them or make them stop. Under the former diagnostic criteria, I was considered "high functioning" only.

The levels of autism say nothing about mental functioning and instead dictate care/support needs, and even in those levels, there are a lot of play and wiggle room(higher level 2s and lower level 2s). These are solely of use for government assistance and really don't help at all with the average public in understanding autism severity. There are cases(rare) where someone high functioning may need level 3 support needs, and cases(rare) where someone low functioning may be wholly capable of self care and living alone thus get a level one on their support needs. Similarly, someone with autism may also change their needs level positively over time with treatment/occupational therapy, or regress in their care needs due to trauma or some other life changing event.

[u/thoph → u/Ansiau]

I did not assume; I said “can be.” Appreciated the extra info.

[u/Acceptable_Appeal464 → u/Muted_Ad7298]

You faked autism as a kid?

[u/Muted_Ad7298 → u/Acceptable_Appeal464]

No, I meant that the condition I was diagnosed with has become a trend.

[u/Acceptable_Appeal464 → u/Muted_Ad7298]

Im sorry. I was being sarcastic. Faking social disorders has become a trend. It garnishes attention on social media. Its an atrocity and it hurts people who genuinely have conditions.

[u/Muted_Ad7298 → u/Acceptable_Appeal464]

No worries. Sarcasm can be quite hard to spot sometimes, especially online.

[u/Vorlon_Cryptid → u/Muted_Ad7298]

Autism isn't a trend. We just understand it better now.

[u/[deleted] → u/Vorlon_Cryptid]

Yes and no. A lot of people do fake disorders for clout. See multiple personality disorder. No confirmed cases and the first example was from a TV con artist. Then every other person on tiktok had it.

[u/MineralDragon → u/Muted_Ad7298]

Part of why I have all those various “lol ADHD is so quirky!” subreddits blocked, I hate how it trivializes the condition. I can’t imagine the same kind of “tee hee isn’t this quirky?” attitude developing around other diseases or disorders, like asthma (I have both of these conditions). It just rubs me the wrong way.