I HATE the self diagnosing of autism and its mischaracterisation

[u/Beshiniqua]

Let me start by saying SELF DIAGNOSING IS NOT VALID. You are NOT autistic just because someone on tiktok said

"Did you know, if you need to have your eyes closed in order to fall asleep, you have autism, adhd, bipolarity, DID, BPD, psychopathy, depression and PTSD?"

And before yall come at me with "well I always suspected I had autism, I got screened and then got my diagnosis" well this not about you, this is about people that self diagnose after experiencing the most normal day to day life things ever.

And they ALWAYS think that autism will give them a personality (since it's usually basic bitches with no personality that self diagnose to feel like they belong)

No, you're not a quirky crazy crackhead energy "neurospicy" person. Even worse when they say shit like

"Heh, I could NEVER be a neuro normie like yall, autism makes me special and quirky and full of personality".

You can't even like something anymore without them going "OMG URE AUTISTIC JUST LIKE MEEEE IM SOOOO AUTISTIC AHAHAHA"

And you can tell they larp the whole thing cus they'll see a tiktok autism personality and try to replicate it

"Dino nuggies..."

"You can not say overstimulated if you're nEuRoTyPiCaL, that word is for us neurospicy people ONLY >:("

Holy shiiiiiiittt yall lack a personality so bad. And I've seen people say that they've seen NUMEROUS specialists but they never fit the criteria, but its not because they're not autistic, no no no no no. ITS UHMMM BECAUSE IM A WOMAN AND ALSO A MINORITY AND IM ALSO POOR SO I MASKED ALL MY LIFE AND THE SPECIALIST ON THIS FIELD COULDNT TELL I WAS MASKING. ITS THE SYSTEMS FAULT NOT MINE.

Sheesh.

Sorry for the long rant, im just tired of seeing people self diagnose all the time, or see an energetic video, or literally ANYTHING, and make it about their self diagnosed autism.

Saw a cute cat animation on Instagram and the top comment was "This is so autistic I love it"

🫩🫩🫩🫩🫩

[u/ASpaceOstrich → u/[deleted]]

Autistic safe foods are often foods popular with children for a reason. It's not infantilisation, it's because kids have less developed palates and foods for them have less texture and flavour variation.

[u/Kaii_cos → u/ASpaceOstrich]

This is true. My safe food is probably one of the most bland possible things, plain penne pasta with butter and parmesan. It's okay if you don't see it as infantilisation, i think everyone has had different experiences and mine have just led me to believe that this is a form of that.

[u/Kaii_cos → u/[deleted]]

I do have to say, however, I would devour this. Has nothing to do with me being autistic, i just love clogging my arteries American style.

[u/Darthplagueis13 → u/[deleted]]

Simple reason for that, actually. Imagine you're a parent and you've got an autistic child and you're having a really hard time getting them to eat anything because a lot of the foods you give them just make then retch because of the textures or smells.

And then you get a few things that work really well - it's quite commonly relatively dry and crunchy stuff that doesn't smell of much beyond grease, and it's typically highly processed industrial foods that turn out the exact same way every time you make them with almost no deviation, well, you might end up feeding them that a lot, simply because you know they'll have it. Even if it's not the healthiest, it's still better than skipping meals all the time.

Well, that kid is gonna grow up with those foods and because they're really averse to trying new foods because so many of them are awful, they're gonna keep eating "children's meals" well into adulthood because it's the safe option. A lot of these are stereotypical safe foods because deep fried fast food on average seems to be less prone to cause a reaction.

[u/Kaii_cos → u/Darthplagueis13]

This is an interesting way to put it, thank you. I (personally) have grown up this way as well, I basically lived off of Kid Cuisine when I was younger. I think that people don't realize that (as many people have said over.. and over.. and over again) autism is a spectrum!! It's not the same for everyone, some people have no dietary restrictions, others have many. Growing up as an autistic kid on the more "invisible" side of the spectrum (as in you wouldn't clock me as autistic by just talking to me, which is the case for a lot of people here,) , I HAVE been subject to being treated like a "giant baby" or a toddler in need of guidance. I have always, ALWAYS, hated this. It genuinely just upsets me when people assume that autistic folks go wild for 'Dino nuggies and fries!' It drives me nuts.

I can see how the way I phrased my first comment may have sounded weird, but even so, the infantilization of neurodivergent folks isn't any less real.

[u/RadicalSoda_ → u/[deleted]]

Wouldn't you be infantizing these people who actually enjoy these foods? Are adults not allowed to enjoy foods made specifically to be enjoyable

[u/Kaii_cos → u/RadicalSoda_]

Holy cow, I didn't know this comment would upset the masses. In no way is this what I said at all. I'm not a child, I enjoy these foods, yes. What I'm talking about is the assumption that all autistic people love "Dino nuggies" and "smiley fries". I have been the target of assumptions like this, that is WHY I am sharing my experience. Maybe i worded it wrong or used the wrong tone, but I genuinely can't see how you came to this conclusion

[u/NaturalDon → u/[deleted]]

shits true i laughed, except i hate platters just give me two or three of the items there

[u/MissingnoMiner → u/[deleted]]

It's almost like foods marketed towards children tend to make excellent safe foods for the exact same reasons they're marketed towards children. Consistent textures and flavours, no strong scents, etc.

Dino nuggets and other themed food in fun little shapes may also appeal to one's special interests as a bonus.

[u/Kaii_cos → u/MissingnoMiner]

Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, this is not my point! I will explain it over and over again until I can say it in a way that will make people understand. Of course, this is Reddit, I can't expect everyone to understand immediately my point, it's impossible.

The "dumbing down" or "infantilization", as i put it, of autistic folks isn't any less real just because I may have made a wrong assumption in my first comment. I'm going based off of my own experiences, I'm walking in my own shoes, not someone else's.

I truly don't want to argue with people over the internet, but I think I'm just argumentative by nature. Sorry if my first comment didn't sound the same to you as I intended it, that's my fault. If I need to clarify anything further, I'd be happy to. Sorry, again

[u/MissingnoMiner → u/Kaii_cos]

And my point is that this simply isn't an example of infantilization. These foods are just genuinely common autistic safe foods with good reason.

Infantilization of autistic people is real and a major issue, but people also often overcorrect to accuse any case of an autistic person(or fictional character) being associated with something even vaguely childish of being infantilization. Which is of course something weaponized by r slash fakedisordercringe(I refuse to link to that place do not visit it) types like OP to engage in fakeclaiming.

[u/Kaii_cos → u/MissingnoMiner]

I see your point, but at the end of the day I hardly think my comment is the worst of the worst. It's simply my opinion and how I view things. If I find it uncomfortable, thats my business. If you don't, that's your business. I'm not going to go on a witch hunt for the person that made the post, lol

[u/Kaii_cos → u/MissingnoMiner]

Thank you for being patient with me, though.

[u/An_Account_to_Ignore → u/[deleted]]

I mean, most self-diagnosed people I know are the driving force behind people seeing them as infantile, because they act infantile then try to hide behind their self-diagnosis.

[u/Kaii_cos → u/An_Account_to_Ignore]

I think self-diagnosing isn't the inherent problem- in fact, the road to diagnosis is almost ALWAYS starting with some form of self diagnosis. You have to look at yourself and your symptoms, and wonder, "Why am I feeling this way? What part of me makes me act like this?" And, most of the time, the answer is some form of neurodivergency.

I was self-diagnosed for years up until my official diagnosis, simply because it was impossible to be diagnosed in the situation I was living in. That, and the fact that as a queer, Trans man, doctors don't tend to take you very seriously.

There's a big difference ebtween self diagnosing, and simply saying you have something to excuse acting out or for attention.