I have done a rigorous job of self diagnosis. I am autistic. I’ve also had the privilege of being able to pursue meditation, therapy, and other self development practices: I’m not as severely autistic as I was as a young man. I also have childhood trauma that I know contributes to many of my autistic presentations — see the last section on comorbidity. I also have some distinct ADHD symptoms but have never pursued that path because my hyperfocus tends to win out often enough that it’s not a hindrance to productivity. But it still causes problems elsewhere in my life.
For some people these diagnoses will be a very good fit with clear predictive outcomes. But many of us have a grab-bag of traits from several categories and still mostly get along in life, maybe with some assistance particular to one of these diagnosis but no more help overall than anyone else needs otherwise.
The diagnostic models suck. They are too broad here, too narrow there, misunderstood by professionals. I had a psychiatrist (mis)diagnose me as bipolar based on a 45 minute appointment when I was in some sort of crisis in my early 30s and that ended up haunting me years later when applying for a job with a security clearance. I didn’t even know about it at the time. This was one of the top rated doctors in a major metro area. What a sham.
The field is a mess. It has a terrible history of horrific abuse. Some autistic children still receive involuntary-to-them ECT. I think we should be supportive of research into these topics while also being critical of the very obvious problems with them.
Your experience illustrates something that often gets lost in the autism-vs-not-autism debate: many people don’t fall into clean diagnostic categories. You’re describing a profile that mixes autism traits, trauma adaptations, ADHD features, and developmental history, and instead of neatly labeling you, the system failed you outright with a bipolar misdiagnosis. That alone shows how fragile clinical certainty really is.
I think the most important part of what you wrote is that you changed over time. Whether that improvement came from meditation, therapy, maturity, trauma processing, or simply growing into yourself, it challenges the idea that autism is a static essence. Development, coping skills, neurology, and environment interact in ways the current diagnostic boundaries don’t fully capture.
Where I push back slightly is on the conclusion that self-diagnosis can automatically fill the gaps. For some people it’s deeply accurate and validating, for others it may explain one part of their experience but obscure another. As you said, many people carry a “grab-bag” of traits, and a single label can illuminate or compress that complexity depending on how it’s used.
You’re right that the field has a painful history and uneven present. Misdiagnosis is real. Forced treatment is real. Diagnostic tools are blunt instruments for a very diverse human reality. Supporting research while staying critical of the system makes sense, not because autism isn’t real, but because the categories we have are still evolving. Your story is a perfect example of why humility in diagnosis matters, whether it’s done by a psychiatrist or by oneself.
Mental healthcare in-general tends to suck. I went for years to a boutique psych that had suspect people working for them and that would just increase dose until prescribing the max allowed of various meds.
What I’ve noticed is that if a doctor’s or dentist office looks stylish, consider moving to a different one. It’s not worth ruining your life, health, teeth, etc.
I was also misdiagnosed as bipolar due to a crisis years ago, which destroyed my career path in the military and post service. Since then I’ve been diagnosed as autistic, but much like you I’m just capable enough to kind of run the rat race but not quite capable enough to thrive.
I strongly believe I was misdiagnosed with autism when in reality the traits were caused by traumatic backlash from those I was supposed to trust towards ADHD traits that would have calmed down after adolescence. The diagnosis was largely a red herring for me and led me down treatment paths that did not address the root of my issues, and I believe I suffered unnecessarily as a result. It is insane to me that people are sooner to blame vaccines and diet than childhood upbringing/environment for causing symptoms construed as autism or ADHD. It makes sense though - no parent wants to be blamed for their child's lifelong disorder, just as mine still don't to this day. Cancer might just be curable, but a parent who refuses to change their mind will never be.
I am doing better these days but I sometimes wonder how I would have turned out if I got help sooner, instead of spending years and years searching for the wrong kind of help. It doesn't help that society is talking more about this and inadvertently leading people to believe that these problems are just the way things are, without considering upbringing and environmental factors.
At the same time, blaming the wrong problem is different then spending all one's time blaming the right problem, which is different than letting go of the past and doing the best one can with one's life. It is nearly insurmountable for me but I try to put forth an effort each day.
BTW, there's research that shows that schizotypy (schizotypal/schizophrenia) is sort of the opposite of autism. You have to squint your eyes a bit, for example both of these neurotypes involve social difficulties, like the subjective feeling of being alien in the world (known as Anderssein in German psychiatry). However if you peel off the social layer then the remaining autistic features become anti-correlated with the remaining schizotypal features on the scale of the population. There are also some decent theories that suggest this should be the case - for example in the predictive coding theory it is believed that autistic brains over-weigh sensory inputs over their model of the world, whereas schizotypal brains over-weigh their model of the world over the sensory inputs. Or the Big Five traits, openness to experience is usually low in autism and high in schizophrenia.
Something fascinating that has been noticed by many people is that LLMs with a low temperature setting produce output similar to autism and high temperature is schizo in style. You even see the AIs get stuck in repetitive loops at very low temperature settings.
> BTW, there's research that shows that schizotypy (schizotypal/schizophrenia) is sort of the opposite of autism.
And I disagree with that. There is a wide overlap of symptoms in all mood disorders. People with ASD show many traits of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. This paper might change your mind:
Wouldn't the implication of them being "opposite" be that in some sense they are mutually exclusive? I don't really see evidence of that. Your example of sensory input vs world model weight is a bit flawed, because both of those are extremely multifaceted. One can have extreme weight in sensory input in one sense but not others, as well as extreme weight on world model for certain aspects of life.
> Or the Big Five traits, openness to experience is usually low in autism
Openness (to experience) in the Five Factor Model is quite strongly correlated to IQ, so I'd rather expect that highly intelligent autistic people would score much higher regarding openness.
Oh schizophrenic brains ... I remember reading a journal article that the immune system was to blame... The immune system in the brain is used to remove axonal connections between different neurons ... Because this is overactive, control of ones mind is well harder...
Yeah, the "mirror image" idea makes a lot of sense to me. Both groups feel out of sync socially, but for opposite reasons: autistic cognition leans too hard on raw sensory input, schizotypal cognition leans too hard on internal interpretations
I don't think there's much underlying relationship. True they will both impact social relationships. But it's more like how being blind or being deaf will impact social relationships. The mechanics might be the same but the cause is very different.
IMHO schizophrenia is a breakdown in the barrier between imagination and processing of reality.
Autism and the like is an inability to process social cues like a blind person might have a damaged visual cortex.
You're saying that relative to the 'typical individual', autistic brains weigh sensory inputs more heavily than their internal model. And that in schizotypal brains, relative to the 'typical individual', the internal model is weighed more heavily than the sensory input, right?
I don't know much about this area, so I can't comment on the correctness. However, I think we should be cautious in saying 'over-weigh' and 'under-weigh' because I really do think that there may be a real normative undertone when we say 'over-weigh'. I think it needlessly elevates what the typical individual experiences into what we should consider to be the norm and, by implicit extension, the 'correct way' of doing cognition.
I don't say this to try to undermine the challenges by people with autism or schizotypy. However, I think it's also fair to say that if we consider what the 'typical' person really is and how the 'typical' person really acts, they frequently do a lot of illogical and --- simply-put --- 'crazy' things.
I think part of the tension here comes from the way autism is understood both as a broad, fully-continuous, multivariate spectrum, and as a binary diagnosis.
To be sure, clinically, thresholds are useful because services, insurance, and research all rely on clear binary classifications, in our current society. But outside that context, it isn’t obvious that everyday language needs to mirror that line. Self-identification can be a way of making sense of one’s life, not an attempt to claim a clinical label.
But at the same time, the spectrum includes people with very high support needs, and there’s understandable concern that broad or casual uses of the term can hide those realities in ways that impact care.
To me, none of this means people are wrong for wondering about autism. And I do not have the experience to advocate for or against "anxiety disorders" being weighted more heavily in clinicians' priors than they currently are (as the OP article heavily implies with its length). I mean only to highlight the mismatch between a binary diagnostic system and a very heterogeneous spectrum, and the need for language that acknowledges self-understanding without flattening anyone’s experience.
The largest confusion with Autism is the ever changing definition from one DSM to the next where whole areas are suddenly included and others excluded.
It seems in the DSM 5 the definition was narrowed specifically to focus on two performance deficits: 1) immediate harms either to the inflicted or to those they interact with due to social interactions, 2) catastrophic academic failures due strictly to input/output perception irregularities not otherwise explained by neuro-transmission disorders (things that can be treated with drugs) or low intelligence measures.
That excludes a massive host of social and perception abnormalities that do result in less immediate social rejection and abstract reasoning failures.
The day-to-day impact of being diagnosed is practically non-existant for me. It might explain "why" I might react to a specific stimuli but it doesn't stop the reaction. At best it's something to laugh about with my wife. It does also offer an early-warning system when I'm over stimulated and that I need to 'get home' soon.
> The day-to-day impact of being diagnosed is practically non-existant for me.
Yeah, as the old adage goes: with an ADH?D diagnosis you get to try drugs like lisdex or methylphenidate (or the non-stim options if those aren't suitable), but with an Autism/ASD diagnosis you get some pamphlets, coffee morning invites and a reading list.
I don't have a formal diagnosis but my child does and that made me read lots on the subject. Authors like Eliza Fricker, Ellie Middleton, Pete Wharmby amongst others.
It's opened my eyes to many other related aspects, specifically Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria (RSD) and Pathalogical Demand Avoidance (PDA) and how those play into both ADH?D and ASD. In reading about them I've worked out just how much they apply to my-undiagnosed-self and how understanding the triggers and recognising the early behaviour has allowed me to adapt to minimise their impact.
For my sister, getting diagnosed was important to her because she always felt like she was broken but now sees herself as simply different. I'm not aware of any workplace accommodations she has requested but it has been good for her self-esteem, which is a benefit in of itself.
Being able to laugh about it, and know what is going on however is huge. Especially compared to being shit on all the time by others and self blaming (a common pattern!).
If you happen to have built a functioning support nets already, being diagnosed is at best a curiosity. If you didn't, or your existing ones have crumbled, it gives you tools to do that.
> But autism may also be the only relevant diagnosis they’ve heard of or are familiar with. They haven’t seen any cool TikToks about being schizoid. No one’s offering them quizzes about being schizotypal.
Don't underestimate TikTok. You can find all sorts of weird fad mental illness there. For a while tourette syndrome was all the rage and the platform was filled with kids faking tics. There are fake epileptics faking seizures too. OCD is another common "cool" self-diagnosis and there are online quizzes to tell you how OCD, or ADHD or bipolar you are. It wouldn't surprise me at all if schizoid or schizotypal caught on.
I think some people are looking for the self-validation that can come with a diagnoses, an explanation for why they are the way the are, feel the way they do, or why they struggle with certain things. Others are just looking for views, attention, or a community to belong to.
While it can be fairly harmless the ability for mass sociogenic illness to spread via social media is interesting and a bit frightening.
> For a while tourette syndrome was all the rage and the platform was filled with kids faking tics.
Kind of like all those kids in Le Roy, NY who began experiencing involuntary tics. IIRC, it was interesting that it was mostly girls who were affected by the "craze".
There was (perhaps still is) a lot of stuff on there by people claiming to have dissociative identity disorder (what used to be called multiple personalities)
Also see specialisms WITHIN Autism that are different to the mainstream Autism
The one I know most about is
PDA: Pathological Demand Avoidance [1]
PDA presents differently and needs very different strategies to mainstream Autism.
Main signs… kids under 12 attend school. However they explode at home or in private. At school the PDAers are masking (pretending to fit in) which is draining. When they get home the pent up frustration is released (explosively). So the family at home see a very different kid to the one that school/extended family witness. If this is an A-Ha! lightbulb moment for you or your child, see the questionnaire at the PDA Society[1]
Is it due to stimulous overload or anxiety? I think that's the difference.
The point being misdiagnosis ocd as pda is a risk if autism is the only thing people consider. Maybe not a a huge deal since realistically a misdiagnosis often means you get a pamphlet with broadly similar advice and maybe and cbt anyway ... but maybe I'm being overly cycnical.
If you think you (or a loved one) may have a psychological condition, go to a psychologist and get a screening. The diagnosis isn't the important part. The value is in the 20-something pages of detailed analysis by a professional.
At a bare minimum, it will give you a fresh perspective on things you already knew. In my experiences, there will be things you didn't realize about yourself.
They aren't going to tell you what the solution is to all your problems; that's for you and your doctor to figure out. They will give you everything you need to make well-informed decisions, and that's priceless.
> I remember seeing a woman who was a classic example of someone with high neuroticism, poor self-esteem, and severe social anxiety, and she had believed for much of her life that she was autistic ... it fit in with her experience of being awkward-shy-weird.
I so strongly agree with this and it's not just based on my own experience, but many people I know.
Growing up broke and in sketchy places with sketchy people will induce plenty of anxiety. Then I managed to get out of all that as an adult and starting a career.
The anxiety never fully went away, but it now presents itself the way one would expect instead of "weirdness". Maturing and having a more stable life happened to my friends also and nobody says "I think I'm autistic" anymore like we did in high school and college. Now it's hard to distinguish if we were saying that to ourselves as a slur in self-deprecation, or if we really believed it. Young people are just awkward and too many people get older without letting go of the things they told themselves a long time ago.
Make of that what you will. I know my story is super common, but the only reason I bothered to write this is that it doesn't get said enough.
If anything this just kinda suggests to me that the diagnostic categories are almost completely random/useless. It's just a set of pigeonholes made by people whose goal is to have a pigeonhole for every kind of thing so that the world doesn't seem messy and complicated anymore.
But the one thing we know for sure it's that the world is more complex than even this set of 10 pigeonholes. These are more like good insults for people. Haha, a loner, that guy's a schizo! The clinical coldness is almost a perfect mirror for the way we express personal cruelty to others. To reduce them to a factoid, an epithet. It's no wonder people want to reclaim these words as terms of identity, of pride, of nuanced meaning.
Life is difficult for people with severe autism (e.g. early childhood). Due to the increasing number of misdiagnoses, self-diagnoses, romanticization and constant trivialization, life is becoming even more difficult for these people. The opinion that autism is not a disease but a buzzword for strange people leads to real autistic people being denied the disease. It is often said: “They should just try harder or pull themselves together”. Please don't use the word autism in an inflated way - it harms those affected.
I enjoyed reading that. My daughter had recently been diagnosed with "social anxiety" but had suspected it was autism.
Somewhat related, "Health Secretary Wes Streeting is launching an independent review into rising demand for mental health, ADHD and autism services in England." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce8q26q2r75o
Working in IT I've came across lots of extremely smart people with their quirks and eccentricity (not exclusive to smart people of course), I guess there's just a higher proportion of _quirky_ smart people in IT. A lot of the time it just seems to be introversion- it seems lack of interaction with society has to be justified.
Thank you for sharing this article. I find people claiming I have autism for random reasons, mainly because I like to code. It's frustrating and they can concern-troll all they want.
"They haven’t seen any cool TikToks about being schizoid. No one’s offering them quizzes about being schizotypal." I'm eagerly awaiting the Great Meme Reset of 2026 when people will stop using memes as their shared knowledge. I even know a pediatrician who does this to support her anti-vax practice so meme culture has reached frightening levels.
Therapy-speak has become weaponized by people who are not well meaning. Please don't go around diagnosing people. If you say someone is bipolar, a lawyer can use this against them in court. I urge people to identify the sources of their (mis)information and humble themselves before offering diagnostics.
The internet is turning society into a kind of "social emulsion" where everyone is their own little droplet in the fluid, but they don't merge together.
> Social communication disorder is rarely diagnosed in favor of autism primarily because autism provides access to critical services, insurance coverage, educational support, and legal protections that social communication disorder does not reliably offer
It's also become quite fashionable to pathologize oneself and make it a kind of marker of identity. "I'm neurodivergent!" they declare, even though the concept is dubious as a bona fide category. It's a weird phenomenon; a disease or disorder is not an identity, but a defect. But people in general seem to be starving for identity - hence the popularity of odd subcultures and ideologies - but too weak to forge their own.
Part of the motivation also seems to be that we've fetishized disorders; having or claiming to have disorder X is a weird way to feel "special" or exceptional. Another part of it is that it functions as a kind of instrument for uptight people to gain a sense of exemption from social norms - real or merely perceived - that they feel burdened by or live in terror of "violating", but who are incapable of or unwilling to ignore them, because what would people say! "Oh, I'm weird, because I have disorder X. Can't help it, sorry! Can't judge me, because then you, not me, are the asshole!"
Needless to say, it's not very rational.
Which is not to say various disordered conditions don't exist.
There's one type of autism that doesn't really exist as a disease but as a social phenomena.
It appears when someone sees a smarter person and cannot accept that fact, proceeding then to look for any sign of awkwardness so that gap can be explained by "autism".
Not medically relevant, but probably one of the most common uses of the word.
[+] [-] flatline|3 months ago|reply
For some people these diagnoses will be a very good fit with clear predictive outcomes. But many of us have a grab-bag of traits from several categories and still mostly get along in life, maybe with some assistance particular to one of these diagnosis but no more help overall than anyone else needs otherwise.
The diagnostic models suck. They are too broad here, too narrow there, misunderstood by professionals. I had a psychiatrist (mis)diagnose me as bipolar based on a 45 minute appointment when I was in some sort of crisis in my early 30s and that ended up haunting me years later when applying for a job with a security clearance. I didn’t even know about it at the time. This was one of the top rated doctors in a major metro area. What a sham.
The field is a mess. It has a terrible history of horrific abuse. Some autistic children still receive involuntary-to-them ECT. I think we should be supportive of research into these topics while also being critical of the very obvious problems with them.
[+] [-] nelox|3 months ago|reply
I think the most important part of what you wrote is that you changed over time. Whether that improvement came from meditation, therapy, maturity, trauma processing, or simply growing into yourself, it challenges the idea that autism is a static essence. Development, coping skills, neurology, and environment interact in ways the current diagnostic boundaries don’t fully capture.
Where I push back slightly is on the conclusion that self-diagnosis can automatically fill the gaps. For some people it’s deeply accurate and validating, for others it may explain one part of their experience but obscure another. As you said, many people carry a “grab-bag” of traits, and a single label can illuminate or compress that complexity depending on how it’s used.
You’re right that the field has a painful history and uneven present. Misdiagnosis is real. Forced treatment is real. Diagnostic tools are blunt instruments for a very diverse human reality. Supporting research while staying critical of the system makes sense, not because autism isn’t real, but because the categories we have are still evolving. Your story is a perfect example of why humility in diagnosis matters, whether it’s done by a psychiatrist or by oneself.
Edit:typo
[+] [-] cnnlives736|3 months ago|reply
Mental healthcare in-general tends to suck. I went for years to a boutique psych that had suspect people working for them and that would just increase dose until prescribing the max allowed of various meds.
What I’ve noticed is that if a doctor’s or dentist office looks stylish, consider moving to a different one. It’s not worth ruining your life, health, teeth, etc.
[+] [-] ok_dad|3 months ago|reply
[+] [-] iambateman|3 months ago|reply
[+] [-] cwillu|3 months ago|reply
Adults too; ask me how I know.
[+] [-] doright|3 months ago|reply
I am doing better these days but I sometimes wonder how I would have turned out if I got help sooner, instead of spending years and years searching for the wrong kind of help. It doesn't help that society is talking more about this and inadvertently leading people to believe that these problems are just the way things are, without considering upbringing and environmental factors.
At the same time, blaming the wrong problem is different then spending all one's time blaming the right problem, which is different than letting go of the past and doing the best one can with one's life. It is nearly insurmountable for me but I try to put forth an effort each day.
[+] [-] H8crilA|3 months ago|reply
[+] [-] jiggawatts|3 months ago|reply
[+] [-] Noaidi|3 months ago|reply
And I disagree with that. There is a wide overlap of symptoms in all mood disorders. People with ASD show many traits of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. This paper might change your mind:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8931527/
[+] [-] coldtea|3 months ago|reply
[+] [-] notnullorvoid|3 months ago|reply
[+] [-] aleph_minus_one|3 months ago|reply
Openness (to experience) in the Five Factor Model is quite strongly correlated to IQ, so I'd rather expect that highly intelligent autistic people would score much higher regarding openness.
[+] [-] jfjfnfjrh|3 months ago|reply
[+] [-] TimByte|3 months ago|reply
[+] [-] cess11|3 months ago|reply
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6982569/
[+] [-] unknown|3 months ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] treis|3 months ago|reply
IMHO schizophrenia is a breakdown in the barrier between imagination and processing of reality.
Autism and the like is an inability to process social cues like a blind person might have a damaged visual cortex.
[+] [-] unknown|3 months ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] Unlisted6446|3 months ago|reply
You're saying that relative to the 'typical individual', autistic brains weigh sensory inputs more heavily than their internal model. And that in schizotypal brains, relative to the 'typical individual', the internal model is weighed more heavily than the sensory input, right?
I don't know much about this area, so I can't comment on the correctness. However, I think we should be cautious in saying 'over-weigh' and 'under-weigh' because I really do think that there may be a real normative undertone when we say 'over-weigh'. I think it needlessly elevates what the typical individual experiences into what we should consider to be the norm and, by implicit extension, the 'correct way' of doing cognition.
I don't say this to try to undermine the challenges by people with autism or schizotypy. However, I think it's also fair to say that if we consider what the 'typical' person really is and how the 'typical' person really acts, they frequently do a lot of illogical and --- simply-put --- 'crazy' things.
[+] [-] SecondHandTofu|3 months ago|reply
I figured that this is probably something Scott Alexander has written about, and lo and behold: https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/12/11/diametrical-model-of-a...
[+] [-] permo-w|3 months ago|reply
[+] [-] btown|3 months ago|reply
To be sure, clinically, thresholds are useful because services, insurance, and research all rely on clear binary classifications, in our current society. But outside that context, it isn’t obvious that everyday language needs to mirror that line. Self-identification can be a way of making sense of one’s life, not an attempt to claim a clinical label.
But at the same time, the spectrum includes people with very high support needs, and there’s understandable concern that broad or casual uses of the term can hide those realities in ways that impact care.
To me, none of this means people are wrong for wondering about autism. And I do not have the experience to advocate for or against "anxiety disorders" being weighted more heavily in clinicians' priors than they currently are (as the OP article heavily implies with its length). I mean only to highlight the mismatch between a binary diagnostic system and a very heterogeneous spectrum, and the need for language that acknowledges self-understanding without flattening anyone’s experience.
[+] [-] austin-cheney|3 months ago|reply
It seems in the DSM 5 the definition was narrowed specifically to focus on two performance deficits: 1) immediate harms either to the inflicted or to those they interact with due to social interactions, 2) catastrophic academic failures due strictly to input/output perception irregularities not otherwise explained by neuro-transmission disorders (things that can be treated with drugs) or low intelligence measures.
That excludes a massive host of social and perception abnormalities that do result in less immediate social rejection and abstract reasoning failures.
[+] [-] UI_at_80x24|3 months ago|reply
[+] [-] alexfoo|3 months ago|reply
Yeah, as the old adage goes: with an ADH?D diagnosis you get to try drugs like lisdex or methylphenidate (or the non-stim options if those aren't suitable), but with an Autism/ASD diagnosis you get some pamphlets, coffee morning invites and a reading list.
I don't have a formal diagnosis but my child does and that made me read lots on the subject. Authors like Eliza Fricker, Ellie Middleton, Pete Wharmby amongst others.
It's opened my eyes to many other related aspects, specifically Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria (RSD) and Pathalogical Demand Avoidance (PDA) and how those play into both ADH?D and ASD. In reading about them I've worked out just how much they apply to my-undiagnosed-self and how understanding the triggers and recognising the early behaviour has allowed me to adapt to minimise their impact.
[+] [-] Mountain_Skies|3 months ago|reply
[+] [-] lazide|3 months ago|reply
[+] [-] TimByte|3 months ago|reply
[+] [-] seba_dos1|3 months ago|reply
[+] [-] autoexec|3 months ago|reply
Don't underestimate TikTok. You can find all sorts of weird fad mental illness there. For a while tourette syndrome was all the rage and the platform was filled with kids faking tics. There are fake epileptics faking seizures too. OCD is another common "cool" self-diagnosis and there are online quizzes to tell you how OCD, or ADHD or bipolar you are. It wouldn't surprise me at all if schizoid or schizotypal caught on.
I think some people are looking for the self-validation that can come with a diagnoses, an explanation for why they are the way the are, feel the way they do, or why they struggle with certain things. Others are just looking for views, attention, or a community to belong to.
While it can be fairly harmless the ability for mass sociogenic illness to spread via social media is interesting and a bit frightening.
[+] [-] vantassell|3 months ago|reply
Kind of like all those kids in Le Roy, NY who began experiencing involuntary tics. IIRC, it was interesting that it was mostly girls who were affected by the "craze".
https://www.npr.org/2012/03/10/148372536/the-curious-case-of...
[+] [-] RobotToaster|3 months ago|reply
[+] [-] tezza|3 months ago|reply
Also see specialisms WITHIN Autism that are different to the mainstream Autism
The one I know most about is
PDA: Pathological Demand Avoidance [1]
PDA presents differently and needs very different strategies to mainstream Autism.
Main signs… kids under 12 attend school. However they explode at home or in private. At school the PDAers are masking (pretending to fit in) which is draining. When they get home the pent up frustration is released (explosively). So the family at home see a very different kid to the one that school/extended family witness. If this is an A-Ha! lightbulb moment for you or your child, see the questionnaire at the PDA Society[1]
[1] https://www.pdasociety.org.uk/what-is-pda/
[+] [-] wisty|3 months ago|reply
Is it due to stimulous overload or anxiety? I think that's the difference.
The point being misdiagnosis ocd as pda is a risk if autism is the only thing people consider. Maybe not a a huge deal since realistically a misdiagnosis often means you get a pamphlet with broadly similar advice and maybe and cbt anyway ... but maybe I'm being overly cycnical.
[+] [-] ezekg|3 months ago|reply
[+] [-] ryukoposting|3 months ago|reply
At a bare minimum, it will give you a fresh perspective on things you already knew. In my experiences, there will be things you didn't realize about yourself.
They aren't going to tell you what the solution is to all your problems; that's for you and your doctor to figure out. They will give you everything you need to make well-informed decisions, and that's priceless.
[+] [-] yesitcan|3 months ago|reply
[+] [-] sublinear|3 months ago|reply
I so strongly agree with this and it's not just based on my own experience, but many people I know.
Growing up broke and in sketchy places with sketchy people will induce plenty of anxiety. Then I managed to get out of all that as an adult and starting a career.
The anxiety never fully went away, but it now presents itself the way one would expect instead of "weirdness". Maturing and having a more stable life happened to my friends also and nobody says "I think I'm autistic" anymore like we did in high school and college. Now it's hard to distinguish if we were saying that to ourselves as a slur in self-deprecation, or if we really believed it. Young people are just awkward and too many people get older without letting go of the things they told themselves a long time ago.
Make of that what you will. I know my story is super common, but the only reason I bothered to write this is that it doesn't get said enough.
[+] [-] conartist6|3 months ago|reply
But the one thing we know for sure it's that the world is more complex than even this set of 10 pigeonholes. These are more like good insults for people. Haha, a loner, that guy's a schizo! The clinical coldness is almost a perfect mirror for the way we express personal cruelty to others. To reduce them to a factoid, an epithet. It's no wonder people want to reclaim these words as terms of identity, of pride, of nuanced meaning.
[+] [-] ulrischa|3 months ago|reply
[+] [-] ricardo81|3 months ago|reply
Somewhat related, "Health Secretary Wes Streeting is launching an independent review into rising demand for mental health, ADHD and autism services in England." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce8q26q2r75o
Working in IT I've came across lots of extremely smart people with their quirks and eccentricity (not exclusive to smart people of course), I guess there's just a higher proportion of _quirky_ smart people in IT. A lot of the time it just seems to be introversion- it seems lack of interaction with society has to be justified.
[+] [-] d-lisp|3 months ago|reply
“I suck at small talk.”
“I have rigid routines.”
“I hyper-focus on my hobbies.”
“I am always fidgeting.”
“Social interaction exhausts me.”
“I really bad at making friends.”
“I don’t fit in; people find me weird.”
I never considered it althought I'm ticking all the buttons (bad gear ? [0])
[0] https://youtube.com/@audiopilz?si=g6iGJK3ygnCWESWW
[+] [-] kittikitti|3 months ago|reply
"They haven’t seen any cool TikToks about being schizoid. No one’s offering them quizzes about being schizotypal." I'm eagerly awaiting the Great Meme Reset of 2026 when people will stop using memes as their shared knowledge. I even know a pediatrician who does this to support her anti-vax practice so meme culture has reached frightening levels.
Therapy-speak has become weaponized by people who are not well meaning. Please don't go around diagnosing people. If you say someone is bipolar, a lawyer can use this against them in court. I urge people to identify the sources of their (mis)information and humble themselves before offering diagnostics.
[+] [-] HPsquared|3 months ago|reply
[+] [-] petesergeant|3 months ago|reply
That feels important
[+] [-] lo_zamoyski|3 months ago|reply
Part of the motivation also seems to be that we've fetishized disorders; having or claiming to have disorder X is a weird way to feel "special" or exceptional. Another part of it is that it functions as a kind of instrument for uptight people to gain a sense of exemption from social norms - real or merely perceived - that they feel burdened by or live in terror of "violating", but who are incapable of or unwilling to ignore them, because what would people say! "Oh, I'm weird, because I have disorder X. Can't help it, sorry! Can't judge me, because then you, not me, are the asshole!"
Needless to say, it's not very rational.
Which is not to say various disordered conditions don't exist.
[+] [-] unknown|3 months ago|reply
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[+] [-] unknown|3 months ago|reply
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[+] [-] gaigalas|3 months ago|reply
It appears when someone sees a smarter person and cannot accept that fact, proceeding then to look for any sign of awkwardness so that gap can be explained by "autism".
Not medically relevant, but probably one of the most common uses of the word.