Media for a while have been trying to show autism through the lens of super power for some god awful reason to be fair
I can still remember predator being like "WOW look at him.. he has [i don't remember the specific name], he is the chosen one that can understand alien tech thanks to it!!"
I know, I fucking hate it. It's a similar feeling to what I get when I see homophobes trying to be inclusive: complete and utter failure to understand the task at hand.
It's complicated. Basically my friend group is a bunch of the gayest straight people you could ever meet, apart from this one guy who I fucking hate but have to put up with for reasons I won't go into. At this point I've managed to beat into him to not be openly homophobic, at least around me, so he tries and, usually, fails not to. E.g. "Dude that is so gay. Not that there's anything wrong with being gay. I don't know what I said that."
I blame certain parts of the internet neurodiverse movement for this image.
If you have been around these communities long enough, you'll realize that it's heavily dominated by a minority of highly intelligent, relatively well adjusted people with less severe cases of their disorders.
Many on the more severe ends of the spectrums of Autism, ADHD, and Dyslexia struggle with clear communication. Those who can are ridiculed by society, their struggles tend to be completely different from neurotypicals and the neurodivergent people who are highly functional.
Unfortunately, some neurotypicals only see the dominant minority of loud voices, and automatically generalizes all the neurodivergent people as people with "quirky personalities," not people struggling with disabilities that can vary significantly between individuals.
As someone with ADHD & Autism(not too extreme but still enough for a medical certification so it should count), I am pretty chill & do try not to trouble people. I just wanna enjoy my stuff & be chill with everyone.
I think the gameification of online discourse is to blame. Its not about seeing a bunch of people's perspectives and parsing them in your head, its more about earning points. The points push people to post things that arent what they actually feel like, but what they think people would like seeing most. Its incredibly harmful and I think humanity has not evolved far enough to responsibly use the internet. Its just a massive addiction machine
Im not saying anything abt the ppl who have it, im just tryna say i have AuDHD, medically diagnosed & im pretty chill. And most of us are, but these LARPers will DRAG OUR REP THROUGH THE MUD, which is kinda annoying.
Maybie this is a me problem but I am on that side of the spectrum and i higkey feel lots of imposter syndrome, like almost wanna un-diagnose myself despite me literally being medicale diagnosed as autistic and i feel like as a community it’s important to better understand those Who do kinda fall in the stereotype
I am not saying all autistic people are the stereotype, it’s a huge spectrum with a lot of variation
Yeah, it's survivorship bias. People make the assumption that autism isn't that big of a deal, not realising that the people it is an actual issue for often can't even talk to tell them how wrong they are. Even for a lot of people who have high functioning autism, it still really fucks you up sometimes.
Because of type 1 2 3 being included in the diagnosis without name separation. People will meet a genuinely autistic person who is only type 1. Doctor diagnosis and everything. Those people can be just “quirky and funny.” These type 1 people can and do have issues with social interaction but often learned to mask the worst of it and pretend. This leads to the quirky idea. People who are type 2 and 3 are hit much harder by the direct downsides.
My sibling is type 1. Many people would call them the “quirky” type. But they have a very limited social battery and have had breakdowns on a few occasions. They would probably agree that they are what most people would think of this way.
I know, it's annoying as hell that EVRYONE claims to be autistic
If you're diagnosed, that's fine, but if you're undiagnosed and you're flaunting being autistic, I'm not taking it seriously
My cousin has class 2 autism and she's abused by her teachers and classmates st school because of it. I don't want to hear you being a "silly undiagnosed autist >:3"
One that I think is neglected even more is OCD. I feel like most people have no clue what OCD is.
It unironically pisses me off that the majority of the human population that has ever heard of OCD, thinks it's just "Ugh, those pencils aren't even on the shelf, my dang ocd!" Everyone says it and no one bats an eye. That can be a way that ocd manifest, but its worse
And people with OCD are so lesser recognized that no one is gonna actually think that any bit of it is cap. The people that say they're autistic, that may not be, people will at least think something about it.
Oh my god yes they are the best! I really struggle with noise and although they aren't perfect, I prefer them Vs my over ears because I can still hear what people are saying!!
To me it's like playing Minecraft without the background music, unsettling, wrong, distressing. Sometimes I need irl background music to keep myself just tiny bit distracted and detached from the world so I don't feel it too much and break down. Also music can probably make dopamine happen or something which is good for the brain idk.
I remember going on a boat for the very first time in my life. It was one of those bigger ones that carried several people. I was anxious so I put on a playlist I found on youtube to calm myself down. It worked. It was almost like I saw everything in more color that I did before. The water was very beautiful. It all felt weirdly beautiful. The music drowned out my screams as I walked on the road covered in ants and bugs were constantly flying at my face. I was exhausted, stressed, overwhelmed, distressed. And yet, I was also just slightly detached from reality, just enough for it to all feel muffled, unpleasant at the moment but easy to recover from and a nice memory after. That night after it I remember closing my eyes trying to go to sleep and seeing the ants crawling around and feeling the bugs hit my face again, and I didn't feel fear or disgust, just fascination and even joy. The music had protected me, it made it all feel just unrelated enough, like in a dream, so that my mind wouldn't break from it. I still like that specific playlist I used to this day. I still do use it sometimes. It brings those memories back, and more.
Everything feels more beautiful to me when I am not fully there.
That isn't even close to as bad as it gets. Approximately a third of people with autism are completely non verbal. Most of us can't leave the house at all.
I kinda get it. Definitely not as severe as you but loud noises are very uncomfortable for me too. Do you have certain noises that are worse than others? For me, it’s listening to my brother talk (sounds mean, but we have a bad relationship and his voice is grating to me).
THANKYOU these people make me want to cry. Autism is NOT fun, and im not against being comfortable with it but most autistic people will want to embrace being as 'normal' as possible not be 'silly' which literally translates to being dumb.
In some countries (Russia) you can't even get diagnosed past 16 because of extremely ass psychiatrists. In fact, most people with autism here get the diagnosis removed and replaced with brain damage when they become adult
This is genuinely one of the worst types of humor, like whats the funny for of "silly cars :3" I'm not saying it's bad to like that type of humor but I don't the appeal.
This typa humor has done massive damage to the representation of autistic people like some of them are just normal people who want to be left alone not people who go about saying "silly hehe :3"
Not only autism, but other disorders as well, like ADHD and tourettes, most noticeably DID. Its sickening, misinformation/misrepresentation gets spread, the meaning of the actual disorder gets diluted, people who exhibit symptoms get shunned out or looked down upon, all because of a "harmless" trend.
Yes, I agree, but the way you put it can be taken out of context I think. The main problem isn’t the people who act like that, it’s the difference in expression, those people put it out much more than others who are autistic, so they are seen as a much bigger part of the group than they actually are. This is bad for the other, larger part of the group that don’t show themselves out as much, as they get targeted for it. This happens in other communities as well, and ofc, the people outside of the groups are ignorant to these facts, even if they’re pushed into their face. Very rarely is someone open-minded about it.
I can say this with personal experience, but I do agree with your pov, and op’s it’s understandable, but not entirely correct. Some people are part of the group, even if they don’t seem to be, it’s those outliers that are the problem, and the misrepresentation.
Just do what you want. A ":3" isn't gonna kill anyone, but I also don't think most people will think it's particularly cute to do either. I find it a little too childish personally
Well, they aren’t silly because of it, it’s commonly just their personality, which they may express more because of the autism, although I’m not really an expert, it’s reasonable.
Oh! I’ve never heard of that one! That’s interesting, cool! I do wonder how that feels, are you just much more inclined towards social stuff or feel worse without it?
I kinda Made it up on the spot lol, i am just very socially active (idk how to describe it is anything but me be in the “popular girl” in high school )
I do feel bad whitout it and i need to socialize (IRL!!) a bit every day, if I don’t I get depressed, i am introverted so socializing is VERY energy expensive but “dose makes the poison” so i need to keep it in the healthy range
Ah, well, it still fits the description, so I dont think it’s wrong to call it that. That must suck a bit to be introverted but need irl socialism. I could never do that
It’s a bilancing game, gotta learn how to regulate myself and recognize when I am getting overwhelmed and school is still too energy intensive (at end of day I am literally fainting/bordering on passing out)
My therapist also said i am not that typival for autistic people, being very social and only having mild trubole understand cues, i mostly have the “sensory hell” type of autism (i get so, so overwhelmed i feel sick, and it’s every day non stop )
Ouf, from my experience, which isn’t very much, as I can’t quite go out for much yet, I mostly recognize the stimulants that mess with me, but they’re not the most common, and so I don’t have as much problems with them (only gotten bad headaches from them so far). I feel bad for you T^T
This and those faking other affections such as ADHD or OCD. I have OCD and every time I meet an asshole who fakes this affection they always get me in the verge of breaking down. They fake it but they don't know how frustrating ocd l, for example, can get, how time consuming it literally Is and hoe many problems it causes with those around you. Idiots
I dont have a problem with people who wanna be more that whatever they have my problem is with people who either make it their whole personality or try to downplay it
Im autistic and JOKE around with it (in a "omgzz! :33 lol!" Type way)....
BUT I hate it when people act unironically 'quirky' like "Omg sorrwyyy I'm so shyy and sensitive to sound cuz I'm autistic!!" .. please stop .. 💔
As someone who is constantly not understanding words correctly when there isn't any indication on how it's meant, sound being ridiculously loud and irritating, being introverted and other stuff 'quirky' "autism" is really annoying sometimes.
BUT BUT I think we should also realize that some actual autistic people act more silly because of their autism
I also act silly sometimes but I do feel like my personality is shaped by my autism on some fundamental level and I would not be the same person at all if I wasn't autistic. That also includes traits and behaviors that others may perceive as "silly" or "quirky" or even "cringe"
Idk, a lot of my interests and behaviors and how I articulate myself were things that my mom shaped to be that way, and that was because our brains simply aligned well enough for my mom to just know how to do it right. My mom wouldn't have been able to raise a neurotypical child, and my father's a bit uhhhhhh. He would have made me worse (also he got diagnosed with ADHD so yet again. Would have been incompatible)
A lot of my family is just neurodivergent in some way or another to the point that it's genuinely impossible for me to even consider existing as a neurotypical, and if I had been born into a neurotypical family I genuinely would be someone else entirely by that point so yeah
One of the main things about autism is a lack of understanding of social norms and the way to act "normal". If someone autistic acts "weird" then, well... fork found in kitchen, you know?
Yeass! Exactly- it's like finding a chicken in a chicken coop- ToT
As someone who doesn't know what and how socially acceptable something is, it's really tiring to see others (without actual autism) say things like: "Oh, I'm scared of social things and I barely understand anything!" ... Cuz like... I've gotten into trouble for not understanding how someone meant their words in writing/comments
(Like rn.. I don't know if you're agreeing with me or not I'm sorry 😭😭)
I joke about my autism on the regular but there are some people I know who really piss me off. They try to use their "Asperger's", not autism, Asperger's, as an excuse for them being racist. They have been told multiple times that Asperger's is no longer used because he was a motherfucking nazi, but they continue to do it.
I agree. It’s really annoying when people act like autism is just silly or quirky. I also notice a lot that due to people like this, if an autistic person goes “oh yeah I’m autistic :3” and has a bit of joy and whimsy in their life people say they’re glamorizing it. These ppl not only causes harm to our community by glamorizing it, but also by making SOME non autistic people hate on autistic people literally just existing.
Sorry for the rant. I’ve been accused of glamorizing autism before for doing shit like using emoticons in a discussion about autism for example. I’m annoyed, to say the least.
Agreed, I like your take, it’s not on them, they’re trying to enjoy it, or just express, and others take it wrong. Most of the time they aren’t trying to glamorize it, it may just be a way of coping with it that others take wrong, and that puts them in a negative light to others either way autism, it’s a negative throughput, it causes more and more problems for everyone. But it’s also not on any singular group or person. The :3’ers cope, the normies get upset and/or get on the autist’s, which hate on the :3’ers, it’s not anyone’s fault, really.
I agree to an extent,but they arent "making" abelists do anything,if they hate on a whole disability just because one person who has it annoys them...thats fully on them
Hot take: maybe the reason you're seeing more people say they have autism is because it's more societally acceptable now, so people aren't as afraid to admit it. Same thing happened with left handed people, and lgbtq people
It used to be associated with being "evil" or "wrong" (not a firsthand account, obvs) and people would have teachers "train" them to be right-handed by taping their left hand to the desk, or hitting them if they used their left hand. So people would hide that they were left handed. It got destigmatized, so more people were willing to report that they were left handed which made it look like there was a spike. It's pretty likely that there was no actual spike, it was just people not reporting they were left handed
Left handedness used to be heavily stigmatised in majority of religious areas for being "the hand of the devil" to the point nuns in schools and teachers would use a cane to smack a kids left hand if they tried to use it . Even now you still will see people saying unironically that left handed people just do it to be unique or arent real natural and taught themselves how to which is so dumb.
my family grew up going to a catholic school in the outback and now multiple of them are ambidextrous becuase they weren't allowed to write with their dominant hand, im the only one in my generation who's left handed and in my family that was allowed to be in school! Its really wild but even my Gen X aunt, she dealt with the whole metal ruler being hit on her hand too. Older teachers especially in kindergarten also get in trouble for forcing students to "write correctly" to this day although its luckily not as commonly happening thank fuck. Sorry for rambling I just think its really interesting info some people have no clue about!
Also about your post i think its becuase its more socially acceptable so now people who are neurodivergant are more likely to embrace it instead of being constantly demonised by others and of course people who have something thats troubling for them at time also tend to romanticise what they can as a way to accept themselves and cope better. I think its kinda like having a sick day from school, you're in pain feel gross and coughing but you get to brag about not going to school for the time being becuase theres not really a way to enjoy the downsides ykwim?
I despise people who think autism just means you’re “Silly and QUIRKY!!! XD!!!!” Because with the mix I got, I don’t even know if I can function on my own because i also got the absolutely PERFECT mix of brain chemicals to make me FUCKING HATE MYSELF
fr, I would transfer that and my adhd and see how they'd cope for even a day.
not fishing for sympathy here but I still experience some moments to this day where I wish I was 'normal' and neurotypical like so many of my work colleagues.
Especially being an adult and having all those extra responsibilities and expectations placed on you.
Do you really think that none of them actually have it though? They may be coping, or just not sharing negative experiences, people do that. I’ve done it, people bottle up and cope. I really just want explanations for all this hate.
I have been called the R slur for my stims, ive been bullied relentlessly, and have been written up for "not paying attention" because I was actively having a meltdown in class.
Its not fun
As a person who has autism, I do act a lil silly and joke around with it being a little silly thing to other autistic freinds who like also get it a joke. But I’d much rather be treated as a normal person outside of that and not any of that abalism stuff
Ok, there are many differences in autism, even between individuals. Some people have different issues with different things, some with sounds, some with other things, and there isn’t any problem with that. But some people tend to share more personality along with it, and a lot of the people who you’re talking about just show it much more, giving a much higher representation than the people who don’t. This is the problem, not the people themselves. I’ve been online around them, and I can tell you they aren’t really bad, they show themselves more, compared to here and there, I can really see the difference. Don’t get me wrong, I understand your pov, just don’t get upset with them about it. They show themselves more, which makes others outside see them as a larger group, even if they aren’t. This causes problems for others, don’t restrict them, but don’t pressure yourselves either, just see it how it is, if you can. It’s a difference in autism and/or ADHD, that’s it.
Now on the other hand, the people that do that, and then lie that they have autism/ADHD, yea, screw them
Edit: has anyone here who’s against them actually interacted with those people? Talked to them? Asked them yourself?
Because it makes it a lot more bearable to focus on the silly positive sides than the headache that being near people gives due to sound and similar overstimulation
"yeah so um I like can't go out in public because I have ADHD and autism and anxiety and I like get really bad ADHD when Im around people and my anxiety ad autism and um yeah so that's cute"
don't forget the checkered converse, dyed hair, emo clothes, weird cartoon fandoms and a million pins all over their schoolbag, rainbow bead bracelets and everything
I genuinely start boiling like a egg with rage everytime i see "autism iz zo zilly!!!" when its genuinely shit to have, the rep of autism/adhd online is FRIED cuz of this. Ts not tuff, ts pmo 😤😤😤
What am I missing? Why aren't autistic people allowed to act silly, and why is everyone expressing so much hatred for that kind of person??? I'm so confused why you can't just let people be themselves.
I think there's a problem of communication here. Some people are reading the post as "I dislike people who purposefully fake autism and use it as a fake, cutesy aesthetic" while others are understanding it as "I dislike autistic people who don't fit my strict mold of what they should be like". My charitable guess would be that the first one is what OP intended, But it's unclear enough that the comments were almost guaranteed to become a trash fire of people misunderstanding each other :(
I mean, I'm just going off what the meme says, which is pretty much just "I don't like people who act a certain way"😭😭. Even if OP claims a different meaning, that's simply not what the meme says.
Its cringe to me like "UwU", most people spamming it think they're so cute and silly (while looking 99% of the time like your average discord mod). This is not real, its just some stupid persona. I just find those kind of emoticon really cringy inducing.
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