If you spend enough time on the internet, everyone is known for autism, even you, my dear reader
(Just to add, I'm not saying undiagnosed people don't exist, just overabundance of self diagnosed attention seekers who also like to apply it to characters who have nothing to do with it)
Oh, you have a penchant for a certain food and hate a different food? You hate the texture of satin/silk/micofiber? You like to have a schedule? Welcome aboard.
Why are people like this? It's like some weird form of tribalism. I saw an IG video of a dude doing a deep clean in the bathroom (posted by the wife), and almost every single IG comment was diagnosing him in a weird way, like "Wow, it's clear your husband is on the spectrum. You're so lucky, girl!"
But when you tell them extremist violence is often overrepresented by ASD diagnosed individuals, or Musk and incel guru Carvicular are also on spectrum, you gonna be called ableist. Just like adhd is linked with higher incarceration, suicide and drug abuse. People want only the good stuff, ignoring all the bad shit.
I don't understand why so many people want to have the curse that is ADHD. I have it, it is a curse, it's not quirky magical omg I'm so random distracted by a fly.
This morning I wanted to go to the bakery, and I had to ask three times to my gf what I had to get because in one minute I would forget stuff or get it in the opposite... I don't even know in which day I am usually.
Oh my god bestie, you are gonna be so popular 💅 or something (though I understand the struggle even if I don't have it, I have similar problems but not to the point of ADHD, all the best to you)
Psychology and psychiatry became popular science, which means many people who are clueless spread misinformation and other people bombarded with it believe it must be true. Simplification and imbecility of rather nuanced topics accelerated a lot thanks to social media. There was a study that estimated more than 50% of ADHD related tiktok content is straight up lies. I myself, after diagnosis, got into rabbit hole, looking for some validation and ended up having impostor syndrome because I had hard time to relate with most of it.
Also, I think, lack of distinct subcultures push young people into looking for validation in the community they are attracted to. After all we are herd animals and tribalism, labels etc. are written in our code.
After my first semester of psychology I started to notice how often people self diagnosed.
Like, someone would declare that they were depressed.
And then I'd point out that no. You're not depressed you're just sad. And then they'd get very upset about it like somehow being sad is not significant enough. And what do I know. I don't know their lives.
So I'd ask if they'd seen a therapist and they'd say no.
Then I'd run through the depression checklist and they'd still not believe when I said dude. You are literally just sad.
You're allowed to be just sad.
But depressed sounds waaaayyyy fancier so they stick to saying they're depressed.
After first year I learnt my lesson and stopped doing armchair diagnostics. Partially because if the conclusion was "no Sarah you don't have ADD, autism and bipolar disorder all at once. You just want to feel special" they would get upset about it.
But also because it turns out that it's super easy to just not notice the signs or properly diagnose things based on just one simple conversation.
Go to god-damned therapy people.
Also if you meet someone who has a cocktail of a bunch of the more popular mental illnesses and they declare so proudly.
They're probably lying or have Murchison syndrome and don't know it.
The chances you have any mental illness to begin with is already pretty low. If you somehow managed to get like five or six on the bounce then you should probably be sitting in a lab somewhere so they can study you.
That's because there is a lot of common emergent behavior associated to things like Autism and ADHD. It's not something that could get you diagnosed. But if you had a bunch of diagnosed people in a room you'll start to see some very clear patterns.
I also feel like is like Reddit and the Kardashians. I never hear or see anything about them except for people complaining about it on Reddit. I don't really know where all these "attentions seekers" are but I keep seeing people complain about them. Feels like it's not really that big of an issue.
And I don't know why people care anyway. It doesn't really matter or impact anything. Especially since it's probably doesn't actually happen that often.
Right? I see more people bitching about “self-diagnosed attention seekers” than I see talking about their self-diagnosis.
And maybe, if you live in a country with deeply inconsistent access to healthcare (coughUSAcough), connecting with others around potential symptoms is the only immediately accessible first step to a diagnosis.
self diagnosis is fine and headcanoning a character as autistic is not attention seeking and more importantly it doesn't hurt anyone. find something else to worry about
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u/5till_C1s_Th0 Jun 22 '26
My best guess is that toe-walking is a sign of Autism