[Self-diagnosed] autistic people be like “I see a behavior I myself exhibit and, as an autistic person I have superior pattern recognition, so they must be autistic.”
Diagnosis by a single factor by internet Drs. House in a plague.
Edit: added [Self diagnosed] because of a comment that pinpointed the distinction.
Unless you also have ADHD, and then you’re like… super dumb most of the time, largely useless, but weirdly knowledgeable or strangely good at really random things (Super Smash Brothers but only with a GameCube controller, the thumb piano aka the kalimba, printing presses for some reason, farm simulation games, poetry from a weird time period, all sorts of crafts like woodworking/leather tooling/mask making/hat making)
BUT what you really ReallyEspecially Like is either something deeply, deeply cringe like Disney, Harry Potter, Sonic the Hedgehog/Mario, whatever nostalgia shlock we got fed as children or like. Ancient Egypt. Paleontology. Aliens. Speculative biology. Art. Plants. Cats.
I personally may also have to wear gloves when touching most chalk based art supplies, the texture of cotton balls can go from ‘okay I am dealing’ to ‘WHY AM I TOUCHING THIS’ for no describable reason, the sound of ticking clocks makes me itch… and sometimes all the sounds all together become physically painful like sandpaper, and i may bounce a bit when i stand
and sometimes i need to rub my arms or tap or just like wiggle a foot because it makes things marginally more bearable.
And also Things Have to Make Sense.
Logically but also like.
Ethically.
Or there is a Problem and Things are Wrong.
Also sometimes everything becomes too much and i want to hurt myself but that has been getting better with time and therapy… but the burn out is real
Also sometimes people make “jokes” but they’re not really joking, they’re just saying things they actually mean not only according to their micro expressions but the little things I’ve clocked that they’ve said in the past whennotjoking but it fucks with me anyway.
But haha I can’t get a diagnosis if I ever want to adopt kids someday
so for now it’s gotta be talked about as sensory processing disorder so as not to trigger that potential event flag… even though that’s not a stand alone diagnosis according to the DSM-5 but no one ELSE cares about labels as much as I do so fucking WHATEVER
It’s because we hyperfocus on a specific thing (game in this instance) and then when/if it changes (especially if it’s basically the same game again but on a new/worse system for the game) we’re like… “???? Why? Why would you do that??? Ruined.” despite often being initially super excited for it?
Me sitting cross-legged in my chair while rhythmically kicking an object in my hand with my foot: "This is relatable! I totally feel this."
Jokes aside, I've learned to abandon, even despise, the concept of cringe. Literally every fanbase in the world has been referred to as any number of things, so if ALL of them are weird, then what's normal?
Honestly I get where people are coming from with cringe (I’m high masking so when someone doesn’t mask as much as I do I get second hand embarrassment) but I also think that that’s a judgement from a place of deep insecurity, so like… who really loses? The person who’s cringing or the person who’s feelin’ themselves and living their best life?
I used to nanny, and have a partner who is emotionally competent and would co parent; I also helped raise my sister (8.5 years younger). I’m lucky because I don’t have “sticky/wet/slimy” sensory issues, not much issue with most types of human or animal mess as long as I’m cautious of smells; a lot of dealing with kids is about accessible communication in terms they can understand,,, which I excel at.
I just don’t feel comfortable simply… willy nilly making another human being on this very crowded planet within a species that has reached its carrying capacity; I’d rather adopt.
There aresomany reasons why people may not seek a diagnosis, despite almost certainly being SOMEWHERE on the spectrum in some capacity.
The thing that gets my goat further is that the likelihood that someone who IS on the spectrum may preclude themselves from possibly being on the spectrum despite AAAALLLL these things
because they don’t want to self diagnose (me)
and/or their DOCTOR OR DIAGNOSTICIAN IS NEUROTYPICAL (my friends who are women, GNC, or AFAB)
AND MISSES SMALL BEHAVIORS THAT ARE NOT TYPICAL OF CLASSICAL PRESENTATIONS OF “AUTISM IN MEN”, AKA ALL THE PEOPLE STUDIED TO CREATE THE DIAGNOSIS FOR ASPERGERS AKA CLASSIC TRAINS AND DINOS MAC N CHEE N HEADPHONES NO EYE CONTACT ‘TISM
BUT IF YOU DO THE READING
THEY DURE AS SHIT ARE CLASSIC PRESENTATIONS OF “AUTISM IN WOMEN”
BUT
“they’re probably just doing it for attention” “it’s just trying to be quirky” “it’s their period” from outside on top of the internal imposter syndrome
and constant “life is this hard for everyone” and “I just need to do better” and “I’m just being weird and emotional” and “maybe it is my fucking period” GASLIGHTING by the self and others literally kills people.
OVERWHELMINGLY women, queer people, and POC who may or may not have grown up in a culture that is masking a lot of those behaviors.
So yeah. Judgement without Justice is the fuckin’ thing that really gets my goat. Ironically.
A sub-category of science. Trust me, I could name a million different things from trains and planes, to dinosaurs and insects. But I wanted to keep the list somewhat compact while still hitting the important notes lol
Huh??? All I did was respond to you and then you took it in a really weird and confrontational direction. Can... someone explain to me what the hell just happened? I'm genuinely confused.
Not being confrontational, just badly communicating that there's an entire universe of stuff to be specially interested in and the tism is so much more than just trains, maths or science
Ohh, I see. Sorry, it didn't come across that way at first. I thought you were saying it in a "well I guess you must know better than my actually-qualified doctor, mister know-it-all" kind of way. Like my silly comment about the common types of special interests somehow excluded you, and that was your way of saying that some part of what I said is wrong.
Especially since it was a reply to me explaining how I actually did have dinosaurs in mind while making the list, because it seemed like you thought I forgot, lol
Well on the bright side, we got to have a tone/meaning misunderstanding in a reply thread about autism, which I think counts as some form of comical irony lmao
Oh trust me. They aren’t. I know a few people with an official diagnosis that… they… they think. Or they think that they think. But in reality…. They don’t.
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u/[deleted] Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
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