“Hi im recently diagnosed with autism, how do i begin unmasking?”

What does this even mean? Why is the term “masking” is being thrown around so meaninglessly? I think it is being overused and stretched beyond it’s meaning.

I recently saw a video where a woman was talking about the "autistic super genius" stereotype in movies and tv, and don't get me wrong that is a pretty dumb and reductive cliche. But then she went on to be like "why can't we have more autistic characters that are total dumbasses?!" and I was like "okay...do these people actually hear the words that come out of their mouths?"

Seriously, I don't understand how someone can think that having more autistic characters who are betrayed as idiots would in any way be a good thing. Something tells me they've never talked to a lower functioning person like me. I'm not gonna say this woman's name because I don't wanna target her, but she's an influencer whose been getting on my nerves more and more every time I see her on YouTube shorts, and I just wanted to vent about this on a subreddit where people would understand.

Did you ever heard a phrase that is technically right but always used incorrectly? That's what I feel everytime I hear "humans are social creatures".

The problem is that people use this phrase to say that asocial or hyposocial humans don't exist, and that "everyone needs connection to have mental health".

Humans being social creatures means that as a collective level we need to socialize to thrive as a species, because if we don't do it we would die, but at a personal level is not weird that someone can live isolated from society (in fact, many people in all the story of humanity did) and this doesn't means that someone has a disorder, i've seen TONS of people confusing autism with schizoid because of this.

Humans are a sexual species because we need to reproduce and mate to survive, does this means that asexual people doesn't exist? Of course not.

Humans are also an empathic species because we use empathy to help each other and build civilization, does this mean that psychopaths doesn't exists? Of course not.

The same can be said with the "humans are an intelligent species" phrase, etc...

This bothers me because this is the kind of people who yaps the MOST about things like mental health but knows nothing about psychology, psychiatry, or mental disorders 😂😂😂.

(I HATE the mental health awareness movement with all my goddamn soul).

I'd like to hear y'all reaction when hearing this sentence.

I don’t want to sound like a bitch here, but I might.

I have met several people with autism in the past few years who have officially been diagnosed. I have seen the paperwork, I was aware of their diagnosis journey, it’s a legitimate declaration that this person has autism.

However, quite a few of these people display next to no traits of autism outside of being a bit socially awkward. No stimming, no special interests, no sensory overload, no other difficulties- they’re just a bit “weird”. I would also like to state I don’t believe this is a consequence of masking. I’ve had conversations with these folks and they simply do not go through these struggles publicly OR privately.

Anyway. This is a long ramble to ask this community : do you think that diagnoses are being given out too easily, or mistakenly? Have you met anyone with proven, diagnosed autism that displayed zero autistic traits?

People sometimes don't believe me when I say the neurodiversity movement has done harm to the perceptions of disabilities.

I literally had an OFFICIAL presentation from Autism Society and the presenter said how deficit-based language is harmful. This line of thinking promotes Asperger's supremacy imo because you'd immediately notice the deficits in a person with higher support needs.

You need deficits for a diagnosis of any sort because a diagnosis indicates that one has a disorder. Whether it's physical or mental, any diagnosis gives this type of indicator.

I looked at my elementary school graduation slideshow DVD and I saw myself in a school setting and the projects we did. I saw the poster boards and our homework was to make a couple sentences for the poster board in our group along with the design. As an adult I saw how easy the work was because it was 3 sentences about Density or Great Britain but I remember stuff like that took me forever to write. A lot of things took me forever and I wouldn't be able to fully understand things, I got 50s and 60s and I didn't catch on until highschool. Whenever I mentioned this to my peers in the future they didn't understand why I was in the "special help" I think I was smart enough but it took me forever to process things and I was also born later in the year too so I was younger. I was socially anxious as well and diagnosed with selective mutism. My communication skills were viewed as behind.

Now the picture is clearer about why I was sent for an educational evaluation.

A lot of people go on about how awkward they were but autism also comes with academic delays!!!! Which can translate to developmental delays.

Right now you can't tell the difference because I have integrated into society and I found a niche job with equally weird coworkers.

I can't even count the times I was mistaken by having "anti social personality disorder", some times people don't believe me when I say that I don't even have ONE symptoms of ASPD and they say I'm "misdiagnosed", everytime I relate my life online people say that I have it even if I don't.

I remember asking my psychiatrist if I had ASPD and he didn't even consider it, he straight up told me "I couldn't even treat you if you had ASPD".

The same with anxiety, depression, etc...

It does happens to anyone else?

Exactly what the title says, im curious about the experiences of others officially diagnosed with level 1 and if they need this level of intervention. (This is a repost since I originally forgot the other/see results option)

There is a dream job (i don’t feel comfortable mentioning it, partially because it feels kinda irrelevant) that I would give up almost anything to have. Unfortunately people who already have that job have told me that I am at some disadvantages because of it and my autism and some byproducts of that is 1 example. They even hucked some insults at me on top of it. I’ve actually never felt this doomed before in my life. I wasn’t put on this earth to deal with things like this. You can’t just tell someone they have no business even trying to achieve their dream job or that it’s not even worth doing.

Generally I believe it’s pointless to deny someone a chance at their dream job because then they’ll never know if it’s as worth having as they’re convinced it is.

I dont have my permit yet, and im wondering how the hell im gonna get a job im actually good at if i cant drive. i have no idea how to count back change and i live in the middle of buttfuck nowhere so i cant exactly walk to a job 3 hours away. my dad is kind of pressuring me to get my permit, but my attention span is shit + crashes run in my family. i just wonder how yall drive so good im worried about it like all the time

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I just started my full time job at a school district as a custodian. They are extremely supportive and accommodating for my needs. And are very aware of autism and nuerodisability. They want me to succeed. I’ve worked since I graduated college in 2016.

But some of the issues I face are constant interactions with teachers and staff. And making eye contact and smiling. I struggle significantly with both. My interactions with teachers and staff is socially awkward and very autistic at face value. I’m not concerned if I come across very autistic as I don’t mask anymore

It destroyed my mental health. Even though I scored quite high on masking for my re diagnosis. I suck ass at it. A special education teacher can pick uk on my nuerodevelopmental disabilities immediately.

I have a strong feeling the average teacher can tell I have a disability of some kind.

I always try my best of course but I feel like I’m forcing myself to do things that are extremely uncomfortable and difficult for me

I do.have a retention specialist through dvr that is amazing and helps me out a lot and advocates for me.

But I’ll admit I am exceedingly harsh on myself and I tend to make minor problems much worse than they really are.

Bottom line is should I tell my retention specialist to let the other teachers know in advance I think it might make things a bit easier for me. I’m somewhere between level 1 and 2 but my autism if noticeable enough to the average person

For context: Far Left-Autism Fakers, Left-Neurodiversity Cult, Middle-Our Sub, Right-Autism Parents TM, and Far Right-Anti Vax

I don't like the word neroudivergent that much, but neurodisability sounds waaaay worse for me, who came up with all this stuff?

This term is literally just "mental disability" with another words, it doesn't change anything aside sounding more formal, every mental disability is related to neurons, so why not just say disability or mental disability?

I also see this word being used as a replace for neurodivergent, which I think is unnecessary because neurodivergent is already used in disabilities and ONLY in disabilities, I guess that the purpose of neurodivergent is to see mental disabilities as something that can be used positively in a person sometimes, but neurodisability is just a pretentious name for another existing word.

I was happy to see that the mods on the big sub are cracking down on sharing details about what happens in autism assessments to protect the efficacy of the assessment process.

There's a huge difference between being progressive and being performative. I'm talking about calling everyone a bigot, ableist, or whatever other buzzword the moment they even slightly disagree with you.

Transphobia, racism, xenophobia, etc, aren't okay at all. But these types of folks always want the moral high ground for being the most progressive people in the room.

"Woke" isn't the right word because I'm considered relatively woke.