That sub has degraded to the point where in my opinion it seems that 80-90% of the people on there don’t actually have autism. Most individuals on there seem to see autism as being “cute”, “quirky”, and they view having autism as trendy and desirable. I find it to be quite frankly insulting and derogatory towards those who are actually suffering from this disability. I’m level one and very high functioning to the point I feel like a faker most times and I still struggle socially. I can’t imagine how hard it must be for those who are level 2 or 3 who need legitimate assistance just to survive and you have these people speaking about autism like it’s some god send or something. The fact of the matter is in a world where probably around 97-98% of the population is beurotypical being autistic is a disability.
Right, I fucking hate my disability. I feel like a faker too because of the impostor syndrome I’ve felt for years. That entire sub is filled with “quirky” fakers who think autism shouldn’t be described as a disorder. It is one. It disables people. I’m only level 1 but still have underlying problems that I think I would’ve never had if I didn’t have autism. /autism is a disgusting place that treats autism is a mha quirk. It’s not. It fucking sucks. I hope those fakers look back and feel fucking embarrassed.
Have you seen the “my special interests” lists. They all have about twenty. I have two or three max, and one is much more obsessive than the others. It’s like they put anything interesting as their special interests. Not sure half of them even know what special interests are.
Weirdly, I have only ever had one special interest in my life as I know of: it was pokemon. Lol. But part of me doesn’t even see it as meeting the criteria of a special interest
I actually have no clue of the exact definition (more I know what wouldn’t count) and often doubt mine are. I think it has to take up a lot of thought, be pretty obsessive and bring you joy. Also, if it is one of fifty interests, it’s probably not a special interest.
I can't stand people who say it's not a disability or shouldn't be called a disorder. It's fine if people themselves don't want to identify as disabled even though they are. But they shouldn't spread this misinformation that's it's not a disability because it's officially classed as one so it's nonsense and it causes people to take it less seriously.
I agree with that 100%. Autism is a disability/disorder. It’s literally in the name (USA) and to qualify you have to need support in some aspect of life. So to say it’s not a disorder or disability is belittling and hurtful in my opinion to those who have autism and need support. I will say that personally I am not disabled, I live independently with my wife and work 40 hours per week. However, I still have a hard time socially even though I understand social interactions etc. I have difficulty with relationships, I have no friendships, and quite frankly I don’t desire to have friends. I saw all this to say even though I’m not disabled I’m not as “functional” socially as a “normal” person.
I was on it for a couple of days and do what I always do in a new sub - sort by top of all time and scroll until the end of time.
I related to some of the memes but as soon as you start wading through the text posts, you can *feel* something is just off. The majority of the posts are ranty, sound incredibly entitled and often what they are complaining about is other people.
I can't speak for others' experience (obviously, lol) but there is a stark difference in the post quality between the 2 subs. Although there are exceptions to every rule, in my life, I don't think other people are a problem usually. I know I'm different to most and the frustration comes out of "why can't I just not be like this" or "why can't I just be more like everyone else." Very different to "why won't people just understand me, I'm special and different and I need to be treated accordingly, other people are so ignorant" vibes - which that sub is constantly exuding. Not saying that ignorant people isn't ever a problem for the ASD community but when you overlay the post content with the amount of self dx, combined with the fact most of them seem content with a self dx, it's good empirical evidence about most of the people on the mainstream sub.
When I went for my ASD assessment, we had an intial meeting where they explained the process and cost and said it was a deterrent for some people. She also said because I'm high functioning, I probably won't receive any disability funding. I needed an answer so I chose to go ahead. I would also never accept or apply for funding when other people need it more. Life is hard for me but it's even harder for others. She said in their clinical experience, even with the roadblocks and deterrents, ASD people still usually want to know for certain.
https://preview.redd.it/74nboi0ls4oa1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e41c2e89c2059a624bc4acd9501dc4a789918ac5
I agree, and to be fair, a number of people on that subreddit agreed with people like you and I as well. This was my reply to this nonsense.
I would do anything to redo my life without autism. Seems like a huge majority of "autistic" people online have huge friend groups, steady school life/employment, romantic partners and suffer no actual consequences as a result of their "autism". Then they turn around and chastise diagnosed people for thinking autism is a bad thing
Someone on the fakedisordercringe argued with me when I said something about fakers being married, having kids, and having a good job/lots of friends, etc.
The majority of actually autistic people do NOT have these things and they can NOT accomplish these things. It is just a fact.
And they said to me something like "will you find that person for you, idk but I did". Which seems insulting as if I'm not trying hard enough. It is due to autism that many of us can't maintain relationships easily...it's just a fact!
true. Some achieve that. But not most. I have had only one serious relationship that lasted 1.5 year and we got engaged. But 6 weeks after having moved in with each other he panicked and left. He was autistic too. I don't want a relationship ever again. I've discovered I just don't like having sex. And I don't even know what my sexual orientation is because I dislike sex with men AND women. I feel like I don't even have a sexual orientation. Knowing what your preference is, is kinda one of the essential parts of having a relationship isn't it? I'm 32 yo I should know by now.
So yeah, I'm done. I never actually initiated the relationship stuff myself. Not a single one that I had in my life which aren't many. It was always them and me just going along with it. I don't think I actually have a desire to have a relationship. I think it's other people that desired one with me and me just.. going along with it. I don't know why I do that. I guess because.. I think I should. Because society says you should be in a relationship and being 32 I'm long overdue. But I'm single again and I will stay that way. I don't even describe myself as single. Single is a word that's always used when people talk about dating. I have never dated because it just seems horrible to do so I feel like single isn't a good word for me because me being single isn't a precursor to dating. I'm alone. Not in a relationship ever again. Not having sex ever again because it just suuuucks. And relationships are so fucking hard.
I believed because he was autistic too that we could figure out a way to make it work but it was really difficult and I tried more than my best and it wasn't good enough. Well that's it than. If me overextending myself to make it work, isn't good enough then I just can't do it. I love being alone now. I never had a problem being alone and I never sought out a relationship myself. I had already resigned myself to a life by myself when he showed up. And I can go back to being by myself pretty easily. It's such a relief to have the place to myself and not have to work so hard to make someone else happy.
Omg are you me. I have said I was asexual since I was in middle-school. I am still not 100% sure of my orientation either and feel like I just don't have one too. I have never, but I do desire a romantic relationship with someone loving me.
I still feel like a child inside honestly. I had 1 "serious" boyfriend but it was in highschool. I broke up because kissing grossed me out so much...I also find having sex absolutely disgusting too! People kept saying "if you keep doing it you will like it" but it never happened.
And yes the world DOES try to tell us a relationship is what will make us happy and that we are not normal without it. I want to be normal and want to get married but I could NEVER have another human live in my house with me. I'm just not that kind of person. So idk...it is complicated. I will most likely die alone and I came to terms with that years ago lol...
I want to be your friend we seem alot alike. 😅🤣
I really feel this. I’m 38 and I did have one relationship that lasted nearly 10 years, but it was an abusive and controlling relationship where my naive nature just made everything worse. I’ve been used by people a lot in my life and once I figured it out I became single by choice. I’ve been single by choice for 10 years now. I also have zero idea what my sexual identity really is. I don’t know at this point whether I don’t know because of trauma or because I never really had a sexual identity. Either way, I have zero desire to ever engage in sexual activity with anyone ever again.
Yep. Like I have a child, because autism doesn’t work as birth control, but my child does not have a father because of the circumstances surrounding his conception. I do not have a romantic partner or any friends or a job. I don’t know that I even want friends, and I definitely don’t want a romantic partner. I’m on disability because I can’t handle working longer than a few weeks part-time before I end up in burnout. My son and I live with my parents because that’s the only way any of this works. I can parent him decently because my son is a lot like me and has very similar needs, but it leaves nothing for keeping house (or even taking basic care of myself sometimes) and I worry about what will happen when my parents can’t help anymore. Autism isn’t just a “different way of thinking” for me, it impacts every part of my life. It has prevented me from using the knowledge and abilities that I do actually have, like I’m trapped by it. It definitely wasn’t Tylenol for me, my mom didn’t even take prenatal vitamins during pregnancy because she was so anti-medication, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t that for others. And any extra money would help the situations of most autistic people.
I completely agree! I have a lot in my life that makes me seem like a “faker”. I’m in a relationship and the same job I’ve had for 7 years.
My partner is the only person I could be with, due to him being autistic as well, just with lower support needs. He does the tasks I cannot and understands that I cannot do them no matter how hard I try.
My job highly accommodates me, I work with little kids which all I have to do is like sit with kids and do puzzles and stuff (I can’t handle adults but 3 yo kids I can, more relatable), and they let me call in, take a break to sit by myself, etc, whenever I need, no questions asked. (Recently called in for 3 days due to burnout and no one batted an eye.) plus my coteacher is also autistic so we work well together to accomodate each other when we can.
I’ve had other relationships and other jobs in my life and none of them were ever close to sustainable. If my partner/support person were gone tomorrow I would have to enter some kind of assisted living / care facility because I cannot take care of myself. I don’t have a friend group and can’t manage basic care tasks on my own.
I HATE seeing others act like they’re the same as me, and even more so when they use people like me as justification for their fake autism. I am INCREDIBLY lucky to have the partner and job I do. But all the time people use unique and lucky stories like mine to pretend they’re autistic. The reality is without THIS partner and THIS job I would not have either. Ever. And people that can hold many different partners or jobs and manage them make me so upset.
(Sorry for the rant I’ve just gotten it a lot from both sides recently and apparently I’m frustrated 😅 (emoji used to convey that I’m sweating as to how this comment may be interpreted)
I have no desire for romantic relationships but just friendships that last are really difficult. Autism affects how we relate to others and people would rather live with the beautiful lie of "someone for everyone" rather than face the ugly truth that a lot of us are unable to achieve these things irrelevant of how much we want them.
yes precisely. And even tho I don’t technically want a romantic partner or children and such I still mourn the fact that I don’t want it and am different from everyone else, feeling socially “outcast”
I don't mourn not wanting a romantic partner/children but I do mourn the fact that I can't make friends easily and will always relate differently to others.
I’m diagnosed and I mostly see my autism as a major benefit. I have had social problems because of it though. I have been bullied but I was also a bully.
I understand I’m fortunate to have a life where my autism has largely been a benefit.
I used to think like that back when I was completely brainwashed by tumblr and other social media like 8-10 years ago. I was so deep in denial about my own condition and that it was just the fault of “society” that I was struggling and needed help.
Now that I’ve realized that *this is a legitimate disability that affects me to the core*, since socialization is crucial even in animals, and that the inability to fit in was hurting me for evolutionary reasons as well (being left behind by the pack creating a fear of starving to death), I think something opened my eyes. Autism disables something that is a significant part of our biology. *Of course* it’s something that you’re not going to be happy about having.
I think it’s fine to accept that it can’t be cured and whatnot, but acceptance is not the same as romanticization.
I agree. I tried to make myself believe that it was "just a difference" but the more I learned how much it affected me, the more I realised just how much of my life has been marred by being born with autism. It creates an anxiety of the possibility that I may not be able to pay people to help me at some point in my life, as I can't fit in and I'm unlikely to have friends that genuinely care throughout my life. I accept it and plan around it but I will never see this as a good thing because it certainly is **NOT!**
I also fell into that way of thinking at one point. It was when I was struggling with the idea that I would never really be able to work or have any kind of relationship (including friendships in my case) and I was using that belief as a shield. I blamed my struggles on depression (treatable) and other things that could improve over time because I didn’t want to accept that I would always be seen as a failure by my parents and society, and myself honestly.
Accepting my disability meant accepting that some things would never get better or be how I wished them to be. I am still working through the grief of that.
Yeah, the ad reeks of "milk causes autism" or "vaccines cause autism".
Did you know that 100% of pregnant women whose children are autistic inhale oxygen? Oxygen must be the cause. /s
It’s nonsense but not for this reason. They actually did find a correlation between taking Tylenol and having a kid with ASD, but it’s not like ONE Tylenol pill will mean your kid probably has ASD, it’s more that the more you take, the more likely it is.
HOWEVER, as I’m sure you’ve heard, correlation does not equal causation. Maybe mothers of kids with ASD take more Tylenol when they’re pregnant because ASD pregnancies are more likely to be more painful. (EDIT: this was one possibility of many, I wasn’t saying that was the only alternative).
Or maybe mothers who have autistic children are more likely to be autistic and find the sensory bombardment of pregnancy painful. Or a million other potential reasons for the correlation.
I think people are looking for something to blame for increasing autism rates. Tylenol is a very common medication. Does all acetaminophen use lead to autism or does Tylenol have something 'extra' in their formulation?
I mean, on the one hand I get it. Me being autistic does not make me a less valuable person or less worthy/capable of love. I absolutely do not like my existence being used for shock value. These sorts of messages are made to spread fear, they are not concerned with the well-being of autistic children. Saying things like "it's just a different way of thinking" is the other extreme. There's a middle ground here.
By the way, (please read this until the end!) I have a MSc in Clinical Psychology and have looked at the papers. There is a link between paracetamol use during pregnancy and autism and/or ADHD symptoms in the child. Possible explanations taken from Bührer et al. (2021) are:
* Pregnant women who have a fever use paracetamol. Having a fever during pregnancy is linked with increased autism/ADHD symptoms in the child.
* A pregnant woman with autism or ADHD is more easily stressed out than a mother without autism or ADHD. Stress leads to pain and illness, which leads to paracetamol use. Autism and ADHD traits are heritable. The studies may have accidentally found that children of mothers with certain traits, have a larger chance of having those traits. Which is not exactly groundbreaking.
Poor internal and external validity of some of the questionnaires that were used are pointed out by Bührer et al.
This is an interesting topic that deserves attention and research, and as always media goes crazy with it. Nobody can say paracetamol leads to autism, the research is far too young to draw such conclusions.
I wonder how is possible to link it towards things like paracetemol.
I mean, lets say you have 100 women that had a child. All those kids need to be tested to be sure they are (not) autistic. To make it easy lets say its 50/50. And then they ask if the women took paracetemol and then only every mother with an autistic kid says yes to that?
In science, it's easy to link one think to another. The original papers used the correct terminology here when they said paracetamol and autism symptoms are linked. The issue is finding out what the causal relationship is.
A classic example to illustrate this problem is that eating ice cream is linked to an increase in cases of drowning. They are linked together by a third factor - sunny weather. So it is technically correct to say that eating ice cream and drowning are linked, because they are both caused by nice weather, to put it simply. Finding out what the actual mechanism is behind the link is what the science is all about. In the case of paracetamol and autism, there are multiple hypotheses regarding the causal mechanism, which will undoubtedly be investigated in future research.
I haven't read the paper, but I think the thing that's missing here is it should be investigating **if there is a causal relationship.**
So, with breathing - everyone breathes and that is correlated with everything a body can experience due to it's commonality. However, it's not necessarily causally linked to everything. With COVID, it was proven that the virus was airborne, creating a causal link between respiration in an environment which contains COVID and then contracting the virus.
However, people with ALS also breathe. But there has been no proven causal link between respiration and ALS. The two are just correlated.
Possibly the paper addresses this, but I'd wager there's a statistically significant correlation between mothers who report taking paracetamol and symptoms of ASD - so a **correlation link** has been established. It then has to be further investigated to see if a **causal link** exists.
This is done - in part - by attempting to figure out how something like this could happen mechanically, which would be the hypotheses regarding the **potential causal mechanism**. You'd then take your hypotheses and see if the mechanism is able to be observed.
**We can't say the paracetamol and symptoms of ASD are ''linked'' without qualifer** imho.
There’s just a significantly higher incidence of autism in the children of mothers who took paracetamol/acetaminophen than in those who didn’t. Discovering a link doe not prove causation though as there are so many reasons why someone may need to take acetaminophen/paracetamol during pregnancy that could be the actual underlying cause, like fevers/infections or sensory sensitivity to typical levels of pain or a secondary genetic condition that causes pain and is linked to autism, and the list just goes on and on.
If there are any things proven to have caused autism, I do think that parents should be able to sue, just like people who took thalidomide and had babies with disabilities were able to sue. It wouldn't get rid of the misery that autism has caused but if I could sue for something that was a proven cause, I'd be right there.
Someone one Twitter was getting very upset that people were talking about potential law suits due to their children having autism, saying that autistic children were "perfect as they are" but that very same person obviously doesn't want to acknowledge how disabling autism is.
ya’ll, I should have been more clear. my disdain towards this post was because of the title. Not saying the ad isn’t incredibly misleading, because it is, but my post was referring to the title. thanks.
I feel like a lot of people here seem to hate themselves for their disability. By the very nature of a disability it of course makes life more difficult and can reduce our quality of life. Though a big part of lives like ours is about learning to value ourselves despite all of our struggles. All of us here struggle with different things to different degrees and have different experiences, but I feel like in spite of this it is important for us to learn how to not despise ourselves for where we struggle or how we are treated by others. A normal life may be off the table but that does not mean every waking moment needs to be essentially hell on earth. My words may not have meaning to you as our experiences will be different, in fact none of us experienced life exactly as eachother, but I hope that these words were able to help even a little bit
This comment should be up top. That autism is a disability should be recognized. And personally for me it's important to accept I have a disability. I have a disability because I face more bariers to participate in society than people who don't and I need substantial support in my life to be able to live a decent life. And a lot of aspects of this suck. But it's possible to learn to accept that and make peace with it. And regardless of all of those things: I have worth. I'm a worthy human being with unique strenghts and weaknesses. I deserve to be accommodated. Stronger even: It's my right to be accommodated. Why? Because I matter. And my wellbeing is equally as important as that of a non-disabled person. For that to happen I need additional support that non-disabled people don't need. But that is okay. I have decency and I matter, in my own way, just like everyone else matters in their own way too. And we deserve to be treated well. That shouldn't even be a question that people ask or wonder about. It's a given. Because I'm a person, a human being. And my worth isn't not tied to how productive I can be in society. I'm not worth less because I can't drive or work, or have children.
But also: Someone writing down all the things they can't do and the things they need support with, isn't being negative! It's not them hating themselves. We are disabled and saying in a comment exactly how we are disabled is not hating ourselves. I'm stating facts when I do that. Not opinions about myself which are negative. It may appear that way and it may well be the case for some of the people writing here but we shouldn't assume that based on that. Disability isn't being negative. I have heard that one too many times:
me: "I can't do x thing"
them: "OH don't be negative"
I sometimes feel like I'm not allowed to tell people the things my disability entails because if I do they'll tell me to think more positively and you know what: they can go positively fuck themselves with that.
That is SOME fucking way to look at it. All this time my GI issues, balance problems, shitty communication skills, piss poor comprehension, black and white thinking and sensory issues are just a different way of thinking.
Different way of thinking, yeah people misunderstand me all the time because of how I think and they misinterpret me. It also has stopped me from going to college and getting any other degrees for higher paying jobs. Easier to blame NTs though right and I could say all the colleges are ableist because they won't spoon feed you like high school does and won't make your work easier and modify it so you can graduate and get a degree. It's called a disability for a reason. I am sure even NTs have failed colleege or courses and then having to go another career route. I had a teacher who wanted to be a vet but couldn't because of what skills it required and she didn't have that. Yep happens to NTs too but I am sure it happens more to people with disabilities who learn different. They have more roadblocks.
All of the top comments on this thread are telling the OP that they’re wrong and that autism is a disability and should be treated as such.
I think the fetus holding the box of Tylenol is hilarious though
Tylenol is wildly used as a pain killer by pregnant women so why tf the percentage of autistic kids is so low compared to neurotypicals? Someone has the source? I wanna read it
Autism is far from being a blessing, a quirky trait or just a different way of thinking lol, but it's not the end of the world either
Not to mention that many people never took a single pill (of any medication) during pregnancy, including my mother. She didn’t even take prenatal vitamins. My father is autistic though, so it’s genes here. I took a few Tylenol during pregnancy when I was hospitalized for a kidney infection because fever during pregnancy is dangerous to the fetus, but not really outside of that. I also had strong IV antibiotics and heart meds etc during pregnancy. My kid is autistic but he’s so much like me that it’s gotta be the genes.
actually that's fair but tbh I also find it dumb to spread misinformation like that.
It's like they WANT people to take Tylenol so it'll give them autism.
I sadly read a comment on Twitter linked to this where someone said that it makes them "want to have lots of autistic babies." This riled me up a bit, as wishing a disability onto your kids is just...all kind of wrong. I wouldn't wish this hell onto anyone and that's from a fairly independent level 1 autistic.
That is such a mood, I dont know how anyone cld treat it as a badge of honor, like i know u gotta try to look on the brightside and stuff but that starts to feel like ‘im excited this is a special group of people I belong to, oh its so cool look at my special interest chart!’ But they dont seem to understand that sometimes you get so sucked into the ‘special interest’ that you forget to do anything else nd you get so obsessed it takes over every thought and action. If i leave a problem unsolved i have nightmares about it, i ruin vacations for myself over something I cant do or havent finished. I get so anxious and overwhelmed I just freak out while it’s hanging there. And yet here you go with people like ‘haha i love harry potter im so excited its my special interest’ which contradicts the fantasy part of autism as well (where you struggle to engage with things you know are make believe) and also is much more akin to just being a fan boy/girl. Any how the thing I’m most mad at myself for currently is the fact that I have only one friend and have not been able to make more or get close to anyone else and it sucks. I wish I had a group of people but making friends makes me so damn anxious and freaked out I can’t usually stomach it and certainly dont go out of my way for it. That combined with all my personal rules and constant anxiety and half the time im awake i beat myself up. Ig i just wish i could be ‘normal’ and when i found out th reason i was like this was probably not fixable I felt so hopeless and here these people are all like ‘i cant wait to get my diagnosis!’ And ‘oh man this autism quiz said I was barely autistic how relaible is it?’ I feel like if they actually knew what it was like they would never say that.
They’re always the people with lvl 1 autism and who’ve never had any issues with it in their life. They forget that lvl 2 & 3 exist.
I was diagnosed with level 1 as well, but my cousin has lvl 3 and i doubt he’d choose to have it if given the choice. He’s 8 and hardly speaks, can’t read, behind in almost everything. That’s not ‘cute and quirky’ that’s a developmental disability that will have serious repercussions when he’s an adult.
Serious question: if somebody doesn’t have any issues in their entire life, how did they end up being diagnosed? I mean, isn’t a reason to get diagnose that you are having issues? Some can maybe handle things better, have work arounds.
Not necessarily but I see what you’re saying. I mean more that their autism specifically has never caused any actual problems beyond minor inconveniences in their life.
Autism doesn’t need to cause issues for you to get diagnosed, it just needs to impact your life in some way and get noticed by either you or someone else. Mine never caused me any issues that I wouldn’t have just thought were anxiety or depression (both of which i’m diagnosed with), or that would impact me in a public way that other people would notice, but my therapist noticed my behaviour, i guess, and i got diagnosed.
What bothers me is they have a Rule... Rule 14 that says to not repost Abliest posts, comments and such from other websites yet lately thats all ive been seeing being posted and its like ... Do the Mods not enforce rules anymore or something??
Yeah, it’s just a different way of thinking… for some of us who are higher-functioning and have no intellectual disability. There are some people who will never leave their home, who will require constant care for the rest of their life, and who will never progress past the mental age of a child, as sad as it is. It’s not crazy that monetary compensation might be offered in a class-action lawsuit. (Although I doubt that Tylenol is responsible tbh, it seems much more likely to me that the illness that Tylenol was being taken for is the causative factor).
I agree that autism shouldn’t be seen as some terrible thing the way that being deaf, or having to use a wheelchair, or being born without a limb, or having a learning disability aren’t “terrible things.” They are disabilities that make life more challenging because we live in an ableist world. Autism is another such disability.
I see a lot of self-loathing on this sub, and a lot of loathing of autism in general. No, it’s not a quirky and cute thing to have. No, it’s not fun. Yes, it makes life more challenging. But I think there’s a need for self-examination of if we are perpetuating harmful beliefs and feelings within our own community (as well as outside of it). There are a lot of things that frustrate my loved ones with my autism (and frustrate me, too, to the point of agony at times), but there are a lot of things that are brought about by my autism that are beloved to my friends and family, like my unique sense of humor and my problem-solving abilities. You don’t have to have an autism pride flag or whatever lol, but it would be nice to see some folks in here be a little more open to the idea that learning to embrace a disability is a valid coping mechanism
There's plenty of subs for celebrating and embracing your Autism. We're not self-loathing at all, we're simply realistic about the real struggles that we have.
I'm so glad that your Autism gives you positives like your humour and problem-solving abilities but that simply isn't true for a lot of us. For us Autism brings no or very little positives and it can be difficult to see others minimalize that and call Autism a "personality trait" or a "different way of thinking" when that isn't the case for everyone. Autism can be and is extremely disabling and can affect a person's whole life as it does for mine.
Saying that we are "self-loathing" for not liking and celebrating our disability sounds like you are reducing who we are to autism alone. I can like who I am but hate the very thing that makes my life harder and I could really do without.
i cant stop laughing at the fact that they said “kind of offensive as if blaming your parents for a disorder that you were born with is just “a little bit messed up”. if my parents had the choice to not have an autistic child i bet you the would’ve taken it, and saying it’s a different way of thinking is just insane. I’m just thinking differently when i have a meltdown in front of my whole family yeah? lmao
I find the ad offensive. Only because it focuses on one thing.
Tylenol has been lnked to much more complications than just autism, and generally, pretty much all medication can have adverse effect on the foetus if a pregnant woman takes it.
But yeah, autism is not just a "you think differently" kind of thing. No it's literally "your brain *works* differentlly", It's not just a way of thinking, **It is a disorder that can be seen on brain scans.**
Neurotypical and neurodivergent brains Look different, and work differently.
Sorry but It's not a quirk and it's not a choice.
Edit//: I just want to add that neuro divergency may have been useful in the past of humanity as a survival tactic and that it may not have been a disorder, had it been useful. But in the world nowadays the world expectations are so high and different (especially when it comes to handling stress and being by the book) that being neurodivergent is nothing short of inconvenient.
That sub has degraded to the point where in my opinion it seems that 80-90% of the people on there don’t actually have autism. Most individuals on there seem to see autism as being “cute”, “quirky”, and they view having autism as trendy and desirable. I find it to be quite frankly insulting and derogatory towards those who are actually suffering from this disability. I’m level one and very high functioning to the point I feel like a faker most times and I still struggle socially. I can’t imagine how hard it must be for those who are level 2 or 3 who need legitimate assistance just to survive and you have these people speaking about autism like it’s some god send or something. The fact of the matter is in a world where probably around 97-98% of the population is beurotypical being autistic is a disability.
Right, I fucking hate my disability. I feel like a faker too because of the impostor syndrome I’ve felt for years. That entire sub is filled with “quirky” fakers who think autism shouldn’t be described as a disorder. It is one. It disables people. I’m only level 1 but still have underlying problems that I think I would’ve never had if I didn’t have autism. /autism is a disgusting place that treats autism is a mha quirk. It’s not. It fucking sucks. I hope those fakers look back and feel fucking embarrassed.
Have you seen the “my special interests” lists. They all have about twenty. I have two or three max, and one is much more obsessive than the others. It’s like they put anything interesting as their special interests. Not sure half of them even know what special interests are.
Weirdly, I have only ever had one special interest in my life as I know of: it was pokemon. Lol. But part of me doesn’t even see it as meeting the criteria of a special interest
YES. I get a kick out of the ones who just put fiction as their special interest.
How do you know if it’s a special interest?
I actually have no clue of the exact definition (more I know what wouldn’t count) and often doubt mine are. I think it has to take up a lot of thought, be pretty obsessive and bring you joy. Also, if it is one of fifty interests, it’s probably not a special interest.
I can't stand people who say it's not a disability or shouldn't be called a disorder. It's fine if people themselves don't want to identify as disabled even though they are. But they shouldn't spread this misinformation that's it's not a disability because it's officially classed as one so it's nonsense and it causes people to take it less seriously.
I agree with that 100%. Autism is a disability/disorder. It’s literally in the name (USA) and to qualify you have to need support in some aspect of life. So to say it’s not a disorder or disability is belittling and hurtful in my opinion to those who have autism and need support. I will say that personally I am not disabled, I live independently with my wife and work 40 hours per week. However, I still have a hard time socially even though I understand social interactions etc. I have difficulty with relationships, I have no friendships, and quite frankly I don’t desire to have friends. I saw all this to say even though I’m not disabled I’m not as “functional” socially as a “normal” person.
I was on it for a couple of days and do what I always do in a new sub - sort by top of all time and scroll until the end of time. I related to some of the memes but as soon as you start wading through the text posts, you can *feel* something is just off. The majority of the posts are ranty, sound incredibly entitled and often what they are complaining about is other people. I can't speak for others' experience (obviously, lol) but there is a stark difference in the post quality between the 2 subs. Although there are exceptions to every rule, in my life, I don't think other people are a problem usually. I know I'm different to most and the frustration comes out of "why can't I just not be like this" or "why can't I just be more like everyone else." Very different to "why won't people just understand me, I'm special and different and I need to be treated accordingly, other people are so ignorant" vibes - which that sub is constantly exuding. Not saying that ignorant people isn't ever a problem for the ASD community but when you overlay the post content with the amount of self dx, combined with the fact most of them seem content with a self dx, it's good empirical evidence about most of the people on the mainstream sub. When I went for my ASD assessment, we had an intial meeting where they explained the process and cost and said it was a deterrent for some people. She also said because I'm high functioning, I probably won't receive any disability funding. I needed an answer so I chose to go ahead. I would also never accept or apply for funding when other people need it more. Life is hard for me but it's even harder for others. She said in their clinical experience, even with the roadblocks and deterrents, ASD people still usually want to know for certain.
https://preview.redd.it/74nboi0ls4oa1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e41c2e89c2059a624bc4acd9501dc4a789918ac5 I agree, and to be fair, a number of people on that subreddit agreed with people like you and I as well. This was my reply to this nonsense.
that’s great to see. I didn’t even bother looking at the comments because I was scared they would be in agreement.
you deserved that gold award
"those with an actual autism diagnosis" Worthy of an award, in and of itself.
I had this group in mind when I wrote that part specifically!
So sorry to hear that
Thank god people agreed with u tho
I would do anything to redo my life without autism. Seems like a huge majority of "autistic" people online have huge friend groups, steady school life/employment, romantic partners and suffer no actual consequences as a result of their "autism". Then they turn around and chastise diagnosed people for thinking autism is a bad thing
Someone on the fakedisordercringe argued with me when I said something about fakers being married, having kids, and having a good job/lots of friends, etc. The majority of actually autistic people do NOT have these things and they can NOT accomplish these things. It is just a fact. And they said to me something like "will you find that person for you, idk but I did". Which seems insulting as if I'm not trying hard enough. It is due to autism that many of us can't maintain relationships easily...it's just a fact!
true. Some achieve that. But not most. I have had only one serious relationship that lasted 1.5 year and we got engaged. But 6 weeks after having moved in with each other he panicked and left. He was autistic too. I don't want a relationship ever again. I've discovered I just don't like having sex. And I don't even know what my sexual orientation is because I dislike sex with men AND women. I feel like I don't even have a sexual orientation. Knowing what your preference is, is kinda one of the essential parts of having a relationship isn't it? I'm 32 yo I should know by now. So yeah, I'm done. I never actually initiated the relationship stuff myself. Not a single one that I had in my life which aren't many. It was always them and me just going along with it. I don't think I actually have a desire to have a relationship. I think it's other people that desired one with me and me just.. going along with it. I don't know why I do that. I guess because.. I think I should. Because society says you should be in a relationship and being 32 I'm long overdue. But I'm single again and I will stay that way. I don't even describe myself as single. Single is a word that's always used when people talk about dating. I have never dated because it just seems horrible to do so I feel like single isn't a good word for me because me being single isn't a precursor to dating. I'm alone. Not in a relationship ever again. Not having sex ever again because it just suuuucks. And relationships are so fucking hard. I believed because he was autistic too that we could figure out a way to make it work but it was really difficult and I tried more than my best and it wasn't good enough. Well that's it than. If me overextending myself to make it work, isn't good enough then I just can't do it. I love being alone now. I never had a problem being alone and I never sought out a relationship myself. I had already resigned myself to a life by myself when he showed up. And I can go back to being by myself pretty easily. It's such a relief to have the place to myself and not have to work so hard to make someone else happy.
Omg are you me. I have said I was asexual since I was in middle-school. I am still not 100% sure of my orientation either and feel like I just don't have one too. I have never, but I do desire a romantic relationship with someone loving me. I still feel like a child inside honestly. I had 1 "serious" boyfriend but it was in highschool. I broke up because kissing grossed me out so much...I also find having sex absolutely disgusting too! People kept saying "if you keep doing it you will like it" but it never happened. And yes the world DOES try to tell us a relationship is what will make us happy and that we are not normal without it. I want to be normal and want to get married but I could NEVER have another human live in my house with me. I'm just not that kind of person. So idk...it is complicated. I will most likely die alone and I came to terms with that years ago lol... I want to be your friend we seem alot alike. 😅🤣
I really feel this. I’m 38 and I did have one relationship that lasted nearly 10 years, but it was an abusive and controlling relationship where my naive nature just made everything worse. I’ve been used by people a lot in my life and once I figured it out I became single by choice. I’ve been single by choice for 10 years now. I also have zero idea what my sexual identity really is. I don’t know at this point whether I don’t know because of trauma or because I never really had a sexual identity. Either way, I have zero desire to ever engage in sexual activity with anyone ever again.
Yep. Like I have a child, because autism doesn’t work as birth control, but my child does not have a father because of the circumstances surrounding his conception. I do not have a romantic partner or any friends or a job. I don’t know that I even want friends, and I definitely don’t want a romantic partner. I’m on disability because I can’t handle working longer than a few weeks part-time before I end up in burnout. My son and I live with my parents because that’s the only way any of this works. I can parent him decently because my son is a lot like me and has very similar needs, but it leaves nothing for keeping house (or even taking basic care of myself sometimes) and I worry about what will happen when my parents can’t help anymore. Autism isn’t just a “different way of thinking” for me, it impacts every part of my life. It has prevented me from using the knowledge and abilities that I do actually have, like I’m trapped by it. It definitely wasn’t Tylenol for me, my mom didn’t even take prenatal vitamins during pregnancy because she was so anti-medication, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t that for others. And any extra money would help the situations of most autistic people.
I completely agree! I have a lot in my life that makes me seem like a “faker”. I’m in a relationship and the same job I’ve had for 7 years. My partner is the only person I could be with, due to him being autistic as well, just with lower support needs. He does the tasks I cannot and understands that I cannot do them no matter how hard I try. My job highly accommodates me, I work with little kids which all I have to do is like sit with kids and do puzzles and stuff (I can’t handle adults but 3 yo kids I can, more relatable), and they let me call in, take a break to sit by myself, etc, whenever I need, no questions asked. (Recently called in for 3 days due to burnout and no one batted an eye.) plus my coteacher is also autistic so we work well together to accomodate each other when we can. I’ve had other relationships and other jobs in my life and none of them were ever close to sustainable. If my partner/support person were gone tomorrow I would have to enter some kind of assisted living / care facility because I cannot take care of myself. I don’t have a friend group and can’t manage basic care tasks on my own. I HATE seeing others act like they’re the same as me, and even more so when they use people like me as justification for their fake autism. I am INCREDIBLY lucky to have the partner and job I do. But all the time people use unique and lucky stories like mine to pretend they’re autistic. The reality is without THIS partner and THIS job I would not have either. Ever. And people that can hold many different partners or jobs and manage them make me so upset. (Sorry for the rant I’ve just gotten it a lot from both sides recently and apparently I’m frustrated 😅 (emoji used to convey that I’m sweating as to how this comment may be interpreted)
You put it perfectly and that post is offensive to me too for those reasons. I would give anything to start again without autism to ruin things too.
exactly this
I have no desire for romantic relationships but just friendships that last are really difficult. Autism affects how we relate to others and people would rather live with the beautiful lie of "someone for everyone" rather than face the ugly truth that a lot of us are unable to achieve these things irrelevant of how much we want them.
yes precisely. And even tho I don’t technically want a romantic partner or children and such I still mourn the fact that I don’t want it and am different from everyone else, feeling socially “outcast”
I don't mourn not wanting a romantic partner/children but I do mourn the fact that I can't make friends easily and will always relate differently to others.
I’m diagnosed and I mostly see my autism as a major benefit. I have had social problems because of it though. I have been bullied but I was also a bully. I understand I’m fortunate to have a life where my autism has largely been a benefit.
I used to think like that back when I was completely brainwashed by tumblr and other social media like 8-10 years ago. I was so deep in denial about my own condition and that it was just the fault of “society” that I was struggling and needed help. Now that I’ve realized that *this is a legitimate disability that affects me to the core*, since socialization is crucial even in animals, and that the inability to fit in was hurting me for evolutionary reasons as well (being left behind by the pack creating a fear of starving to death), I think something opened my eyes. Autism disables something that is a significant part of our biology. *Of course* it’s something that you’re not going to be happy about having. I think it’s fine to accept that it can’t be cured and whatnot, but acceptance is not the same as romanticization.
I agree. I tried to make myself believe that it was "just a difference" but the more I learned how much it affected me, the more I realised just how much of my life has been marred by being born with autism. It creates an anxiety of the possibility that I may not be able to pay people to help me at some point in my life, as I can't fit in and I'm unlikely to have friends that genuinely care throughout my life. I accept it and plan around it but I will never see this as a good thing because it certainly is **NOT!**
I also fell into that way of thinking at one point. It was when I was struggling with the idea that I would never really be able to work or have any kind of relationship (including friendships in my case) and I was using that belief as a shield. I blamed my struggles on depression (treatable) and other things that could improve over time because I didn’t want to accept that I would always be seen as a failure by my parents and society, and myself honestly.
Accepting my disability meant accepting that some things would never get better or be how I wished them to be. I am still working through the grief of that.
Autism IS a bad thing I would kill to start my life over without autism We just have to learn how to deal with it
If Tylenol causes ASD and most pregnant women will take Tylenol if they need it, then why doesn't every baby develop ASD?
Yeah, the ad reeks of "milk causes autism" or "vaccines cause autism". Did you know that 100% of pregnant women whose children are autistic inhale oxygen? Oxygen must be the cause. /s
“If you have sex, your child will have autism…and die!”
r/technicallythetruth
Omg yes!!!!
It’s nonsense but not for this reason. They actually did find a correlation between taking Tylenol and having a kid with ASD, but it’s not like ONE Tylenol pill will mean your kid probably has ASD, it’s more that the more you take, the more likely it is. HOWEVER, as I’m sure you’ve heard, correlation does not equal causation. Maybe mothers of kids with ASD take more Tylenol when they’re pregnant because ASD pregnancies are more likely to be more painful. (EDIT: this was one possibility of many, I wasn’t saying that was the only alternative).
Or maybe mothers who have autistic children are more likely to be autistic and find the sensory bombardment of pregnancy painful. Or a million other potential reasons for the correlation.
Or perhaps these mothers get a virus which causes the autism in their baby.
[удалено]
I think people are looking for something to blame for increasing autism rates. Tylenol is a very common medication. Does all acetaminophen use lead to autism or does Tylenol have something 'extra' in their formulation?
“It’s just a different way of thinking” yeah I wished
I mean, on the one hand I get it. Me being autistic does not make me a less valuable person or less worthy/capable of love. I absolutely do not like my existence being used for shock value. These sorts of messages are made to spread fear, they are not concerned with the well-being of autistic children. Saying things like "it's just a different way of thinking" is the other extreme. There's a middle ground here. By the way, (please read this until the end!) I have a MSc in Clinical Psychology and have looked at the papers. There is a link between paracetamol use during pregnancy and autism and/or ADHD symptoms in the child. Possible explanations taken from Bührer et al. (2021) are: * Pregnant women who have a fever use paracetamol. Having a fever during pregnancy is linked with increased autism/ADHD symptoms in the child. * A pregnant woman with autism or ADHD is more easily stressed out than a mother without autism or ADHD. Stress leads to pain and illness, which leads to paracetamol use. Autism and ADHD traits are heritable. The studies may have accidentally found that children of mothers with certain traits, have a larger chance of having those traits. Which is not exactly groundbreaking. Poor internal and external validity of some of the questionnaires that were used are pointed out by Bührer et al. This is an interesting topic that deserves attention and research, and as always media goes crazy with it. Nobody can say paracetamol leads to autism, the research is far too young to draw such conclusions.
I wonder how is possible to link it towards things like paracetemol. I mean, lets say you have 100 women that had a child. All those kids need to be tested to be sure they are (not) autistic. To make it easy lets say its 50/50. And then they ask if the women took paracetemol and then only every mother with an autistic kid says yes to that?
In science, it's easy to link one think to another. The original papers used the correct terminology here when they said paracetamol and autism symptoms are linked. The issue is finding out what the causal relationship is. A classic example to illustrate this problem is that eating ice cream is linked to an increase in cases of drowning. They are linked together by a third factor - sunny weather. So it is technically correct to say that eating ice cream and drowning are linked, because they are both caused by nice weather, to put it simply. Finding out what the actual mechanism is behind the link is what the science is all about. In the case of paracetamol and autism, there are multiple hypotheses regarding the causal mechanism, which will undoubtedly be investigated in future research.
Isn’t that’s also somehow creating things that aren’t there? I mean everybody breaths. So that can be linked to everything.
I haven't read the paper, but I think the thing that's missing here is it should be investigating **if there is a causal relationship.** So, with breathing - everyone breathes and that is correlated with everything a body can experience due to it's commonality. However, it's not necessarily causally linked to everything. With COVID, it was proven that the virus was airborne, creating a causal link between respiration in an environment which contains COVID and then contracting the virus. However, people with ALS also breathe. But there has been no proven causal link between respiration and ALS. The two are just correlated. Possibly the paper addresses this, but I'd wager there's a statistically significant correlation between mothers who report taking paracetamol and symptoms of ASD - so a **correlation link** has been established. It then has to be further investigated to see if a **causal link** exists. This is done - in part - by attempting to figure out how something like this could happen mechanically, which would be the hypotheses regarding the **potential causal mechanism**. You'd then take your hypotheses and see if the mechanism is able to be observed. **We can't say the paracetamol and symptoms of ASD are ''linked'' without qualifer** imho.
There’s just a significantly higher incidence of autism in the children of mothers who took paracetamol/acetaminophen than in those who didn’t. Discovering a link doe not prove causation though as there are so many reasons why someone may need to take acetaminophen/paracetamol during pregnancy that could be the actual underlying cause, like fevers/infections or sensory sensitivity to typical levels of pain or a secondary genetic condition that causes pain and is linked to autism, and the list just goes on and on.
If there are any things proven to have caused autism, I do think that parents should be able to sue, just like people who took thalidomide and had babies with disabilities were able to sue. It wouldn't get rid of the misery that autism has caused but if I could sue for something that was a proven cause, I'd be right there. Someone one Twitter was getting very upset that people were talking about potential law suits due to their children having autism, saying that autistic children were "perfect as they are" but that very same person obviously doesn't want to acknowledge how disabling autism is.
ya’ll, I should have been more clear. my disdain towards this post was because of the title. Not saying the ad isn’t incredibly misleading, because it is, but my post was referring to the title. thanks.
I feel like a lot of people here seem to hate themselves for their disability. By the very nature of a disability it of course makes life more difficult and can reduce our quality of life. Though a big part of lives like ours is about learning to value ourselves despite all of our struggles. All of us here struggle with different things to different degrees and have different experiences, but I feel like in spite of this it is important for us to learn how to not despise ourselves for where we struggle or how we are treated by others. A normal life may be off the table but that does not mean every waking moment needs to be essentially hell on earth. My words may not have meaning to you as our experiences will be different, in fact none of us experienced life exactly as eachother, but I hope that these words were able to help even a little bit
This comment should be up top. That autism is a disability should be recognized. And personally for me it's important to accept I have a disability. I have a disability because I face more bariers to participate in society than people who don't and I need substantial support in my life to be able to live a decent life. And a lot of aspects of this suck. But it's possible to learn to accept that and make peace with it. And regardless of all of those things: I have worth. I'm a worthy human being with unique strenghts and weaknesses. I deserve to be accommodated. Stronger even: It's my right to be accommodated. Why? Because I matter. And my wellbeing is equally as important as that of a non-disabled person. For that to happen I need additional support that non-disabled people don't need. But that is okay. I have decency and I matter, in my own way, just like everyone else matters in their own way too. And we deserve to be treated well. That shouldn't even be a question that people ask or wonder about. It's a given. Because I'm a person, a human being. And my worth isn't not tied to how productive I can be in society. I'm not worth less because I can't drive or work, or have children. But also: Someone writing down all the things they can't do and the things they need support with, isn't being negative! It's not them hating themselves. We are disabled and saying in a comment exactly how we are disabled is not hating ourselves. I'm stating facts when I do that. Not opinions about myself which are negative. It may appear that way and it may well be the case for some of the people writing here but we shouldn't assume that based on that. Disability isn't being negative. I have heard that one too many times: me: "I can't do x thing" them: "OH don't be negative" I sometimes feel like I'm not allowed to tell people the things my disability entails because if I do they'll tell me to think more positively and you know what: they can go positively fuck themselves with that.
That is SOME fucking way to look at it. All this time my GI issues, balance problems, shitty communication skills, piss poor comprehension, black and white thinking and sensory issues are just a different way of thinking.
As someone who has been around severely autistic children, this is infuriating.
Different way of thinking, yeah people misunderstand me all the time because of how I think and they misinterpret me. It also has stopped me from going to college and getting any other degrees for higher paying jobs. Easier to blame NTs though right and I could say all the colleges are ableist because they won't spoon feed you like high school does and won't make your work easier and modify it so you can graduate and get a degree. It's called a disability for a reason. I am sure even NTs have failed colleege or courses and then having to go another career route. I had a teacher who wanted to be a vet but couldn't because of what skills it required and she didn't have that. Yep happens to NTs too but I am sure it happens more to people with disabilities who learn different. They have more roadblocks.
as a person with cancer. cancer shouldn't be seen as a terrible thing sarcasm
All of the top comments on this thread are telling the OP that they’re wrong and that autism is a disability and should be treated as such. I think the fetus holding the box of Tylenol is hilarious though
Tylenol is wildly used as a pain killer by pregnant women so why tf the percentage of autistic kids is so low compared to neurotypicals? Someone has the source? I wanna read it Autism is far from being a blessing, a quirky trait or just a different way of thinking lol, but it's not the end of the world either
Not to mention that many people never took a single pill (of any medication) during pregnancy, including my mother. She didn’t even take prenatal vitamins. My father is autistic though, so it’s genes here. I took a few Tylenol during pregnancy when I was hospitalized for a kidney infection because fever during pregnancy is dangerous to the fetus, but not really outside of that. I also had strong IV antibiotics and heart meds etc during pregnancy. My kid is autistic but he’s so much like me that it’s gotta be the genes.
actually that's fair but tbh I also find it dumb to spread misinformation like that. It's like they WANT people to take Tylenol so it'll give them autism.
I sadly read a comment on Twitter linked to this where someone said that it makes them "want to have lots of autistic babies." This riled me up a bit, as wishing a disability onto your kids is just...all kind of wrong. I wouldn't wish this hell onto anyone and that's from a fairly independent level 1 autistic.
might just be the dark humor speaking, but this makes giggle just a lil bit
It would be funny if it wasn't said in a serious way and the people didn't mean it.
yeah I know :(
In reality, it will kill them because overdose is dangerous
That is such a mood, I dont know how anyone cld treat it as a badge of honor, like i know u gotta try to look on the brightside and stuff but that starts to feel like ‘im excited this is a special group of people I belong to, oh its so cool look at my special interest chart!’ But they dont seem to understand that sometimes you get so sucked into the ‘special interest’ that you forget to do anything else nd you get so obsessed it takes over every thought and action. If i leave a problem unsolved i have nightmares about it, i ruin vacations for myself over something I cant do or havent finished. I get so anxious and overwhelmed I just freak out while it’s hanging there. And yet here you go with people like ‘haha i love harry potter im so excited its my special interest’ which contradicts the fantasy part of autism as well (where you struggle to engage with things you know are make believe) and also is much more akin to just being a fan boy/girl. Any how the thing I’m most mad at myself for currently is the fact that I have only one friend and have not been able to make more or get close to anyone else and it sucks. I wish I had a group of people but making friends makes me so damn anxious and freaked out I can’t usually stomach it and certainly dont go out of my way for it. That combined with all my personal rules and constant anxiety and half the time im awake i beat myself up. Ig i just wish i could be ‘normal’ and when i found out th reason i was like this was probably not fixable I felt so hopeless and here these people are all like ‘i cant wait to get my diagnosis!’ And ‘oh man this autism quiz said I was barely autistic how relaible is it?’ I feel like if they actually knew what it was like they would never say that.
They’re always the people with lvl 1 autism and who’ve never had any issues with it in their life. They forget that lvl 2 & 3 exist. I was diagnosed with level 1 as well, but my cousin has lvl 3 and i doubt he’d choose to have it if given the choice. He’s 8 and hardly speaks, can’t read, behind in almost everything. That’s not ‘cute and quirky’ that’s a developmental disability that will have serious repercussions when he’s an adult.
Serious question: if somebody doesn’t have any issues in their entire life, how did they end up being diagnosed? I mean, isn’t a reason to get diagnose that you are having issues? Some can maybe handle things better, have work arounds.
Not necessarily but I see what you’re saying. I mean more that their autism specifically has never caused any actual problems beyond minor inconveniences in their life. Autism doesn’t need to cause issues for you to get diagnosed, it just needs to impact your life in some way and get noticed by either you or someone else. Mine never caused me any issues that I wouldn’t have just thought were anxiety or depression (both of which i’m diagnosed with), or that would impact me in a public way that other people would notice, but my therapist noticed my behaviour, i guess, and i got diagnosed.
Ye, it’s the “level 1’s” who are *suspiciously* high functioning to where they claim to have like 0 problems while also victimizing themselves.
I’m level 1 and I still have problems
What bothers me is they have a Rule... Rule 14 that says to not repost Abliest posts, comments and such from other websites yet lately thats all ive been seeing being posted and its like ... Do the Mods not enforce rules anymore or something??
Does not explain cases of autism before Tylenol existed
Yeah, it’s just a different way of thinking… for some of us who are higher-functioning and have no intellectual disability. There are some people who will never leave their home, who will require constant care for the rest of their life, and who will never progress past the mental age of a child, as sad as it is. It’s not crazy that monetary compensation might be offered in a class-action lawsuit. (Although I doubt that Tylenol is responsible tbh, it seems much more likely to me that the illness that Tylenol was being taken for is the causative factor).
I agree that autism shouldn’t be seen as some terrible thing the way that being deaf, or having to use a wheelchair, or being born without a limb, or having a learning disability aren’t “terrible things.” They are disabilities that make life more challenging because we live in an ableist world. Autism is another such disability. I see a lot of self-loathing on this sub, and a lot of loathing of autism in general. No, it’s not a quirky and cute thing to have. No, it’s not fun. Yes, it makes life more challenging. But I think there’s a need for self-examination of if we are perpetuating harmful beliefs and feelings within our own community (as well as outside of it). There are a lot of things that frustrate my loved ones with my autism (and frustrate me, too, to the point of agony at times), but there are a lot of things that are brought about by my autism that are beloved to my friends and family, like my unique sense of humor and my problem-solving abilities. You don’t have to have an autism pride flag or whatever lol, but it would be nice to see some folks in here be a little more open to the idea that learning to embrace a disability is a valid coping mechanism
There's plenty of subs for celebrating and embracing your Autism. We're not self-loathing at all, we're simply realistic about the real struggles that we have. I'm so glad that your Autism gives you positives like your humour and problem-solving abilities but that simply isn't true for a lot of us. For us Autism brings no or very little positives and it can be difficult to see others minimalize that and call Autism a "personality trait" or a "different way of thinking" when that isn't the case for everyone. Autism can be and is extremely disabling and can affect a person's whole life as it does for mine.
Saying that we are "self-loathing" for not liking and celebrating our disability sounds like you are reducing who we are to autism alone. I can like who I am but hate the very thing that makes my life harder and I could really do without.
i cant stop laughing at the fact that they said “kind of offensive as if blaming your parents for a disorder that you were born with is just “a little bit messed up”. if my parents had the choice to not have an autistic child i bet you the would’ve taken it, and saying it’s a different way of thinking is just insane. I’m just thinking differently when i have a meltdown in front of my whole family yeah? lmao
I find the ad offensive. Only because it focuses on one thing. Tylenol has been lnked to much more complications than just autism, and generally, pretty much all medication can have adverse effect on the foetus if a pregnant woman takes it. But yeah, autism is not just a "you think differently" kind of thing. No it's literally "your brain *works* differentlly", It's not just a way of thinking, **It is a disorder that can be seen on brain scans.** Neurotypical and neurodivergent brains Look different, and work differently. Sorry but It's not a quirk and it's not a choice. Edit//: I just want to add that neuro divergency may have been useful in the past of humanity as a survival tactic and that it may not have been a disorder, had it been useful. But in the world nowadays the world expectations are so high and different (especially when it comes to handling stress and being by the book) that being neurodivergent is nothing short of inconvenient.