Autism fakers

[Bill J]

Some people need to claim victimhood. For some, victimhood is a lifestyle choice. Sick people.

I've learned, when it comes to adversity, there are victims and there are survivors. Faking being a victim is sick, possibly a sign of some other deep-set issue. I suppose there are people who fake being a survivor also, playing the sympathy card I guess, sad but not sick.

 

[Eric B]

When I see some of the "tough talk" a few here give people in the depths of despair or confusion about things, I have to wonder if they're really autistic, because they don't seem to understand the condition at all. (There's probably no autisic person that has not heard all the tough talk thousands of time before. It's all the NT world knows, and they just assume if you drum that stuff into our heads enough times, it will finally "click", and that's the whole problem of "ableism"; not understanding there's a legitimate neurological problem, and so trying to funnel the person through allistic "NT" protocols, and then getting frustrated with them; thinking they're just being obtuse, and trying to rub in all the more the tough talk, like that they're just "doing it to themselves", etc. This is just going right back to life before autism was even known about, the proverbial "forcing the square peg though the round hole"; and precisely the cause of much of the suffering of autism).
So the message often actually ends up boiling down to this self-promoting "When I was like you, I learned to fix myself and welcome criticism...", etc. and all of these apparently memorized formulaic responses such as "thinking everyone's attacking you", (even if you didn't say that) where they just dismiss everything you say like nothing. (They at this point ignore the fact that the NT world has defense mechanisms too, and do try to attack, trick or at least put unfair burdens on anyone seen as vulnerable —which will naturally include those with autism. If the autist calls this out, he's accused of "distorted thinking" and making it "all about him"; but it's not; it's what people do to everyone. Are people kidding to deny that this goes on in the world? I see one person saying something like "The autist needs to realize the world's not that bad". That is at best subject to each individual's experience. Tell someone in Ukraine that now!)

What does all of this this look like in the person giving such "counsel"? They got it all together, while you're just stubbornly wallowing in your problem. So they in comparison seem to "shine". Not only to others, but also to themselves. (Makes them feel better about themselves). They might have had some autism-like problems or even been misdiagnosed (and this whole thing is a spectrum anyway), and they were able to fix themselves. Great! Others are not that fortunate, and the problem is not allowing that they might not have your ability, especially when terms like "excuses" start getting tossed around. (which denies any difference of ability; hence, "ableism").
So there's a motive for you, for one potential answer to the topic question. The comparison of they fixed themselves, while these other people just "choose" to remain in their state. They're now joined with the rest of the "world", and autist needs to come up to "par" with "the rest of us". (Natural need to "belong" with the "majority").

 

[whisperingshadow]

I was warned by a high functioning autist that there are people who fake the condition. Has anyone encountered this in real life?

Why would some people fake having autism?

I have experience with people with pretty severe personality disorders such as psychopathy/ASPD/BPD/NPD try and claim they were high functioning ASD; one of them being an ex, I only discovered the truth after accidentally stumbling upon their medication bottles after they'd left them out in the restroom and I couldn't help but read the labels out of curiosity and looked up what these medicines were for. I was honest to them about reading them because I did feel guilty for it and I know it wasn't the right thing to do, but they said they were bipolar which was believable at the time, so I accepted it naively. Later down the line, their behaviors suggested it was rather, at best, BPD rather than bi polar + ASD. At worst, full on NPD and/or Sociopathy. I am not at all a psychologist nor do I claim to have any professional knowledge of these things and can only speculate to the truth, but I spent countless hours researching all the signs I could and came up with this assumption. And I've seen others exhibit similar behavior claiming ASD.

I believe high IQ persons with malicious intent realized it is a decent enough veil to throw off your more aware individuals off-guard long enough for the person to get away with their agenda. The benevolent individual I met and had the opportunity to share notes with whom is high IQ, with the disorder of psychopathy (professionally diagnosed) did not masquerade or hide their disorder (although they did omit it until I'd actually figured out it myself and they confirmed) and they brought up valid points that not all psychopaths are malicious, which is true. It was one of the most stimulating conversations I'd had in a long time and was very eye opening. Not sure if this means anything to anyone, but I thought I'd share my findings/experiences even though I'm not anyone credible.

[Edited to repair formatting to reduce wall-of-text overwhelming the readers, as well as potentially problematic punctuation/grammatical errors]