jamie0.0 wrote:
Tamaya wrote:
Someone I used to work with has recently been diagnosed with autism, which amazed me because it felt like she was the opposite from autism when I used to work with her. She seemed more socially accepted and included and favoured, to the point where I just saw her as an extroverted NT with a strong personality. I felt like the autistic one more because I was quieter and excluded from social activities outside of the workplace, even though she didn't know the others there before she started. We both started at the same time.
I knew she had mental health problems but it didn't really make her socially quirky. To me she just seemed like a mouthy, troubled and obnoxious NT with an "Essex" style about her.
It just seems that anyone could have autism these days, and the line drawn between autism and other neurological conditions/disorders is becoming so hazy that soon all neurological conditions will end up just being on the autism spectrum somewhere.
Or maybe autistic women that drink and smoke and wear a lot of make-up just automatically get socially accepted by their peers.
I'm not one to argue the legitimacy of professional diagnosed autism. Though it is possible that she's developed strong masking skills which has profillerated in her social skills. While social difficulties are a common occurrence in aspies, it's not the be all and end all of a diagnosis. The diagnositic criteria is strong enough that she would have had to face many difficulties in her day to day life.
But I feel some of your assessment is right, the word autism gets thrown around a lot in modern society. Whether it's a bluring of the lines or a result of a greater understanding of the condition is up for debate even amongst those who study the condition.
Maybe she wondered how I have ADHD, as I was quieter than she was. I guess nobody really knows what's going on inside people's heads or lives. Although I do often get a clue by people's manner and body language whether they're NT or not, even if it doesn't specify which disorder they might have.
What I don't get though, is how this girl went undiagnosed throughout her whole childhood when it's blatantly obvious that she's different (even though I still was surprised that her problem was autism). She's 7 years younger than me, so that means she grew up in an era where AS and autism were known about. It certainly was known about when I was a kid in the 1990s, otherwise I wouldn't have received a diagnosis so young.
10 May 2025, 9:35 am
