Some people make it up

Post Reply New Topic

I seriously doubt that people are trying to learn and fake any form of ASD.
It is so heinously complicated/complex and so difficult to find a complete list and descriptions of the likely symptoms, degree, and any potential/possible symptoms that I find it very unlikely anyone would even attempt it after the first 5 minutes of interwebbing.

Never mind remembering it all.

To have that much persistence, that much attention to detail, that much focus, the only people that could pull off faking ASD symptoms ...
... would be people with ASD.

Which means faking it successfully would simply prove it.

But is it really that easy to see? I've met several people who were diagnosed with Asperger's but I couldn't see it in them at all. They had certain relatively small ASD-like characteristics that would only be visible if you looked hard enough, and that are also present in a portion of the non-ASD population.

It seems to me that there's no one definitive thing that would signal someone as "one of us". The tricky thing with autism is that its traits fade into normality and there is no definitive cutoff. For me, with some people, I definitely get that mutual feeling, but with many who appear as/claim to be "mild" or "borderline" cases, I don't always get that.

I think perhaps there are some who make it up, but it's not as gainful to make up ASD as it would be, say, with ADHD. Maybe some people want to get on disability or something. There's really no way to tell whether they are making it up or whether they are just delusional, though.

Mathgirl is busy studying now but she told me a story of a dude who self-identified as AS. He said it'd be "kind-of cool to get an Asperger's diagnosis. Even people like Einstein had it". There might be a few people like that. She can maybe give more details later or correct anything I got wrong.

Edit- -^^^ hello, there.

I asked my psychologist what she thought of this. She said that these are probably good people who are very lonely and want to have a sense of identity and community to fit in somewhere. Actually she asked me if I thought they might be people who are ^^^. People might have a few traits of ASD and mimic others when they read about them or convince themselves that their traits do fit ASD. This makes sense to me although it might just be a small percentage of people doing this. There have been a few threads here from people who explicitly stated that they wanted to have ASD for various reasons.

As far as people faking it outright to get disability or benefits, I'm sure a few people do and I agree that that's really bad , an abuse of the system but I think that would only constitute a VERY small percentage of people diagnosed.

Yeah, that's right, although he was both delusional about the severity of his symptoms and he wanted to have it. He definitely had traits, like intense interests, but he didn't talk about them all the time and naturally picked up on very subtle social cues. At the same time, he was surprised that I couldn't see them, too, and expected me to get them. He claimed to have it but didn't get what it meant to have a real impairment... at all...

Although his social anxiety was very, very real, I would say. I don't think a person without any problems whatsoever would want to have an ASD for some unberknownst reason. But I don't have social anxiety specifically so the nature of our impairments was radically different.

Last edited by MathGirl on 18 Mar 2014, 6:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

^
interesting.

You don't know his motives for saying this. Possibly he doesn't really believe ASD exists, or he is one himself and is in denial about it, he'd recently read some hate speech about Aspies on the net, he doesn't like Aspies and likes to insult them as a group, or his comment was just a throwaway.. whatever his motive was, it's rubbish. If I believed everything doctors had said to me - especially when they misdiagnosed illnesses I had - their opinions and wrong treatment would probably have killed me.

I think his comment, whatever his reasons, was ignorant and sought to trivialise ASD in a dismissive way. Change doctors?

ASDs are easy as hell to see if you know what to look for.

I refrain from posting such as people could use it to get a diagnosis, unethically.

Also he may have had a chip on his shoulder about self-diagnosis - unfortunately doctors think that diagnosis is totally their sole prerogative and resent informed patients. Happens.

I haven't met anyone else who I thought was pretending to have it in the same way, though, although a few more people I know may have been delusional - but again, it's very hard to tell with borderline cases. I used to think some people didn't have it because I didn't understand how a person could fake small talk and reciprocity so well - but that was a long time ago. Now I realize that certain people with ASD can "get out of their world" and put on a mask more than others and it doesn't necessarily mean they don't have ASD.

Last edited by MathGirl on 18 Mar 2014, 6:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

^
Well, I do think it would only be a very small percentage of people. If people meet the criteria for ASD and do have non-verbal communication and reciprocity impairments and relationships not developed to age level and all the other criteria during childhood and they learn to put on a "social mask" and don't show these symptoms at first AS AN ADULT, that's something different. The DSM5 has a provision for that so people can be diagnosed if they meet criteria "now or by history".

The social mask thing could make it easier for someone to fake though. For example, if someone wanted to convince themselves they had ASD as an adult and didn't have any records or reports from childhood and their parents were dead or not talking to them then it would be easier for them to convince themselves if they said that they had these things as a child but developed a social mask over the years.

I've said it before, I'll said it again:
I just don't get this.

Why would anyone want to fake an ASD?
It's not exactly glamorous is it?

I just don't understand.

And this is exactly why this is a very hard diagnosis to make. I just wonder how people here say that they can spot it so easily, because if it can really be spotted in every instance, then perhaps those who are claiming that they can pass as non-autistic don't really pass all that well. It might be more difficult to see in a structured situation, but I would think people would be generally very sensitive to when a person is even a little bit off socially. I even have a book by an ASD professional where she says that people who think they can pass really can't and that is why she advises that it is better to disclose the diagnosis at work, etc. instead of hoping that people will not notice anything off about you.

It's not glamorous, but it can get you accommodations at uni - extra time in exams, extensions to essay deadlines etc. If you are struggling at work, to the extent that you may be disciplined or even dismissed, then it can offer some protection against that - at least buy you some time or compel employers to adjust your working conditions.

As I've already said, I don't think this is common, but I do think it happens. Not all who try it will be successful, that will depend on how thorough the assessment is, how skilled the particular individual is, and probably also how close to being on the Spectrum they actually are.

@Mathgirl-Yeah, I don't think I can spot it in someone else unless it's really obvious.

Some people who think they can pass really can't , that's true. When I was younger, a teenager and pre-teen, I thought I could pass as completely normal but people could always tell there was something off about me, it was in all my reports. Also, when my mum and I went for the first time to an anxiety disorder specialist that the school referred me to at 13, almost 14, that doctor could tell right away after talking to me for a short time that I was odd and asked my mum if she thought it could be "something developmental" and referred me to the specialist in PDDs who diagnosed me with AS. I was absolutely convinced I could act like a normal person at that age and really wanted to do so.

Anyway, I think with some people, like me now, people can tell there's something off or strange about me and it r turns them off but they can't tell I'm autistic. Therefore it's better if I disclose because then an employer or something would understand that I have a disability rather than not knowing what the f*ck is wrong with me and deciding to not bother with me.

I think he may be referring to a factitious disorder(like Münchausen Syndrome), in which people claim particular symptoms for attention or sympathy.

The choice of autism by someone with a factitious disorder seems peculiar, because autism seems like it would have the opposite effect, to deflect positive attention and prevent sympathy.

Love the factitious disorder link!