Is there such a thing as "Fake Autistic People"?

Post Reply New Topic

And you know this how? What "seems" to you is not hard evidence.

As others here have said, how do you know fake from real? Are you asking these people personally, or reviewing their diagnostic reports? Are YOU a qualified evaluator?

Also, regarding "faking autism" for sinister gain -- welfare and benefits mainly.

Don't you think there are other much easier, simpler and less involved things a person could successfully fake if they really want to just get welfare for a condition, physical or mental?

As for that, though, do you realize that, for many "high functioning" diagnosed adults, there ARE no state benefits? While some may qualify, there are many more who, even with an official diagnosis, will have access to very few if not zero state-paid services or welfare payments.

Making it be that, for many adults, there is actually no benefit, literally or figuratively, to having gained that diagnosis at all. Except a sense of personal, inner closure.

As for those who may be faking generally or merely socially, why would anyone do that? Autism still carries some degree of mystery, stigma and negative connotation to most Joe Public ordinary folk who still don't actually know much about it. If anyone tries to bandy it about that they have autism, among most NTs, sadly today they may still be met with negative treatment and reactions, rather than gain anything positive from it.

Some diagnosed adults don't even disclose because of that.

I agree with AsPartOfMe -- just a guess, but there are probably more people who think people fake autism than there are people actually faking autism.

It carries practically no upsides to do so socially, and only a few official ones should it be formally, and nearly all downsides.

I find discussions of this nature to be highly speculative and paranoid. For one it really solves nothing getting into such areas of thought. Its like you are part of this tribal group and you find it imperative to weed out all the body snatchers that are hiding amidst you. Yes there can be concerns regarding the PR value with concern to the general population, but its important to back such claims with empirical proof rather than mere speculation since our minds can be scary places where all manners of fears and doubts run rampant and we are ought to chase after dark thoughts that lead nowhere.
As far as I see it usually there will always be a few instances out there that give credence to your thoughts but its never as bad as you might imagine it to be. Like how people constantly fear that women are out crying rape for some insidious reason. Yes its true there might be cases where a woman has done so, but they are never the mainstream and never in numbers you fear and imagine where you need to doubt every claim so viciously. There is very little upside to making the claim and society does not look upon someone who makes the claim in a kind light.
As far as I see it the whole realm of neurology is still fraught with doubt and suspicion. Someone doubts you, you doubt the doctor, the doctor doubts you. The gray zones are vast and we are still treading onto vastly unexplored regions here. It makes you wonder what the scene will be like 50 or a 100 years from now, how far our understanding would have delved and what more...
Hmmm... I deviate. Well my point is basically that maybe its fine to ponder about such a topic casually but really it benefits no one, cause from my experience the real situation is always far more mundane.
The way I see it what should be of concern is that if there are more people out there laying a claim to it then there ought to be why should it effect the way you are being treated. Why do we have a system where we need to cynically... Hmmm going on an unhelpful idealistic tangent here.
I guess my point is that I find such paranoid thoughts a bit frightful. (Maybe I'm possibly slightly paranoid here). I would rather give people the benefit of the doubt, let things play out and observe. You never know what you might end up discovering.
All this does seem a bit lot over your seemingly casual question but I have noticed this growing concern about territory in many other forums and I find it a bit troubling when coupled with the constant barrage of cynical news that keeps flashing on screens all day. Are we living through another 1930's? We just got to buckle up and hope the car don't crash!
End of loose flurry of thoughts.
Now I escape back into my dark blissful corner and wake after another 10 years or so.

I used to talk to a guy online when I was 17 and 18 and he started to obsess about Asperger's and then he got worse and worse and he would say "I have Asperger's." I didn't buy it so I always felt he was faking it because he was not like this when we met. He did have problems but it wasn't autism. But later on that guy did go try and get a diagnoses and came out as NVLD but he didn't stop there. He said they were wrong and then he finally found someone who gave him the diagnoses he wanted. He also told me he was hit by a car when he was little and then he denied he ever told me that story. But I don't see many of these cases around.

Why would anyone fake being autistic?

Obviously there are all kinds in the world. There are rare folks who try to get a healthy limb amputated just because they think its cool to be missing a limb.

But is there a "movement" consisting of millions of NTs who think its cool to be thought of as being autistic?

I seriously doubt that.

Understand that it's the job of actors to act. To present themselves in a manner representative of some character, and not themselves. I recall once, an interview on a late show, with Kim Bassinger. It was very apparent that she was absolutely wracked with anxiety. One might think that this is a person who was used to being in front of a camera, and in the public eye, but when she's filming something, she has a script telling her what to say, and a director telling her how to say it, and if she messed up, they would re-shoot the scene. During the interview though, she had no script, or director telling her what to do, and there was no reshooting anything. She was essentially on her own, and obviously terrified.

So I don't think you can look at a celebrity in the media and claim they are or are not on the spectrum, because most of the time, what you see of them is not their real selves.

There is one person I know of who is not a celebrity, but claimed to have non-verbal autism and had a number of articles/news story done on her, and it was later revealed she did not have the level of autism she claimed to have (people from her past called her out), and perhaps not even autism at all. She is rumored to have been diagnosed with schizophrenia, but whether her claim of autism is a delusion or scam, I don't know. She also apparently claimed or thought she couldn't walk, and used a wheelchair.

In my opinion autism is often highly over diagnosed. Many of the people I have met who have been diagnosed only really have difficulty with social interactions and maybe obsess over a topic they want and that it (which are still difficult to deal with), and do not experience he many other gifts and difficulties autism/Aspergers is suppose to cover. I think because of this "high functioning" autism is disregard because many people diagnosed with it only have a couple symptoms.

But Quarkyness, a person can't actually be diagnosed if they have "only a couple of symptoms." These "many people" you believe are diagnosed yet only seem to have a couple of symptoms wouldn't have met the criteria for diagnosis.

Another thing -- how do you know for sure that "many of the people you have met who been diagnosed only really have difficulty with" the scant things you mention? Have they told you that or have you been with them 24/7 to see what all else they experience?

I'm sorry, but people like you are in fact doing an awful lot of "diagnosing" of your own -- with even less qualification than the clinicians you believe to be overdiagnosing these HFAs who "only have a couple of symptoms"...

I will have to put it down to your being 17.

I would just like to remind people posting in this thread that it's rude to insult people without provocation during conversations. Social custom is to be civil in expressing your disagreement. Just try to keep that in mind.

I feel like whenever i go to the welfare office (jobcentre here), I hear people claiming they have autism but to me it looks like they fake it so they can just claim disability benefits or get unnecessary help where they can just help themselves all the same. A bit like foreigners coming over to take the menial jobs that push down wages, no wonder people were pushing for a brexit vote.

Who exactly is being "rude" or insulting? I pointed out to someone that she's making calls on people's diagnoses without being qualified to do so. I also concluded that perhaps it's her young age that causes her to feel dismissive of the diagnosis of others. When you're young you often don't think about what may lie beneath surface impressions.

If anything it was that member's comments about who does or does not have the symptoms for diagnosis that were rude and insulting.

So you're seeing this at the Jobcentre? From what I gather, in the UK it's pretty hard for a high functioning person to qualify for disability benefits -- particularly in the current climate when even people with terminal cancer or who are wheelchair bound are being kicked off disability and their money stopped.

I see this thread is just becoming yet another feeding frenzy of "Yeah and about all these fakers, they're everywhere!"

Threads like this one spring up on WP time and time again. They are sometimes started up by long-time members. They are quite often started up by brand new members. They're nearly always insulting and disruptive and I find it very hard to believe that isn't in fact even just a tiny bit the intention.

I get that someone might fake autism to get government help ( either in finding a job, or getting disabiltiy for not working), but how is that analogous to a foreigner coming over to take a menial job?

I feel like nerdy people who think that they are actually autistic just because they heard that autism somehow means you are a genius are an example of "fake autistic people". I fail to see how people have linked autism with intelligence because it has nothing to do with how smart you are and I consider that to be a slap in the face to people who actually are struggling with autism (like myself) when others make those claims.

Oh and yeah too many people seem to be getting diagnosed with this lately just like in the 1990's when everyone wanted to diagnose all problem children with ADHD. I'm sorry but I really find it hard to believe that everyone I meet lately actually has a kid with autism I think it's becoming the new misdiagnoses for problem kids these days simply because it's now a "popular" thing all of a sudden. I feel like most people today still don't even grasp what the condition is really about which is why I have a cynical attitude about this.

Why does it seem that all the people on this thread posting that the fake thing is overestimated happen to be long-standing WP members, and the people posting that they believe "most" people are faking happen to be brand new WP members with a very low post-count?

Why are new members and young members so likely to be accusing others of faking autism? Serious question.

I don't know if you are misinformed or if that is really true but there is such thing as body identity disorder. People with it feel incomplete with all their body parts so they feel they are meant to miss a limb or not have a arm or leg or whatever. It's not about being cool. These people actually feel distressed with all their body parts so they want that body part removed and some people actually live like they are disabled because it makes them happy. it's not about being cool or getting attention, these people really do feel complete with it.

Is there such a thing as overstating a topic?
Honestly, this just gets repeated over and over and over. I for one am sick of seeing it. If you wanted to read opinions about this topic, the search function on the top right of the page may be helpful, where you can read the many other topics on this and not have to repeat the same material again.