People you know of who you suspect are Aspie Wannabies

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What free stuff do parents exactly get from an AS diagnoses? Therapy? Help in school? I never was given free stuff with an AS diagnoses. My mom had to pay out of pocket for private therapies because their insurance wouldn't cover them and she couldn't find anyone to help me so she went to private specialists and paid out of her own pocket. I was give help in school but taxes paid for it because it was a public school and all kids go there for "free" and your taxes pay for it.

I also never went to a private school so I don't think I got any free stuff with a AS diagnoses and I read how many parents struggle to help their autistic kids and lot of them cannot afford it because their insurance won't pay for it and they can't pay out of pocket for it and how schools won't always accommodate the kid and not follow their IEP and try and get away with breaking the law. Then I see an article online about a family being bankrupt due to their kid's autism.

One thing I have noticed in the media and on TV is whenever AS is brought up, they always mention the social deficits, nothing else like hank on Parenthood for example when he discovers he may have it and all he mentions is social issues, nothing else. It was the same with Susan Boyle too when she was diagnosed, only mentioned her social issues, when I read the same article about Daryl Hannah having it, it talked about her social issues and it mainly sounded like social anxiety. When the media does this, it makes it sound like AS is all about social deficits and having a hard time fitting in and not feeling conscious in crowds and social situations so it's going to make people think that is what AS is. Why does the media do this about AS?

Dan Akroyd was already a big jet-setting star in the Seventies. So he might have gotten diagnosed in some country other than the USA that adopted the aspergers label before the USA did.

The only mentions of aspie wannabes that make sense to me as plausible phenomenon are high school cliques of people who adopt the label to be special and at the same time ostracize those who have been diagnoesd with asd, as reported by some posters in high school.

Other than that, I don't think that aspie wannabe is a phenomenon amongst adults or celebrities. If a celebrity says that they have been diagnosed with asd, I don't think much about it, and I don't try to pick apart their public presentation to judge whether they really have asd. It is hard to tell that many hfa adults have asd based on tv interviews or even if you know them in person and they didn't tell you that they have asd.

I am 21 years of age.
Many, when I was in high-school, kept insisting they had a broad range of diagnosis.
Due to this, this is the reason I have an issue with self-diagnosis.
When those whom say they have the condition but don't, it takes the seriousness away from the actual condition itself.
Yes, there is a possibility that those whom self-diagnosis actually do have it, but if they think they do, they should go get accessed by a professional to be certain.
Most of whom are self diagnosed which I have encountered in person, don't seem to know much about the condition itself.

One man I met insisted that he had Aspergers, ADHD, Depression, schizophrenia, board-line personality disorder and a few other conditions.
I was quite curious about this, since, to my knowledge, it would be almost impossible to legitimately have all of those disorders.
When I questioned him about Aspergers, he said, and I quote. "My aspergers just makes me a little socially awkward ".

A little socially awkward isn't aspergers.

He isn't the only one whom I have encountered whom has this opinion.
They don't seem to understand the sensory sensitivities, executive dysfunction issues or the reason why most people with autism find it difficult to lie.
I do literally mean they CAN'T and DIDN'T comprehend the issues I stated above.


From what I have observed and witnessed first hand, those whom claim they have aspergers are mainly doing it for the positive traits associated with it, which have been exacerbated by the media.

Why they would do this, I have no idea.
In my country, those with ASD get quite a large disability pension.
My mother, for one, exacerbated all of her physiological issues so she could receive this pension.
In my country it is $800- $1000 every two weeks. Operating under the assumption that money is vitally important, I can see why, in that aspect, most would pretend to have the condition.

When I first found out about the possibility of me having ASD I wasn't particularly thrilled.
A part of me wanted it to not be true.
Those with ASD are servilely impaired, sure they can push themselves to do the things, but in terms of work and a career, they will have great difficulty moving through the ranks and climbing the social ladder to achieve the highest position possible in their chosen field. Not to mention other issues which will hinder there process.

Oh dear, I seem to have ranted.

Point is, I have encountered a lot of wanna-bees, because of this, my opinion of those whom claim to have it when they aren't professionally diagnosed is quite strong. Most (wanna-bees) seem to do it because of the positive traits that are romanticized by the media.

I'm 42, and when I was in school this phenomenon was unheard of. It wasn't in any way 'cool' to be a shy nerdy genius type, and no one would ever pretend to be socially inept on purpose.

But in a way, there might be a glimmer of hope in this trend. Suddenly we're living in a world where being a nerdy genius is considered cool, rather than shameful. Of course, there are probably more negative consequences than positive (as others have pointed out, and I agree) – but still, I take heart in the fact that the younger generation seems to be embracing the value of neurodiversity.

I think it's normal for teenagers to be confused about their identity, and for some to go through their 'Aspie wannabe' phase, the way kids in my days went through a phase of wearing all black and being serious little philosophers. They're just kids, and I can't blame them for going through an identity crisis.

It is aggravating for the rest of us though, because people think we're just faking our problems to be 'edgy'.

It could be that since the Adult celebrities diagnosed only know about the social part because the NT world that they and we grew up in puts the highest priority on social. They may be mild enough to misconstrue their sensory and executive function issues as social ones. As celebrities social is the top issue inhibiting them in work. Daryl Hannah had to stop work for a period because of the marketing involved. It caused her to have a reputation as a unreliable person in the industry.

I know an adult who was an aspie wannabee (I have no issues saying this, she agrees with this statement).

For her, it was part of her mental illness. It was easier on her to view herself as autistic than it was to face her past. She didn't want to have to face her mental illness, face the mistreatment that caused it, and deal with it. It was easier to latch onto the autistic people who she knew and pretend she was also one of them.

She shared some symptoms, she played up others, it didn't describe everything, and it didn't match her. It wasn't that she didn't have any symptoms, it wasn't that she wanted attention, it wasn't that she wanted sympathy, it wasn't that she wanted disability payments. It was that she needed help with what was actually going on in her, because there was something actually there; it just wasn't autism, and what was going on was such that it was hard to admit what was going on, and this was her escapism.

She approached it from this point of view for maybe a year or two? Then through therapy she managed to swap to approaching it from the point of view of mental illness that causes her to share some symptoms. She does share symptoms and can discuss things with people in a way that's helpful at times. And she's been improving and doing better with therapy

Every time I've heard of aspie wannabee happening it has been escapism or not understanding what it is and truly believing Asperger's is a word for being socially awkward not a disorder. Those people, when you describe what its actually like, they are like "oh, that's not me, I'm just awkward, not like that", and don't want to be that, they just didn't know. (This is my experience.)

Yes, totally what I wanted to say. It seems to be correct that this phenomenon exists. I just feel that the focus on not over diagnosing is extremely harmful to those who suffer enough through having ASD. I hate the added confusion over what it is. I understand the motives and I don't agree these changes are worthwhile to prevent the small amount of over diagnosis---because there has to be overdiagnosis. Otherwise too many people in need of help are being overlooked. Thank you for saying this more clearly.

People pretending to be autistic so that they are considered cool? I have not seen it. Of course I am old and even NTs 'my age are not cool. But if this is true and a growing trend, I think it's awesome. I mean, you don't get tortured your entire childhood for being cool, right?

Beneficii is right that I don't really care, but I will answer:

Being on stage does not mean being more social than NT people. I've been on stage and it is an entirely different experience from being social.

By determining whether or not they have social deficits, not how social they are...but being a nightclub comedian doesn't seem so social to me anyways. One gets up on stage, talks at people rather than with them (there's no back-and-forth), the jokes are pre-fabricated and practiced, the timing is always the same (tell joke, then wait until audience is finished lauging to tell the next one), and the purpose and structure of the interaction is totally clear and largely under the control of the comedian.

These kinds of threads genuinely confuse me.

First off, you are questioning somebody who claims to be diagnosed but who has not proven it to your satisfaction - this reminds me of the birthers. Shall we call them instead, the Diagnosers! You need to see the paper!!

And then some of you get all snippity about those of us who are not diagnosed but are sure we have it. I feel a little like you think that by claiming I am Autistic, you feel like I am personally violating you, as though I was slapping your wife's butt (with intent!) when you aren't looking. or something equally egregious.

It's all a mystery to me why you care - and I don't believe the We are harming people who need accommodations thing. I mean people get upset when Adam (what's his name?) is associated with Autism because it makes everyone think badly of us, but then you get upset when somebody is working and supporting themselves with Autism because that somehow damages the group too.

I am really proud of myself that I get up and go to work and do the things I have to do, even when life seems like a crappy insurmountable mountain and when I am overwhelmed with the painful aspects of Autism. Looking around this forum, I see it in so many people, not just those of us who are working full time, but people who face so much overwhelming crap and keep rising to the surface like ....hmmm I'm losing my metaphor - does really good cream work? Or maybe like someone who is in danger of drowning, but their head keeps popping back up.

Too me, that's what's important (although I am one of the one's who is not in the select club, so of course I would feel that way)!


But you baffle me people, ok!

I don't know any person who wants to have Aspergers, but I do not know many people and noone of those expressed the wish to have Aspergers, not that anybody told so, and I don't know, if they know what Aspergers is.
What I did read in forums was that some people want to be different than "average people", but then they called themselves "hypersensitive" and distinguished themselves in that from "normal people".

You are asserting that all he did was get on a stage? Come on.

He would of had entertain people., to dynamically interact with audience, deal with loud mouth people, deal with complainers, switch around his performance, get the audience excited - all the time he is delivering his comedy in an entertaining way.

A nightclub comedian is the one of the most social NT jobs there is. I don't know any NT person as social as Mr. Aykroyd. My mom is less social than him.

Thus, the conclusion is that some AS people can extreme socializers, and much more social than NT people.

Which would appear to make determination of "wannabees" impossible.

I am sorry this thread is hurtful and had thought about staying away because it seemed likely this topic could be controversial, someone could get hurt, and I don't want to be part of hurting anyone.

The idea that ASD is overdiagnosed seems to me to be what is concerning. It's quite ugly to decide people aren't entitled to be proud of pushing through despite difficulties and instead should be seeing themselves as weak. But that's part of the new definition of ASD: needs support. What that is doesn't seem to be defined yet. This isn't, at least I don't think, about Wrong Planet, I think it's about the experiment in redefining ASDs that is taking place from outside the ASD community. I've probably not expressed this well---maybe someone else can help say it more clearly?

He would not be successful if he was a robot.

He never claimed to have "social deficits". The guy is party, have fun, social type of guy. I said this earlier that his "Asperger" is because he carries a badge around, and someone said he was obsessed about his interests. No one would believe for a second that this guy has any social problems.