If you ever got rich or famous, would you hide your ASD?

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If you got rich or/and famous, would you ever admit in public you have ASD or would you rather hide it from the general public? Would you want to become the voice of people with ASD then or would you be too embarassed to admit your being non neurotypical? What do you think about this?

I'd rather admit my ADHD.

Neither? I wouldn't go around announcing it but I wouldn't hide it either, tell people if they ask or when it's important. If I suddenly became rich not too much would really change. I'd get a nicer house in the same area I live now and I could pay somebody to clean it for me, maybe to drive too so I don't have to bug anybody when I need to go somewhere. I wouldn't have to stress over whether or not I can buy something I want, but I'd still check my balance before doing so to make sure I could. I tend to forget money's there when its in my bank, so I check every time I want to make a purchase. But I still wouldn't go out much or suddenly become social. That's just not me. I'm not a people person.

Rich or poor, my autism is no one else's business.
Not because of reputation but because I'm not what one would call an advocate.

As I always say; they do not need to know. Not that I'm actively hiding the "possibility" because I don't even mask.

Heck, at any point in time, I'd hide the fact that I'm rich at all if I were famous and rich.
If I were famous? Again, nobody's business.
If I were rich? I'll just stay quiet rich. Autism isn't a factor.


If someone "caught me" for not being neurotypical, I do not care. I'm not ashamed. Unlike some people.

And I will sue them fools who tried to spread the fact without my say so or consent. Because it's a private information. Because it's none of their business.

If I were rich and an adult upon diagnosis, I would've sued or at least issue a cease and desist upon my own mother for telling more fricking stories without my say so and for being a security hazard.

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I would not hide it. I would consider it an obligation to be open about it so I could possibly improve public awareness about the Autism Spectrum. The Spectrum is wider than most folk probably realize—certainly wider than I realized. If public awareness had been better then my awareness might've been better and maybe I could've gotten my diagnosis sooner. And if public awareness was better then maybe people would learn that "If you've met one Autistic then you've met one Autistic"...that is, that we are not all the same. I suspect/hope that if we were treated as individuals things might improve for some folk.

I imagine that I'd probably be the same way I am now. Where I'm originally from even the so-called experts/professionals think of autism as a less sever form of mental ret@rdation which is why autism was ruled out when I was officially tested but my psychiatrists & GP type docs as well as my parents believe I'm on the spectrum. I don't really talk about autism with people offline except occasionally my parents & medical professionals, & I also talk about about autism a lot with my girlfriend & her family but her brother has been officially diagnosed with Aspergers since he was little & Cass is very likely on the spectrum herself & she had PMed me after joining this forum for a bit & reading lots of my posts. It's very obvious to others that I have lots of issues but I mention some my other disabilities that are unrelated to autism or are comorbids with autism. Others probably assume there's more going on but they don't really ask.

Now I'm gonna answer the post question more directly & say I'm a major loner with everyone offline except for my girlfriend & I guess her family & my parents. I also hate being in the public spotlight like being required to do social stuff or perform in plays/skits at my schools; very thankfully I did not have to in high-school except for getting my senior class ring & graduation ceremony. I'm also a bit misanthropic about the hew-mon species as a whole & I would rather be part of nothing than part of society.

I think I'd only tell people if it ever came up

That's how I am about it now as well

If my memoirs ever get published readers might guess that I'm not NT, though they wouldn't necessarily guess autism. But I'd just leave that down to the readers to decide, a bit like with the Wimpy Kid books.

My high school graduation was outside, in the football stadium.

Things were big enough that they had microphones on the stage hooked to loudspeakers so the audience could hear what was going on. The loudspeakers were on the ground facing the audience.

The graduating class was on the ground between the stage and loudspeakers. That is, the loudspeakers were on the ground behind us, facing the other way.

We could not hear what was going on.

Right now, I have two choices: be seen as autistic, or weird. I can't handle more than one or two friendships at any given time and the jobs I've had typically require more social interaction than I can sustainably manage. If I had 'f*** you' money and, therefore, no need to pretend I'm normal, I would be myself, without shame, and try to live the best life I could. Hiding my autism has already caused me enough problems.

Along the same lines as double-retired, I'd probably mention it.I think I was de-masking before I knew I was autistic, in a creative capacity. I needed to learn to be kinder to myself so I tried to let go of my typically negatively self-judgements when I came across them. It leads to trying to be more open about who I am - and I've still definitely got a long way to go on that front. I'd view being openly autistic as awareness raising and as a service to people like me (or was until my late 40s that is) who weren't yet aware of their autistic identity. I can't imagine any sort of live/spoken interview with me being anything but disastrous.

No. If that happened I would have a moral obligation to use my platform to attempt to reduce stereotypes and stigmas. It would be stressful in that if I do it wrong I may increase stereotypes and stigmas.

Nice post!
You use neurotypical language.
Hypothesis a and hypothesis b.

Do you know what the ASPartOfMe feeling is?

That people talk nonsense about it on TV.

It happens here.

That's why I don't watch TV, and if I did, I'd know if he'd called the scientific researcher Luca Pani.

He explains it well.

So briefly and simply.

An Italian comedian once pretended to be a news anchor.

And he sarcastically said: "The news will be broadcast in a shorter form to accommodate *your mental capacities."

Some people who slavishly watch TV or read newspapers (sometimes written by newsagents and not journalists: so very bad) tend to think in terms of social stigmas.

Your posts are always well-written and sensible on the subject of autism.

The thing that bothered me the most was hearing someone who should have been competent say: "You're not, because you don't look like Dustin Hoffman from The Rain Man!"

After 3 years, I put on his desk three diagnoses from three different hospitals and different provinces (public hospitals, because in our country, private diagnoses aren't worth much: they're not taken seriously by the public health system. Plus, you pay like €2,000 for them).

You can't pay for a public one: it would be like bribing a specialist.

Although it's strange: in our country, a major depression is considered a 100% disability percentage if it's not treatable in any way. And there are many ways.

So why pay for an autism diagnosis?

The point of that statement is illogical.

Having to pay for an untrue diagnosis, one would choose a different one.

Paradoxically, it is achieved in a much shorter timeframe.


The research in Florida is interesting.

Miami.

Many in my country collaborate with US researchers.

Very intensively.

Let's hope that the US President, whom we highly respect in Italy, will backtrack on some statements that I, at least, disagree with.

His attitude toward foreigners could also have repercussions on medical and scientific research.

In Europe, we are perhaps the only ones trying to delay the application of mutual sanctions.

Even though we number only 62 million.
The Germans are over 20 million more than us.

And more than the French.

I believe that many of our scientific researchers will choose other countries and not the US.

To train just one of these, we spend 1 million euros.

The money, rather than on weapons, should be well spent on research, for example, for the good of the people.

Even here, a twentieth of our government money will be thrown away every year.

Before, we only threw away a fiftieth.

Among other things, I fear some pharmaceutical divisions in top-tier countries will be shut down: that's not a good thing.

Large companies will collapse on the stock market.

In the long run, because, as you know, every investment pays off after many years, and it's planned many years in advance.

We are (now) over 8 billion people in the world.

If there are no terrible wars, we will reach 10 billion people:
After that, it will start to decline again.

Assuming that humans still exist in the future, and I couldn't predict that, given that AI could replace us in the medium term.