Dan Aykroyd was NOT officially diagnoaed

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Hey guys,

I understand that it has become rather famous in the Autism community that Dan Aykroyd has been officially diagnosed with Aspergers. Papers like the Daily Mail have also reported this but he is in fact self-diagnosed and says so himself. See the video below and navigate to 11.40 to him say it:



The Daily Mail article claiming he was officially diagnosed:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic ... hosts.html

I think he may have been to a therapist in the 80's as the Daily Mail reports but was mostly like informally described as Having traits of Aspergers by the therapist.

This is quite similar to my situation.

In the Daily Mail article it was HE who claimed he was diagnosed a claim I believed he made elsewhere, now in Huffington Post he is contradicting himself. The actual diagnosis claim has always been a subject of discussion in the community because he claimed he was diagnosed in the early 1980's when only a few specialists even knew about Aspergers. People said it might be true because as a celebrity maybe he had access to the most knowledgeable psychs or because he is Canadian and they are progressive there. Now we know it was all wishful thinking, probably a BS publicity stunt. Notice this time he did not bring it up and was very eager to minimize his "Aspergers" and change the subject. I believe this interview occurred after the Seinfeld fiasco which would explain his wanting to change the subject and be dismissive.

So now we have the Aykroyd fiasco. The harm from Seinfeld fiasco was incalculable. High Functioning autism not real autism in the mainstream media, page after page of invalidation of people who unlike apparently Aykroyd did tons of research before self diagnosis, a sharp increase in posts from people doubting their official diagnosis. Now we have to go through this again? f**k

Totally agree my friend. You never know what to believe. Im only wondering with the Daily Mail are exaggerating his claims or even outright bending the truth, we all know we can't take newspapers too seriously.

Like you say could be a publicity stunt, especially with Ghostbusters making a return, anything to get attention possibly.

I think in general when celebrities contradict themselves they look really silly.

It also looks as if the interviewers were not taking him too seriously.

Dan Aykroyd convinced he has Asperger’s even though docs haven’t diagnosed him: ‘I know I have a touch of it!

My anger back then and since has been about autistics constantly making blanket statements that he is autistic when the original story strained credulity and he changed it.

The statements above were from eight and ten years ago respectively. At least this statement is straightforward, Judge this statement as you will, but it is time for me to drop my grudge about this.

I believe I read on an autism site that he's among the list of famous people who have verified autism, a separate list from those with suspected autism (such as Nikola Tesla).

However, a point of interest is that he was inspired to write "Ghostbusters" because he's had a lifelong obsession with ghosts. Now of course, many NTs are very interested in ghosts, but the way I had read about his interest, sounded "special" to me.

Hey look, there's no evidence he isn't autistic. Many entertainers get late diagnoses because being quirky and weird and having social struggles comes with the territory of show biz.

Dan Aykroyd has always reminded me very much of my brother, who is also very likely on the spectrum but not officially diagnosed. My brother never went for diagnosis but I'd kind of bet my life on it. I don't know DA of course, but he seems a very similar personality. I thought that even before I knew I was autistic, or saw it in my brother.

Does it matter whether or not he is autistic and whether or not he is officially diagnosed?

When I first heard of this, it did seem to make sense given his demeanor and his unusual and interesting apparent way of looking at life. But who knows?

Whether or not celebrities are ND or have whatever they have and whether or not they are officially diagnosed with anything shouldn't matter unless they are using that information for some kind of gain that they should not be using it for. Celebrities are people just like anyone else and they have just as much right to have whatever conditions they might have as anyone else and they deserve the same respect that we all deserve as we go through life discovering and understanding our own issues. Just because someone has a high profile job, does not mean that s/he should be publicly challenged if s/he believes s/he might have an ND or anything else. Now if said person is using that condition in a way that is purely as a publicity stunt or for some kind of personal gain, that is a different story and that should be challenged. But if s/he is simply trying to understand and make sense of his/her own life experience, than that should be respected just like we expect to be respected when we do it. It shouldn't matter to anyone except the person going through it.

There are always going to be mixed feelings about celebrities that come out.

On one hand famous people coming out as autistic helps debunk popular stereotypes about Autism. Some undiagnosed Autistics reading about the celebrity will see the traits being described in themselves starting the process of finding out they are Autistic.

On the other hand it is well known celebrities and their publicists constantly make stuff up. The feuds you read about between celebrities are often made up. “Controversial” statements made by celebrities are often done to get people talking about the celebrity adding to curiosity about them that sells product. Understandably few Autistics want their neurology used as a publicity stunt. Celebs saying they are autistic for purely publicity reasons trivializes the condition and adds to the stereotype of Autism as a trendy condition and that negatively effects all of us who want to be honest about our Autism and those Autistics who are seroiusly impaired the people who care for them.

I think it is important to understand the 2015 context in which this thread was created. Self Diagnoses was a bitterly divisive topic here on WP. Aspergers had just been taken out the DSM two years earlier. Some were happy about that because it was felt that Aspergers had led to massive over-diagnoses and trivialization of a “curse”. Many posters opined that many if not most still identifying as Aspie were self diagnosed attention seekers ruining things for “real Autistics” like themselves. Besides the stereotypes many felt that self diagnosis was not valid. The sentiment that if you were not professionally diagnosed you can’t be Autistic was stated a number of times. The self diagnosed quite resented the attacks and fought back vigorously.

Into this mess in 2014 Jerry Seinfeld said on NBC Nightly News that after watching a program he felt he might or did have Aspergers. That fed into all the negative stereotypes about Aspies and the self diagnosed. That started a whole bunch of I told you so’s. By this time Autism as a spectrum had finally been accepted by mainstream media. In the wake of Seinfeld’s remarks experts that had never accepted the expansion of the definition of Autism were saying “I told you so” in the mainstream media in various ways. In the wake of the firestorm Seinfeld corrected himself saying he is not autistic leading to another round of I told you so’s. I had been just diagnosed the year before which would have never occurred if the expansion of the definition had not happened. The elimination of Aspergers largely due to non acceptance of “mild” autism had just occurred. I was still feeling raw about that when Seinfeld seemingly validated all the opponents of my type of autism was real autism.

All of this was just calming down when Ackroyd walked back his Aspergers claim so my reaction as I mentioned in my post was “Oh f**k, here we go again”

Since then I have been sensitive about people making blanket statements about celebrities Autism sans the celebrity stating it. Blanket statements about Ackroyd have always been a particular sore spot with me both because of the questionable nature of his original statement and endless blanket statements by people that he is autistic.

Taking his latest statement as real he is not specifically saying he has Aspergers he is saying he has a touch of it. That might have some basis in reality in that having a special interest is a trait. While I find the wording “Touch of Aspergers” annoying because Autism is so much than special interests it is best for me to accept it as klutzy phrasing because this is 2023 not 2015. The Seinfeld controversy did seem to have a chilling effect, for a number of years celebrities did not come out. That is not the case now at all. We are in an era when autistic actors are playing autistic parts. The point being that be klutzy phrasing or publicity stunt, him being an Aspie or NT, his remark is not going to make a difference. When people make their famous Autistics list he going to continue to be included. Whatever.

Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 24 Jul 2023, 10:48 am, edited 5 times in total.

I agree. If they are genuinely coming out, if they are sincerely sharing their personal lives and struggles and victories it helps the community but if it is done as a publicity stunt, and if it is not actually true, the damage it can do is huge. But if they are genuine, they don't owe it to anyone to disclose. They have every right to be as private about it as they want just like we all have.

What if someone's a fan of that person, and when they disclose autism, it's like, "Cool!" ? Especially if that fan themself has never fit in and always felt different? It's human nature to be interested in what famous people are up to, though I'll admit, it goes way overboard, especially with British royalty. Like, nobody cared a hoot what Megan Markle was up to before she began dating Harry. Now, she can't change position in her chair without it making headlines. The dumb public eats this nonsense up.

But when someone comes out as autistic, I'm like, "COOL!"

There ARE publicity stunts, though. One example is Roseanne Barr announcing years ago that she had "multiple personality disorder," which came across as made up for attention. Another stunt is Tess Holliday claiming she has anorexia nervosa, even though she's always been obese, and over the past 10 years has GAINED significant weight. She doesn't meet the criteria for either anorexia nervosa OR atypical anorexia nervosa, especially when she posts videos of herself gorging on food. That's something a true anorexic would NEVER do in a million years. She also boasts pride in being fat, which is the total antithesis of what an anorexic would do.

Okay, so I went off on a bender, but I can't think of any celebrity whose disclosure of autism seems fake just to gain publicity. Courtney Love said she's autistic, and when I heard this, I thought, "I KNEW IT! I JUST KNEW IT!" Nobody would think, "NOOOOO, Courtney Love, autistic? NO WAY!" These disclosures seem genuine.

I also challenge Caitlyn/Bruce Jenner's disclosure as a publicity stunt. He has NOT undergone sex change surgery; all he's done is get some facial surgery and enhancements and wears hair extensions and makeup. A true gender dysphoric would undergo top and bottom surgery.

I used to know some celebrities personally, I say used to because they have passed away. Some of them were actors. My young cousin is also a brilliant up and coming professional actor. I have also dabbled a bit and done a couple of movies. As someone who has had personal relationships with people in the profession, I see don't see them as people who are just there to act as influencers and inspirations. I also know for a fact that while there are those who use false medical conditions as publicity stunts, which I personally think is disgusting, many of them do not. If my actor cousin were to disclose some of his issues and people were to have the kinds of reactions that we are talking about, challenging him about them, claiming they are publicity stunts, that would enrage me and it would be very devastating to him. If one of his fans was like, "cool," that would be cool. But he doesn't owe his fans that. Acting is his job. He does owe his fans his entire life and his emotions. It's his job to act in the roles that he plays. It is not his job to be some kind of inspirational beacon to every fan out there.

Unless Jenner allows us to see her nude we will have no way of knowing what she allowed to be done. Just as we will never know for sure if a famous person claiming to be Autistic is.

I still believe overall more famous people coming out as autistic is a good thing because it shows that people with autistic traits are not doomed to failure.

I agree that famous people coming out as Autistic or whatever can be very good but they should never feel obligated to.

And whether Caitlin Jenner did bottom surgery or top surgery or whatever, it is HER body, HER choice, HER life and HER issue to work through herself. She doesn't owe anybody anything especially strangers whom she doesn't even personally know. If she were a nobody, not a famous celeb, would anybody care what kind of surgery she had or hadn't had? If she feels in her own being that she needs to identify as female, that is her prerogative. She has just as much right to establish her own identity as she deems fit just like anyone else has. It's absolutely rude and out of line and cruel for other people, especially people who are not even friends or family to decide what her identity should mean to her. She doesn't owe that to anyone.

It makes me so angry when the public acts as if they have the right to decide for celebs what they should do with their own bodies and their own identities. Now, again, I do not like false publicity stunts. I think celebs have a responsibility to be honest and responsible because of the influence that they can have. And I think that is something that should be seriously enforced. I think it should even be considered criminal to make false claims like some of them are making just for publicity stunts. But we have no right to judge anyone on their relationships with their own bodies no matter what their professions are. It really is nobody eles's business.

So, Aykroyd is a poseur. At least he is funny . . . sometimes.