My younger sisters friend is trying to self diagnose herself

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My younger has a friend who thinks that she has autism because she is socially awkward and is an introvert. Those are the only symptoms she displays. She actually tells people that she is autistic. When she first met me, she told me that she was a self diagnosed autistic. I didnt know what to say. This was before she found out I had autism. When I told her that I had it, she started to act weird. She doesnt mention it around me anymore. My sister says that she still tells people she has it. My sister says that her friend acts weird on purpose. I think she is one of those people who thinks autism is quirky and adorable because of social awkwardness. It sucks to be socially unaware tbh. My sister said her friend pretended to have ADHD as well. She said her symptoms were being hyper, but she could still pay attention.

If she is a child it's not unusual for kids to invent or believe in some far fetched ideas but she sounds a bit needy and attention seeking. It wouldn't hurt to suggest she talk to a doctor and then explain to her in a brief and gentle way that an official diagnosis may enable her to get some extra help.

I have told her to do that and she said she doesnt want to. I dont get it.

Perhaps just take her at her word then. She doesn't need to prove herself and it may be such a relief to her to be believed and accepted.

Ok

She probably has social anxiety

Hi likemusic, how do you feel about it? Does it bother you? She sounds like she may at least be an open minded kind of person.

I've met a few people like the sister's friend, in that they claim the "Syndrome of the Month" until they meet someone who actually has it.

It's sorta like the unpopular kid in grade school who claims to speak German, until he or she finds out that another classmate or teacher meets actually speaks German. The kid will then make every excuse to avoid the real German speaker, so as not to be exposed as a fake. As long as everyone else believes the kid speaks German, he or she gains some popularity; but as soon as he or she is "outted", they're even worse off than they were before.

The sister's friend may be in a similar situation, in that she won't be outted as long as she avoids the OP; who may be fully able to point out where her self-diagnosis may be in error.

Then again, once she learns how a real autistic person behaves, she may start behaving more autistic.

My sister is kind of like that. Not much you can do other than ignore it till it goes away. (Not the person, the fake symptoms. Lol.)