Anyone else really bothered by TikTok ASD portrayals?

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I remember one of my classmates in college saying something quirky and proceeding to say “sorry I might have ADHD with a hint of autism”. She is the last person who could have any one of them.Even if she did, she would not give a s**t rather than just landing a fricking job ,kissing up to everyone ,saying s**t to peoples face, loosing people’s belongings.This girl has not boundaries and does everything with a bad intent.really pisses me off. People really love glamorising autism and ADHD.And if I actually tell them I have Asperger’s syndrome they will have no idea what it is, cause they only know the stereotypes.TikTok is terrible platform and now Instagram is really getting into their strategy and using their platform as a secondary form of TikTok.It’s threatening I feel.

I've got a diagnosis, and I don't know what I'm talking about either.

What does "#actuallyautistic" mean please?

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37544970/

An example

The tag was made to differentiate between posts made by autistic people versus parents or caretakers of autistic people

So if I make a post and hashtag it with #actuallyautistic, it means I'm an autistic person speaking.

yeah. on tumblr it was kind of bad, but tiktok ((like it usually does)) worsens things. i feel a lot of people just read the five most basic things about autism and play into it.

i'm not the biggest fan of self-diagnosing. i understand the reasons why, and then not being able to afford to see someone you can, but you can also be self-diagnosing the wrong issue. a lot of symptoms for other disorders overlap with traits of autism. that doesn't necessarily mean you have autism. when i was getting screened for autism, i was also screened for ADHD since they are so close. a lot of people can have adhd, autism, or both (AuHD? is that the term?)

when i was first really deep diving into autism and learning about "female" autism, it was a bit of a wtf moment of how much i related but i didnt want to say i was "autistic" because i didn't know if i was. i didn't declare "i am autistic", it was more of a "this is kinda weird maybe i should get assessed anyway because of [other mental issues i have caused by trauma].

i've also met a lot of self-diagnosed people (not with autism, but with other things) who turned out to not be nice folks, so partial confirmation bias on my part. i can't help but side-eye a bit.

I self-diagnosed (with input from my therapist) for about 2 or 3 months before finally saying "f**k it" and looking into a professional diagnosis. Was lucky to find someone who could get me in their schedule fairly quickly and then just barely got a loan approved. I did manage to pay it.

Granted, I had spent years reading up on mental disorders. I was professionally diagnosed with anxiety and mood disorders long before autism. And very poorly diagnosed with ADHD. ADHD is still on my records, but I don't think it belongs there.

I ultimately chose to get a professional diagnosis. I am 59 years old, and live in the UK. As others on here have said, there may be good reasons for someone to choose not to get a diagnosis, e.g. it may in certain circumstances and in certain countries cause a disadvantage to have a registered disability, and it may also be expensive.

I self-diagnosed for several years. I originally started researching autism when I became aware that someone close to me might be autistic, in order to try and understand and help them. The more I learned, the more I realised it applied to me as well.

What I did do, though, was research in the right places - I started with Attwood, read other accredited sources, looked in on the NAS and lurked on this forum.

In my opinion, researching any medical issue, not just autism, indiscriminately on the internet - and especially on social media - is not going to lead to good results.

Thank you, does that refer to self diagnosed people too?

I dont really understand "AuDHD" it feels like a bit of made up group identity tantamount to "brangelina" anxiety and depression are closely linked, OCD, BPD etc we cant just decide we are DEPANX

One would assume self-diagnosed people qualify as people with autism as opposed to the caretakers or guardians of someone with autism, no?

It just refers to being diagnosed with both ADHD and autism, likely because having both is a different experience compared to only having autism or ADHD alone.

And actually, if people with depression and anxiety chose to self-identify with DEPANX they'd be completely entitled to. It's not a medical diagnosis, it's only a label for people to gather around.

It was also the fact that when I looked into "female" autism something really clicked for me and thus I had to explore further.

I haven't been screened yet, but I really do want to. I have hesitated to self-diagnose myself. I have come to forums like this and relate with you all but am always afraid I'm "intruding" since I haven't been screened.

I recognize that traits I have that I see as potentially autistic could be a result of trauma, other traits I could be twisting/playing up, other traits I could be misunderstanding entirely. I do not want to apply something to myself when it's not certain. I want professional assessment and opinion.

Another big reason not to apply a self-diagnosis is that I want to know the truth. I am exploring myself with no goal other than understanding myself and why I am the way I am. If it turns out that the traits I'm reading as potentially autistic are actually something else, then so be it. I just want to know what that is.

But right now I'm leaning autism certainly being a distinct possibility, what with the significant percentage of coinciding with ADHD (which I have been diagnosed with) and the traits as they are. It's certainly worth a look and worth a screening.

Directly on-topic: I don't watch much TikTok. I do not much care for the short video format. Most of social media videos I have consumed on this matter have been on YouTube. But I think (or at least hope) that I am keeping a level head here. I'm not going to diagnose myself based off of social media videos. Absolutely not!

This sounds pretty typical of the imposter syndrome that a lot of late diagnosed folks with autism experience.

Yes

TikTok is junk it’s sad so many people seem addicted to it.

It does seem to be a place for odd balls to voice their opinion which will inevitably attract those with autism or other issues.

As much as it annoys me when someone tries to apply a blanket one size fits all opinion on the subject I guess it’s called free speech and don’t really see it stopping or being stopped.

Possibility more dangerous is attempts to sugar coat autism or silence those with more serious symptoms in a misplaced effort to reduce stigma.