Page 1 of 23 [ 361 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 23  Next

autism0
Butterfly
Butterfly

User avatar

Joined: 20 Mar 2008
Gender: Male
Posts: 12

21 Mar 2008, 10:19 pm

I've learned about people faking being autistic and faking being aspergers. They are (1) non-autistic and non-aspergers people with (2) other mental illnesses, who then (3) decided that acting autistic or aspergers makes them, for example, (a) happy (is of therapeutic benefit), (b) feel like they have a place and role, (c) get sympathy from others, and so on.

Of the people who do this, they have other mental illnesses. Some unfortunate possibilities are they were subjected to horrible abuse in different forms in their early lives, and/or they have one or more unfortunate personality disorders that also involve extreme difficulties with how they conduct their lives ... the point is they are in general turmoil, and have never been able to live with general consistency and enjoyment.

The artificial adoption of aspergers, or autism, even profound autism (though extremely rare), is of incredible therapeutic value for them. This involves a letting-go of having to fit in, it provides an legitimate excuse for their problems, people have great sympathy for them, people will help them emotionally and financially, and so on. And their obligations to themselves and others are greatly lessened. And they are not held to high standards any longer, and as such do not feel bound by what others expect of them. They retreat into the safety of autism or aspergers, and retreat from the typical social world.

I find this to be a very creative approach by them, to deal with an otherwise horrific situation they are dealing with. The intentional adoption of autism or aspergers, as therapy.

And going so far as to take a vow of silence. A vow of being intentionally non-verbal. And to never look at people's faces again. It eases their burden.

Anyone else here of this type of occurrence?



Last edited by autism0 on 24 Mar 2008, 12:02 pm, edited 4 times in total.

sinsboldly
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Nov 2006
Gender: Female
Posts: 13,488
Location: Bandon-by-the-Sea, Oregon

21 Mar 2008, 10:57 pm

they probably can't sustain it for long . . .


Merle



Danielismyname
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 2 Apr 2007
Age: 42
Gender: Male
Posts: 8,565

21 Mar 2008, 11:15 pm

You wouldn't be able to do it out there, there's just too many nuances one would need to emulate; how one responds spontaneously will be far too ingrained in who they've always been, it's how professionals can "spot" people with even "mild" autism, it's just too easy to see in most cases. I'm sure a professional actor could do it for scripted media, but that's about it.

I haven't heard of it.



Noelle
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

User avatar

Joined: 6 Mar 2008
Age: 45
Gender: Female
Posts: 61

21 Mar 2008, 11:42 pm

To play a role in a film? Can't find any other way where faking it is a benefit.

There is no real reason I can think of to fake autism in everyday life. It's too complicated to fake, and there are zero benefits from faking it.

It is not typical of any NT to fake it.



Pithlet
Velociraptor
Velociraptor

User avatar

Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Age: 41
Gender: Female
Posts: 436

22 Mar 2008, 12:07 am

The way I see it is if someone wanted to fake it, the only possible benefits would be to get attention, sympathy, and/or special treatment. Now to fake something like autism at any level would take up constant concentration and energy to realistically maintain. Not to mention how isolating and inconvienient that would be just to get the above mentioned when it would be much much easier to get those by faking an illness or condition that can believably come and go and doesn't have such complicated and socially limiting behaviors tied to it. Also, to try and get gov. assistace, again there are easier and more convienient things to fake to get that kind of stuff. Even then, many real autistics aren't even gaurenteed to get the help they legitmately need, so why gamble with something that's really hard to pull off? Why autism? I really see no advantage to it. That doesn't mean I think it's impossible. I just think that if that kind of thing happens, it must be so rare it's not even worth puzzling over.



IdahoAspie
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 29 Nov 2007
Age: 49
Gender: Male
Posts: 726

22 Mar 2008, 12:07 am

If someone did that, they probably would have something else wrong with them mentally that would get them a diagnosis. IOW, I think that illness would get them more benifiets than Aspergers or Autism.

I don't get anything but ignored or treated like a moron when I tell people I am Autistic. I don't get any benifiets, just grief and humiliation.

But I do say, soak your diagnosis for all it is worth. Not because it is good to take advantage of the system, it isn't. But because if you have Aspergers or Autism, the world is screwing you everyday, and you got to get everything you can. Once people figure out how naive you are, they will take you for everything, even things you didn't know you had.

Idaho Aspie



RainKing
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 16 Mar 2008
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Posts: 316

22 Mar 2008, 12:31 am

Yeah, it would be therapeutic in the same way that it's therapeutic for someone with an eating problem to just let go and get 600 pounds. The person who fakes autism makes himself feel better, but not in a healthy way, because he only digs himself deeper into whatever psychosis he has going on. You probably already know that. Maybe there are some of those people on here, but I don't know. If you think there are, and you want to be able to undersand better whether someone has autism or AS, educate yourself a lot more about it and see if they act consistent with it. I've seen people on the internet bickering about other people "self-diagnosing" themselves incorrectly, but I believe that they have exaggerated a lot.



jawbrodt
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 26 Jan 2008
Age: 49
Gender: Male
Posts: 7,766
Location: Eastern USA

22 Mar 2008, 12:39 am

I have heard of people faking illnesses/conditions, in an attempt to qualify for SS disability payments. I think it would be much easier, saying that you have back problems, etc... The amount of effort required to convincingly pull-off a fake AS/Autism diagnosis, would be enormous, and hardly worth the effort. I'm sure someone has tried it though. :roll:


_________________
Those who speak, don't know.

Those who know, don't speak.


nomad21
Toucan
Toucan

User avatar

Joined: 16 Feb 2008
Age: 33
Gender: Male
Posts: 276

22 Mar 2008, 12:58 am

I would think that would be pretty hard. There's so many things the NT would have to think about to pretend to be like us, he/she couldn't possibly keep it up that long. I also think it might be kind of obvious especially to a medical professional or an Autie/Aspie, because someone faking it would probably follow the symptoms word-for-word from what they read on some website on the internet, including the misconceptions about Autism.



sinsboldly
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Nov 2006
Gender: Female
Posts: 13,488
Location: Bandon-by-the-Sea, Oregon

22 Mar 2008, 1:03 am

IdahoAspie wrote:
If someone did that, they probably would have something else wrong with them mentally that would get them a diagnosis. IOW, I think that illness would get them more benifiets than Aspergers or Autism.

Idaho Aspie



:lol: Isn't that the truth! Aspergers is more than a list of symptoms someone can try to mimic, and if anyone knew AS that well, and is faking it should be teaching, not faking!



Merle



Aaron_Mason
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 3 Jul 2005
Age: 38
Gender: Male
Posts: 511
Location: Bathurst, Australia

22 Mar 2008, 1:50 am

Hi,

I've been accused of this many times - and every single accuser is someone I don't know, and who doesn't know me. There are people who think I do, and those people came to me about it. My parents. Some people I have told have gotten to know me and believed it too - my first GF was doing psychology at uni, and an Aspie came to one of her lectures, and she said she saw a lot of me in him.

But yeah, I've been burned by this before - it doesn't bother me because it's by people who don't know me, and most of it is from people who haven't even met me. All because they know people with ASDs and I'm nothing like them - or to them they are just "ret*ds" (I HATE the word, I'm sorry for using it) who wouldn't be in uni. One person (who has never met me) even had the hide to suggest I had Munchausen's syndrome. Bigoted bastards.


_________________
We are one, we are strong... the more you hold us down, the more we press on - Creed, "What If"

AS is definitive. Reality is frequently inaccurate.

I'm the same as I was when I was six years old - Modest Mouse


Danielismyname
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 2 Apr 2007
Age: 42
Gender: Male
Posts: 8,565

22 Mar 2008, 1:57 am

autism0,

With your update: generally, you'll need past history for validation when you go to be diagnosed, a parent for example. We know that ASDs are there since birth, and even in the most "mild" of cases, there's always been some outward sign of difference, usually profound when looking back (the child played by his or herself under the age of four for example).

Something like schizophrenia would be quite a bit easier to "fake", and it's of as great a severity as ASDs; they have social withdrawal too, but it's of a different manifestation, and easier to emulate IMO.

Personally, I find it more sobering when people haven't been diagnosed with the disorder claim to have it on the 'net due to taking a test, they then speak under the guise of having an ASD; this presents a false image of the disorders in question. Self-diagnosis is important when one was missed when younger, but it's not verification, and people shouldn't speak of "life with autism" when it's not certain that they have it.



Brandon-J
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 Mar 2008
Age: 35
Gender: Male
Posts: 669
Location: North Carolina, USA

22 Mar 2008, 2:21 am

Why would anybody want to fake being an aspie? It doesn't make any sense



2ukenkerl
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 19 Jul 2007
Age: 63
Gender: Male
Posts: 6,231

22 Mar 2008, 2:35 am

Danielismyname wrote:
autism0,

With your update: generally, you'll need past history for validation when you go to be diagnosed, a parent for example. We know that ASDs are there since birth, and even in the most "mild" of cases, there's always been some outward sign of difference, usually profound when looking back (the child played by his or herself under the age of four for example).

Something like schizophrenia would be quite a bit easier to "fake", and it's of as great a severity as ASDs; they have social withdrawal too, but it's of a different manifestation, and easier to emulate IMO.

Personally, I find it more sobering when people haven't been diagnosed with the disorder claim to have it on the 'net due to taking a test, they then speak under the guise of having an ASD; this presents a false image of the disorders in question. Self-diagnosis is important when one was missed when younger, but it's not verification, and people shouldn't speak of "life with autism" when it's not certain that they have it.


Well, It would take a very haughty person to speak of themselves as the epitome of an autistic person, but they can certainly identify with a particular trait, and speak of living with that. NO "professional" could speak towards that better than the individual.

SO, if people speak of sensitivity to sound/light, insensitivity to temperature, certain repetitive behaviors, etc... and peoples reactions to them, I can certainly identify, relate, and explain it with regard to my life. No other person can. I know some of my problems pale next to yours, but I can STILL identify with some of yours. I believe I have AS because of so much evidence. Even if I didn't, the facts are facts, and no claims about some "professional" claiming he knows how I have been since birth will change that.

Frankly, I am surprised my MOTHER recalls me speaking of skewed senses, and noticed me covering my ears in pain when a fire alarm went off. I have seen literally HUNDREDS of people around me in SCHOOLS, WORK, and HOMES, that didn't react like that. SOMETHING is different. Even NOW, I am up because I lost track of time working on an interest.(I have now been up for 22 HOURS)! BTW The talk about skewed senses, etc.... started before 1968 when I was less than 5! I certainly wouldn't have even wanted to pretend that I was in any way less tolerant of such things. When my mother is gone, or forgets, I won't even have corroboration! It won't make it any less true though.



sinsboldly
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Nov 2006
Gender: Female
Posts: 13,488
Location: Bandon-by-the-Sea, Oregon

22 Mar 2008, 3:00 am

Danielismyname wrote:
autism0,

With your update: generally, you'll need past history for validation when you go to be diagnosed, a parent for example. We know that ASDs are there since birth, and even in the most "mild" of cases, there's always been some outward sign of difference, usually profound when looking back (the child played by his or herself under the age of four for example).

Something like schizophrenia would be quite a bit easier to "fake", and it's of as great a severity as ASDs; they have social withdrawal too, but it's of a different manifestation, and easier to emulate IMO.

Personally, I find it more sobering when people haven't been diagnosed with the disorder claim to have it on the 'net due to taking a test, they then speak under the guise of having an ASD; this presents a false image of the disorders in question. Self-diagnosis is important when one was missed when younger, but it's not verification, and people shouldn't speak of "life with autism" when it's not certain that they have it.


of course, I can't speak of annointed psychologist giving me the high sign, the secret handshake and the key to the executive washroom once I was inducted into the Diagnosed Aspie Club (no NTs allowed!) but you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

Merle



Danielismyname
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 2 Apr 2007
Age: 42
Gender: Male
Posts: 8,565

22 Mar 2008, 3:31 am

I know what audible hallucinations sound like, but I don't say I have schizophrenia; if I thought I did, I'd take one of those tests, and I did, I scored high on such, but I've been assessed for schizophrenia, and a professional found that I didn't have it. I can read anecdotes, clinical sites, and bend myself to fit the diagnostic criteria, and hey, I probably can--too bad I manifest nothing like someone with the aforementioned disorder, no matter how much I think I do. The professionals define and see these disorders in action; they know what to look for.

Simple.