Austim being used as an insult

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I have never heard autism used in New Zealand in that way. Perhaps it's exclusively an American thing?

I don't ever hear it used as an insult.

I have seen it online. I think it is a younger generations thing

I've seen it on Reddit a few times.

Wonder why Autism is used as an insult, but not some other condition?

Attention has been brought to autism, a lot of attention, the wrong kind, unknowingly, and by misguided people.

It is used as an insult pretty often on the Internet. It never really bothered me though. I don't care.

my mom was watching this show about these little people and one of them called the other one "autistic" and said she was "being autistic" because she didn't understand something. That's pretty terrible ...

I've seen ADHD thrown around a few times... Sometimes, in a humorous way, other times, as an insult.

^same, for OCD and schizophrenia too. It isn't just autism.

Yeah, that's very true, as well.

:0S http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... laims.html

I have never seen OCD or schizophrenia or ADHD being used as insults. I have only seen them being used as buzzwords. "I like my things organized, I am so OCD" "Oh that spelling error makes my OCD go crazy" "Oh that mistake in the tile pattern drives my OCD crazy" and I see all these OCD meme jokes about things being organized or noticing a little difference in a pattern. People with OCD get sick of these and hate all these jokes and the way their mental illness has been turned into a quirk and people self diagnosing themselves with it because they like things neat or organized or in order. And I have seen people with OCD worrying about being a schizophrenic and I think that is legitimate.

And I have heard a few times already how all kids have ADHD or lot of kids. I have also seen the same with the words panic attack and trigger and people with anxiety and PTSD get offended by how those words are used. People will put the word trigger to mean it will offend people or get them upset, not that it will give them flash backs and bring back their past and memories and those feelings.

I am not saying these don't ever get used as insults, I just haven't seen it yet. But I am hesitant to say how I used to be OCD about a clean house because I am afraid other OCD people will think I am one of those people misusing it. But an interesting thing I have sometimes seen on an OCD forum is people going on there and asking about their OCD and talking about their obsession and I would notice their obsession seems to be leaning more towards ASD than OCD because of what they are obsessing about and not being able to stop. Unless they say something like how they feel stressed out about it and how they think something bad will happen if they don't know all the lines from a movie, then I will think OCD.

If someone tried to insult me by calling me autistic, I'd take it as a compliment.

They definitely get used as buzzwords, on occasion I've seen that spill into insult too. At school one of my classmates was very bright and popular but prone to anger. He was a bit upset one day and another boy said something like "ooh, I better watch out or you'll go f*****g schizo on me". That kind of blurs the line between buzzword and insult, especially as (unbeknownst to the boy who had said it), my classmate's mother actually was schizophrenic, and he couldn't live with her because of it. Doubtless he was also afraid that he might be like his mother; he definitely took it as an insult anyway.

Similarly I've heard people say 'oh God, why'd you have to be so OCD about everything ' etc., which I guess is either complementary or insulting depending on your connotations of OCD.

You Autistic!

I have heard of many conditions being used as insults: blind, deaf, ret*d, spastic, adhd, ocd, schizophrenic, autistic, bipolar...

... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_disability-related_terms_with_negative_connotations