Some people make it up

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I've felt this at times too. Someone serving me at a shop or someone I stop to ask a question. There's definitely a spectrum vibe I've picked up on from some people. Not that we know for sure. You'd have to ask and I never have. I picked the guy from my old comic book shop for an aspie and I think his way of saying the same thing about me was saying 'I've been told I might have Asperger's syndome' like he was trying to bring it up. But I didn't take the bait, I just nodded dumbly. I feel like I have an better rapport with people like this too. It's probably just a heightened sensitivity to notice people you could get along with.

Do you think the doctor meant he or she thought you do that, StarCity? I have trouble understanding how this idea could help anyone, and hope this was just an offhand remark.

It still makes no sense.
To get any of that stuff you'd have to get an official diagnosis.

No trained psychologist/psychiatrist worth his salt would be fooled for a minute, because the person would have to lie extensively about their life and everything about it to fake being ASD, and no one can lie convincingly enough to someone like that about that much stuff and not trigger alarm bells, which questioning the stories the person is telling would quickly confirm.

It just makes no sense.
You couldn't even fake it if you wanted to.
It's a pervasive developmental disorder, it affects nearly every aspect of one's life.
How could anyone reasonably expect to fake that convincingly for long enough to get a diagnosis?

Moreover, even if you did somehow manage to slip by a less than observant doctor & get diagnosed, the pay-off for such an elaborate ruse seems ridculously small given the amount of effort necessary.

The only explanation with a decent possibility of occuring, imho, to make someone want to fake an ASD to get a diagnosis is that they're suffering from a deep-seated psychological problem which is keeping them from thinking rationally about what they're doing.
Fortunately, shrinks are trained to spot that sort of thing, so it seems like the probability of a faker succeeding would be infintesimal, unles of course the shirnk was in on it, though the shrink'd have to be fairly unhinged to do that as well, given the consequences of getting caught and the limited to non-existant pay-off.

Again, I really don't get why anyone with the slightest shred of rationality would attempt such a thing.

well, since Aspies are said to have great difficulty with lying I would think a person would have to be one hell of a good actor to pull it off. And what would be the benefit of pretending to have AS?

People mistake trying to live with who you are as being about wanting to have AS. It isn't the same thing, but the idea of someone wanting to have AS has stuck and professionals don't approve of it. I think the idea how hard it is to live with--and just look at all the suicide threads here, it is hard to live with--is just really hard to understand if you're not living it.

I don't believe it...maybe a few people try it here and there but I don't think they would be able to get very far with it. There's not much to be gained by faking Asperger's or autism. I think a person who just wants to fake a disability to get benefits would pick something else.

I think it's possible that some people may sincerely believe they have an ASD, when they actually have a different psychological or neurological disorder. It would be bad if a person who really needs help, doesn't get help because they are perceived as faking it.

There are all kinds of people in the world, so there are probably some people, likely a small number, researching autism and faking autism based on that research and possibly succeeding at this activity due to lack of definitive physical tests for autism and subjectiveness of diagnostic process.

it's our version of gay-dar. (i have inside knowledge of this phenomenon because my BFF is gay. )

Not in my case. I'm at a loss about how to prevent people from feeling sorry for me.

I think people either want to go on SSI benefits or want somewhere to fit in. It's not like you can be prescribed Ritalin for it. Well, sometimes you can but it's much easier to just fake having ADHD or buy it on the streets, or get it from a friend.

I've never heard of a reported case, but it's conceivable that someone with Munchausen syndrome might try to fake autism. It's relatively rare, and autism is pretty difficult to fake because of the long childhood history, but it could happen. Munchausen syndrome is a mental illness, though, so it's not like these are people who are just doing it to mess with other people. They have real issues that they need to work through themselves.

It would probably be easier to pretend to be autistic over the Internet. I haven't heard of a case like this, either, but it could happen, and it's easier than trying to fake autism and get yourself diagnosed and treated in real life. "Munchausen by internet", I've heard it called--people faking illness, telling dramatic stories, pulling other people into it.

There was one guy some time ago who came here claiming his autistic son was talking about killing himself, and after a bit of research and logic it turned out he was lying. The thread got deleted within a few days. So that's the closest I've seen to someone faking autism--well, at any rate, faking that their child had autism. Munchausen by proxy by Internet? Hmm... At least it's not as harmful as actually making your child sick, but it isn't exactly the behavior of a model citizen either.

I have had some people spot it immediately (two before I knew), and some people say "no way, you can't be autistic."



Why would someone want to fake it? The only possible reason I can think of is to "explain" a number of other problems in their life that they'd like to attribute to a "disorder" as a means of saying "none of this is REALLY my fault." I'm not sure I'd actually call that "faking" though (not in the sense of outright deception/fabrication built on nothing)--rather, "grasping at straws."

Those people I actually have some sympathy for--it's not to get attention, nor to get benefits (as others have pointed out, that is ridiculously difficult even with a professional diagnosis)--it is to explain why they seem to have such difficulty with certain things, while the real reasons for said difficulties may lie somewhere else entirely (of their own making or not).

A few people have accused me of faking it. Yes, I am self-diagnosed, and I have had my doubts occasionally, but I am not "faking" anything. Believe me, some aspects of my life would be much easier without the "traits" that (for me) add up to AS.

I am sure in reality the amount of people who do that are very slim...and if they are trying to fake AS its likely they have some other issue needing addressed, but I think its more likely some people read about autism/aspergers and might think they have it but could be wrong and haven't had it diagnosed but I don't think there is a lot of people intentionally 'faking' the condition.

I knew a person online who told me he had brain damage from getting hit by a car. He knew I had AS and he got interested in it and then he saw he had traits and then he started to act worse and get annoying and then he started to obsess about it and worry about having it and wasn't happy. His behavior got worse and worse and it was like he wanted to have it and he no longer cared about how he made me feel, wouldn't listen to me or leave me alone, he started to harass me and then he was stalking me because he had so many different screen names and he would just get a new screen name or log onto a different one to talk to me again. He did get a diagnoses and it was NVLD I read in a post of his online and then he managed to get his AS diagnoses a few years ago. Reason why I am skeptical about his AS is because he was not the way he was when we met and he got worse after he started looking it up and he used to ask me tons of questions about it. I wonder if he was trying to mimic the symptoms so he was asking me about it and I thought he was just curious and wanted t learn more about it. I do think he has something and it's not autism because other people had issues with him too with his behavior so it wasn't just me who had problems with him and the fact he dismisses your feelings or try and blame it on you. One time someone I was talking to online was being bothered by him and he told him he was making him uncomfortable and harassing him and he said back to him "The only one who is harassing you is you" something like that.

This.

If someone has enough problems in their life that they start considering whether they might have a disorder like autism, then even if they're completely wrong about the autism, it's highly unlikely that they're wrong about there being something amiss.

This is part of why I think it is very important that mental health services be available to everyone, and that stigma related to having sought mental health services should be eliminated. People should not have to try to do their own doctoring because they can't get an evaluation, or because if they do, they'll be subject to stigma and discrimination for having a mental health diagnosis. And once they do get a professional evaluation, there needs to be some kind of quality control so that people don't end up with incompetent doctors.

It's totally possible for somebody to think they're autistic, and self-diagnose autism, and be wrong about it, and actually have some other disorder. It's probably even possible for somebody to mistake relatively mild problems, such as being an introvert among extroverts, for something more serious. But these are people in some degree of distress who are trying to find answers and solutions for their problems, and who for some reason cannot get a proper evaluation. That's called "being mistaken", though. Not "faking".

Just because there doesn't seem to be a good reason to fake a disorder doesn't mean that people don't do it. As I mentioned earlier, there are all kinds of people in the world, and some, likely few, fake autism or other mental disorders for reasons that I don't understand, but maybe they do, or maybe they don't either.

agreed,though sometimes its not so simple as that sometimes as have personaly found out-there are some people who fake autism through having disasociative identity disorder-with their 'alters' having it.
some people with borderline personality do it because they have no sense of self identity and latch on to other peoples identities and experiences.

some people only attention seek online as its the only way they cant get found out so they probably woudnt fit the munchausens diagnosis.

quite a few WPers and mods are aware of the circumstances of mine on WP; ie was severely groomed,mimicked,threatened and bullied plus used the info of mine as a base for his own experiences;sometimes copied word for word,he used it across the internet as a way to get pity;he was using a host of sock puppet accounts to pretend he has moderate and severe autism,his main account [he was pretending to be this woman with model looks but his pic came up in a google image search as being someone famous] and the account where he pretended to be the ever so caring and burdened boy friend were banned but his sock puppets are clearly obvious on WP and he still tries to private message to 'groom' so have had to just basicaly forget about using PM as self protection and find it difficult to speak to those who look genuine through it.

his sockpuppets are stil obvious,he is a notorious sockpuppeter on many disability related forums.
-ended up sectioned for four months because of him.