People lying about having autism

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Have you ever met someone that lies about having autism? It pisses me off when people lie about having this s**t. Autism is a serious disorder and I can't fathom why anyone would want the type of "attention" it gets you.

There's someone on another forum that says he was "diagnosed with autism", but "doesn't identify with it" or think he's actually autistic or relate with autistic people, and who changes the diagnosis he got like, every 5 minutes. First it was Asperger's, then it was PDD-NOS, now they got "rediagnosed" as an adult with "BAP" under the DSM5, which isn't even a diagnosis nor do they use the DSM 5 in this person's country. Literally all they do too is talk about how much they hate having autism and how much autistic people suck, and just spread negativity and lies about autism. They also give their opinion on what autistic people should care about and have problems with, as if it's any of their lying ass business.

I've often felt like a portion of people who are suspected of faking autism, also (actually?) have it (whether diagnosed or not), but also have so much other stuff going on that there's not really a real them to analyze or get to know or whatever.

With that in mind, I assume this person probably is lonely as hell, wracked with self-loathing and compensates with this sort of attention-seeking behaviour.

Wah, I don't want to be autistic, I'm going to rage against autism.

It makes me think of the sorts of people one might encounter on 4chan, where a big portion of the hostility towards autistics and autism is internalized. It isn't "normies" trying to troll the autists, autists are way over-represented, especially if the not-yet-diagnosed are included. It's largely NDs trolling NDs. It's not as though having autism means one won't engage in trollish behaviour.

Based on my experiences in spaces that are either explicitly autistic, or are at least prone to attracting a higher than average number of us, trollish personalities seem to be over-represented. I assume it's something to do with it being a source of reward stimulus.

Maybe I just struggle to understand how someone without autism would fixate on autism thoroughly enough to fake it consistently, or even just what would keep them interested in RPing as someone with autism to troll an obscure forum.

Like, I can understand if it was paying their bills because they're some sort of influencer, but just for the lulz?

I don't know, maybe I'm just very naive and there's a bunch of people faking it.

But, if he's anything like the woman who used to post here who was a bit similar, she almost certainly had it and just hated being one of us. She just had a bunch of other issues too. But, he might be different. I don't think I've encountered him.

I'm not sure why anyone would want to have a neurological disorder or why anyone would want to lie about having one. It has become somewhat trendy to have ASD these days, but as far as I'm concerned, it's nothing to toss around casually. It's a serious condition and it can have a devastating impact on the person who has it.

I think people who are perceived as faking it are often probably just misunderstood.

A person whose diagnosis changes might be re-evaluated for example, by a different provider of assessments, and they may genuinely have more than one different type of autism diagnosis.

Add to that there may be people who initially lie about having a diagnosis to fit in, but who then get a real diagnosis further down the line.

Another explanation may be people who have autism, who do not want to get diagnosed, and self-diagnose and pretend to other people they have been formally diagnosed.

In regards to disliking having autism - I think this is normal since autism can socially alienate a person and reduce employment and life opportunities. What is not to love about that?

I just straight up think this guy has Munchausens. He does a lot of things to get attention and is very reactive and aggressive.

In my opinion, Factitious disorder is a disability in itself. From what I have read, if these people believe they have a mental or neurological condition. Then they present symptoms much like the illness itself, and may need the same kind of clutches as those with the disorder. In alot of cases this illness can not be cured, only managed.

With that being said, claiming to have been diagnosed ASD is a lot different from stating that they believe they have autism, plenty of people self diagnose and that's completely fine as a lot of those with the condition have masked well enough to never have received a formal diagnosis. Claiming to have been diagnosed with an illness when they have not is fraud. A blatant lie meant to deceive.

Edit:added context

I think the perception of an Autism wannabes phenomenon is a much bigger problem than the actual amount of people deliberately faking it or misdiagnosing themselves because they think it will make them trendy or to excuse bad behavior. It might get them a lot of likes online but as soon as they hit the real world they will be dissuaded of these delusions. When I joined this site ten years ago a lot of people here were angry about Autism being a fad. Fads by definition are temporary, they don't last a decade.

What has remained consistent over my decade here is the perception of Autism being a fad has caused
1. Friends and family to dismiss people who have been professionally diagnosed never mind those who mention they might be autistic.

2. Imposter syndrome even among professionally diagnosed.

What happens is that instead of getting the benefits from finding out one is or might be autistic, they are riddled with self-doubt and self hate believing themselves to be an attention-seeking narcissist or have some other character flaw(s). Heartbreaking thing.

another possibility regarding some of this behavior (lying about diagnosis or anything else) is that they are baiting others for sport. I know of several people who go onto web discussion pages and post outrageous stuff just to get a reaction. I have learned to scroll on by and not be engaged with those folks, use a block button if one is available. Too many cranks and crackpots out there misusing the internet, I don't want to go there.

There's certainly a trend of people online who fake having autism I guess to use it as an excuse to get out of being a responsible adult. Sometimes I feel like I am not autistic because I can function better than these people i.e. work, socialize, and try to keep myself composed. And then I have a sensory overload going to the goddamn grocery store.

My bf has a cousin who claims that she is autistic. She does not work, never went to college, and lives with her parents. There have been attempts to get her to do something, but she says that she's too anxious. However, she isn't anxious to do things she wants to do - things that are fun like hobbies. This behavior from her shaped a nasty opinion about autism to my bf, where he made an offhand comment and I had to correct him. It was our one and only """fight""". (I wouldn't even call it a fight, he just upset me and I was brutally honest with my feelings being diagnosed, my experience growing up, basically telling him if you say if you refuse to believe me, I will end this relationship. It was a month of dating.) I took what he said with a grain of salt, because I had not met her. I was only getting his word and I wanted to be more nuanced with it.

I met said cousin this summer and I don't think she is autistic. I find it to be quite the opposite. I feel like she is attention seeking and using this serious condition as an excuse to get out of trying to do SOMETHING. Now, I only met her once. I do not know her well, I do not know if this is how she masks around other people, or just family. One person experiences autism differently than another. There were just these little things though that she kept doing that I didn't understand. If anything, she was a normie, but like I said prior a bit attention-seeking. Maybe that is how she thinks to communicate?? I don't know.

Google & self diagnosis phenomenon

I do have concerns about the fad element, some of the influencer etc stuff that can entice people.

I wouldn’t have called myself autistic until diagnosed and even then I still feel a degree of imposter syndrome and weariness. I do recognise not everyone can get a dx, I have family with more difficulties than I have who are clearly autistic but can’t get into the assessment pathway due to rubbish gps and can’t afford to go private either.

They wouldn't pretend to have autism if they understood even half of how debilitating it is and how much it affects its sufferers lives.

The only problem with people faking being autistic or people wrongly self-diagnose themselves is that it can get other people the wrong impression of what the autistic traits actually are. Autism is a spectrum - that makes it harder to call the bluff if you think somebody is a little bit odd for being autistic.