Are people really faking autism?

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I keep hearing about a bunch of people thinking autism is a cool trend and pretending to be autistic because they think it's cool. If this is true, this is horrible, but I'm wondering if that's what's actually what's going on. I don't really go on TikTok, and I'm afraid to look at autism related vids there, but I watch YouTubers who comment on TikTok because I like psychology. These YouTubers show videos and say they're faking, but I've only seen a very few where they have been able to prove it in any substancial way other than just what's posted on the Fake Disorder Cringe subreddit. Are these people really faking or are they just high masking?

I think any behaviour pattern or disorder that is well known will get copied online to some extent. There can be many different reasons for it: seeking attention, self esteem, wanting to seem unique, wanting to gain interest/followers.

On the other hand, a lot of people who are accused of being fakers may deep down have genuine concerns about having autism. So it won’t be easy or straightforward to say who is just pretending and who isn’t.

How on earth would the YTers know other people are faking it unless they're diagnosticians with access to their testing records, in which case they'd lose their licence for disclosing confidential medical information?

It sounds to me like the YTers don't necessarily know what autism is. Maybe the focus should be on educating them.

I'm sure there have been some fakers for whatever reason, or people who think they are but aren't, but it sounds like the commentators are blowing it out of proportion and doing a disservice to us all for clicks.

Not this again.

I have been reading about this so called epidemic of autism wannabes since I joined this site 11 years ago.

There are hundreds of millions of people in this world so there are fakers out there. The problem is not so much the fakers but the perception of an epidemic of them. Unless a person is a professional entertainer people look down on fakers. This problem leads to a lot of Autism denial. I seen this denial happen in a number of different ways. People wondering if they are autistic, seeking a diagnosis, or even those that have received a diagnosis being told by friends and loved ones that autism is a “fake disease”, “disease of the month”, “just a label”. They are told that they are using autism to excuse bad behavior, they are attention seekers or drama queens. Sometimes they do not need to be told just from reading about the “epidemic” they convince themselves they are a faker and don’t bother seeking a diagnosis. If I got paid for every time I read a post from a diagnosed member wondering if they are an attention seeking faker or convinced that they somehow faked the person who diagnosed them I would be a rich man. In this situation instead of moving forward with their lives with a much better understanding of who they are they are stuck in a negative loop of self doubt. These are among the most heartbreaking posts I read here.

As for the actual fakers they are most likely faking the most stereotype traits leading to NT’s misunderstanding us even more. If they are doing it to be cool or trendy once they get into the non virtual, non school world they are going to find autism is not considered so cool. They will put their mistake behind them and get on with their lives. We having to deal with the stereotypes they promulgated do not have that option.

Not everyone can distinguish a masking autistic with low support levels struggling their whole life (of any age, diagnosed or not) from anyone who's on a phase of finding their identity (developmentally teenagers or young adults) and are in a generation obsessed with labels as some sort of trend (prone to copy anyone or claim associations with the name of psychological belonging).

The so-called epidemic can be applied to sexual attraction, transgender issues, labels of ADHD, DID, BPD, etc.
Psychopathy and sociopathy is still somewhat trendy though somewhere abroad.
I can say the same things with lifestyles, dares, and all sorts of fashion trends.

And it's only going to be worse with continuous unregulated content and access in the internet.

It's a double edge sword of awareness; being seen and known with a chance of understanding, at a cost of discernment by bandwagons.



Anyone can deny my autism (not that they ever need to know that).
But no one can deny my neurodivergence. They can't. They just can't. Not even as an undiagnosed 5 year old.

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I'm sure some people are, there's just too many people on the planet for it to be zero. But, I think the more common issue is with people being misdiagnosed either as autistic when it's something else or as something else when they're autistic.

I keep hearing people swearing up and down that other people are faking it, but in all honesty, I just don't see what's in it for people to fake this diagnosis in particular when there are easier to fake diagnoses that come with a bunch of the same "perks" of being autistic without the same level of stigma. If somebody just wants accommodations, anxiety and depression are a lot easier to fake.

Munchausen Syndrome seems to have become an epidemic thanks to social media. And it's not just physical illness or disorders the "munchies" love to fake, many of them feign psychological disorders and autism as well. It's infuriating that they do this when so many people who are really on the spectrum have to go through all kinds of hell every day due to living in a world that won't accept our brains being different.

I worry that people will think I'm faking it. After all, I can make eye contact, I don't wear noise cancelling headphones or stim a lot. That's because I'm either low-support or high masking and we're all different.

the level of depravity to fake autism is in itself a symptom of a psychopathological disorder

i had a close acquaintance tell me he had a hard time seeing autism in me. perhaps because he himself has autistic traits but high-functions without thinking about himself being on the spectrum.

It could be a matter of whether autistic traits are severe enough to be disabling. It's possible most of those 6% wouldn't have been diagnosed because they never had a strong reason to seek help.

I've been accused of faking my diagnosis because I am not screaming, throwing feces, flapping my hands and making those vocalization sounds that non-verbal Autistic people do.

My wife and a mental health professional both thought I had autism. The professional was doing an internship at one of those places that lock people up for their own safety so you could say that he'd literally seen it all.

Face blindness and savant level memory skills are two of the most obvious signs of autism.
I'd flip though a book absorb a surprising amount of information.
Not normal.

But, my real issue is that I'm transgender and can't pass as my birth sex in social situations.

A little diet an exercise and I now have obscenely thin waistline and an hourglass figure!
Waist to hip ratio is 0.65! One rarely sees that at my age!