POTENTIALLY DUMB QUESTION ALERT, but I'm here for a reason.
I have SEVERE ADHD which a lot of the time feels like I'm bordering on autism when it comes to specific interactions. I've developed a habit of just, throwing out the phrase "oh, I'm just hella autistic" as a reason if I do something weird in a social interaction, like get overly passionate about something or get awkward or whatever.
I've never been formally diagnosed with autism, but I've had therapists suggest I may be autistic. Idk why I keep fucking saying that I'm "autistic" I feel like it's just easier to both say and explain as opposed to "oh I'm neurodivergent" or "Oh im just mentally ill :3" Its also cus I assume most people know what Autism looks like and thus I dont have to explain as much, as most people dont know what severe ADHD looks like and I assume most dont even take ADHD that seriously.
Is that something to just throw around like that?? 'Cause I have friends who actually are autistic, and after hyperfixating on all kinds of mental health research, I don't exactly fit the bar for autism, I'm wayyyyy too outgoing and sociable(?) among other things. My symptoms fit more under severe ADHD or potentially even AuADHD. Which I also have no idea how I can go about getting a diagnosis.
Autism is very fashionable these days so claiming the label if you haven't been diagnosed seems a bit pretentious, though of course nothing really stops you. Apparently the main diagnostic markers involve your behaviour when you were a little kid, as opposed to whether you're sociable or whatever in the present. I don't know what benefits (if any) exist to being diagnosed, but if you try to get that, the clinicians will probably want to interview your parents abour your childhood, if they can.
ADHD can be treated with meds but autism is untreatable afaik. You're better off without autism.
Maybe fashionable for a select group of rich weirdos & their egirls. That's an odd generalization
There's a lot of people who idolize autism as something that makes people quirky and smart, mainly because a ton of billionaire CEOs have it
*claim to have it. It is my hypothesis that some of them use the autism label to explain why their experiences and behaviour differs from their peers: many of of them exhibit something like lack of empathy, envy, need for admiration and control and it smells more like a personality disorder to me which is less palatable to bear than autism would in their mind.
A lot of smart scientists too. There's a biography of Paul Dirac (one of the founders of quantum mechanics) called "The Strangest Man" with a chapter about how Dirac was (in the author's view) probably autistic. There's another book "The Pattern Seekers" about autism and creativity, and a couple of similar books by psychiatrist Michael Fitzgerald. I can imagine seeing this stuff and wanting to become autistic because of that, probably a bad idea. Anyway, fashionable in certain circles at least.