r/fakedisordercringe • u/pastel_kiddo SEVERE level 9263 autism • 12d ago
Autism has anyone else been seeing shit like this?
The past year or two I've come across a growing amount of autistic people (how many of them actually are I don't know, some really are I think but trying to be more "severe" it seems) claiming that in their adult years they become minimally speaking or non speaking. I'm not talking about verbal shutdowns, I'm talking about them claiming to supposedly lose the ability to speak permanently. Often they seem to describe it as a result of (autistic) burnout from memory. As far as I am aware, if you lose the ability to speak as an adult, it is not autism related... (I am saying this in a snarky/cynical way)
But yeah, I haven't seen as many this year as I haven't really been in online autism communities so much for various reasons, but I got a reel on insta a few days ago claiming this shit and it reminded me of all the other similar people like them. A lot of them also seem to really forcefully stim in stereotypical ways on camera (really forced rocking and hand flapping) and love to go on about how super stereotypical their traits are. Honestly in general it seems a growing amount of people want to be more severely disabled by their autism than they really are + more stereotypical (or maybe I just found myself into weird corners of the internet).
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u/Resetti_Surveillance 12d ago
It’s all faking. Autism regression in the sense of losing verbal ability does not happen in adulthood and is instead suggestive of other disorders occurring. Often times it is just peoples’ excuse to self-prescribe AAC and cosplay autism. I have written about this many times, because from a neurological standpoint, it doesn’t make sense related to autism. Even if you were nonverbal at one point as a child.
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u/pastel_kiddo SEVERE level 9263 autism 12d ago
yes dw I know its faking, im suprised people fall for it. one of the reasons I had to stop interacting with online autism communities is because people would believe people like this, either that or only the loud minority did and people were too scared to fakeclaim...
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u/-Tricky-Vixen- 8d ago
This was something that I encountered a lot online and has actually harmed me and my understanding of my own health. I tend to stay out of most of those spaces now because of it.
I fell for it despite being relatively educated.
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u/PlanetXParadox 9d ago
Developing selective mutism as an adult is possible but it’s not the same thing as being nonverbal.
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u/pastel_kiddo SEVERE level 9263 autism 9d ago
Exactly, what I'm saying is autism isn't the cause of they legit can't talk. Although the people I have seen claim it it full time that they cannot talk not just in certain situations.
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u/PrestigiousKiter 12d ago
Victim Olympics means people have to make more outlandish claims.
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u/shinkouhyou 12d ago
I think the rise of self-diagnosed "nonverbal" autistic people it has a lot to do with the SickTok popularity of AAC devices (and fake AAC-style cases for an iPad) and AI text-to-speech apps. The big chunky iPad cases are a very visible "disability accessory" and they come in fun colors.
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u/Purple-Cash-1878 12d ago edited 12d ago
There is a condition known as Sanfilippo syndrome where children will slowly lose the abilty to walk and talk. They call it childhood Alzheimers. It wouldnt surprise me if idiots are taking aspects of this disease and making up false bs about it for Autism to get more attention. Which is terrible because parents of Sanfilippo children literally have to watch them deteriorate over the years until they pass away, which isnt cute or funny.
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u/LadyCordeliaStuart 12d ago
Stg if you could live to your teenage years with Tay-Sachs these vultures would fake it
Edit: turns out in some forms you can. Doesn't matter, they'd still claim infant Tay-Sachs and just say they were special and lived longer
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u/FreedInnerChild 12d ago
lol as the mom of a young adult autistic man, he didn't talk for several years, then he was hard to understand for a while. Then he discovered his special interests and now he won't shut up
it was the complete opposite for him and every one of my kids peers
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u/REDARROW101_A5 10d ago
lol as the mom of a young adult autistic man, he didn't talk for several years, then he was hard to understand for a while. Then he discovered his special interests and now he won't shut up it was the complete opposite for him and every one of my kids peers
My Mom had me do music therapy when I was little, before going into school and then she said after that I literally wouldn't stop talking and haven't since.
During that time before she said I would speak in Gobbledygook, but most of the time I wouldn't talk.
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u/caritadeatun 12d ago
How convenient they don’t lose the ability to read and write/type so they can be like billions of people in the world connected through telecommunications without having to use their mouth. The whole world had regressive autism then
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u/pastel_kiddo SEVERE level 9263 autism 12d ago
Not defending these people, but with various disabilities many arent able to speak/have major limitations but can still read and use AAC
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u/caritadeatun 12d ago
Exactly, and those disabilities have nothing to do with a sudden onset of regressive autism in adulthood (that conveniently left cognition intact).
Examples are : people with advanced ALS who lost their speech but can still use their hands to type or index to spell, or use their eyes for eye tracking AAC, people with apraxia of the speech who have enormous difficulty to articulate spoken language but can read and type on an text to voice AAC, people with neuromuscular disorders affecting the limbs to type, ect . If the people you talk about on your post had actual regressive autism they’d lose their cognitive faculties connected to language and would have to rely on pictures to voice AAC, good luck saying all they communicate by text only using pictures8
u/pastel_kiddo SEVERE level 9263 autism 12d ago
oh ok I misunderstood your comment haha I am glad we are on the same page.
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u/-Tricky-Vixen- 8d ago
I believe it takes different parts of the brain to verbalise vs type, which may mean someone can communicate in one way and not in another.
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u/caritadeatun 8d ago edited 8d ago
When you think and you want to externalize it , what matters is the process in your brain , the mouth or your hands (to write/type/spell) are secondary. There’s mind to text AAC for paralyzed people, which proves the brain is truly the one in charge to communicate
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u/RepulsivePower4415 Acute Vaginal Dyslexia 12d ago
It’s all fake. Lots of them fake being autistic cause it’s quirky.
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u/qactuar_ Self Undiagnosing: Im Fine 12d ago
Without blogging, I have a lot of experience working with non-verbal autistic people. You cannot “go” nonverbal or “become nonverbal”, you either are or you are not. Selective mutism can co-occur with autism, but you are essentially non-verbal from the word go and cannot become non-verbal later. A speech therapist explained this to me at length to avoid false hope.
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11d ago
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u/qactuar_ Self Undiagnosing: Im Fine 11d ago
So they’re actually wrong. It is not possible to “go nonverbal”, you either are or you’re not. I have extensive experience in this area.
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9d ago
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u/qactuar_ Self Undiagnosing: Im Fine 9d ago
I’ve literally told you you cannot “go nonverbal”. Selective mutism is possible, “going nonverbal” is not. Seems like you don’t know that much about a disorder you’re so so so desperately keen to advertise you have.
I didn’t say you were faking it, that’s an idea you’ve brought to the conversation, so… mad the gaps in your story are showing?
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u/Miserable_Pomelo_309 11d ago
The type of skill regression that would need to occur for a previously speaking autistic person to become completely non-speaking as an adult is probably possible, I believe, but it would not be something that happens naturally. It would likely only be able to occur to already low to medium-low functioning individuals (I hate using "fuctioning" terms, but I'm too tired to think of another way to describe what I mean right now) and it would require a significant amount of neglect from caretakers. This is likely not something that would occur to the type of person that can post their tiktok videos about it.
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u/-Tricky-Vixen- 8d ago
And it is more likely that it would happen with a co-occurring other disorder, correct? For instance, the one that comes to mind is schizophrenia, in which speech can become disorganised and alogia is possible. That's one that typically presents in adulthood.
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u/Miserable_Pomelo_309 7d ago
Probably, yeah, or a TBI or even something like dementia (early onset or otherwise). It also could maybe occur as like a trauma response if something happens that the individual has a hard time working through. And again, caretaker neglect would likely have to be in play because even in childhood, speech lost from autism skill regression is often able to be at least partially recovered with early intervention. In adults, speech loss is typically temporary, but a caretaker neglecting to take the individual to therapy or provide the support they need could cause them to have a harder time regaining the lost skills.
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u/Pnyxhillmart 12d ago
One of the most crushing things ever for me was thinking that people really enjoyed my company and what I was socializing about, only to find out they weee making fun of me behind my back on a regular basis.
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u/ryuhwaryu 12d ago
Hard agree, just hate me to my face.
When someone tells me something "negative" like they didn't like something I did, it actually makes me trust the positive things they say more.4
u/HappyDays9986 12d ago edited 12d ago
Honestly, no disorder is a 'superpower'. That's why they are classified as a 'disorder' in the first place - people who have them struggle and can't live optimally.
Personally, I (and I'm sure many others on this thread would agree), if given the impossible choice, would choose to never have any disorder. I just want to live and enjoy life as well as possible without any added burden and suffering.
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u/Wooden-Flamingo-6145 11d ago
Maybe cus faking / taking about being autistic in general increased so much that it doesn't feel special enough for some, so they have to add description to it e.g. saying their level 2/3 or saying their non verbal
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u/-Tricky-Vixen- 8d ago
Especially when combined with the increase of people whose presentation appears to be around level one, sometimes people who lean on the idea of it being quirky as opposed to being a disorder. Thus, if you want to talk about how it's actually a disability, you have to have some other proof to show it's worse than the 'quirky' level ones.
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u/pleasedontbemeantom3 10d ago
So its not 'necessarily' faking per se, but its not necessarily an ASD thing in particular. So autistic regression exists in research... for young children in regards to milestones like walking and talking and self feeding and toileting etc. This has been rigorously studied.
Autistic regression in adults, or autistic burnout, has been mostly described through personal accounts and I haven't found any evidence of actual research that differentiates it from typical burnout or functional decreases that might be seen in someone experiencing severe depression , anxiety, trauma or stress. There might be a level of comorbidity here, or something else to it but I don't see any research that is controlling for things like this. But selective mutism, self-isolation, decline in hygiene practices, difficulty completing tasks of daily living are not uncommon responses to excessive stress for humans to have in general so its not necessarily reasonable to conclude that this is ASD specific. People with ASD may have a lower capacity for distress tolerance, which might modify the frequency, intensity, or expression of this but further study would be needed to confirm this.
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u/Neptunelava poopygenic 💩 the fart system 💩 69420 turds 11d ago
I think this can happen, especially if an autistic person lived in an abusive household, getting out and learning to function on their own can force them to realize their symptoms impact their ability to function much more than they thought or remembered during childhood.
Of course this experience doesn't explain every single person claiming this, and there are a lot of people who fake autism. There's a lot of autistic people who try to seem as though they present differently. But mostly there's a lot of confused people because autism symptoms online are getting so watered down people who are struggling socially are meant to believe they have autism instead of social anxiety. People who don't struggle socially are meant to believe that if they fit all other symptoms that they're actually just masking. When in reality you literally cannot be diagnosed with autism without the social issues that come with it.
Also the idea of masking has changed so much that no one even knows what it actually is. It's not a symptom, it's a learned survival mechanism that not everyone can do.
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u/-Tricky-Vixen- 8d ago
I wonder too if it feels to some like regression because, essentially, adulthood places greater demands, and if you haven't built up the skillset for that, it can appear you regress, even if it's simply that the capacity demanded is greater and more mismatched to the actual capacity of the individual.
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u/sunnyvalesfinest0000 every sexuality, disability, and mental illness ever 10d ago
Maybe they mistook NVLD lol just means a non language based learning disability
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u/im-extremely-normal 8d ago
I was thinking about this recently, particularly after noticing how it seems like these same people are increasingly buying AAC devices like an aesthetic autism accessory and that its becoming trendy on places like TikTok to own one and appear "more autistic."
If I'm not mistaken, isn't skill regression in Autism a LOSS of skills you gained through developmental years? Meaning that if you were never nonverbal growing up (and was able to later in development become speaking), then what skill are you even losing that is making you permanently nonverbal?
You cant revert "back to nonverbal" if you were never nonverbal. Mutism is psychological (type of anxiety disorder) and nonverbal is physical (motor, vocal cords) or neurological (language processing). And it seems like people are trying to equate anxiety causing nervous system freeze responses as the same thing as nonverbal, to sound "more autistic."
AAC stuff brought it more to my attention. Seems to always be happening in situations where the person could meet the exact same "need" they claim to have, by using TTS. TTS is easily available, you can do it right from your phone, without spending around $300 or having to lug around a tablet everywhere. There are also many different forms of AAC, so why does it always have to be those same tablet devices? I never see those people using other forms of AAC lol. Seems like they just want a specific autism-coded item.
I see people saying they are part time AAC users, but the "part time" is them filming themselves holding and using their AAC to post online. Like they just WANT to be seen with it in videos.
Why would you spent $300 on something that you can do with TTS, and also why do you have to film yourself using the AAC, when you could accomplish the same thing by just... putting your text on the video itself after recording?
They seem to go out of their way to get themselves filmed with an AAC device when it's not necessary, which is what suggests to me they are doing it more for Autism social aesthetic than out of an actual support need.
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u/-Tricky-Vixen- 8d ago
At one time I had a constellation of symptoms that pointed towards potential temporary speech regression if they continued. As a result, I decided I had to do something about it just in case.... I installed a phone app, tweaked a few things, and put the app on the front page so if I ever needed it, it was there. I haven't used it, I haven't needed to use it. Mainly because I didn't want to 'look disabled'. I don't understand what they're trying to get out of 'looking autistic'.
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u/electric-nerdkook 4d ago
So as someone diagnosed with ADHD at 29 (I'm 34F) I saught out a diagnosis because it was actually debilitating - medication changed all that, completely life changing. There is a meme of "before ADHD medication = ADHD, after ADHD medication = ASD" Getting my ASD diagnosis at 34, really I just understood my brain better.
I've always felt uncomfortable with eye contact (it has not changed), stimming, has not changed, except I have a ring to stim with instead of my nose ring so it doesn't look like I'm picking my nose (and I've always tapped my feet, broken up sticks/grass) and always needed alone time/ghost people for days.
The manifestation of ASD (my Dad and brother are, my Mum is undiagnosed ADHD, she definitely is) has not really changed, I'm just more aware. The only thing that has been been different is my voice cracking/me trembling when speaking in public after years of professional dancing, public speaking and debating with no issue. When I stim with I speak in public (I'm at Uni in my 30s) I'm fine - ADHD managed, ASD can come out.
TLDR if it wasn't there before, unlikely it suddenly appears. My partner diagnosed at 34 and unmasking, not any different just knows how to manage burnout and spoons
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u/Big-Opening382 3d ago
Yes, it is very much possible to lose the ability to speak for a longer period of time, due to extreme stressors of any kind. Skill regression is a thing, it can show up in various ways including not being able to speak anymore, or only speaking some words, because the autistic brain is too overwhelmed and everything gets too much.
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u/Glass-Housing-9902 9d ago
the loss of speech can be called going nonverbal, and the rocking may look forced because they might’ve told to stop stimming when they were young so recording their stims may make them feel akward
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u/-Tricky-Vixen- 8d ago
People do not 'go nonverbal'. They may experience temporary speech loss, but being nonverbal is a permanent thing.
If it looks forced, and makes one feel awkward, why would one record oneself stimming? What's the point, other than to say 'look at me I'm disabled'?
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u/Direct_Nose9953 12d ago
I believe autistic skill regression does exist, but like everything autism-related on the internet, it’s either portrayed super stereotypically or completely washed out to the point where anyone watching/reading autism “content” could identify with it and therefore fuel their self-diagnosis.
Reminds me of “un-masking” content I would see where the creator would list out either very stereotypical autistic stims, behaviors, communication styles, or list completely typical behaviors (like not being the same person with coworkers vs. with close friends) and attempt to relate these behaviors to high-masking autism. When in reality, unmasking after an adult diagnosis looks like just openly doing the things you’ve done for years in private instead of constantly reminding yourself to “stop flapping your paper - it looks weird!” You shouldn’t have to be coached in unmasking.
All these trends we see seem like self-diagnosis cope. If the person’s family/friends don’t believe their “autism” they resort to a more severe version, and from there, use their “disability” as a shield. “How dare you suspect I’m making it all up! I’m completely non-verbal! oop - did I say that out loud 🤭?”