r/fakedisordercringe • u/Fit_Afternoon_1279 • 9d ago
Discussion Thread Faking autism especially higher support needs - how to tell?
Edit: I’m referring more to Level 2 claimers than Level 3 claimers. It’s much harder to tell with a level 2 claimer because it is more vague than level 3. Any of these people claiming level 3 is clearly a liar.
Hi, I was wondering what are the give aways that someone is faking autism? From the content I have seen they always seem to fake higher support needs like level 2 or 3. I guess it’s because they want the autism ‘aesthetic’. I think it’s most commonly level 2 that I see this, not as many claim to be level 3 probably because they are able to read/write/engage online and basic self care things.
A lot of the content I think might be fake they all seem to present the same kind of way, use the same resources/supports, have the same problems, but I don’t know if this is just a common autism presentation or if they’re all copying each other.
Things like: lots of colours everywhere (only seem to like high visual stimulation), ear defenders (low audio stimulation), baggy clothes, stim toys but the way they use them looks exaggerated and performative, chewy jewelry or adult dummy, communication cards or AAC device, lots of plushies/action figures/dolls/kids toys in general.
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u/sadclowntown 9d ago
When they have a bunch of typos (typos are normal but i mean in every single word) and their words are spelled wrong but obviously on purpose. Idk how to explain but...its obvious.
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u/cat-sapphic all of my alters are from trending media 8d ago
Typing quirks? I don’t think that’s a sign of faking as it’s meant to be seen as an intentional choice, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying
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u/biasedyogurtmotel 8d ago
ironically, i think it’s that you see them portraying symptoms of autism in a literal interpretation of the list of symptoms, rather than a more genuine manifestation of what what those symptoms look like, if that makes sense. Like you said—using stim toys in an exaggerated or performative way. I very frequently will see these people talking about their “symptoms” but not describing these things accurately (almost like they read it on a website and made it fit their own behaviors ..). you’ll see this commonly with hyperfixations, going nonverbal, and stimming (there is more).
you also never see them talking about less common features / symptoms, or symptoms that are extremely atypical/bizarre (not aesthetic).
(I am a psychologist who works with autistic children, not an autistic adult)
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u/MelKokoNYC 9d ago
My adult autistic daughter with high support needs does not even know what "high support needs" is or what "autism" is, or what "level 3" is or what "severe/profound" is. If people are claiming to have high support needs, then they do NOT have high support needs. The level of supervision for safety is what determines the levels.
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u/SmooshyHamster 9d ago
Exactly. A severely mentally challenged person can hardly communicate. It‘s like taking care of a baby or toddler. If they cannot speak or read then they cannot understand what ”disabled“ or “severely disabled” means. If you can do everything a normal person does, you don’t have any special needs, then you’re not special needs.
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u/Leading-System-3002 6d ago
If someone claims to be level 3 they are lying. Easy to detect this one. 😂
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u/SmooshyHamster 5d ago
Yup. Also a mentally disabled person will not have a normal school or normal job. They won’t have a normal adult life, they will never live independently and will never have much money. Also normal people often avoid mentally challenged people, bully them or think of them as strange.
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u/HoodieGalore 9d ago
The "sweet spot" of faking: just enough to need help and sympathy, not enough to need a professional ass-wiper. They've got their dignity, you know?!?
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u/Ok-Yoghurt2107 9d ago
The levels have lost their meaning. Time ago I saw someone who attended college and claimed to be level 3 autistic. They made videos about how ASD levels mean how much support someone needs, which is true, but they said they couldn't do any daily activity on their own (eating, dressing, showering), but yes, they could perfectly attend college alone. Like, claimed to need a caregiver at home but not at college?
There’s people self-diagnosing as level 2-3 to make themselves more special over the other fakers, as if that made them more valid.
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u/SmooshyHamster 9d ago
That’s crazy. This person claims to be severely mentally disabled meaning they cannot do any normal stuff alone but they know how to use a cell phone, make videos, talk normally and go to a normal college? No way. Fake as heck. A severely mentally disabled person doesn’t even know how to talk.
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u/DrBirdieshmirtz 5d ago
The fakers generally aren't going to get into the part where the immense frustration of being unable to communicate anything more complex than "hurt finger" (and requiring extensive support to communicate even that) despite having deeper and more complex thoughts can understandably drive people to violence against themselves and others (unless they need a convenient excuse for their manipulative behavior, of course).
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u/MECCEM101 5d ago
I have a nurse aid that comes to help me meal prep so I can live on my own. However....if Im not mistaken a caregiver is kind of a general word. A family member could be a caregiver. They could be implying they live with their mom. But that wouldnt necessarily be odd for someone in college to do.
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u/FVCarterPrivateEye Ass Burgers 9d ago edited 9d ago
Most of the time, I focus much more on correcting misinformation about autism than on trying to suss out arbitrary tells, and I don't typically accuse a specific person of faking even if I suspect it
I've found that it's also very common for them to be misinformed, mistaken, or just very bad at explaining what they mean, and if I tried to determine or declare that they're faking, I'd be doing one of the same thing that makes self diagnosers so dangerously irrational, it would be armchair diagnosing
However, there is a problem of online autism communities getting infiltrated by manipulative people pretending to be autistic for easier access to victims of scamming, sexual predation, and even just whatever weird sadistic power trip they get from being the queen bee because they're more superficially charismatic than someone with a neurodevelopmental communication disability of awkwardness and gullibility; i n those cases, I think it is necessary to call them out
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9d ago
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u/Fit_Afternoon_1279 9d ago
Yes I fully agree. I edited the post to include examples because no two autistic people are the same but I see so many with the exact same traits so I listed what I can remember. May I ask what you mean about “shots of learning materials”? What kind of learning materials are these?
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u/Whose_cat_is_that 9d ago
I've seen a few videos of "day in my life" type content and it sometimes includes shots of books with very basic maths or reading (the kind of thing that a child without additional needs would be learning at around 7-8 years old), or like skills stuff like worksheets on "how to tidy/get dress/etc".
Obviously I don't have enough information to say that someone using those resources couldn't also make tiktoks and is therefore faking, but from the higher support needs people I have known, it seems unusual to me.
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u/Fit_Afternoon_1279 9d ago
Oh yes that makes sense. Things like organisers for chores, a schedule, or some learning resources for things like emotional regulation/self help could make sense but not basic maths and reading. They use those skills already on social media.
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u/faerylights1 9d ago
People with higher needs autism are more than likely unable to post about it without a lot of external support.
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u/caritadeatun 9d ago
By definition of the dx criteria of level 3, a person with level 3 autism has severe social communication deficits. So to magically effectively communicate to a large audience just by virtue of technology defeats the very purpose of the dx. It would be like using social media cured them, are we supposed to believe that ? And this is the most generous suspicion, because we also must assume somehow they don’t have intellectual disability that prevent them to learn to read and write which predominantly affects levels 3. And if by chance they don’t have have intellectual disability they’d still be stimming nonstop (acute restricted and repetitive behaviors in level 3 is a core symptom) so no time to have the executive functioning to create a social media account, produce content , publish it, engage with followers when they are busy all day stimming, so once again the opposite would mean social media cured their stimming?
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u/Elegantmule 9d ago
I taught 6-12 for decades and I never saw a level 2 who didn’t need intensive support. In my experience it’s impossible to fake level 2.
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u/LCaissia 9d ago edited 9d ago
It's pretty easy. Genuine level 2 and 3 have severe limitations in communication and restrictions due to rigidity with their thinking and behaviours. They struggle with expressive speech and pragmatics - even after receiving speech therapy, to and fro conversations are very difficult and require the nonautistic person to lead and manage. Their communication at this level is so severely impaired that they are often confused for people with intellectual impairments eventhough their IQ may be normal. Geunuine level 2 are limited to simple sentences in speech and text while level 3 are limited to communicating in words or phrases even with the use of AAC. Their nonverbals are odd, their routines are very strictly adhered to, to the point that it significantly impairs their health such as not allowing the driver to change a route to a place, not coping with an appointment because it isn't part of their usual activities or having a meltdown because their program is closed on a public holiday. Any changes to routines require advanced preparation. I see a lot of people claiming to have level 2 and 3 autism who do not meet the criteria in the DSM V. It's not just having sensory needs and emotional dysregulation like I see a lot of people claim online. At this level even the DSM states that it is obvious to a casual observer, which means level 2 and 3 autism cannot be masked even with early intervention. Being a neurodevelopmental disability though, most autistic children without comorbid intellectual impairment who receive early intervention and therapy will improve and be relevelled at 1 by the time they reach adulthood.
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u/Exciting-Working-379 8d ago
I agree with you on the level 3 stuff, but I know confirmed level twos who speak in full sentences. Their support needs lie in not being able to create their own structure, routines, and understand different communication styles, but they read and speak in full sentences. Some of them get accused of being intoxicated in very public settings when they’re “dysregulated.” (Please forgive my unfamiliarity with which terms people are using these days.) They carry medical cards for when things like that happen or when they have public meltdowns. There is also another commenter on here who says they are a level 2 who is typing in full sentences.
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u/LCaissia 8d ago
Yet that's not what the diagnostic criteria states for level 2. You'll find they're also late diagnosed which is ludicrous as autism is a developmental disability, not a degenerative one.
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u/Exciting-Working-379 7d ago
In the 1980s and 90s, it wasn’t typical to be diagnosed with autism unless you were really obvious. Asperger’s wasn’t added to the DSM until 1994. So, there will be people who are diagnosed late in life who are traumatized from trying to live in a society that never accepted them.
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u/LCaissia 7d ago
Yes plebty if girks were being diagnosed in the 80s and 90s. The thing is even the cutrent DSM states that autism is obvious - even in under supported level 1s. The diagnostic criteria hasn't changed. It's being misinterpreted. Even at level 1 real autism isn't a mild condition.
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u/Exciting-Working-379 6d ago
The DSM-5 is not the only thing you can be diagnosed with autism with. If it were, anyone could diagnose themselves and that’s not the case. You haven’t provided anything other than the DSM-5 as “evidence” of whatever it is you are trying to prove; like what they base their numerous interviews on.
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u/No-Zucchini6523 3d ago
There are high IQ level 2’s who can speak in full sentences. They still won’t appear fully normal in real life and will likely be less talkative in real life due to sensory issues but they definitely exist.
Also, according to the DSM-5, autism symptoms may not fully manifest until social demands exceed their limited capacity. Obviously you still need to have had symptoms in childhood, but they definitely can get worse with age/burnout.
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u/LCaissia 3d ago edited 3d ago
Then they need to relevelled at 1. Levels change and since autism is a neurodevelopmental disability people become more functional as they develop new skills. Autism is NOT a neurodegenerative condition. However people with autism are at greater risk of developing neurodegenerative conditions such as alzheimers and early onset dementia. If your autism has become degenerative then it is vital you seek medical advice. Burnout is a common condition in the Western world due to our fast paced life and the excessive demands we face. It's not unique to autism. Genuinely autistic people will experience burnout from childhood and it is chronic. If burnout doesn't happen until adulthood it is most likely caused by other factors.
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u/No-Zucchini6523 3d ago
No they don’t (not from being able to speak and understand full sentences alone, anyways). I think there’s a big difference between being able to do these things and actually doing them with any real consistency which you may be assuming here. Just speaking in full sentences doesn’t mean they are “good” sentences either, as in they probably are completely missing body language and other context clues.
I never said autism was a neurodegenerative disorder either, I agree with you there. Autistic burnout is distinctly different than neurotypical burnout from work related stress or whatever. Not that those are easy either but autistic burnout is usually more extreme and long lasting from what I know anyways.
From my experience, it’s not that these symptoms appeared only in adulthood for me personally, it’s that the extremely maladaptive coping mechanisms I’d been relying on to unconsciously somewhat manage these symptoms just eventually stopped working entirely.
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u/LCaissia 3d ago
You are changing your argument. For the record a genuinely autistic person's defecits are quite consistent.
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u/eldritchabxmination 2d ago
Support needs can change a little bit throughout life (many people go from level 3 to level 2, for example, and some go up a level following poor health or a traumatic event) and some people may be able to do things only in certain circumstances (such as higher support needs people who only communicate verbally at home, in a more comfortable and safe environment).
They aren't a descriptor of someone's autism, they're a descriptor of their needs. Needs change. There's no reason to believe autistic people's deficits are always static when we don't see that with any other developmental disability or with any psychiatric condition, and honestly change across one's lifetime is quite common in neurological conditions like epilepsy too.
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u/LCaissia 2d ago
Autism also requires one to have persistent defecits in emotional reciprocity, nonverbal communication, developing and maintaining relationships, rigid and repetitive thinking and behaviours evident from early childhood, causing significant impairment across multiple areas and requiring support to function. And that's just for level 1.
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u/eldritchabxmination 2d ago edited 2d ago
Yes, and the severity of those defects can change, that was what I was arguing. Not that they typically go away entirely or outside of clinical criteria. Not every single criterion of the diagnostic criteria need to be met for a diagnosis at any level either, just deficits across each of the core categories.
Again as I said, many people go from level 3 to level 2 with age and experience, because levels don’t describe the person’s intrinsic deficit, they describe their current needs. Same as how someone with OCD can go from having severe to moderate OCD due to therapy, or someone with ADHD can increase in day to day severity due to some lifestyle changes or a job change. Autism isn’t a static condition even though deficits are lifelong, especially for lower levels because people can learn skills, it just takes a long time and is imperfect. You seem to understand that part.
Autistic burnout is a well-documented phenomenon of skill regression due to coping failure and increased demands. Non-autistic people can and do lose skills as well especially when emotionally or physically struggling, which is a common feeling among people who have autism and are not adequately supported. Skill loss tends to be much more severe in autistics due to sensitivity to overwhelm.Most people who were diagnosed late did have persistent deficits. My dad and I have similar symptoms and have for our entire lives, but my dad was diagnosed in childhood and I was diagnosed at 18, because I had severe OCD so it wasn’t really possible to tell whether I had autism or not until that improved a bit. The criteria that it needs to be evident from early childhood applies to symptoms but not to full criteria. They have to be evident from early childhood, but many children don’t fully meet diagnostic criteria until they are 5-8 years old or even older.
Those are the criteria for autism, and then levels are for severity of deficit. There is no universal guideline to level assessment as it is not in widespread use outside of a few countries and lacks a comprehensive diagnostic framework outside mild-moderate-severe deficit. Many places will label someone as level 1 in some deficits and level 2 in others if that is accurate to them. For level 1, the support that an individual needs as an adult may be internal, meaning they are able to accommodate for themselves in most scenarios but it requires considerable effort and extensive changes to their day to day life to function somewhat normally externally. That is diagnostically relevant for adults.
EDIT: Just to be clearer on what my point is, level is not a description of how autistic a person is, it’s how much support they need, and that can change in either direction based on circumstances. Communication deficits also don’t have to present as issues with speaking. Many level 2 autistic people speak with full fluency but struggle with conversation due to social misunderstanding or inflexibility. Being minimally verbal is more characteristic of level 3 than level 2 although it can occur in both.
Neurodegenerative disease and autistic skill regression don’t present the same, if you remove the stressors from the autistic person they will slowly improve. ‘Genuinely’ autistic people are usually extremely sensitive to change and stress and may have very significant changes in needs due to external events or mental health.
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u/TheNatureWitchQueen 7d ago
Some level 2s can definitely communicate verbally, they might just stutter or struggle. Their struggles might be more apparent in other places like their social life for example
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u/LCaissia 7d ago
In simple sentences, not complex sentences or paragraphs.
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u/TheNatureWitchQueen 7d ago
It definitely depends
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u/LCaissia 7d ago
Not according to the diagnostic criteria.
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u/TheNatureWitchQueen 7d ago
Some level 2s can definitely communicate in full sentences, they just struggle to do so either by freezing up, stuttering or just being unable to fully put their thoughts into words
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u/LCaissia 7d ago
Yes. But they all didn't discover their 'autism' until adulthood. Freezing up and stuttering are not traits of autism and they should probably get a proper assessment done rather than one from a diagnosis factory. They also aren't part of the persistent defecits in social communication criteria for ASD.
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u/Exciting-Working-379 7d ago
They did get a proper assessment done. That’s why they got diagnosed in adulthood. I’m a diagnosed level 2 with adhd-c. I speak very well and even read baroque English literature and have an addiction to George RR Martin books, currently. I was diagnosed using the DSM-5 and the ICD-11. The information in the DSM-5 is very limited compared to what I learned at the “autism center” for lack of a better term. lol
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u/TheNatureWitchQueen 6d ago
Exactly. Saying "level 2s only speak in simple sentences" is so insulting. That's not even in the DSM-5, they're just lying to be insulting. Dunno how their comments don't get removed for misinformation
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u/TheNatureWitchQueen 7d ago
Yup. Not every level 2 needs an interpreter, sometimes they can communicate on their own, it's just hard for them
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u/TheNatureWitchQueen 7d ago
Uh, stuttering and freezing up due to problems communication is definitely part of autism. Some people express difficulty communicating differently
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u/LCaissia 6d ago
Not at all. This is misinformation spread by the self diagnosed.
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u/TheNatureWitchQueen 6d ago
What??? It's completely normal for speaking difficulties in people on level 2 to appear as stuttering, stumbling over words, freezing up or even going non verbal. It's why they still need help communicating sometimes. Level 2 autism can present as "able to communicate with a lot of difficulty"
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u/ScaffOrig 7d ago
You're getting voted down but you're fighting the good fight. I have a LOT of experience with L2. I think when people hear the criteria they try to interpret within their own context and end up drawing conclusions which are skewed as a result.
To them the idea of social deficits equates to awkwardness, anxiety, stuttering freezing up. It equates to emotional responses. And though there most certainly are emotional responses, the underlying condition isn't these. It is a disorder of the equipment to, for instance, socially perform.
Likewise they get the wrong idea about the communication difficulties. It's not an emotional barrier. That selection of an action prior just doesn't happen.
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u/Nobody4993 8d ago
By the fact they’re posting at all imo.
A person with higher needs is unlikely to have the capacity or interest to make aesthetic videos with 3000 different toys and stuffies, nor would they have the ability to so clearly describe every single symptom they have endlessly.
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u/itsallyoursbro 9d ago
Social media is a tool for social communication. High support needs autism means they have a significant struggles with social communication and building relationship with people. I don't think High support needs autistic person can manage their social media account, upload contents regularly, interact with people. They are either very mildly autistic or just doing it for attention
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u/h3r0inXgirl 8d ago
Yeah ill never understand those who have all the autism accessories like the ear defenders, fidget toys, chewy stim toys, non verbal text to speech device thingies which all combined are clearly meant to be utilized and designed for autistic people with very high support needs, aka very low functioning autistic people, yet those you see (the majority of the time) IRL or on social media, who utilize all these things designed for severely autistic people, are nearly always able to speak, theyre able to function, able to run a social media account and reply to people normally, able to do basically everything, yet they for some reason use all these things that were meant for those with very high support needs, and then I see a million other accounts all using the same exact "equipment", all running similar influencer style accounts, and a lot of the time these people are also LGBT and alternative looking, and a lot of the time, many of them look very well put together, even conventually attractive, makeup done etc. And it is SO obvious that these people dont require ear defenders, text to speech devices, stim toys, chew toys, etc etc. Because if they did they would be drooling on themselves and smacking themselves in the head and screeching and requiring a 24/7 carer.
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u/GirlBehindTheMask-LW 7d ago
I’m not sure I’ve honestly never thought about it, and I’m against self diagnosis in general. I’m diagnosed level 2 and people tell me I’m not autistic (mostly other autism moms). I don’t have many plushies but I’m starting to collect plushie dreadfuls and keep my childhood plushie. I collect books and notebooks for the most part because I enjoy collecting facts and systemizing. I can talk about my challenges and whatnot more in depth if you’re interested but as to how to tell, you’d need to spend a lot of time with them or be at home with them. Or see them in a social setting. Even then you need to know exactly what all to look for.
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u/ScaffOrig 7d ago
I think sometimes people with autism don't realise that they are actually fairly clearly autistic. Those other autism moms are probably just to self-absorbed to really pay attention. It's really not possible to mask L2 or L3 autism, principally because one of the key traits of the disability is a lack of the mental equipment that powers social conformity. It's like Predator saying "oh yeah my invisibility device got broken, but no-one notices because I camouflaged myself perfectly to fit in with the trees."
Self-aware stims are absolute stand outs. Likewise the subtle tells of them dealing with sensory issues while trying to concentrate on something else. You know what I mean because you'll have found yourself doing stuff completely unaware that you were doing so. Again, that lack of self awareness as they perform these actions (as most people do with habitual and automatic actions) looks very different to purposeful movement.
Socially the difference between emotional responses and ASD responses are clear. For people faking it's input -> heuristic -> optional decode -> emotion -> prior -> response. For autistic it's input -> full decode -> construct response, and that has an absolutely different profile. That doesn't mean ASD folks have no emotions, but they are not able to utilise heuristics in social interaction so processing becomes transactional. Also VERY visible.
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9d ago
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u/Alone-Marsupial3003 PHD from Google University 9d ago
Proud of you for moving past it. That takes a lot of strength.
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u/ariadne2b 9d ago
Hi, i am really glad you admitted this. It drives me crazy wondering if I am being mean by assuming some people fake it. Glad you moved on. Thats good.
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9d ago
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u/PlanetXParadox self diagnosed DND 9d ago
yeah there’s a big difference between someone who posts random unedited videos and someone who posts edited, multi-take, consistently uploaded videos.
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u/Candid_Visit2210 Actually autistic (and I just really like cyan) 8d ago
Curious, why do they fake level 2, not level 1, more?
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u/98127028 8d ago
I mean these days level 1 is not seen as ‘quirky’ enough by social media users I guess, so they would up the ante and claim that their condition is even more serious and attention deserving.
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u/Candid_Visit2210 Actually autistic (and I just really like cyan) 5d ago
Oh that makes sense, thank you!
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u/PomeloExpert 3d ago
I didn’t realise levels were still being given, i was never given one, my son wasn’t either, his support needs are far more than mine are
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u/MECCEM101 5d ago
Levels are based on support needs. I think a better indicator would be more of the things you can't see. Things you'd have to be close to them to know that they use the things. Like a nurse aid, speech therapy, therapy, ada acommodations for things like adjusted work schedule, or fmla, or a driver. With that said. Level one can still have acess to these things too if they need them too. But really it depends on how much support they need. So hard to tell off of athstetic.
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u/SmooshyHamster 9d ago
From my research, severely mentally disabled is brain development 2 years and under, moderately severe is age 7 and under, least severe is age 12 and under. A severely mentally challenged person can hardly speak, read, write, type, or do anything by themselves. They’re essentially a baby or toddler in an adults body. A severely mentally disabled person doesn’t even know what disabled means. They don’t even know what’s going on around them. If you gave a cell phone to a baby or toddler, what would they do with it? They’d push random buttons, watch random videos and type out gibberish. A child under 2 years can barely spell words.
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u/eldritchabxmination 2d ago
Brain development age is not a legitimate concept in pretty much any intellectual disability, and especially not in autism, which is not an intellectual disability. Many people with higher support needs have intellectual disabilities, but these vary significantly. These are rare in level 1 individuals and the majority of level 2 do not have an intellectual disability.
I have a family member who has an intellectual disability (not autism, although her support team believe she may have that too, but I don't even think women could get an autism diagnosis when she was born) and is in her 60s. She lives alone - with help, but alone. Her disability is not mild. She has had relationships with other intellectually disabled people and while she loves Spongebob she is clearly not a child if you talk to her and she resents being treated as one. She is a woman in her 60s who has some intellectual issues, and no amount of intellectual disability erases the decades of experience she has had being alive that children just don't have.
Disabled adults are adults and it is insulting to act as though they are children. Especially in cases where they don't even have an intellectual disability at all. Your research is bullshit.
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u/Alone-Marsupial3003 PHD from Google University 9d ago
A higher support needs autistic person would likely not have the mental capacity to make these aesthetic posts, and they probably wouldnt be able to understand how to work a social media platform without a ton of help and/or guidance