#i don't think you have to be diagnosed with autism to recognise and empathise with those traits i think

[sciderman]

I swear I have read your big post regarding Peter Parker's neurodivergence and why it is best to avoid labelling him, but he definitely has a weird brain

Can't find it and feel kinda sad about it cuz I deeply related to it

i know exactly which post you're talking about and i can't find it either! i've raked through my archive, and it's just - nowhere to be seen. i think tumblr eated it (it happens.)

really, tumblr's search functionality is so so useless, i don't know what to tell you. there are plenty of keywords i can search to find it that post, but the search functionality actually just does not work!

undiagnosed audhd-addled peter parker, my darling, my light, my life, my everything.

i think peter parker's such an interesting creature to write, because a lot of people will point to a certain behaviour about him and say "this is an autistic thing, right?" but a lot of those behaviours are actually, in my head, tied to certain traumas in peter's life too.

people say "oh, the food thing, peter's a picky eater because he's autistic" and yes, absolutely. but also it's tied to his trauma with his parents.

peter gets overstimulated, and yes, it's an autism thing, but also he was bitten by a radioactive spider and his senses are dialled to 11.

it's a similar case i've found for myself, too – where a lot of friends i have kind of diagnose me because i have autistic traits, but actually - i'm hesitant to claim the label or pursue diagnosis because, actually, i know where these certain behaviours come from, and they come from certain traumas. there are events i can pinpoint in my life and say "yep. that's where this behaviour comes from."

so - i think there's a lot of overlap between trauma and autistic traits. the brain is very complex! i think the reason for that overlap is maybe as simple as the fact that people with autism and people with trauma are both doing the same thing - developing behaviours to protect themselves or soothe themselves. so - i think it's nice to be able to see a character like peter parker, who may or may not be autistic, but recognise behaviours in him and see yourself in him.

people who go undiagnosed for whatever reason - people who are really good at masking - so good, in fact, that they have no idea they might be on the spectrum - everyone and anyone at all can look at peter parker and recognise themselves. because i think we discredit the thought that every single brain does the same thing! develops certain behaviours in order to survive. every brain has that same software - we've just all been faced with different hardships that we need to overcome, and that's were all the differences come in.

autism is a spectrum, i guess - everyone falls into it to some degree. and i think events in your life probably push you along on it. but i don't know, i didn't study brain science. probably what i'm saying is very stupid and uninformed. of course there's brain chemistry involved. but i know people in my life living with autism and certain events in their life have exacerbated certain behaviours or made coping with it a lot more difficult. so maybe trauma is a catalyst.

[eeveelutionsforequality]

no, in october 2015 we didn't know what would happen in 2020

this isn't my post, I'm mod vaporeon, a different person, this post was made over seven years ago, and I don't agree with it. I have autism myself, and have done plenty of research on it and other conditions that I have, and whether Flare vs any given person who self-diagnoses does more research is going to depend on the person. some people do make hasty snap decisions, some do thorough research, and any level in-between, and misdiagnosis is possible just like it is with a professional - in fact it's potentially quite a bit more likely when self-diagnosing, because of those who make hasty decisions and because of a lack of access to resources for the average person, but the stakes of misdiagnosis are also lower unless you're self-medicating. that is also why it's different from autism to cancer - one would require urgent medical attention and medication, the other would not, so self-diagnosing with cancer would be pointless without an actual medical diagnosis quickly following (ie the self-diagnosis was self-advocacy and temporary). as the very first reblog says, they're just not comparable in key ways, a major failing of this post. I think the key to responsible self-diagnosis is to recognise its shortcomings, do your research, and be open to being wrong always. Flare never did say, and never believed, that autism needed to be fixed though, and people need to stop putting those words in their mouth - that's cruel and unfair to do to an autistic person (or anyone). there are valid reasons not to seek a professional diagnosis or to be unable to do so - where I live (not america) there's a huge issue with medical services in general (access, wait times, bigoted or lazy drs, etc), and there are specific severe issues with mental health services (even longer wait times, no drs in your area so you have to drive towns over, etc), so I can totally sympathise with lack of access, fear of consequences, etc - as a victim of severe medical abuse for half a year in a psych hospital, I can empathise. hence, I don't agree that self-advocacy and self-diagnosis are always wrong. but I don't think it's responsible pro-self-diagnosis advocacy to be resurrecting a post from seven years ago to accuse my friend of being ignorant of their own disorder and to yell at them about some dark shit - I don't think that is warranted at all. this was dead. nobody had reblogged it in forever as far as I was aware. let it die. I don't know what Flare's opinion is now, I haven't asked and it doesn't really matter because we hardly use this blog now. you told Flare to stop telling people not to self-diagnose and THEY DID, SEVEN YEARS AGO. jesus fucking christ. you're the clown here.

If you wouldn’t self diagnose cancer, why would you self diagnose something like autism?

I’ve never seen anyone honestly self diagnose with cancer, yet I see so many who self diagnose with things like autism. ~Flareon