#dazai is autistic

[sh1nsoukoku]

Pls tell me all dazai autism traits in ur list

OMG I AM SO GLAD YOU ASKED, yes yes yes…

I want to preface this by saying this is in no means supposed to be canon facts or a diagnosis, I just think he is a very autistic-coded character coming from my own experiences as an autistic adult!

Long post under the cut because I don’t know how to stfu!!!

We will start with my main reasoning:

As we know, Dazai and his ability are based off of the work No Longer Human. Dazai being similar to the main character Yozo. Yozo is a kind of “stand in” for the real life author Osamu Dazai as No Longer Human contains a lot of real events from the author’s life. BSD Dazai and Yozo’s main similarities are the disconnection from others and high masking. Here are two quotes from the book:

“All I feel are the assaults of apprehension and terror at the thought that I am the only one who is entirely unlike the rest. It is almost impossible for me to converse with other people. What should I talk about? How should I say it? - I don’t know.”

This is incredibly similar to the lived experiences of Autistic people. I used to feel like an alien, or just fundamentally different than others. We tend to also struggle with communicating and other social dynamics. Dazai feels isolated from others, let’s very few people close, and searches for meaning by observing other humans and life and death itself. He quotes this as his reason for joining the Mafia. He also processes emotion differently, at odds with people around him.

“I managed to maintain on the surface a smile which never deserted my lips; this was the accommodation I offered to others, a most precarious achievement performed by me only at the cost of excruciating efforts within.”

This is one of the best descriptions I have read of Autistic Masking. Dazai HIGHLY masks. Dazai is known for not showing his true thoughts/feelings/opinions often in BSD. He can code switch easily, serious in one moment and then covering it with his over the top silly/unusual/maniacal personality. In NLH this is described as “clowning.” I also think Dazai’s genius “always according to plan” thing is sometimes a mask, so he doesn’t show the fact that he’s working hard to pull strings and figure things out.

He does have some insane pattern recognition though which is also an autistic attribute!

And now for the more surface level reasons:

Repetitive Behavior/Media Consumption: Dazai reads the same book over and over again. The Ultimate Guide to Suicide is a book he’s had with him since his PM days and he tells Atsushi that he already knows everything it says because he’s read it hundreds of times. A very common autistic trait!

Restricted Diet: Dazai seems to have a limited diet consisting of alcohol and canned crab! It’s a same food/safe food he has often. His room was described to be full of discarded cans of crab and bottles. Limited diets are common in autistic people.

Stimming: Dazai stims! He is a very wiggly and stimmy person. There’s several scenes where he is seen humming and singing or making little silly noises.

Dazai and his headphones are so important to me.. he seems to wear them frequently around the office. It could be noise cancelling or auditory stimulation that he likes.

The man never sits normally on a chair which is something I think a lot of neurodivergent people can relate to.

And of course floor time! Shown by him rolling around when stressed, laying on the rooftop and a few instances in Wan! like the marshmallow scene.

Also you can’t tell me that this is not two burnt out autistics after overworking their brains…

[neitherworldly1]

Further evidence, your honor!

Diagnostic Criteria for 299.00 Autism Spectrum Disorder To meet diagnostic criteria for ASD according to DSM-5, a Dazai must have persistent deficits in each of three areas of social communication and interaction (see A.1. through A.3. below) plus at least two of three types of restricted, repetitive behaviors (see B.1. through B.3. below). A. Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts, as manifested by the following:

Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity: a. Dazai is bad at boundaries; b. Often responds to anger with amusement or confusion; takes threats as jokes; c. Does not respond to situations with expected sympathy, but with pragmatism; d. Is not present in conversations, and gets confused and thrown off when conversations don't go as scripted; e. Lacks expected social tact.

Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors: a. Avoids eye contact; b. Looks through people; c. Does not like being touched; d. Does not maintain normal social distance, often either is too close or too far away; e. Does not give visual keys that he is paying attention.

Deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships: a. Does not code switch unless for manipulation purposes, instead of fitting into social norms; b. Does not let people in, only sees relationships as an exchange c. Inappropriate with his subordinates; d. Disrespects those of higher authority, often disregarding direct orders without due reason; e. Does not understand the emotional reasoning behind others relationships with him, only thinks of them logistically.

B. Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities, as manifested by at least two of the following:

Stereotyped or repetitive motor movements: a. Is constantly stimming, fidgeting, or fiddling; b. Sits in unusual poses; c. Irregular movement patterns, hops instead of runs; d. Meows and makes other verbal tics.

Insistence on sameness, inflexible adherence to routines: a. Continually rereads the same book; b. Diet almost entirely consists of crab and alcohol; c. Carries sentimental objects at all times; d. Gets upset when things don't go according to plan.

Hyper- or hyporeactivity to sensory input: a. Wears noise-cancelling headphones even when not listening to music; b. Wears bandages over his whole body; c. Hates pain and discomfort, despite his ideation; d. Dissociates to loud noises.

DIAGNOSIS: Dazai is 2 silli

[yutamayo]

[i-eat-mold]

can you imagine being Nakahara Chuuya, 15 years old? for starters you’re 15 which by itself is a nightmare but whatever. you’re the head of this weird kid gang in the slumps where you grew up and btw you also don’t remember anything that happened before the age of 8. you can manipulate gravity which is pretty cool and you have some friends ish that you have to protect (aka said gang members that are also just kids and early teenagers) because you just have a heart so big that won’t fit inside your ribcage but whatever. and you know how 15yos are they have like their own language and behavior for each of their own little social groups and if you don’t act or talk or whatever that way then you’re like really weird, but whatever.

one day you find this weird kid that is dressed like he walked right out of his own funeral and is also covered in bandages and just won’t fucking shut up. he’s the most annoying *thing* you’ve ever seen even though he’s barely alive. You obviously beat him up right away and then he becomes even weirder. suddenly you’re stuck with the weirdest boy you could have ever imagined. he’s the dumbest person alive, he communicates by staring into your soul with his one(1) empty void of an eye and saying absolutely nothing. he acts like he has never had a single social interaction in his life. he declares his love for you within the same day of meeting him. Btw, you’re stuck with him for the next seven years. Oh, and he lives in a metal container in a dump. Also he has like two friends which you are pretty sure don’t even like him either. one of them barely talks and is somehow even weirder than the boy itself and the other one is an absolute stuck up which you are pretty sure might be a double agent but no one says anything despite how obvious it seems to you. you still aren’t sure whether this boy wants to die or not. he is an absolute machine at playing arcade video games but a completely useless piece of shit at everything else. He rolls on the floor when he’s focused. oh and also he has stated several times that he spends every waking moment thinking of how to make you miserable, and somehow he still would never let you die.

i guess he’s your friend?

[artheresy]

Creating the flags content that I want to see in the world

[bee-writes-n-spins]

the mask goes on the minute other people look.

make eye contact. too much, look away. now smile and nod. stop bouncing your leg. make them like you.

those are his thoughts. because too many people have called him weird. too many people have pointed and laughed. too many people made fun of him for just being himself.

oh, but you..

you remind him it's okay to unmask. you smile, listening to him ramble about his interests. you could listen for hours and never get bored.

when you notice his discomfort in a crowd. when you help him communicate when he's too overwhelmed to talk.

with you, the ribbon that holds the mask together comes undone. with you, his mask falls to the ground.

POE, RANPO, dazai, GIYUU, kenma, l lawliet, near, WANDERER, AL HATHIAM, kaveh, LYNEY, and any of your autistic favorites!

[jouno-s]

dazai unmasking around chuuya will forever be my favourite skk trope

[sleeplessv0id]

me when someone asks me something about the fandoms I've been heavily involved in for years.

[tuesday-is-a-good-day]

Me when people fail to realise that Soukoku are called that because they're Double Black. Because they're not two halves of a whole. Because they're two wholes but when they come together they amplify each other because they cover each other weak points and strengthen each others strong points. Because they're both capable by themselves but when they're together they're twice as capable. BECAUSE THEY'RE BOTH COMPETENT WITHOUT THE OTHER RGHABVGHKVAGBHCKVBDGDF

[imnotexisting]

Two neurodivergents. I highly believe that sometimes one makes random noises out of nowhere and other just returns it. And they somehow understand each other ><

[arlertaddict]

I freakin’ love charts

[bungobble-my-balls]

You know what actually I get EXACTLY why Dazai got so obsessed with Chuuya like that's 100% realistic.

Like when I was a little kid I was having my own existentialism period and I found everything boring and worthless, than I got into Adventure time and suddenly I had ONE thing I liked. Except because it was only one thing I got ABSOLUTELY obsessed with it. Like I would only talk about Adventure time, I would constantly draw Adventure and watch Adventure time and look up stuff online about Adventure time. I would lay awake at night imaging myself in the Adventure time world and I would feel actual genuine pain whenever I thought about the fact that I could never go to the Adventure time world. It got to a point where my siblings would give me an episode and season number at random, and I could tell them what episode that was and what it was about.

Like Dazai was also a depressed kid who suddenly found ONE thing he liked and that happened to be Chuuya, so of course he got absolutely obsessed with Chuuya and started thinking about him every night and would not shut up to people about Chuuya.

And it's been 12 years since I got into Adventure time and although my obsession mellowed out I still love it and think about it a lot but that's just normal for me now.

And that's also what happened with Dazai, cause even after 7 years he still thinks about Chuuya every day but its just background noise to him now because of how used to it he is.

I don't even kin Dazai or relate to him in general but in this one aspect we are the exact same.

[t4t-dazai]

his autistic swag and cringefail personality have captivated me

[chuuyafucks]

Dazai being obsessed with death until he meets someone completely surrounded by death, with an extremely powerful ability used to kill. Like for him that was probably huge u know he just didnt want to admit that chuuya was so cool when he teased him but in truth hes obsessed and founder of the chuuya fanclub giggling and blushing watching chuuya fight

[i-eat-mold]

Y’all are not ready for the next thing I’m cooking up

[ishzuprincess]

Nikolai!! ✨✨