#is that a possible autism thing like low empathy?

[geodethecrow]

why is it called a stroke (soft, gentle petting motion) when it's so violent and harsh (interruption of blood flow, possible brain tissue death)? old age (what is old age nowadays) is so cruel to people in different ways (my grandmother: one two strokes. my grandfather: watching his wife (the love of his life) wither (is she a flower? what flower? (my great-grandmother on the other side (and she is on the other side, dead) is a lily-of-the-valley)) and fall (first a cane, then a walker, now a wheelchair) and try to go back to what she was (she's in a memory-care home now)) and why do I not feel anything?

[nighttimeebony]

Reasons why I think L has autism (updated now that I've been diagnosed with autism):

He does not emote very often. L's facial expressions and tone of voice are very flat and almost never change with the situation no matter what happens.

He does not know what is considered appropriate for social interaction.

The fact that he doesn't wear shoes implies that he has sensory issues with physical stimuli. In the same way that autistic people are bothered by tags on clothes or certain textures of fabric, some autistic people don't like wearing shoes because they like to be able to feel the ground or because they don't like how tight or restrictive shoes feel. (I also hate wearing shoes for this exact reason, and I will go barefoot whenever physically possible. If given the opportunity, I would literally never wear shoes)

Autistic people can also struggle with physical care and maintaining proper hygiene, which we can see in L by the fact that he wears the same shirt and pants every day, and by how messy and unkempt his hair is

It's fair to say that detective work and psychology is L's special interest. He's driven more by how the work stimulates him mentally rather than because of a particularly strong moral compass.

It's safe to conclude that L also has low empathy. It's not that he doesn't care about people, because he does, but he doesn't seem to understand it when people get upset with him for making certain decisions for the sake of solving the case. He is very much a "logic first" kind of person, and for the most part, he makes decisions based on what makes the most practical, rational sense to him, even if it seems morally dubious.

Literally the only thing we ever see him eat is candy and sweets. Autistic people are often picky eaters and have difficulty eating certain kinds of food because of either the texture or sensory processing issues, so a lot of autistic people tend to eat primarily sweets and junk food because of this. (My bf and one of my close friends, both autistic, are also like this. My bf doesn't like most vegetables bc of the texture, and the only thing I've ever seen my friend eat is Uncrustable PB&Js and chocolate; chocolate is like a whole thing for her.)

He has a tendency to touch his mouth, but he also rubs his feet together while he's sitting. These are both examples of stimming. (I also have a habit of touching my mouth and picking at my lips)

The bags under his eyes indicate that he has difficulty sleeping

He interprets certain instances of conversation literally, like the infamous "Yes, that would be dark" line

Incredibly blunt and doesn't waste time with small talk, even coming across as rude a lot of the time

L's level of eye contact is abnormal. A lot of autistic people don't make eye contact because it makes them uncomfortable, but some autistic people will go in the opposite direction and overcompensate by staring, which is exactly what L does: staring directly at people without blinking for inappropriate amounts of time (Wednesday Addams does this too)

The way he sits

The way he holds objects with the very tips of his fingers

In the deleted theater scene when Light and L meet for the first time, L wipes his hands off after shaking Light's hand

He frequently invades other people's personal space (again, see the deleted theater scene)

[vial0fhope]

There's so many things I wanna yap about because of JJK's latest leaks, but right now i wanna just talk about SukuIta and their Dynamic in a strangely healthy way.

Specifically with the notion that Sukuna is an 'Irredeemable/imperfect' victim and yuuji whose the 'perfect' victim. Yuuji during chapter 268 accepted sukuna and his flaws.

There has yet to be any other person who did anything close to that for Sukuna.

As someone who struggles with low empathy, autism, and had an NPD abusive mother and sister, seeing Yuuji accept Sukuna and basically propose to him pure love like Rika and Yuuta had for wach other? Its so fucking refreshing and Exhilerating ( and feeds my i can fix him martyr complex lol)

Yuuji is someone who geniunly cares, even for those who are imperfect victims, thats the most beautiful thing you can tell to a survior of abuse, and sukuna reacted excatly how someone whose never been shown non-transactional kindess.

With anger, not too differently than a wounded animal who only knows to fear and has to get stronger to protect themself.

Remember, he even said he was an unwanted child, and that he was only wanted when they could use him for his strength (im paraphrasing that last bit but its p close) He probably is a victim of historical abelism because of his strength and possibly being born with two arms and two eyes, which is why he placed so much value on it! It became a tool to let him survive.

But sukuna's only done that. He's only ever survived, he never truly lived.

My god Yuuji giving him the space to let him comeback, but not forcing him is such a foreing type of kindess because he's giving sukuna the ability of choice.

Im half baked and high so this might come off super incohernetly, but they are THE SHIP and its euphoric to watch Yuuji not give up on Sukuna.

From one imperfect victim to one imperfect monster, Sukuna i wish you were given kindess and the space to have vulnerabilities.

Yuuji, i wish all the good in the world for you.

Gege, i may sometimes not like your writing choices, but thank you for JJK. I got into it late, but it's been a beautiful ride of bullshit, joy, and tears. I can't wait to see what's in store next for Gege and his writing, even if it's tragic in its beauty.

[narcissisticpdcultureis]

NPD culture is Miyuki Shirogane from Kaguya-sama, which I will heavily recommend for several reasons

His NPD is consistently portrayed in a completely non-demonizing way, and this is so interesting because he is one of the rare examples of NPD-coded characters who are just presented as unambiguously a good person (I absolutely love the villains/morally grey characters too, but this is rarer and refreshing to see), one who is usually very kind in a relatively conventional sense while also totally being a narcissist at the same time.

And his complex, while also utilized for comedy, is ultimately completely taken seriously by the narrative too, as a key part of his character and his core psychological struggle, in a way that foils his love interest (who has low-empathy autism among other things, like probably OSDD-1 and ASPD traits, that makes her feel like an unkind person despite also being kind in an unconventional way).

Also, what I particularly like about this series is that the key premise is very neurodivergent-coded in itself:

The entire major cast is very nd, and the synopsis is that the two leads basically engage in psychological warfare battles for years over perfectly mundane social situations at school because their inability to process and do social/emotional things in a ""normal"" way (especially for Kaguya) + their respective pride, insecurities and self-loathing complexes (Kaguya views herself as a fundamentally unkind, ill-tempered, and abnormal person at heart whereas she loves Shirogane for being kind and compassionate, while Shirogane views himself as fundamentally weak and forever a failure deep down which is why he does anything he can and works himself to death to keep up his perfect grades and prevent his mask from slipping; he feels like he could never possibly be match for the gifted & multitalented Kaguya in his "true", incompetent self) prevent them from seeing themselves as genuinely lovable, or ever seeing the possibility that the other person could possibly love them for who they truly are, beneath the millions of masks they carry. So they scheme and battle, because from their point-of-view, each of them is no match for each other in what they value more and they can never be truly loved for their ugly real selves, so the moment they admit their love for each other is the moment they "lose" and face unbearable shame.

tl;dr Kaguya-sama is good check it out, and Shirogane is a pretty interesting and refreshing example of a morally good NPD-coded character whose NPD plays a major part in his character and themes

.

[aspd-culture]

I think the House pfp makes me like you a lot more, lol. /srs

We love our very problematic but extremely, sometimes painfully, unflinchingly honest and mostly accurate portrayal of (SPOILERSSSSSS) canon ASPD. Tbh, one of the few accurate portrayals I've seen and the only one that doesn't cover it up with "but he's a good person" or "but they learn to love and change their ways and no longer are like that yay they're cured" or pair the representation with a side of demonization. Special interest infodump below:

We know House does bad things, but in light of that, the show forces you to stare in the face the questions: What does it mean to be a bad person? If it's your intentions, do your bad actions not matter? If it's your actions, do your intentions not matter? Does the effort not to hurt people in spite of your pain and trauma and maladaptive worldview not matter, no matter how hard you try, if you fail? How many failures is considered "being human" and how many makes it "being a bad human"? Does a good or bad person even exist with how fluid and nuanced life and human nature is? Can you, as a fellow flawed human, define a good or bad person and if so what gives you the right? The show demands you look at this man with low empathy and learn to feel for him whether you like it or not. And so many prosocials completely misunderstand the show and paint him as the antagonist when the entire point of the show is (imo) to humanize the people you shove into the "bad" box. Also hhhh I hate the people who say "House is autistic that's why he acts like this!" Nope nope nope he is literally diagnosed with ASPD. Do I think he's got autism too? Possibly, but I think he may understand social cues, body language, subtext, etc too well for it to be that. I would personally guess ASPD+ADHD+MDD. One of his major specialties is dissecting the social boundaries not because the doesn't understand them, but to show the blind spots they leave, the disservice they do us. He knows what he does is against the norm, he knows he doesn't speak like the people around him and he knows how to do it right. He just *doesn't* because he finds value in removing that and finds no value in others' opinions on him. He knows he is seen as terrible and does not care to change it, not because (imo) he was not accepted as a person but because he was traumatized against people as a whole. See also, MIA and unknown father, questionable mother, shitty stepfather, and all the things he hints at but does not tell us outright. House is a lot of things, but socially unaware is not one of them, and whilst there are autistic people like that who are prosocial, I think the show addressed this clearly in the early episode of the autistic (they used the n*zi term but I will not) child who gives him the PSP or gameboy or whichever it was. House sees some of himself in that child, but it is clearly addressed that it's not quite right - that House relates but does not seem to click properly with being autistic. However, in the "soci*path" patient episode, House heavily struggles to separate himself from her, and finds himself repeatedly coming up empty on reasons they aren't the same. In fact, when he finds out it is reversible, it seems to me like he is simultaneously glad to have figured out the puzzle - and maybe to save her from his suffering - and distressed and jealous that she gets to get out of this. She will get to meet people who did not know her that way and be like them and feel like them and feel like one of them. Unlike in the autism episode, the characters around him seem to believe he has it as well. If he is autistic, he has ASPD as well - diagnosed in fact.

It's such a damn good show.

You did not ask for my (as restrained as possible) infodump about House, MD but you activated my special interest trap card.

[swoosbadfuture]

ian mckinley (FD3) is autistic here's why

i orginally wrote this for twitter for autism awareness day but my friend said to post it on tumblr so . throws this to the masses no particular order im kinda just rambling . i have autism myself a lot of this will be relating to My personal exprience being autistic and why Ian sticks out to me and is a character I feel seen by :) -- Ian seems to have low empathy for others. Not that he doesn't care - he very much does and I will get to that too - but rather he struggles to relate to people on an emotional level prefering to use logic instead of emotion. Hell his first line in the movie is he alongside Erin trying to reassure Wendy that she'll be fine on the rollercoaster.

Though unlike Jason, their approach is more logic and reason based. Using facts and logic to communicate their point > saying something like "hey, it's okay to feel scared, but you'll be fine". And like many autistic people including myself who do this it's kinda regarded as him being rude/a smartass by those around him. When his intentions were entirely the opposite and he was actually just trying to be helpful.

Something personally I relate to a lot. I've been told countless times that I "don't need to be a smartass" when just trying to use logic to deflate a problem because, to me, it makes more sense than being emotional about it.

Ian trying to find logic in things is shown again in the scene where Wendy and Kevin come to warn he and Erin about death's design. Ian is completely opposed to the idea that death could possibly be a thinking or feeling entity. Again he isn't trying to be a smartass or be sassy about it, just trying to work out what the fuck Wendy and Kevin are on about because to him? It makes no logical sense.

He's very rooted in his beliefs and even when he choses to humour Wendy and Kevin he still takes a logical approach and tries to make sense of it in a way that makes sense to him. Even coming up with a solution that would seem most logical.

And yet again, he's treated like a bit of an asshole for it. It's not like he grabbed Wendy and shook her and told her to die no he just accepts this. He might have low empathy but he's still understanding.

Ian actually seems to care a lot about people. Especially Erin, who he's closest to in the movie, but this care extends even to Ashley and Ashlyn. Who he very likely wasn't friends with judging by how he and Erin laugh at them when they try to invite Wendy to the tanning salon.

But he cares, still, and has a very strong sense of justice. His interruption at the funeral is a prime example of this. You can see him dwelling on it for a moment before he speaks. He's not speaking up because he wants the attention, he's not trying to cause drama, he's just upset. Because to him, even as people who he wasn't close with, Ashley and Ashlyn's deaths were unfair and the fact that someone is trying to suggest otherwise just set him off.

If he was doing it for attention or to cause drama he would've put up more of a fight when Kevin and Lewis got him to leave. But he doesn't. He's probably pretty aware that what he did was wrong but the need to speak up outweighed that in the moment. Something again that I can relate to heavily. If something is unfair you will know about it. And people with autism often have strong senses of justice.

Ian also has very few people he's close with. Erin being his closest friend possibly even Only. Hence why her death impacted him as much as he did. He may not have been Wendy's best friend or anything but he did trust her and get along with her. So when Erin dies - a death that only occurs because Wendy interrupted his death causing it to skip to Erin - it feels like a betrayal. An injustice against someone he cared deeply about.

And that feeling of betrayal coupled with the fact Erin died so awfully is what drives him to act so irrationally.

His whole thing at the tricentennial was almost like a meltdown or at the very least an all-reason-out-the-window moment and god as someone who's autistic and frequently misunderstood by people / misunderstanding people leading to moments of severe anger and lashing out... i get it man i get you Ian.

Think. Erin died horribly less than 24 hours ago. It's fresh in his mind. He's focused so so heavily on Wendy being there, thinking about how unfair it is. Wondering "Why could Wendy save me but not Erin?". He's acting irrationally, he isn't thinking. Hell he sounds like he's on the verge of crying. And again I get it I GET that. When I feel something wrong has been done to me / someone I love I tend to fixate on that person and place blame onto them and act very irrationally about it.

Lastly I'm also 99% sure Ian never makes direct eye contact with anyone in this movie for longer than 5 seconds. So.

He's just a bit silly and him being autistic means a lot 2 me. end of thread . god hes just like me for real.

[3liza]

the Jason Genova/Del Rey Misfits story (ongoing) hasn't really gotten outside of bodybuilding YouTube despite several attempts (aborted Netflix show etc) but I think beyond it being a typical "being famous on YouTube usually fucks people up" situation theres a b-plot about the medical abuse of disabled people.

I found out recently that Genova is on monthly injections of long-acting haloperidol, a truly brutal first-generation antipsychotic that causes uncontrollable appetite and weight gain, neurodegeneration, akathisia and dystonia (this was prescribed to him on top of an active tourettes diagnosis which seems unlikely to have made it better). now despite his level of cognitive disability, Genova is a bad person to whatever level of "bad" a person can be blamed when he's got to be around 50 IQ, and level 2 autism, and I certainly dont like him, so this isn't a defense of his behavior. autistic people can be taught empathy and consideration if anyone bothers. so i think his mother absolutely fucked this kid up. but whatever doctor put this kid on monthly haloperidol is either 90 years old or incompetent or both because the only thing that will do for someone like Jason is make him sleepy (and thus easier to control) . people who take antipsychotics typically are constantly fighting brain fog and usually seek out stimulants to stay awake, just like Jason does.

so the antipsychotic weight gain and compulsive eating of junk food (I've personally experienced this with seroquel and it isn't something you can control even with full cognitive function. I used to get up in the middle of the night to eat sugar out of the bag) was being treated as laziness and lack of discipline by the Misfits and the fanbase the entire time. this is normal in bodybuilding, it's part of the culture. it was a cornerstone of the "plot" tension, Jason's "inability to commit" to weight training and cutting. none of his supposed professional coaches or trainers ever address this or consider what piling pre workout into a disabled kid on psychoactive drugs was going to do, and while it's possible they were never informed of his medical history they absolutely should have asked, and with Jason's known reputation as a compulsive liar , they should have double checked until they got a straight answer. Jason's mother enabled Jason to drive by himself, and of course he got into a half dozen serious accidents, injuring himself and god knows who else. this is mostly treated as a joke in the series. and that's kind of a different issue, how the boomer attitude towards disability of just ignoring it as much as possible and pretending the disabled person is average causes just as many bad outcomes as low expectations. Jason many times angrily denies being autistic, or minimizes it as barely diagnosable, when five seconds looking at him shows anyone with any familiarity with autism and other developmental disorders that the only reason he isn't in a care setting is that his mother is in denial and his friends don't have the background to see how bad it is.

it's clear that everyone involved is aware that Jason is "slow" but it's also clear that all the competent adults consider severe disability to be shameful and most of them seem genuinely unaware of the fact that Jason isn't just kind of a goofball who needs a good talking-to, he's developmentally delayed, cognitively struggling at all times to follow basic social interactions and conversations, is borderline illiterate, and has no impulse control. he's also constantly stimming both voluntarily and involuntarily in a way that interferes with his dexterity. he shouldn't have internet access or a smart phone, he shouldn't be allowed or enabled to use preworkout and especially not steroids and research chemicals.

and over the years he is documented, he degenerates badly in a predictable way, becoming more and more incoherent and impulsive. it's basically a moneymaking franchise centered on a profoundly sick man who is being medicated in a way that causes more monetizable outbursts and brain damage leading to compounding eccentricity, which is fairly common in bodybuilding even with participants who start out with average function and ability.

so what the fuck. I don't have a conclusion for this other than the level of dysfunction is impressive, and the amount of the exploitation that does genuinely appear to be occurring ignorant of the full extent of Jason's handicap. Jason really reminds me of the boyfriend I just kicked out, who wasn't nearly as disabled but had many of the same issues, just less severe. and people around him (also a white man) just assume he's a little goofy, and that his expressions of confusion or inappropriate comments are intentional jokes and not times when the masking isn't fully working.

[sagesilentfire]

Autistic Toffee, thoughts?

I mean I did make this image:

But yeah, he's super fucking autistic. Like me. Canonically: (warning: references to self-harm and also oversharing my weird experiences as a chronic autism-haver)

Gets social skills enough to be manipulative about it and understand what people will do, does not get them enough to not creep out people who already are looking for an excuse to dislike him.

Like every behavior the creators gave him to make him creepy and evil just read as autistic person trying to mask to me.

Cold and emotionless? Bro has a flat affect and it just clashes with the overemotional rest of the show.

Low empathy? Autistic, and he does have his own kind of empathy, he just, like a lot of autistic people, expresses it weirdly. And seriously, the idea that a) Normative, neurotypical empathy is the only sign of good moral character and b) that Toffee lacks any version of empathy in general because he doesn't seem to care when unjust rulers or bootlicking toadies get their due, is really ableist and can go die now.

Monotone voice? Flat affect, and probably over-correcting on controlling his tone of voice too. Remember he's in Socialization Mode every time we see him, or Dealing With Mewmans Mode, which is even more tense. I bet he can and will emote via voice when alone or with people he trusts. Heck, he does it in Meteora's Lesson, when he's with the other septarians.

Ulterior motives? When you're autistic, you know that everyone has ulterior motives you can't hope to understand, including other autistic people. It's fine.

I actually headcanon he's repressed a lot of his sensory issues. I have a few that are really annoying, but I don't have another option if I want to appear in polite society and have to force myself to live with them even though they make me want to vomit, so I can see him actively choosing to repress emotional reactions to things. 

He gets overwhelmed more often than you'd expect. People just don't notice, because his reaction is always to freeze up and go silent – a shutdown, the "flight and/or freeze" part of the autistic experience. This is from my own personal experience: when overwhelmed I'm either yelling and angry (around people I know and trust enough to get mad at without them hurting me) or hiding and silently self-harming (around people I don't know or trust). (When I get overwhelmed in a place I feel comfortable but don't know anyone there, I tend to get weird in public looking for someone to feel less bad with. We don't talk about those times.)

I think he was close to a shutdown during Mewnipendence Day when he saw that stupid play Star put on.

Definitely doing a shutdown after he couldn't rescue Star. Probably exiting the scene as fast as possible to go pull out some scales (fun, risk-free self-harm! warning: only septarians can do this. you will bleed if you don't have a healing factor. be safe and maybe don't self--harm it's bad for you), grit his teeth, and go find a way to rescue Star. And also send an army to take over Butterfly Castle while the wand was out. Star would be alive to learn to live with not being a princess. 

Doesn't *always* know what to say. Can convince people to do things easily, but has no idea how to help other people with their emotions. His autistic ass could never be a therapist.

And then there's SAMATFOE Toffee, who has some extra Problems:

Sílthéy and Toffee work together to ensure that Toffee is as immune as possible to emotional leverage. Do anything to them, especially when they're in Business Mode, and Toffee will just sigh, shake their head, and refuse to take the bait. They may have PTSD and Autism, but have you considered: they also have severe emotional repression!

However, when they do crack, it's really bad, and potentially really dangerous. They still freeze and flee, but due to... circumstances, they could be as much of a magical superweapon as the wand, but in a completely uncontrollable way. Unlike the Butterflys, they do not make a habit of flirting with destroying the world, so instead they shove down their feelings and get their ass to therapy. 

And then when their therapist advocates for expressing their emotions healthily, they go get a new therapist, probably a cognitive behavioral therapist or something (I'm JOKING, CBT works for people who are not me! It's a perfectly fine method of brain-helping, it's just my default punching bag. I'm more of an Internal Family Systems guy myself). 

Rasticore is a big help. He helps them express medium amounts of emotion healthily and without having a complete (magi-nuclear) meltdown. They help him with his own meltdowns, because everyone is autistic in my world except for Mina. Rasticore finds their calm grounding. 

[crimeronan]

it's a little funny to me that people on here who haven't watched house md and have only heard about it through the grapevine seem to think that the asexuality episode is the only time that the show egregiously erred about a sensitive topic most people at the time knew nothing about. like i swear to god on EVERY post on here about the show being hashtag problematic there's ALWAYS someone in the comments going "and it was bad about asexuality which makes it worse!" and yes the show was bad about asexuality (i am ace. i know) and yes that happened at a time when asexuality was essentially unknown to almost everyone in america, but citing that as though it's like.... a singular event that only happened to one marginalized group who happened to be Particularly hated is like... very very Very much ignoring how frequent and systematic these writing choices were.

in curating a list of episodes to skip i'm finding archived contemporary articles written the DAY after episodes came out from various relevant organizations saying "hey!! hey!! this is the first time most of the american public has ever encountered this issue and you were fucking cruel and evil about it!!" about topics including but not limited to: asexuality, intersexism (TWICE), homophobia, Deaf culture, autism, schizophrenia, psychosis, low empathy, AIDS, and racial medical disparities. this is not the end of the list it's just the ones i can remember rn. the writers of the show did not ONLY think that asexuality doesn't exist. the writers of the show were afflicted with south-park-itis wherein every time they heard about literally any marginalized group having feelings or opinions different from the mainstream, they went, "wow, i don't like that! what's the best way to mock and belittle them as thoroughly as possible so that everyone knows that we're very very smart and know everything and these nasty people are very very stupid and deserve to be othered??"

the show doesn't Just suck about asexuality. it sucks about everything. and it's not because it's a cute tongue-in-cheek "ooo we hate everyone equally 🤗" thing. it's because the writers were actively vitriolic and cruel and inhumane about every single person they didn't care to understand. it's bad. the ace episode is not an outlier, it's par for the course for the entire series.

[is-your-blorbo-neurodivergent]

does he have audhd, anxiety, and a mental illness?

submit your own characters here to be featured!

reasons under the cut - just a long infodump (no problem with that!)

reason: Autism:

- Strangely meticulous about rules while not understanding/valuing others

- Is literally an alien living among humans trying very badly to fit in and understand their customs -- very autistic feeling, even if he's evil about it.

- Sensory issues, specifically tactile and taste oriented ones. (Many autistic people feel for him in episodes where he struggles eating earth food and suffers physically for it)

- Low empathy

- Difficulty controlling his emotions

- Fixates easily (Usually on his mission or fighting Dib)

- Strange speech patterns, even for an alien. Other members of his species and other aliens we meet in the show do not talk like Zim, showing this is very much a him-thing, not an alien thing.

- Evil laughter? More like vocal stimming

ADHD:

- Frequently shown to dissociate/lose focus when he's in a situation he doesn't like or faced with knowledge he doesn't care about

- Very easily distracted

- Can hyperfocus on a task he values

- Makes meticulous ambitious plans with convoluted steps no neurotypical would bother with

- Bad at following structures and what's expected of him

- Shit memory but also brilliant and can recall hyperspecific things needed for his plans

- Mood swings

- Overlooks stuff that's obvious for most people

- Creative! :3

- Bad at structure and conforming to what he needs to be in most jobs

- Can be very energetic

- Every person with adhd I've met has loved the purple as a colour idk

MISC THINGS OF NOTE:

I do not feel I have the understanding to properly diagnose exactly, so please feel free to point me in the right direction of a diagnosis for... whatever these symptoms are. But I have to wonder about his dissociative moments, paranoia, self-obsession and his mood swings. There is a point in the show where the Tallest hang up on Zim and the dude literally just stands there COMPLETELY STILL for over an hour until he "wakes up" and the Computer tells him how long he'd been there. Zim wasn't aware at all how much time had passed or that they had hung up. Isn't that a bit concerning? It's the most extreme example, but it's not the only time he does it! Frequent dissociation is still SOMETHING, right? I don't which dissociation disorder this could point to specifically but still.

He constantly deludes himself into believing things that blatantly and explicitly aren't true and remembers things wrong to protect his own ego (tough to say whether this is done intentionally or subconsciously as a defensive move or something). He'll even misremember minor things as soon as they happen if he doesn't like them. Zim frequently holds his identity super high and uses his name like a great mantra to the point it's a bit concerning. Not sure what this is about. Might just be quirky but...

Many episodes take steps to showcase that Zim is practically ruled by fear and paranoia. Even in the first episode, he's so scared of potentially getting caught, he nearly triggers his self-destruct button so the humans do not capture him. Jhonen, Zim's creator, has said in interviews and the show bible that despite his zaniness and ego, Zim is actually a deeply miserable anxious character underneath, and that even when he wins, he goes right back to being miserable -- while fans typically (and very understandably) take what Jhonen says with a grain of salt, he's never wavered on this and it does make sense with the way the show works. It's possible this could be heavily masked depression/anxiety or maybe part of something else.

He also has a number of symptoms that line up suspiciously well with ptsd

( Being easily startled or frightened? Check.

Always being on guard for danger? Check. Self-destructive/reckless behavior? Check.

Trouble concentrating? Check.

Irritability, angry outbursts or aggressive behavior? Check.

Negative thoughts about oneself or the world? Check. He hates basically everything external to himself, except his robots, snacks, and leaders.

Exaggerated feelings of blame directed toward oneself or others?100% he blames external factors. But check.

Ongoing negative emotions, such as fear, anger, guilt, or shame? Check.

Difficulty feeling positive emotions, such as happiness or satisfaction? Check.

It's tough to say what these symptoms could all be in response to, but imo, I think being raised from birth to be a soldier for a genocidal space empire might be a bit more traumatic on its own than Zim and even other irkens are able to be aware of. We see Zim as a small child in a flashback and he's shown to be super loving/affectionate, which is a complete 180 to how he is in the show years later, before he's immediately sent off to "report for duty" (("duty" likely being military training)). This is 100% just headcanon and speculation tho so I don't feel right checking that box.)

ahh i wrote too much. anyway he's mentally ill your honor. idk what is going on up there exactly but it's NOT exclusively autism/adhd i know that much.

[real-total-drama-takes]

(Friendly reminder this is a TAKE; you don't have to agree or change your perspective just based on my random observations.) I'm so sorry but I hate the autistic Scary Girl headcanon, like her obsession with death and stuff isn't autism it's literally sadism+sociopathy that was likely a result of child neglect at a young age. She mentions how she lives in a funeral home and her own mother didn't help her become less scary despite criticizing her for it (not to mention her father is never even mentioned), further proving there's at least some neglect going on. Scary Girl probably used death as a comfort which then turned into a sadistic obsession with violence since death would be familiar to her (funeral home) and she'd normalize it in her mind. Also anyone who got adequate love as a child would NOT act like that in general. She gets excited each time she sees some sort of violence/even mention of something remotely death-related because things like that have been the main center of her life for so long to the point where she's now obsessed with it, and as someone who gets obsessed with shows and fictional characters, that is EXACTLY how I act when I see a character I really like (giggling, stimming, generally getting really excited). It's possible to get super excited over something without having autism. I can see WHY people would think she has autism (obsession/special interest, stimming, inappropriate social interaction, missing social cues sometimes, low empathy) but a lot of that can just be explained with the above theory. Again, this is just my take based on subtle hints dropped throughout the show, and obviously you're free to still headcanon her however you like. Any offense here goes to the headcanon, not the people who like the headcanon. And of course I'm not a professional, so I could be wrong about some things. But generally based on research and common knowledge, this is the theory that makes the most sense to me. (...if you want characters that are good candidates for autism rep, reboot Emma and MK. Those are some of, if not the best examples imo.)

[darkstarofchaos]

Ooo I really like your concept. I love a good story like that 😆. Slowburn is a favorite trope of mine, so I'm excited for you to get to write something like that. Ill be keeping an eye out hehe.

I too have a specific type of Prowl I like that many fics I saw of them dont have, though I still enjoy reading them. So I'm excited to see what your version is like, even if we end up having different Prowls!

Thanks! I have like, 5 other fics that I need to work on right now, so that one is sadly on the backburner, but hopefully I can get back to it before too long.

I'm curious what your favorite type of Prowl is, if you want to share! I find a lot of fics tend to treat him as like... Really cold and mean? I'm trying not to go on a rant, lol. But I'm so tired of fics where most of the Autobots are sympathetic to some Decepticon's plight, and then there's Prowl on the sidelines acting like said Decepticon's continued existence is a personal affront.

Also, a lot of people compare him to Soundwave (probably because he's perceived as cold and emotionless). My preferred take on Prowl is more like the Autobot Starscream, though - he's not trying to take over, but he pushes back on Optimus' plans if he doesn't like their odds of success, resists following orders if he considers them the wrong course of action, and is willing to do his own thing if he's not being listened to (I also inadvertently gave him a host of disorders by leaning into the thing in his G1 tech specs about how he doesn't handle the unexpected well, lol. The autism and processor crashes were deliberate, the social anxiety, generalized anxiety, temperature regulation issues, and absence seizures weren't. Turns out that if you sit down to explain why unexpected events lead to crashes, there's a ton of comorbidities and contributing factors).

So yeah, my Prowl is a bit of a mess, psychologically. And has an unhealthy relationship with morality (and Optimus) because he has low empathy and according to some people, that makes you a bad person. So even though he wants the best outcome possible for as many people as possible and is against causing harm when it doesn't accomplish anything, he struggles to feel like a good person and is susceptible to manipulation through moral attacks (this is totally not me expressing my frustration with the way both canon and fandom like to paint him as a villain for having perfectly reasonable concerns about his enemies).

Also, making the bot who turns into a police car an actual law enforcer was the most boring thing canon could have done with his prewar career. My Prowl was a defense attorney (if IDW Prowl, who was himself an enforcer, could look at his peers and see a corrupt system, then mine can be an advocate for criminal justice reform).

[drdemonprince]

I've read some of your writing about low empathy and have been reflecting on some of my own experiences, as well as things people say about autism re: affective vs. cognitive empathy. I'm autistic but I've never considered myself low empathy because I think I can successfully use critical thinking skills to take others' perspectives, as far as anyone can actually understand someone else's feelings and thoughts. To me the internal experience is less like some sort of...innate unspoken sense where I "feel" others' emotions and more of a logical process of listening to what they're saying, observing things about how their lives and how they are behaving and building/responding from there. I always thought people were being overly figurative when they say they "feel" other's feelings because I have been convinced there's no way that can be possible lol. I still kind of doubt that it's possible, I think you can feel your own feelings and reactions to other people's feelings. So now I'm starting to rethink my relationship to the concept of empathy. I've always thought it was a sort of needless condition for compassion anyway, and I'm wary of self-proclaimed "empaths" as it seems like they tend to be the most likely to have poor boundaries and overestimate their ability to understand people, to the extent that they'll project feelings onto other people incorrectly. I guess this wasn't really a question, more a comment, sorry

oh no yeah, people who think they are empaths are running off vibes projection and guesswork but they believe they have some kind of magic connection to another person, its scary

[thousandyearphantombunker]

I could never hate a whole group of people. I'm autistic I grew up being told i was spoiled r*t@5#d and incapable of being kind and that I should stay in toxic relationships because I was too dumb to make other connections and how people must be saintlike for accommodating me. I was told my problems aren't real and that I'm delusional and I wasn't listened to. Growing up I heard symptoms of autism written about in the most disgusting vile way possible and it all basically boiled down to the criteria for my disability (ei the symptoms of autism) being equated to being an immature idiot who isn't smart enough for anything and that lack of ability meant I deserved nothing and should be grateful anyone wanted to be friends with me regardless of how they treated me. It meant people would rather listen to the people around me rather than me whenever problems arose. I've seen friendships torn apart by political discussions getting out of control and irrational hate. Maybe I'm an idiot but I can't hate any group of people. I can't. I can hate individuals but an entire group? An entire population? My sister has a possible personality disorder and has low empathy and it sickens me how people with these disorders are seen as monsters, as inherently manipulative and abusive. The shit I hear people say about men the way they say it... it's abusive it's borderline suicide baiting. And no matter what misandrists say they are evil if they do that shit. If you say shit like 'oh we have a male suicide epidemic? Haha more men should join the rates'- listen even if misandry isn't systemic your still being horrible piece of shit. I pray to God that you get a wake up call and realize even if men's issues are systemic that suicide baiting people is evil. I hope you find your heart and stop poisoning yourself with your shithead mentality and get therapy for whatever caused you to be like this. Your insane. Yeah men cry wolf about women. Women cry wolf about men. Shut your ass up Maybe I'm being manipulated by 'incels' or 'creeps' but I don't know. I think after seeing women purposely suicide bait men and say that it's good that men are dealing with mental health crisis and how it's a good thing that men are suicidal -i don't know I think they're fucking disgusting- suicide baiting is fucking evil- your evil if your do this can you stop politicizing people's mental illnesses and act like a goddamned human and treat people coping with a crisis with kindness and respect? Can you stop being horrible?

It helps that those 'creeps' might have a point. It certainly helps that most of the 'incels' and 'creeps' I've met are trans, ace, autistic, unattractive etc but never actually entitled rapey or immature. If your response to anyone dealing with mental illness is 'good they deserve to suffer' your an asshole. You people claim "The difference between misogyny and misandry is that misogynistic men want women to be silenced, dumb, humiliated, submissive, controlled, abused, molested, raped, impregnated, trapped, surgically altered, beaten, and killed, and misandrist women want to be free of the men who think and do the above." Yet I hear shit like "Young girls need to be actively taught to not help males regardless of their circumstances or age. Whether it's your boyfriend of 5 years who recently got into a debt or if it's any stranger in a dark alleyway crying for help. Neither of them are gonna end well FOR YOU. You're not gonna get appreciated, you're not get acknowledged for long. Infact, you're gonna be the one who'll be taken advantage of." Or "Men are lonely? Fucking good. Maybe, for the first time in civilisation, they fucking should be." If your response to someone in crisis is "we go through more pain than you" or "you deserve to be in pain for others sins" your just radicalizing men against you. If your response to someone asking for help is "your dangerous and poisonous and you deserve to get hurt" then you disgust me. You are fucking gross. Imagine being so paranoid that you make being a woman sound like a fate worse than death and make basic human decency sound like a senseless sacrifice. Maybe stop telling little girls to be paranoid. Maybe stop letting your irrational paranoid victim mentality poison your goddamned heart. Stop telling every woman you meet that evil men are always out to get them and that they should be paranoid and afraid all the time- your not helping feminism your just telling people being a woman is scary and bad. Your not helping feminism your making the world a colder place convincing girls that kindness will get them raped and murdered and telling men that they are inherently bad

It's not called being a man baby when these men eventually break down- it's called 'i fucking opened up for once and now I'm suffering for it'. Maybe it's because of my own issues from when I was a kid but womanchild manchild adultchild and being insulted and hunted down for harassment when I was vulnerable - this shit always grossed me out. I don't know if there is an actual epidemic of male suicides but I do not like how I've seen an uptick in suicide baiting from radfems/people laughing at the idea of anyone being in that much pain psychologically. Wtf.

I could never be a radfem thinking my personal issues is justified that any of this shit: bullying, ableism, laughing at rape and domestic abuse victims, racism, transphobia

It's not okay it baffles me

[fishing-lesbian-catgirl]

Going to miss all the good Yuri art you reblog, but your takes have gotten so low quality and shit that I cannot bare following you anymore, you genuinely radiate femcell energy and it's cringe as hell. I get that you are a lonely transfem just saying shit on the internet, but genuinely you need help and possibly some IRL friends or maybe just find some fucking empathy (though I highly doubt you have any left to share) maybe that will fix your miserable terrible life.

I usually try not to post anons like this, but it’s just extremely fucking funny that the only take I even posted today that was the last straw for you was about fucking danganronpa

Also the low empathy thing, is that really what you’re going with here? Like I literally reblogged low empathy girl positivity today, I’m very well aware of the link between being autistic and being “less empathetic” but that doesn’t make me any worse of a person. Not to use autism as a shield, I just don’t think you actually need to be able to put yourself in the place of others to be able to be a nice person actually.

Anyway my life has been going very well lately so I don’t really think I need to fix anything. If you were a mutual I’ll truly be sad to see you go, but otherwise bye bye anon~

[razzberrydazz]

Neurodivergence and mental illness headcanons and analysis with the BG3 cast! All of them have trauma there's no way any of them are totally mentally well (NONE of them are mentally fully well, being an adventurer is traumatic in and of itself).

Shadowheart and Astarion both have Borderline Personality Disorder undoubtedly to me, with Shart also having an extra dose of anxiety and depression on top of that. Being kidnapped and raised in a cult and being held hostage by a vampire lord are more than traumatizing enough to cause that.

Astarion definitely has PTSD from his time with Cazador. Shadowheart, Halsin, and Durge (if the player plays as Dark Urge) definitely also have PTSD.

-My analysis for my Durge is for a different post because there is so much going on there, but know that OCD and BPD and PTSD are all strong contenders for their mental idiosyncrasies-

Gale most definitely has depression and likely comorbid Autism and ADHD.

Lae'Zel is very autistic-coded to me with her directness and perceived low empathy and struggle to understand faerunian customs - many alien type characters are autistic-coded by the nature of their 'fish out of water' character arcs. She also has anger issues galore, and trust issues, she was raised in a militaristic alien cult society there's no way she wouldn't have fucked up emotional development. She's direct and quick to anger, but I don't think she's outright Rude - others may Think she's being rude but she's not, she's being honest and saying what she thinks.

Karlach is Sooooo ADHD coded to me, she also has hella anger issues and I do not blame her one bit, as well as a moderate dose of anxiety. Someone give her a fireproof fidget toy I beg of thee.

Wyll hides his trauma and issues relatively well, but I would not say he's as well-adjusted as many assume him to be. He's self-sacrificing to the point of extreme detriment, possibly a people pleaser, I am certain he has anxiety and depression that he does his best to mask, and he may not have full blown PTSD but he definitely has trauma. I get the impression he has a low opinion of himself due to his pact and often can even be self-depreciating especially when made to look like a devil, definitely has signs of depression in him. He is such a precious man and I want to help him see that he's worth so much more than he thinks 🥺

Minthara, while I don't know her character as well as the others, definitely has trauma from being raised in the toxic cult of lolth-sworn drow society, greatly reduced empathy (but not non-existent) due to said cult society, is definitely a sadist, could have developed Antisocial Personality Disorder due to the way lolthite society molded her (Lolthite society raises people in a way to predispose them to having APD if you ask me, since it's built on manipulation and fear and ladder climbing on the backs of others). Despite possibly having APD due to the trauma of Lolthite society, Minthara is not incapable of love and devotion and can grow to care for tav and other party members over time, perhaps even to a fanatical level if you romance her.

Halsin has trauma that he often brushes off or downplays, he can be quite self-depreciating at times, and from my viewpoint he is hypersexual as a maladaptive coping mechanism. Definitely has self-image issues and doesn't see himself as worthy of the love and affection and positions of authority he's been placed in. Probably has depression that he works hard to mask in front of others.

Jaheira has a long history of trauma that include the events of the first two games, I would not be surprised if she has PTSD, but overall she is pretty well adjusted all things considered. She has trust issues but I don't blame her, she has justification.

Minsc is hilarious, that man has autism I am convinced, he has trauma but I'm not sure if he realizes his trauma is indeed trauma and not simply a mild inconvenience in his life. Either none of his trauma is processed as such in his brain so he is genuinely that happy-go-lucky, or that jovial attitude is a mask. Boo is...Boo. I do not know the inner machinations of a miniature giant space hamster.

If anyone in the game is a Narcissist, it's Orin the Red (NPD does not make one inherently abusive or evil of course, no personality disorder or mental illness makes anyone inherently bad, Orin just happens to embody many of its traits to the extreme and has the traumatic upbringing to cause it). Her story is so tragic to me, she wants so badly for Bhaal to love her, she wants the admiration and affection of the god of murder so bad and she doesn't care if that means killing the entire world. She's incredibly tragic, she doesn't realize she's as traumatized as she is because it got channeled into her mask of self-importance and lack of empathy extreme sadism and want for admiration from Bhaal specifically. If it was possible to if not redeem her, at least spare her from death and break her out of her cult mindset, I would do it in a heartbeat. I love Orin as a character so much.

Gortash could be APD, but I think he fits Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder more. His want for control, for order, under the tyranny of Bane, to wrench control and revenge for the childhood he was robbed of, it's very fitting. He's distrustful and known for deceit but his ride or dieness with Durge and willingness to Risk It All for Tav is endearing to me, and could be him manipulating or simply be that he does in fact see teaming up with Tav as the best course of action for him to maintain his control. I'm biased I know, I like Gortash too much.

Ketheric is spiteful and traumatized from the death of his wife and daughter and the cult he imbedded himself in yes, but he takes it to an extreme in his lashing out from his grief. I don't think he's antisocial or narcissistic, I mainly think he's depressed and a victim of a sunk-cost fallacy taken way too far. He committed to the bit until the very end.

If anyone else could possibly have APD or NPD, I think it'd be the Emperor, but I also feel the mental quirks of being a mindflayer predispose someone to being manipulative and self-agrandizing. He is a Very sly and effective manipulator, and even though overall he has the common goal as the player and protects them from death and transforming into a mind flayer for the majority of the game, he is ultimately doing it for his own aims. He hid the truth of Orpheus and his own form for most of the game, because he was so distrustful of Tav that he believed they would never trust him otherwise - which he can't actually know as true or not. Unfortunately for him I chose saving Orpheus and helping Lae'Zel over helping him because his history of manipulation and omition of information caught up to him and caused the very distrust he wanted to avoid. He is a great morally grey/dubious character who can be both loved and loathed for his antics.

Dame Aylin and Isobel definitely have trauma if not PTSD, and Aylin probably is autistic.

Listen what I'm saying is autistic people have a surprisingly high level of charisma and they and other neurospicy people congregate together to make some delicious neurospicy food.

Those are all the characters I have thoughts about for the moment, and these are my headcanons more than anything, so don't take this too seriously.