#spencer reid autism

[imagining-in-the-margins]

Autistic Spencer Reid

Happy Autism Acceptance Month, everyone! By request, my wonderful friends and I have taken on the daunting task of documenting the reasons why Spencer Reid is considered Autistic. Big thank you to you @spencer-reids-adventures and @foxy-eva specifically for their help. We hope everyone enjoys! This is not an exhaustive list.

Stimming/Self-Stimulatory behavior, including rocking/spinning in his chair, twiddling with his fingers, gripping sheets, bouncing his legs, biting his lip/tongue, rubbing his eyes, spinning pens, pacing (e.g., S6E12 "Corazon")

Averse to touch, dislikes hugs (S7E13 "Snake Eyes" & S11E11 "Entropy")

Explains multiple attempts at masking, including "being more conversational," (S2E19 "Ashes and Dust"), scripting conversation (S15E4 "Saturdays"), saying what people want to hear (S6E20 "Hanley Waters")

Verbosity - Difficulty recognizing when he's talking too much/speaking at inappropriate times (e.g., S1E16 "The Tribe" & S10E16 "Lockdown")

Began studying behavioral science to understand behavior that made him frustrated/confused (S11E22 "The Storm")

Averse to hosting/hanging out in his space; didn't invite his friends to his apartment for over 15 years (S15E9 "Face Off")

The only team member capable of proficient communication with other Autistic people (S6E16 "Coda" & S11E22 "The Storm")

He is referred to as Autistic by multiple characters, including a literal profiler, and does not deny or question it (S1E5 "Broken Mirror" & S8E3 "Through the Looking Glass")

Lack of social awareness, such as focusing on a convention while at a workplace shooter crime scene (S7E3 "Dorado Falls")

Various special interests, like Doctor Who (S6E16 "Coda" & S7E23 "Hit")

Literal thinking, such as focusing on scientific accuracy of a star-based fable (S5E13 "Risky Business")

Difficulty recognizing common phrases, such as the "sitting in a tree" song (S3E14 "Damaged") or jokes (S7E9 "Self-Fulfilling Prophecy" & S1E8 "Natural Born Killer")

Makes inappropriate references, such as to Derek's playboy behavior (S1E18 "Somebody's Watching") and Rossi's age (S7E13 "Snake Eyes")

Coordination/Spatial deficits (S1E17 "A Real Rain" & S8E6 "The Apprenticeship")

Hyperfocuses on a task to the point he doesn't notice his surroundings (S5E20 "A Thousand Words")

Unusual/hyper-specific pedantic language (S3E6 "Remembrance of Things Past")

Resistance to change, manifested as a luddite dislike of technology (S6E7 "Middle Man" & S8E4 "God Complex") and struggling with Gideon's death (S10E14 "Hero Worship")

He receives (apparent disability) accommodations to be in the field (S6E10 "What Happens At Home...")

Introverted, difficulty sharing emotions, even with his closest friends (S10E13 "Nelson's Sparrow")

Heavily bullied as a child (S3E16 "Elephant's Memory")

Difficulty making friends (S2E1 "The Fisher King Part 2")

Trouble with eye contact, which persists throughout the series

His mother is schizophrenic, which has a strong genetic link to Autism

Dislikes small talk (S8E3 “Through the Looking Glass”)

Enjoys memorizing lists (S7E11, “True Genius”)

Savant skills - eidetic memory and hyperlexia

Matthew Gray Gubler has also explained that, regardless of the canonical confirmation, he views and portrayed Spencer Reid as Autistic. Specifically, he stated:

"He's an eccentric genius, with hints of schizophrenia and minor autism, Asperger's syndrome. Reid is 24, 25 years old with three Ph.D.'s and one can't usually achieve that without some form of autism." (Note: Asperger's is an outdated term with Nazi origins, which is now referred to as a part of "Autism Spectrum Disorder" by most countries)

DISCLAIMER: I am Autistic, as diagnosed when I was a toddler. These thoughts are my own and shared for fun. If you disagree, please make your own post about it rather than posting them here. This was a labor of love for fans like me and those who love Autistic people and the characters like us. Thank you for respecting and understanding my boundaries!

Looking for more to read? Check out my Autistic headcanon posts for Penelope and Hotch!

Thank you everyone! 🌈♾️❤️

[h0d4g]

WHAT DO YOU MEAN MATTHEW? YOU CANT JUST SAY THESE THINGS, MY LITTLE AUTISTIC BRAIN CANT HANDLE IT. IM GOING TO LOSE MY MIND

Anyways Spencer doesn’t cleanly fit into any singular role of Mystery Inc. the best way to describe him would be some amalgamation between Shaggy and Velma.

I am in the midst of my yearly Criminal Minds hyperfixation and Scooby Doo has been my favorite thing since I was a baby so all the neurons are firing

[theunholyvirginemilyprentiss]

Emily Prentiss being straight is about as believable as Spencer Reid being neurotypical.

[ddarkprdse]

sometimes i feel like i was put on this earth solely to be a fan girl

i swear nothing brings me more satisfaction, peace, and joy than a new media hyper fixation does!

#i have never liked anything a normal amount

[smaeemo]

I hate that every man Im attracted to in TV is a middle aged white man, and that every comfort character is an awkward probably autistic queer coded freak

[a-timely-problem]

Overheard at the BAU

The team: doing challenges during game night

Penelope: "For this task, you have to get this vase to the table without using your hands."

The rest of the team: "Alrighty!"

Spencer: "...like... not at all? Am I supposed to use my feet? Can I touch this with gloves and it doesn't count? Am I supposed to pick up other tools with my hands or would that disqualify me?"

The others: ...

Spencer: "I'm autistic, you should have seen this coming."

[questionablemeap]

okay y’all. spencer reid fans buckle up, cause i have some thoughts. i wanna talk about post-prison era reid. we all love him, but i've been having some major thoughts about it. one of the main things about post-prison era reid, is that he masks so heavily, and none of his autistic traits are shown anymore. now i'm all for trauma making a character mask more, but cm didn't really view it like that, and i dont like that. another thing about post-prison reid is that he no longer gives any fucks and will fuck you up. i love this, because it personally feels like, after years of being ridiculed for his autism and how it affects him, he fights back against it. you can try and ridicule him, but he's gonna put up a fight, and you're not gonna win. a lot of people like post-prison era reid because of his hair- which is completely valid,, fluffy haired reid is amazing. but i feel like we as a fandom are not talking about the drastic changes in his character enough. yes! post-prison reid is awesome! but let's talk about why. how he went through trauma and it changed him fundamentally. how he masks so much he's almost unidentifiable. everything that made reid him before, doesn't anymore, and reid has to figure out who he is without that. he has to figure out IF there is a him without it.

in conclusion: post-prison era reid is so so interesting, and we as a fandom don't go into WHY post-prison reid is, if not the best, one of the best, eras of reid enough.

[spinningspencer]

♡ autistic Spencer Reid ♡

♡ Spencer, who never wears matching socks, it just doesn't sit quite right in his mind

♡ Spencer, who will eat his comfort food for weeks on end when other foods just don't feel right

♡ Spencer, who wears his noise cancelling headphones on the jet back from an exhausting case, trying to hold off an impending shutdown as long as he can

♡ Spencer, who flaps his hands when talking about something that gets him excited, smiling like an idiot when someone actually cares about one of his special interests

♡ Spencer, who doesn't always understand the comments his team makes

♡ Spencer, who studied behavioral analysis so he could understand neurotypical people better in an attempt to fit in

[lighter-lifter]

Autistic! BAU Reader HCs

Obv you and Spencer would be really close

The team doesn’t baby you, but they make sure to be aware of your support needs and upkeep them

Emily is the best person to go to when you’re non/semi-verbal

Em will say anything, and especially for someone else

Hotch is the best to go to when you’re overwhelmed or shutting down

Derek is the best to go to for meltdowns

Like when you’re overwhelmed and just need quiet and stillness you can go to Aaron and he’s so protective and he’s all “Alright, honey. There’s an empty confrence room over there, cmon.”

AND AND DEREK he would stop you from doing harmful stims and he would be so like firm but gentle like “Alright..alright sweetheart- nope don’t hit, no. Here, hot stuff, grab my hands..there you go hun you can squeeze my hands as hard as you need. Uh-uh don’t worry about being loud, I’ll explain it to everyone else later. There you go, sweets.”

Spencer is so great to go to when you’re understimulated, he’ll infodump to you and listen to your infodumps and stim with you and share his stim toys and and and he’s just so and i love him

Jj is so gentle and concious of your support needs :(( it’s like a sixth sense, she always knows when you need something and exactly what you need. She will engage in your interests and will watch and smile so big when you and Spencer just feed off of each other.

I think the team didn’t really know all that much about autism before you. From the moment you joined the BAU, you were very open about it. Spencer hadn’t explicitly told the team until you, and while everyone knew, they were all so glad he finally felt safe and seen enough to do so.

Hotch LOVES asking questions omg.

“L/N, is it possible for an autistic person to do the opposite of the usual diagnostic criteria? Like making too much eye contact?”

Will listen to your WHOLE schpeal about it before giving you a pat on the shoulder and going “Good work. I think we’ve learned a lot about this unsub from that.”

ugh they just they all love you so much and they appreciate you so much and

Penelope gets SO EXCITED when you choose her to infodump to, or even when you ask her for certain supports. She LOVES hearing about your interests and will get nearly as excited as you when you talk about them! 

You and Penelope trade stim toys all the time, and she’ll surprise you with new ones like once a week

I love them

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N; i love them so much ouch it hurts im gonna die

anywayz

like and reblog! :3

[padfoot0216]

It pisses me off so much with the way people treat Spencer from criminal minds. Like I know he’s fictional but damn.

Like I’m the early season everyone infantilizes him. Like “oh look at this poor little weak baby” and then we get the post prison arc where everyone is like “Wow I like post prison Reid so much more.”

Like you like him after he was traumatized to the point of him having a lot of his outward autist signs stripped from him.

Like everything I see about an autistic character is people either infantalizing them or saying they like the scenes or episodes or seasons where there autistic traits aren’t really present.

I hate it.

[mimicdive]

Autistic Spencer Reid

Before Autism Acceptance Month ends, I wanted to share a list of my autistic Spencer Reid headcanons! (I've been meaning to do this but have continuously forgotten haha.) Most of these are semi-rooted in canon, though others just felt right to me.

Can’t handle the feeling of the metal against his skin, which is why he wears his watch over his sleeve. (Noted Reid wears his watch over his sleeve in S2E9 "The Last Word," and it is further noticed in future episodes.)

Covers his ears whenever he’s on a call; due to auditory processing issues, the background noise will feel level with the audio from the phone. Even if the room is mostly silent, he still does it, partially out of habit, partially because it just makes him feel more comfortable (rooted in canon, first noted in S2E10 "Lessons Learned," noticed in multiple episodes).

Stims in several discreet ways such as pacing, spinning in chairs, and spinning pencils/pens. They're less noticeable, a more “normalized” way for him to stim. He doesn’t quite have the confidence to do stims as obvious as hand flapping in the company of those he isn’t familiar/comfortable with (rooted in canon, noticed in multiple episodes).

Background noise can feel equally as loud as inside noise, making it harder to focus (rooted in canon, first noted in S2E17 "Distress").

Routine is a must, and he expects that everyone else must stick to a routine as well. (S3E2 "In Name and Blood" Gideon doesn’t show up to his routine chess match with Reid, and he stays overnight in his office waiting to play–eventually falling asleep, still waiting.)

He says things directly, seemingly without filter. It can cause people to think he is being rude, but his intention is not to be rude. He’s stating what he believes to be an objective truth–a fact. (S3E8 "Lucky," he implies Morgan may not really believe in God, and the entire plane stares at him & in S7E13 "Snake Eyes," he makes a comment on Rossi's age that prompts a disbelieving response.)

Bright lights and loud noises are an absolute no. He expresses that “clubs aren’t his thing” (S4E9 "52 Pickup").

Hunger is a weird feeling for him that tends to go unnoticed, and he may forget to eat if not prompted. The rest of the team does their ultimate best to remind him to eat, and Rossi takes particular notice of the textures he likes and doesn’t like, in case restaurant outings are necessary.

Eating is also difficult sometimes due to sensory discomfort around textures and smells, leading to Reid avoiding meals. He can feel like he's going to throw up–and as a germaphobe, that is out of the question.

Suffers from light sensitivity due to sensory issues, which leads to migraines and discomfort. He carries a pair of sunglasses with him at all times to try and ward off the headaches. (S6E12 "Corazon")

Despises sand with a passion. He absolutely abhors it. If you ever take him to a beach, he refuses to take his shoes off. (S8E5 "The Good Earth," Reid explains to JJ that he doesn't like the beach.)

Struggles with over-stimulation and can get distracted by the tiniest thing, making it difficult to focus. (S8E10 "The Lesson," Reid explains to Blake that he is sitting in an isolated place because he cannot focus because of the background noise.)

Horrible spatial awareness–often trips over or into things. Walks into doorframes and doors often, along with the sides and corners of tables.

Is typically touch-averse and only allows touches from those who he is close to or if he initiates it.

[indigoisokay]

There are two wolves inside of you and one of them is Spencer Reid and the other is Penelope Garcia

[dippable]

autism and media. spoilers for criminal minds, my hero academia, and dungeon meshi.

okay so, i'm an autistic person, and i've seen portrayals of autism (both implied and explicit) and they've had.. a range of quality overall.

in explicit examples, i've seen only a few. spencer reid comes to mind first- the autistic savant with an eidetic memory and a penchant for seeming robotic. i, personally, was heavily influenced by this guy- i did (and kind of still do) enjoy criminal minds after all. however, spencer's existence as one of the first explicitly autistic characters that was seen by a wider audience. the show was insanely popular, but in the later seasons (mainly after he was sent to prison) many of his autistic traits seem to fade away. of course, he is a traumatized man who was on high alert for a WHILE, but one would expect he wouldn't lose many of his core personality traits. personally, i think these were written out since his traits weren't seen as "popular", since autistic people can offend those they love or say the wrong thing on accident and it seemed too weird.

second, my hero academia. i don't think any of these characters are explicitly autistic, but i haven't watched in a while. mainly, i see deku and tamaki as autistic (although bakugo, aizawa, and shigaraki are.... suspicious) and i believe my views on these two are mainly influenced by the rest of the fandom, so here goes. overall, i think the characterization of these two lends itself directly to their emotional or anxious nature. most media i see with one or both of them severely dumbs them down to these traits, with tamaki getting the brunt of this treatment. most don't seem to remember that both of them are strong for their age, smart, and have faith in their quirks. even if tamaki might seem pessimistic about fights, he's just that- pessimistic. he's much more inclined to believe he'll lose because if he does, he's prepared to do what he can to help whoever comes after. deku is emotional, yes, but who wouldn't be? he's a teenager who's been told over and over again that he's a failure and he'll never achieve his dream, and suddenly, he's being helped by the #1 hero to become the person that he thought was unattainable. i think horikoshi's representation of them is alright, it's just mainly the fandom that compresses them into "uwu anxious cinnamon rolls too sweet for this earth" instead of remembering they're multifaceted characters, and damaging their own interpretations of real people in the process.

in dungeon meshi, i don't know if they're explicitly autistic (however laios and falin are HEAVILY HINTED AT so.) but the representation of autism here is incredible. in the series, we see laios fuck up with shuro (and, notably, we see the fandom sweep it under the rug because laios is white) while he has real, genuinely close relationships with others (marcille is like a sister to him, and chilchuck's his best friend) so we know he is a multifaceted character. he's also tied to the tendency of autistic people to be interested in fringe interests, or alterhuman circles. he thinks (like many others) that he's weird enough to people, so he throws all caution to the wind and goes all-in on being weird. i know that when i realized i was "too weird" for others, i just stopped caring, and that's how i got into many of my favorite things- like OFF, house of leaves, etc etc. if they thought i was weird then, i don't really want to know what they think i am now, especially since i'm out here playing obscure meta rpgs or reading books that require me to flip them around.

overall, i think the representations of autistic people in media have a long way to go. there is still a critical shortage of autistic poc in media, and many representations of autism are still influenced by the savant stereotype we see with spencer reid (see: the good doctor) and there's still a variety of symptoms that haven't been shown accurately yet. i'm very proud of where we've come, though- now, i can see an incredibly accurate portrayal of myself in laios, but there's still many autistic people who haven't seen someone they can relate to on the silver screen.

[theunholyvirginemilyprentiss]

So crazy that all of Spencer Reid’s friends are literally FBI profilers and he’s somehow still out here rawdogging undiagnosed autism.

[fondfamilies]

i actually kinda love how rossi meets & clearly sees this rambling fanboy reid, who adores his work & has a missing spot where he'd love another old man to father figure for him & direct him, & instead rossi's (bemused, but) patient with him (more patient than the rest of the team) and keeps some emotional distance while respecting right away that he's a genius & calling him doctor. he's nice (quicker than he's nice to the rest of the team early on) to reid while making it clear he's not going to step into that father figure role

[xmcu-fietro]

They lowkey have such similar yet such totally opposite vibes. Like they’ll both ramble to people about something super specific for fifteen minutes without realizing that everyone around them is tuning out. Heck, Spencer’s reading speed probably rivals Peter’s, which is saying a lot because Spencer doesn’t have superspeed. The difference is that Spencer reads a wide variety of books because he generally hyperfixates on reading, whereas Peter only reads things if he absolutely has to in order to go deeper on a hyperfixation.