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You should also think before you call people stupid. If you google autism test, you'll find this:

https://www.clinical-partners.co.uk/for-adults/autism-and-as...

"I prefer to do things on my own, rather than with others."

"I prefer doing things the same way - for instance my morning routine or trip to the supermarket"

"I find myself becoming strongly absorbed in something – even obsessional"

These are all questions everybody living in a modern society can relate to.

Of course autism is a real condition, but modern society somewhat requires people to be machine like and that can easily look like someone is on the spectrum.


Those have the same diagnosis power as "what Hogwarts school are you in" quizzes.

Real assessments are different. Also, ADHD/ASD folks tend to overestimate how universal their experiences and preferences are.


No, I'm afraid the original poster was right. The original comment was just plain stupid. For one there isn't a single 'western diet' any more than there is one 'eastern diet'. If you had attributed a single social issues cause to 'eastern society' like conformity to what you think 'the eastern diet' is and does you'd rightfully be called out for racist stereotyping.

Didn’t call anyone stupid. I said the comment was stupid. I maintain it was.

It feels like that whatever you seek to get diagnosed with you can get it.

It feels like some people just say things these days. Research shows that autism and ADHD are highly comorbid, I forget the exact numbers off the top of my head but they're something like ~50% of autistic people having ADHD, and ~20% of people with ADHD having autism.

So then you grow up as autistic and/or ADHD person which creates a lot of social friction and conflict in your life, you're called lazy, careless, difficult, overly sensitive, and this is particularly bad if you're undiagnosed. You don't fit in socially so you develop social anxiety (this is par for the course), and after a while that can spiral into depression or even a personality disorder, you might start to self-medicate which can turn into a substance use disorder, and ultimately people afflicted by these disorders are taking their own lives at alarming rates. You should look up statistics for suicidal ideation among children and adults with autism for a reality check.

Most of this can be prevented if those affected were diagnosed and offered support as early in life as possible.

So no, having ADHD and autism, two very closely related neurodiversities, and then developing anxiety as a result of that is not at all unusual.


How are you so familiar with the topic? I feel like you described my life perfectly.

If there’s a phrase to describe this wonderful experience of life, it’s “social friction.”


I was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult in a healthcare system that doesn't consistently recognize and treat ADHD in adults. Many clinicians are unfamiliar with it and still believe in myths like ADHD being a disorder that only affects children, or who fail to recognize ADHD as the primary condition and waste years of people's lives on diagnosis and medications that don't work, so I was forced to largely figure it out myself to try to advocate for myself - DSM-5, ICD-11, research papers, personal experiences from other people.

This is a long shot but have any of you had issues with noise and light sensitivity?

It’s something new that started happening to me in my early 30s. I can’t seem to get a diagnosis. Wondering if it’s autism related.

I’ve been to a bunch of specialists and they say it’s all in my head. But car headlights look 10x brighter than they should. And cutlery sounds 10x louder.


My son has ASD. I think I have it too on some degree. And yes, headlights especially nights are very hard to eyes. I have no issue on sounds though.

This life trajectory seems quite common in tech tbh. I suspect the proportion of autistics with ADHD in tech is quite high, given the appeal of: not working with people, novel difficult problems to solve, immediate sensory feedback from working on your computer. It also describes my life accurately as well.

Ironically, we chose a work style that requires maintaining prolonged focus, which sucks without meds (especially when dealing with boring tasks).

This has been my experience, it’s not very convincing and doesn’t give me confidence in the field.

I would say people who are not as disabled as I am should not get a diagnosis. My condition is obvious. I was hospitalized several times and now I cannot work, I have one friend, and I am homeless living in a minivan.

I had one good PDoc who helped me, with my genetics, not to diagnose me, but to help me find what helped me and my specific symptoms. Diagnosis is not as helpful as looking at your own symptoms and own history and using that to find what helps you.


If you don't get the diagnosis before it causes a crisis, it can be _much_ harder to get appropriate support _after_ a crisis.

That is absolutely false. And I stare that from experience. I was looking for help long before my life collapsed and no one thought I was sick enough.

Don't read what I didn't say.

Sorry, I misread that.

Do you think neurotypical people often go, "I would like to spend significant time and money to get an autism diagnosis"?

I don't think it's particularly common. When I went through my dx, I was really hoping for adhd because then I could get meds, but my doc and all my screenings were like, "definitely not adhd, definitely autism".

So, maybe you are seeing rising diagnosis rates and considering that too easy? If encourage you to think about why you feel this way.


How do I know if I'm neurotypical? I have some challenges, I've done a few tests, but I could just be a lazy neurotypical bastard. I think if you go to therapy you can get to take yourself more seriously, look at the signs, self reflections and process that. Now that can easily lead to "I need to get diagnosed with XYZ". Just to be sure.

It's not about the rising rates, that could be explained in other ways.


You go to a testing center, not a therapist, to get a diagnosis. The online tests don't count. A thorough test will take a half-day or more, with tests ranging from conversations to Q&A to visual to a battery of multiple choice questions.

Yep. For some extra anecdata, mine included a 2 hour introductory session (briefly covering the many forms and [official] online tests she had me do ahead of time), and then two 4-hour test sessions, each of which left me utterly exhausted.

> Do you think neurotypical people often go, "I would like to spend significant time and money to get an autism diagnosis"?

The diagnosis is a road to help. I doubt many people travel down that road without there being some merit to their ideas, but even if it is the case that lots of people travel down that road, that doesn't say great things either. That just means we have a giant group of people screaming out for help and they are using one of few outlets to try and get it. I'd rather they get that help through travelling down that road than blocking off the road to anyone isn't 'actually ill', whatever we define that as.


The real question should be how many false positives does ADOS-2 produce? (The gold standard of autism diagnosis)

How do you measure a true positive? Afaik, we don't have an objective, repeatable method of diagnosis.

If you can't measure a true positive, you can't determine the false positive rate.


I've read that fMRI may be used as an objective diagnostic tool for autism. This was a few years back and I'm not sure how further research panned out.

You've probably read about some differences that show up on a population level (just like there are with ADHD) but it's not a diagnostic tool.

Or it’s entirely predictable that those who have a set of symptoms get diagnosed with the stuff that tends to cause all those symptoms

How does this work? I assume there would be one parent company at the end and if that's an American company what does any other country can say about it? Sure if they incorporated a child company there they might interfere, but they could also just close the company to deal with the situation and go forward with the merger.

If a US company operates in a different country as well, it has to abide by the laws of that country, or leave it. For example, Adobe's acquisition of Figma was blocked by the UK and EU regulators, despite them both being US companies headquartered in San Francisco. They could have chosen to leave the UK and EU markets entirely, in which case their merger would have been able to proceed, but they wouldn't have been able to sell anything to UK/EU citizens.

Either they comply or exit the country. Remember how the UK blocked the Microsoft/Activision merger for a time?

Yeah, "blocked" is a misleading word, if they merged anyway.

The merge was only allowed after changes.

They have production, distribution, and marketing ops in other markets. Those could be flogged until compliance.

I have 459 titles on my IMDB watchlist and a tiny percentage of it is available on Netflix (if at all), but this is anecdotal and might have to do something to where I live.

Netflix outside of the US is a very different experience.

In the US, it's mostly their own productions and older content they explicitly acquired, but elsewhere, especially in markets that don't have a local HBO or Disney streaming service, they have incredible backlogs.

I remember finding basically everything I could wish for on there when traveling in SE Asia almost a decade ago, compared to a still decent offering in Western Europe, and mostly cobwebs in the US.


459!? It must take a while to check your list…

After checking 20 titles and getting no results you can notice the pattern.

I used iTerm2 a lot, configured it to my liking, but then I tried Ghostty for curiosity and for some reason I sticked to it. I think it's just cleaner and leaner and the default looks pretty cool and minimalistic, I don't really miss anything from iTerm.

Yes, it's just another terminal emulator, but a pretty solid one that just works.


If you play it again, make sure not to miss the Blackwall gateway quickhack:

https://cyberpunk.fandom.com/wiki/Blackwall_Gateway

Absolutely brutal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD5z3GmQRXQ

---

I also noticed how simple the "new web" is when interacting with it. Of course, that's a game mechanic, but also kinda makes sense.


It's a shame that the Militech Canto only has 4 quickhack slots

The solution is not to be able to upload content. Extremely dumb services, basic trusted information sharing. Just like a newspaper.

This seems a bit more polished: https://tryquiet.org/

But some friction is to be expected.


More? You sure not mean less?

SimpleX, and especially Tox, are much more mature. They're not newcomers.

They are only lacking in users, as they don't have the marketing resources companies like Slack or Discord do.


I have never heard of the ones you mentioned so it's indeed a marketing problem. I've looked at the sites and made a quick judgement.

Nice story, but newborns can't really see well:

https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/family-resources-educati...

https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/baby-vision-d...

https://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/newborn-vision

Their body and nervous system is booting up, everything is starting to adjust to being in a new environment. Masks and family doesn't matter much in that brief period, it's more important to avoid infections and have proper care if something goes wrong. That's why child mortality is down significantly.


I feel you, it's super annoying.


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