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Post by blazingstar on Mar 10, 2021 17:31:53 GMT
Just a note: I'm autistic, and have been for longer than Tony is old. I don't think Tony is autistic per se. What he does have, and plenty of it, is anxiety. Anxiety + nerdiness does not necessarily equal autism, folks. additionally not everything is ptsd On top of THAT, not every case of a character "masking" or questioning their identity is DID, especially when said character is a teenager and such behavior is arguably age-appropriate. Thank you, alevice and speedwell , for calling it out. |
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Post by hnau on Mar 10, 2021 18:03:22 GMT
Just a note: I'm autistic, and have been for longer than Tony is old. I don't think Tony is autistic per se. What he does have, and plenty of it, is anxiety. Anxiety + nerdiness does not necessarily equal autism, folks. additionally not everything is ptsd On top of THAT, not every case of a character "masking" or questioning their identity is DID, especially when said character is a teenager and such behavior is arguably age-appropriate. Thank you, alevice and speedwell , for calling it out. Yes. And the DSM labels and definitions are far from perfect. For instance, not even Job would fully qualify for PTSD, because he was not directly a witness of the death of his servants and of his children. And yet, some people show symptoms of PTSD for much less dramatic events. |
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Post by speedwell on Mar 11, 2021 1:06:25 GMT
Diagnoses are good when they're useful classifications of certain presentations of characteristics, and bad when they lock someone into a plausible but inappropriate label. Additionally a person can move in and out of a diagnosis quite naturally, because people change and grow (or change and deteriorate, to be sure). They're there to help. It may be helpful to think of Tony as "having autistic characteristics" and Annie as "being dissociated" without having to call them literally autistic (which includes executive function issues Tony apparently doesn't share) or having dissociative personality disorder (which is not exactly the same as having a crisis of identity). You know.  I've had to tell therapists, "Even if you don't believe that older adult women who are self-sufficient can really be autistic, let's say you treat me as if I was, and then you'll see things get much simpler and easier to understand." The resulting exclamation, a few weeks later, of, "I'll be damned, I think you're right," is well worth the initial hassle. Of course I really do show the executive function deficits and some of the other frustrating disabilities consistent with a full diagnosis. Some things are harder for me, other things I've evolved coping mechanisms for, still other things I've just accepted as "how I work". I'm sure if everyone navel-gazed to the extent that I have, they could find a lot of names for the ways in which they were different from others. |
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Post by Hatredman on May 20, 2024 12:49:42 GMT
Ten bucks combined Annie loses the open affection her father was previously willing to show forest Annie. I never make bets. But I'll raise you ten bucks AND a Forum Cookie that Tony continues to show some or all of the affection he showed F!Annie, simply because I choose to be a radical optimist. The alternative option would be too depressing for me to believe. You lost. |
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Post by blazingstar on Jun 5, 2024 15:43:58 GMT
I never make bets. But I'll raise you ten bucks AND a Forum Cookie that Tony continues to show some or all of the affection he showed F!Annie, simply because I choose to be a radical optimist. The alternative option would be too depressing for me to believe. You lost. I certainly did, and true to my word, the result was so depressing that it pretty much broke me. The last few pages have been pretty much one of my worst fears as a neurodivergent person: what if my disorder affects my ability to connect with or relate to my future children, and being emotionally close with them is impossible for me? The anxiety. I cannot deal. It's too painful to see this from Tony's perspective right now. I think I'll sit this discussion out for awhile. Thanks for the reminder. |
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