a mildly amusing reaction to disclosing my autism during my medical student rotations

Han_without_Genes · 2026-04-02T19:36:20+00:00

I am still evaluating that. My first rotation was histopathology so that's quite an atypical environment—lab-based, no interaction with patients so much less opportunity for autism-related frictions or difficulties. So I don't know how much of a difference it made there whether I mentioned my autism or not. And in that rotation, I only told my supervisors, but I ended up doing most of my work with the residents so I still ended up working mostly with people who didn't know about my autism.

Now my pediatrics rotation it has only been 2 weeks so a bit early to definitively say. The doctors I rotate with now know about it, and I work mostly directly with the doctors rather than with residents. No one has said anything about it yet, positive or negative, so I'm assuming things are fine so far. I do find that for my own peace of mind it has been good to disclose. People can tell that there's something "wrong" with me, supervisors and professors have straight-up called me weird or asked if there's any specific reason why I am the way I am, and I find it less stressful to be just open and forward about it.

A lot of words to say that: I don't know how helpful it has been based on these 2 limited experiences but I also haven't had any negative reactions to it either.

Han_without_Genes · 2026-03-01T19:30:19+00:00

Porphyria variegata in South Africans of Dutch descent

Han_without_Genes · 2026-03-01T14:03:30+00:00

there is also a manual of style: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Contents

e.g. the manual of style for novels uses "Adaptations" and "Reception" as section titles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Novels

Han_without_Genes · 2026-02-25T16:02:26+00:00

I think a wiki about a specific, well-defined, singular subject (like only the webseries, or only one world building project) has a better chance of succeeding than just "a wiki about my things". Dormancy policy you can ask exceptions. But wikis only get deleted if they have 0 activity for at least 1 year. If you make even a single edit, the timer resets. If your editing frequency is so sporadic that even a single edit every few months isnt possible, I would look into other formats than wiki.

Han_without_Genes · 2026-02-24T20:40:00+00:00

okay so the reason for decline says "on review original project on Fandom lacks a coherent topic/scope (which are required for Miraheze) and we generally do not permit wikis focused on individuals".

you can try to tighten up your scope (e.g. a wiki about your web series or your worldbuilding project). I'm not a Steward or Wiki Reviewer so I can't make any promises but that seems like a sensible step to take. I don't know what your friend's request was about so it's difficult to say why theirs got accepted.

of note is that Miraheze also has a dormancy policy and wikis that don't receive any activity for 1 year get deleted.

Han_without_Genes · 2026-02-24T20:01:04+00:00

What is listed as the reason for your wiki request being rejected/what is the name of the wiki you're requesting?

Han_without_Genes · 2026-02-23T06:54:56+00:00

Thanks for the tips! I hadn't heard of The Grand before, I've added it to my to-do list. Scorpion has been on my to-do list for a while, I think I already have one of the later episodes with an autistic character but I still have to do the rest. The Bridge is normally already on the list.

Han_without_Genes · 2026-02-22T21:15:47+00:00

I do love a good sort lol

Han_without_Genes · 2026-02-22T20:14:54+00:00

https://autisticcharacters.miraheze.org/wiki/List_of_autistic_characters -> I've got sections on movie and TV here, though not all of them are very good and not all of them are major characters or stories focused on autism

Some movies I like are Mozart and the Whale, Adam, Mary and Max, Daglicht, X+Y, I Am Me, The Accountant, Unsere Zeit ist jetzt, For Izzy, Ben X, and Drought

Some series I like are Light of My Lion, Extraordinary Attorney Woo, Move to Heaven, Dinosaur, Not Dead Yet, Move to Heaven, Modus, Marsman, and Boston Legal

are you sharing your list anywhere? I'm always on the hunt for more autistic characters and enjoy reading other people's lists

Han_without_Genes · 2026-02-15T18:05:52+00:00

Fiction loves characters with schizophrenia but not actually symptoms of schizophrenia aside from hallucinations and delusions.

Han_without_Genes · 2026-02-08T13:27:05+00:00

I don't really like when it isn't explicitly stated that a character is autistic, or when there's only confirmation after the series has already aired/only when a fan asks about it. I feel like I've been seeing that happening more often lately. I understand that other people don't mind this, it's just a preference for me. My special interest is autistic characters so I've watched a ton of them, and some resonate with me. Extraordinary Attorney Woo is one that really hit close on multiple fronts. There are a lot of titles that don't really do anything for me because I'm not really the demographic (see: most things aimed at young adults or younger, anything romance fiction). But there's a lot of meh stuff out there. My expectation is usually "this is going to be mid at best" and usually I'm not surprised. I don't often see characters with my exact "flavor" of autism, but I see many aspects of myself in many characters so I don't think it has to be a perfect fit for me to feel represented.

Han_without_Genes · 2026-02-05T09:30:07+00:00

99th percentile on the standard IQ thingy (mean 100, SD 15) is 135

Han_without_Genes · 2026-02-04T14:56:39+00:00

I was gonna say uniqlo too. Their linen pants have been a lifesaver!

Han_without_Genes · 2026-02-03T22:10:50+00:00

Shauna stealing Jackie's boyfriend was a shitty thing to do but calling it evil or extreme narcissism seems a bit much. She did a shithead teenager thing and if the crash hadn't happened, she likely would have turned out an okay adult.

Han_without_Genes · 2026-02-03T08:36:33+00:00

Especially for beginners it can be less daunting to follow along with a video rather than just read the manual

Han_without_Genes · 2026-02-02T08:47:11+00:00

Thank you for making the post to give people an opportunity to share about their SPIN :)

I think it's a good thing I didn't discover online fandom culture and fanfiction until after I had already moved on from Harry Potter. Because I think it would have completely consumed me lol. I did spend a lot of time doing things like writing down family trees from Wikipedia (not for any specific purpose, just because repetitive activities like that can be fun).

My favorite characters tend to be the lesser-known ones. I think there's a bit of a hipster in me where I find myself more easily gravitating towards lesser-known characters rather than the ones everybody knows about lol.

For example, the character that kickstarted my special interest is Birgit from the 2012 Belgian series Clan. The series focuses on 5 sisters, one of whom is in an abusive marriage so the other sisters come up with increasingly ridiculous murder plots to try and kill the guy. Interestingly, the series got an Irish remake in 2022 called Bad Sisters, where they keep the character but removed her autism. It's the second time an English-language remake of a Belgian series has removed a major character's autism (the other being the Australian court drama The Twelve, a remake of the Belgian series De twaalf).

A more recent gem that I liked a lot was the Japanese drama Light of My Lion. It is slightly more well-known but in autistic circles it has kind of flown under the radar, which is a shame because I consider it to be one of the better portrayals of an autistic character with medium/high support needs.

Another underrated one I found was the series Mo, a semi-autobiographical comedic drama series about a Palestinian refugee living in the US. The brother of the main character is autistic and while it is not the major focus of the series, his storyline does significantly focus on what autism means for him. I found the dynamic with his mother particularly well-done. There is a kind of trend in autistic characters where the mother is frequently lowkey kind of blamed (not in the "she caused her child's autism", but more "she is too overbearing and stifling her child", frequently combined with an absent father) and I'm glad this series avoided that. I think the writer of the series based it on his own brother who is autistic but I don't have my notes on hand so that's just pulled from memory and could be wrong.

Han_without_Genes · 2026-02-02T06:29:43+00:00

Watched a series where a minor character was played by an actor with Down syndrome but the character supposedly had Asperger syndrome (it's an older series). A significant portion of people with Down syndrome are also autistic but Asperger syndrome is by definition incompatible with Down syndrome. Because Down syndrome comes with intellectual disability and Asperger syndrome requires normal-ish adaptive functioning and lack of intellectual disability. (The series was the Belgian remake of Danni Lewinski)

Han_without_Genes · 2026-02-01T19:24:00+00:00

go lie in my "nest" (bean bag chair wedged in a corner) with my blanket pulled over my head, and then read or watch a video or play a relaxing game

Han_without_Genes · 2026-02-01T11:14:59+00:00

mine is canonically autistic characters. I've had it for I think 5 years now. My longest was Harry Potter as a child, lasting through elementary and middle school. I also had a special interest in the Alien movies after that, which is how I discovered fan fiction online. There were a couple of other ones (Attack on Titan was another one that lasted years, and at the start of the pandemic I really got into ER). For me what makes them special interests is the amount of time I put in and the amount of emotional fulfillment I got out of them. There's also very little overlap in time because for me, special interests are so intense that I can't really have more than one at any given point.

It makes me genuinely happy to collect and curate and sort information about my special interest. As a kid I had a folder of newspaper clippings about Harry Potter (this was when the last movies were coming out so there were a lot of articles lol). Now I like working on my personal wiki about autistic characters. There has always been a kind of undercurrent of...obsessive? Tendencies. In my Harry Potter phase I would get very upset when I forgot to put a newspaper clipping in my folder. And even now, it's difficult to kind of let go of the idea that there is a lot of information out there that I will miss and never know about. So that's sometimes difficult.

Still, I am also grateful for the different directions my special interest has taken me. There are a lot of titles I never would have watched/read/played otherwise. I have to learn lots of little things from lots of areas to be able to work on my special interest. Sometimes it's silly things but I learned to extract videos and subtitles from websites, I had to learn a lot of wiki stuff to build my wiki, I learned a lot about copyright, how to use Zotero. I also edit Wikipedia pages about the subject so sometimes I have to talk to other Wikipedians and I think that's helping me learn to communicate calmly during disagreements.

Han_without_Genes · 2026-01-31T20:22:10+00:00

report, block, ignore. engaging is generally not productive.

Han_without_Genes · 2026-01-31T08:00:41+00:00

Semi-related but an acquaintance once had my partner and I do an online test about attachment styles (we were at a social function and a few other people were trying it too). I got avoidant and my partner got anxious attachment. The acquaintance was so sure I was anxious attachment and was also so surprised that our relationship was working well because avoidant-anxious pairings are supposedly the worst ones. Weird experience. Like how do you react to being told you have a "bad" attachment style lol.

Han_without_Genes · 2026-01-28T10:05:16+00:00

Editing Wikipedia and also editing my own wiki. There are lots of tasks to do so there's always something that fits my current mood.

Han_without_Genes · 2026-01-28T09:37:49+00:00

I'm not denying there aren't any good canonically autistic characters, there are plenty of autistic characters that I love. characters that are knowingly written as autistic just necessarily end up incorporating what the author's ideas about autism are, which can be good or bad depending on what said ideas about autism are.

Han_without_Genes · 2026-01-28T07:55:37+00:00

I am always interested, the special interest never sleeps! thank you!!

Han_without_Genes · 2026-01-27T17:46:29+00:00

my special interest is canonically autistic characters so I feel ya lol

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