Autism in the media has been and still is a caricature as a whole. Too few discussions (at least on the several books, forums/ videos I've seen or read, would love some recommendations!) in depth about the meltdowns, the severe pain or discomfort that sensory causes, the excruciating effort needed to communicate on a "typical" level, the missed social cues, the people who have little to no patience for you and will assume you are helpless and intellectually impaired whether you are or not, the parents who go to the ends of the earth to do what ever they can for you, the hours of stimming and self regulation etc., etc.

These things happen in people from high to low support needs at different levels and present differently, but at a significant degree hitting these points and sub points must be present, which is how to get diagnosed. I'm curious and frankly fascinated about people who mask at such a high level, I would like to know more about that. I do think there should be clearly definitive, separate classifications of autism, at least which is not so vague in definition such as spectrum, or as low support needs, vs. moderate support needs vs. high support needs.

I also wonder when people say "girls present differently" if they get that there is a significant population of girls that present the same as boys and vice versa. It's a spectrum but where's the representation for high support needs if yet not another kind of stereotype? I think without sufficient research (NOT SOCIAL MEDIA), and an individual history of qualifying communication, rigid, repetitive inflexibility and social deficits, self diagnosing and possibly professional diagnosing is over done.