Neurodivergence is a costume worn by narcissists:

An attention-seeking, emotionally unstable mother came in and said: “I just watched the series Sheldon, and it was like SEEING my son.”

In the clinic, I’ve seen this often: women showing up with pre-filled questionnaires, determined to leave with an Autism Spectrum diagnosis. The goal isn’t treatment; it’s character building without any real effort. Narcissistic in nature as it’s seeking unearned status.

By idealizing intellectualism and conflating it with aspirational pop-culture portrayals of autism; quirky, high-IQ loners like Sheldon or Sherlock, we’ve turned a serious developmental disorder into a trendy personality trait. The result is that Autism has become a label for anyone unwilling or not incentivized to conform to social norms, having people assume you’re just too smart to respond in kind. Not those developmentally unable to!

Those with true autism (language delays, low IQ, genuine developmental struggles) needed our protection. They needed gatekeeping to prevent them being crowded out by people with Cluster B traits playing dress-up in the costume of “neurodivergence.”

And we failed them.

Over the past 40 years, my colleagues let the diagnostic standards bloat to the extent that debilitating cognitive or language impairments giving rise to Kanner’s original autism are no longer required.

Now, the majority of the newly diagnosed meet only the most watered-down criteria: social awkwardness, diagnosed at any age, rebranded as "High Functioning Autism/ Asperger’s Syndrome.”

The outcome is shown in this reel: Misbehaviour spun into martyrdom, justified by a diagnosis, relieving the bearer of accountability. Children who wreak havoc in classrooms and bully peers are excused, not corrected.

And the only ones expected to cope are the privileged “neurotypical” kids, as a form of penance for their supposed advantage. They’re expected to absorb the dysfunction quietly because any complaint will now labelled stigmatizing. Compassion for whom?