The implications of when neurodiversity becomes popular culture.

Autism from the Inside is excellent. My favourite YouTube channel right now is Proudly Autistic.

When it comes to social media, there is a valuable content, such as the channel “autism from the inside” on YouTube, but all those teens making fun out of flapping hands they make the biggest harm to those who suffer. I used to suffer a lot I was suicidal as a teen and young adult and I had no idea why. I only felt constantly worse than others. Now it’s gone but I also feel like I have no personality. I’m learning how to be myself. I’m learning who I really was since my childhood before others messed up with my mental health. I struggled my whole life. Now I experience burn out. You need help, I’m sorry you are going through this. 

I feel the same. I've struggled mentally all my life. My diagnosis answered some questions but unfortunately it came during this 'fashionable' social media spectrum craze 

I'd been off social media for years so didn't know anything about it until after my diagnosis. 

It must look like I'm jumping on the bandwagon. And it's going to be detrimental for people like us with real struggles.

TheCatWoman said:

I also worry about what I've termed as diagnosis envy, where people envy the attention that someone gets for having a disability

Do you mean also the short videos in social media of people pretending to have some ND conditions? For me it has a very negative effects on those who really struggle. Because then they hear humiliating comments from other people and even professionals sort of “yeah now it’s trendy, you are just pretending to get attention!”. I red that from someone’s experience and I myself had similar. I heard from a psychologist and psychiatrist (in one person) - after I described her my problems with my own words, - that now it’s a popular and fashionable diagnosis, everyone diagnoses themselves with autism and adhd. That hurt me. I hoped for some help/advice how to cope with stress. But instead I heard that in fact i have many autistic traits and probably I’m an aspie, but now it’s trendy… after her I’m very worried to seek help anywhere else although I was told only recently few times that I should seek help. Earlier in life I often heard that I’m a weirdo and should change.
So looks like people would do anything to get a 5 minutes of attention. 
Edit: probably not all the social media videos are being uploaded by those who pretend, but it’s hard to say in my opinion. 

It's good that people are coming out and being loud and proud and showing that you can e succesfull in life, but isn't bi-polar a bit different to autism and maybe has more in common with ADHD in some? I do wonder at the wisdom of putting all neurodiverse conditions in a related lump, will the boundaries both individual and between the conditions get lost? I also worry about what I've termed as diagnosis envy, where people envy the attention that someone gets for having a disability, a bit like all the people who insist they're dyslexic because they're poor at spelling and therefore have to be excused.

I guess the downside of the successful coming out is that it puts pressure on the rest of us to be just as successfull. I think there's already to much pressure to "do things", maybe that works for some, but it wouldn't work for me as I don't work well under pressure.

I wonder if the neurodiverse communities could learn something from the gay comunities about how coming out into mainstream culture effected them, for good or bad?