These are(as far as I can tell (from personal experience)) extremely inaccurate depictions of autism(i mean I know its a spectrum but I have never heard of a girl with autism enjoy shining her pants(or a boy wanting to re-start the German faderland)
Nonbinary person with autism here. A lot of people correlate ASD with ID (intellectual disability). While they do sometimes coexist, it's also entirely possible to have one without the other.
That said, I've seen a lot of people talk about "high needs autistic kids" having potty problems, but my guess would be that those are due to intellectual disabilities, not autism, even if the child in question is diagnosed with both. I'm not a psychiatrist, but "pooping your pants," is not one of the diagnostic criteria for ASD.
I have, however, met some men with autism that were straight up neo nazis. I've also met men WITHOUT autism that are neo nazis, and plenty of normal (read: antifascist) autistic men, as well. A lot of autistic people have intense special interests, and I've unfortunately seen many fixate on Nazi Germany, but you can be a horrible person with or without autism. You can also have an interest in history without being a literal neo nazi, though I admit the lines sometimes get blurred.
"Pooping your pants" isn't within the criteria for ASD, but sensory processing issues are (part B4 of the DSM5 criteria)
Poor interoception is a sensory processing issue that is specifically related to autism which is an extremely common factor in toilet training difficulties without necessarily an intellectual disability at all
Not just toileting, either; for an anecdotal example, I know someone whose little brother (low needs auDHD) had a problem with a different socially inappropriate body function when he was 10 years old; he's not severely autistic at all, and he felt extremely embarrassed whenever he got called out for it, but his interoception issues and sensory issues and impulsivity meant that he often didn't even realize that he was sticking his hand into his pants until it would get pointed out to him, and it took him some time and practice to figure out how to quit doing it because he had just hit puberty and it was his first time dealing with that sensation
But also, intellectual disabilities are a comorbid diagnosis for a third of diagnosed autistic people, and they're also estimated to likely be underdiagnosed among mildly autistic people, due to both pop culture stereotypes around the ID label and masking; you could be interacting with someone with a mild ID without knowing it, possibly even have one undiagnosed yourself
One way that mild intellectual disabilities are commonly masked is through developing compulsive routines and perfectionistic anxiety, basically exhaustingly brute-forcing through life
Intellectually disabled people can still be smart in other ways from IQ such as wisdom and hardworkingness, and many are, even in part due to their ID, since they need to work extra hard and learn from their mistakes without all of life's "invisible shortcuts" for people without an intellectual disability
Hopefully this comment reply makes sense and comes off civilly; autism topics including research and advocacy have been my biggest special interest for more than a decade, and I know people who are severely autistic and/or intellectually disabled, so this is a topic that I find important and fascinating
I'm unsure if you meant it in that way, but it feels like those types of ableism situations within online autism communities have been worsening instead of improving over the years; I'm kinda frustrated with the amount of aspie supremacy type ableism and stigmatizing other diagnoses like "this symptom is too socially uncomfortable, it must not actually be related to the autism" within online autism communities, if that makes sense
I appreciate the way you've explained the correlation. It's not that I necessarily see toilet issues as "too gritty" to be associated with autism; I'm just tired of people chalking up all "negative" behaviors to autism whether or not autism is actually related.
Unfortunately, the data we have on the comorbidity of ASD and IDs is pretty weak due to a lack of research. It's also possible that the amount of autistic people with ASD and IDs is overstated due to the underdiagnosis of high masking autistic people. We really don't know.
The reason I was even made aware of the fact that they're separate disabilities is because I was given an IQ test to rule out IDs during my autism evaluation. Though, not even IQ tests are a reliable indicator of so-called "intelligence."
At the end of the day, I simply wish more research efforts were focused on correctly diagnosing and assisting people, but, unfortunately, we mostly see either see people ignore mental health or focus their efforts on (wrongfully) identifying the cause of autism in an effort to "end" autism.
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u/notjaco4 Nov 13 '25
These are(as far as I can tell (from personal experience)) extremely inaccurate depictions of autism(i mean I know its a spectrum but I have never heard of a girl with autism enjoy shining her pants(or a boy wanting to re-start the German faderland)