Whenever I say on TikTok or YouTube that I collect fire alarms, people say that I am autistic apparently because one kid on the news is autistic and is very interested in fire alarms systems
Idk man
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You have a point, but it does seem like the majority of life safety enthusiasts are also autistic, thus making it a common trait among them (heck seems like a lot of communities have autism as a common member trait).
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To be fair, i’m autistic.
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I don’t like that people that are saying on your videos. There are some people that aren’t autistic and in to this stuff and it could be offensive to them. That’s why I wish people wouldn’t jump straight to conclusions. For example; I’m in to anything life safety and like certains things like sirens and fire alarms, but I’m not autistic, so I hear where your coming from because I get teased for it all the time.
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I collect and I have very high functning autism
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so do I most people dont even know I have it
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I have considered going about getting tested for an adult diagnosis for autism, and while it’s still in the back of my mind, I don’t think I will for a few reasons:
Firstly, just because I suspect I am autistic (which I do, at least to a certain extent), doesn’t necessarily mean that I am. If I were to go in for a test, I’d have a sort of ulterior, subliminal motive to want to answer the questions in such a way that I think an autistic person would, and maybe not necessarily in the way I normally would.
Second, what would it change? I have esoteric interests to be sure, and I’ve fixated on one topic or another in a rotating basis for much of my life, but would having a piece of paper that says “Yep, you are on the spectrum” fundamentally change my life or rock my world? I don’t think so. It would explain things, maybe, but I don’t think it would affect who I fundamentally am as a person or radically change my outlook on life. So why should I go through with getting tested?
Lastly, I know a couple of people who did get tested and diagnosed as an adult. One of them suddenly made a 180 and made “being autistic” a fundamental part of her adult life, ascribing incredibly minute aspects of her childhood and even her teenage years when I knew her, to the autism she never knew she had until recently, and began trying to be as big of a voice for autism awareness as possible, despite never knowing this aspect about her life until maybe a year or two ago. What changed? She’s still the same person she was the day before she got her results back, but just with some new knowledge or context of her mindspace.
The other girl I knew who got diagnosed as an adult was a lot more introspective about it. She was able to connect the dots and say “yeah, that must explain that” when looking back on her own past. Funnily enough, she was the one who introduced the topic of adult diagnosis to me over New Years’ Eve, where she told me (jokingly) that I have “major autistic energy” and that I was definitely on her “autism radar”, sort of how gay folks have a “gaydar”. Who knows if I do? I suppose I could find out, but what would it change? I’d still be me, and I don’t mind keeping that one of life’s little mysteries.
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To quote Cave Johnson:
“Science isn’t about ‘why’, it’s about ‘why not?’!”
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I get teased a lot too at school, excuse my language but at school one time in a class I had the teacher made us do a story on our hobbies and I said I collect and I’m interested by life safety equipment and everyone at the table laughed and said “I would have sex with a fire alarm.”
And I got so upset that tears wouldn’t stop running down my cheeks for the last 20 minutes of class and I almost quit collecting fire alarms because I knew people thought I was weird that I do that and didn’t really want to welcome me to things
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If only people would just learn to except others for who they are.
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It’s definitely an unconventional interest but it’s not bad: if I was in that situation I would have told all those idiots to screw off & get a life (since they clearly waste their time belittling others for absolutely no reason).
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some Person in my class last year told me that fire alarms isn’t even a hobby
that just makes me sad that some people don’t See it as a hobby and there is a forum about it. so technically it is a hobby but some people don’t see it that way
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It most certainly is a hobby: heck a lot of things can be a hobby.
Yep If we don’t agree in something we agree in Fire alarms
I feel sorry for you man, back when some of my friends discovered my interest of fire alarms somehow they respected it and I’m not sure why though, but it was very nice to feel like it was just a hobby and nothing else. But I hope that everything gets better for you and that your real life friends will respect you for your hobbies and interests. Such a shame in what this generation has bought… but personally thats exactly why I stay off of tiktok because it’s done more harm than good. Besides that point, I see how you feel when having anxiety to share your hobbies and interests in front of certain people, but if they can’t accept that then thats their loss. You’re an awesome person and fire alarms can lead you to an amazing career one day. I wish you luck man, never give up.
Literally anything can be a hobby.
Thats not very nice at all…
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Please keep your thoughts to yourself. If you ain’t got nothin nice to say, don’t say nothin at all.
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Well said. there’s no need for that here
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