Daily Thoughts

A Quick Guide for Those Recently Diagnosed, Researching Diagnosis or Self-diagnosing

It is important to note that how difficulties with social interaction present depends on many factors. These difficulties will be present from a very young age, so confirmation with family is often needed if possible.

Secondly, masking can alter how these difficulties present, too, as well as trauma or other mental health issues can change how one interacts. Many autism tests will ask if difficulties are present "only now, before the age of 16, or both before and now" for this exact reason.

Life circumstances, other neurodivergences, accommodations etc will also alter how these difficulties present in each individual. It is important to take a look at your whole life, circumstances, how you understand interaction in different settings etc.

Lastly, it is important to note that I am a moderate support needs autistic but with high masking skills. Not all autistics will experience these difficulties in the same way, or some may have other neurodiversities that affect their views.

So, how can these difficulties present? This is an example list only and is by no means an exclusive list and in no particular age progression order:

Inability to describe what a friendship is. May believe any interaction qualifies as a friendship and frequently be hurt by bullying, lashing out by perceived friends etc

Has difficulties in telling when it's their turn to speak in a conversation.

May be accused of "hijacking the conversation" or may be told they don't contribute to the conversation.

May often be told they are rude, offensive or inappropriate in conversation as they do not understand the nuanced rules around conversation.

May leave the group mid-conversation, being seen as rude or weird. Again, not understanding the rules around conversation. May simply feel "I'm bored now" and not comprehend the tit-for-tat of conversing.

May build up scripts in their mind which are based heavily off of previous successful conversations. May also take information for scripts from books, TV or movies.

Small talk is painful and the person may be seen as giving too much personal information as they do not understand or comprehend the purpose of small talk. May also think questions are literal, leading to oversharing.

May bully at a young age due to the inability to understand how friendships are formed. May see friendships simply as "I want to hang out with you, so we're hanging out. No questions required."

May take over play at a young age due to not understanding social niceties or difficulties with self-induced imaginative play. Possibly early form of scripting.

May become exhausted after short interactions or show an intolerance to interactions from a young age.

Watches others interactions and begins to create rules around these in order to appear "normal".

May practice vocal tone, facial expressions or conversations when alone. Will fear messing these up in direct interactions. May replay interactions over in their head to look for any mistakes.

May feel like they are an actor on a stage, disconnected from real society. May feel alien, misplaced, alone etc.

These are just examples from the top of my head and there are many many more ways these difficulties can present.

And isn’t it weird that the extremely unlikeable character is the one who leaves work exactly on time and prioritizes work life balance?? And we’re supposed to identify with Ma eum who literally sleeps at her desk one episode? If you are a young person watching this show, please be critical about this!! It’s possible to succeed at your work without sacrificing all your free time! Take time to rest and pour energy into your own hobbies and friends and family, your work will actually get better for it!!

Also you know what infuriated me especially is when Ma eum goes to the gumiho princess artist’s house and tells him about the situation and he’s completely unsympathetic. He’s like “well you’ve made me do last minute revisions too”. As if there’s no difference between a famous, experienced artist making last minute revisions after weeks of ignoring the editor’s revisions to his boring storyline and a teenager making revisions based on a last minute corporate decision through no fault of her own. I feel like this triggered me bc it reminded me of when I was doing my PhD and there were all these professors who would complain about horrible exploitative treatment they endured as grad students only to turn around and treat their PhD students the same exact way. It’s like they can recognize abuse when they’re the victims but when they’re the perpetrators, suddenly it’s no big deal. Also I feel like these kinds of people have the mentality that if they had to suffer as trainees then everyone should have to, which is a special form of villainy tbh.

and i agree with you so much. and even aside from this episode, they do glorify toxic work culture. like yes, artists do face unbelievable amount of pressure from both readers and their companies to produce constantly but that doesn’t mean it’s right? they shouldn’t define that as ‘oh it happens u need to learn the truth of this industry’ and then normalise it.

and the fact that we get actual dialogues from characters who’re supposed to be more knowledgeable and they basically excuse EVERYTHING. like fuck kwon and his fucking work life and ethics. he’s an asshole and there’s no justification.

i wish they’d just gone thru the root of exploring the work life of artists and making an actual useful commentary on it. not glorify it.

Glorifying overworking is so toxic. Those webtoon artists deserve break, those employees deserve break, it's not healthy to wake up till 3 am to work. Damn