Anthony Hopkins Says His Wife Thinks He May Have Autism — but He’s ‘Cynical’ About Diagnoses: ‘It’s All Nonsense’
https://people.com/anthony-hopkins-wife-thinks-he-may-have-autism-11841838
Anthony Hopkins Says His Wife Thinks He May Have Autism — but He’s ‘Cynical’ About Diagnoses: ‘It’s All Nonsense’
https://people.com/anthony-hopkins-wife-thinks-he-may-have-autism-11841838
34 comments
> Although ASD can be diagnosed at any age, symptoms generally appear in the first two years of life. After Decca Aitkenhead, the Sunday Times journalist who interviewed Hopkins, pointed out that a late-life diagnosis could bring him relief, the actor revealed his “cynical” view on the matter.
> “Well, I guess I’m cynical because it’s all nonsense,” he told the outlet. “It’s all rubbish. ADHD, OCD, Asperger’s, blah, blah, blah. Oh God, it’s called living.”
> “It’s just being a human being, full of tangled webs and mysteries and stuff that’s in us. Full of warts and grime and craziness, it’s the human condition. All these labels. I mean, who cares? But now it’s fashion,” Hopkins said.
Feels like a complaint about identity attribution (notably by those who have no abilities to ethically/correctly diagnose).
I do get it, as someone with total aphantasia, certain diagnosis by the general public do more harm than good of one’s character. Even more so when espousing misconcieved notions of nuerodivergency/nuerodevelopment at large.
I feel I’ve been hearing about this for years at this point.
Internet definitions of these things are so fucking annoying. No you likely don’t have OCD, autism, ADD, etc. Go talk to a doctor
High functioning individuals don’t have to be autistic.
To each their own. My wife thinks I’m dumb. She’s probably right, but I disagree.
cerebro palsy? broken leg? blah blah blah its all nonsense, we’re all individuals with messy differences
This topic is pretty complicated, given many of the failings of our social and medical systems, people seeking help can wind up receiving little in the way of help only to be slapped with a stigmatized label. Diagnosis can only be as good as our social institutions, and those are often substandard or have very variable quality, whether that be due to inadequate funding, politicization, said institutions reflecting social assumptions and biases which can often be harsh or coercive (because medicine and science can’t magically extricate itself from the social context it is performed or embedded in), etc. I think it’s good to be optimistic about psychiatry and its potential, while also not being too idealistic or naive about its many frustrating limitations.
What a dumb thing to say.
Sounds like something an autistic would say
All these old people are finally realizing they’re on the spectrum, after discovering that it doesn’t just mean the hard r word they are used to saying.
Uh oh better cancel an 87 year old because he doesn’t have the same opinions on autism as everyone else.
Not a medical professional. Ignore.
Am i going crazy or has it been known that Hopkins is autistic?
Poor demented anthony
He’s 87. At some point, it really must sound like nonsense for someone that’s 87.
Younger people that do not care, they’re the problem.
It is not nonsense. Scientific research has done a lot to help people struggling with brain disorders. New medicines, new cognitive therapies, etc. have made incredible differences in mental healthcare. He can have his opinion, but I’ll set my cap on science. The same good science that also makes extraordinary contributions in physical healthcare. But you know, finding a cure for cancer, alzheimers, etc. must be all nonsense, too.
Lucky guy. I got 8 vaccines last year and I still don’t have autism.
Ahem. He might as well have said: My support needs happened to be low, and I was able to fly under the radar well enough as ‘just a bit eccentric’, so I’m going to discount the whole idea for everyone.
Meanwhile, for kids like my eldest, having an explanation for what’s going on and how to manage it has been LIFE CHANGING.
I’m so tired of “I have autism” our brains are all different. This timeline sucks
Two of my three autistic children think I am autistic. Especially when they tell other autistic people about some of my traits.
I was never assessed though.
No…Thinks he has Idiotism.
It literally won’t make a difference in his life. He’s probably gonna die within the decade so I get it
He’s also like 400 years old so i wouldn’t say he’s the most cognitive person out there lol
I can understand his frustration with this recent trend of everyone putting a name to everything. I think spectrum-type disorders trivialize the experiences of people who have what are now called severe cases.
At least they caught it early
Honestly, if it doesn’t affect your daily life, who cares? I am actually with him on this. Ok, maybe it’s not nonsense, but if you can live just fine, you don’t need a doctor telling you that you are X, Y or Z when it makes no difference at all.
In 2017 he claimed he’d been diagnosed a decade ago and he seemed to talk about it like it was a legit explanation for his quirks as opposed to something he didn’t believe: https://archive.is/DqjGt
My grandma who was slowly losing her cognitive functions was saying the same thing.
Diagnosing autism in later years is a topic worthy of discussion.
To be fair his performance in The Father is nothing but mesmerizing!
I could have sworn I read ages ago he was autistic…. How weird.
Assuming he can wipe his own ass an pay his own way, it might not be a disability.
If he got to 87 years old without needing a diagnosis to thrive then I can see why he’d think that. Bit of a non story.
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