#asd cm

[philcoulsonismyhero]

Criminal Minds autistic headcanons + @autismtypes

Part 1/? (Reposting, because the original seems to have vanished)

[philcoulsonismyhero]

I'm watching 5x20, where they go to Florida, and everyone is complaining of the heat, but Hotch is still wearing his suit, complete with tie and jacket. More evidence of autistic Hotch!! He doesn't want to deviate from the routine of wearing work clothes™ to work

Yeah!! He did that same thing back in 2x03, also when the team were in Florida, and he looked like he was absolutely melting from the heat but never took his jacket off once. 

I think it’s really interesting how that’s an example of an autistic trait that flies under the radar to a certain extent, because it’s kind of expected that an FBI agent will wear a suit like it’s a uniform. Except Hotch is so particular about it in a way that none of the rest of the team are, and so it stands out. The instances of him not wearing a suit to work are so few and far between that I could probably list them all from memory, and even then he wears the exact same style of clothes each time. (Unless there’s a practical concern like the weather in Alaska, or he was called in on a day off and didn’t have time to change.) His work clothes are obviously a really important routine thing for him.

Also, I love how the team comment on it sometimes. There’s Gideon’s “take your tie off for once in your life, huh?” back in 1x08, and I can’t remember the episode off the top of my head (2x11, possibly?) but Morgan jokes to Reid at one point about Hotch having “tied that tie of his a little too tight” when he’s being tetchy during a case. They all Know that Hotch wears his suit like a uniform and that it’s something that’s important to him.

(Edit: it was in fact 2x11, and the line is “Maybe he tied that knot in his tie a little too tight again.” Which is especially amusing because of the ‘again’, implying this is something they’ve joked about before.)

[philcoulsonismyhero]

Thanks so much! :) Could I request an icon of Reid from 4x20, (in the interrogation room with Adam) with the autism infinity symbol in the background?

Here you go, Anon! I gave you a few different options because I wasn’t sure which background version to go with. (Please ignore the pixel-y edges on the second one, I don’t have a proper large version of the infinity symbol graphic and it won’t be visible at icon sizes anyway.) If you want a different background colour, just let me know, it’s an easy change to make.

I hope this is what you were after :) 

(Credit somewhere on your blog would be nice, although it’s not necessary, and if you’re feeling generous and want to throw me a Ko-Fi as thanks, I do have a page [over here].)

[philcoulsonismyhero]

As a fellow autistic fan of criminal minds, I was wondering what you thought of 6x16 Coda? I haven't watched it yet, and I was wondering how respectfully they handled the autistic kid (like if he's nothing but a bunch of stereotypes, or if it looks like the writers actually did their research)

It’s… Hmm. It’s not the worst portrayal ever, but it’s nothing special either. They pretty much did go the stereotype route, but it’s not disrespectful or sob-story-ish the way that Autistic Kid Written By Allistic Writers can be. And the adults in the kid’s life are better than most, plus the team are respectful as usual.

So, I’d maybe give it a 6 out of 10 for ‘you didn’t try very hard but you didn’t screw up either’.

Although there is one thing that really annoys me about the episode, and it’s how *wink wink nudge nudge* ‘we’re never going to outright confirm Reid as autistic or diagnose him in universe, but you know he’s autistic and we know you know’ it is. The whole show is like that, but it’s more frustrating when they’re addressing autism directly. And it’s not like they’re ever offensive about it, but they’re wilfully lazy, because if they ever confirmed Reid as autistic they’d have to actually pay attention to portray it respectfully and they knew that and it’s why they never did.

6x12 ‘Corazon’ is another offender on that front, actually, because pretty much every one of Reid’s issues in that episode is traceable back to him being autistic, but the episode makes it clear that he doesn’t actually know that he is. Which is. A bit ridiculous given his job and the people he works with. The whole business badly strains my suspension of disbelief, which is why I filter the entire show through the AU that exists in my head where Reid, Garcia and Hotch (also Gideon, and Blake from s8/9) all know that they’re autistic and actually gets mentioned and discussed onscreen.

Anyway, that’s a pretty long winded way of saying that 6x16 ‘Coda’ doesn’t handle the autistic kid badly, but neither does it try very hard. 

(Autistic stuff in CM is something I will talk for hours about, btw, so thanks for giving me an excuse!)

[philcoulsonismyhero]

Hotch has this really specific hand fidget thing where he repeatedly clenches his left fist and rubs his thumb and index finger together, and it always shows up when he’s speaking in front of groups. 

I’m just saying, that’s a stim if ever I saw one.

[philcoulsonismyhero]

@roguelibrarian did a writing meme, and I decided to steal it because for once I actually have a WIP that’s long enough! 

The rules are as follows: Go to page 7 of your WIP, go to the seventh line, share seven sentences, and tag 7 more writer-bloggers to continue the challenge.

This is from a very self-indulgent Criminal Minds autism fic, which is pretty much just an excuse for me to explore some of my headcanons for Hotch (and Jack), Reid, Garcia and Gideon. (I’d include Blake as well, but this is vaguely set some time around s6/7 so she’s not on the team yet.) I’m going to cheat and include two extra sentences at the beginning because I like the added context:

“You know, Jack still talks about that day,” said Hotch, his expression soft in the way it always was when he talked about his son. “I don’t think he quite believed me that adults could be autistic too until we all sat down and talked about it.”

“Even though you’d told him about you?” asked Reid. Hotch nodded.

“I suppose my symptoms are a bit subtle for him to pick up on, especially since at his age he’s still basing his concept of a ‘normal’ adult on me.” Hotch chuckled slightly. “He’s always telling me that his teachers are too loud.” Garcia and Reid both smiled fondly at that. Most adults would seem loud compared to Hotch, who was a lot more soft-spoken in private than you might expect if you’d only ever met him on the job.

The conversation then turns to Jack’s burgeoning obsession with superheroes, and on to their own childhood special interests. I love these autistic nerds a lot. (Ask me about my headcanons! I have So Many...)

And... I’m going to be lazy and openly tag anyone who wants to do the thing.

[philcoulsonismyhero]

1x03- ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’

In which Hotch fails to realise that he is by far the nerdiest person in this room and everybody but him knows it.

[philcoulsonismyhero]

8 for the ask meme for all of them

(This ask is from months ago, but I just found it in my drafts and it turns out I completely forgot to post it... Oops.)

8. Do they know they’re Autistic? if so when & how did they realise?

Reid: Okay so, in canon, Reid quite clearly doesn’t know he’s autistic. It frustrates me a lot, because so many of his Brain Worries would be alleviated at least somewhat by that knowledge. But, I do have a bunch of conflicting headcanons for when he might potentially have found out in the ideal version of canon where he actually has a diagnosis: 1) Gideon and Hotch broached the subject when Reid first started at the BAU. 2) Hotch brought it up after 6x12 (Corazon) as an less-scary explanation for his headaches. 3) He’s always kind of known after doing research as a kid, and ended up essentially diagnosing himself.

Hotch: He definitely knows, but he didn’t really get a chance to figure it out until he was in college because his dad was Fucking Awful. But once he actually had the time and space to think about things like that, he put two and two together pretty quickly. The biggest clues for him were the things that everyone else seemed to take for granted that he had never really figured out (like what the deal is with clothes and fashion, and the social conventions surrounding touch). He has an unofficial diagnosis (by which I mean that Gideon and Rossi both agreed with his self-assessment), but he hasn’t pursued an official one because of the politics he has to deal with as unit chief.

Garcia: She always kind of knew (basically living on the internet means you learn a lot of things), but it wasn’t until a conversation with Hotch a few months after she joined the FBI that she actually took the possibility of a diagnosis (both of autism and ADHD) seriously. 

Gideon: We know so little about Gideon’s past, but I suspect he figured himself out not long after he started studying psychology. Not that he ever made a point of telling anyone or pursued a diagnosis, because it just didn’t matter to him all that much beyond answering the “why am I like this” question. But he doesn’t keep it a secret either, and will bring it up in conversation if it’s relevant.

Blake: Alex should have gotten diagnosed in high school, but since she’s a woman and also this was the 80s there was no chance of that. As it was, she didn’t really suspect she was autistic until college, and didn’t get an actual diagnosis until she was an adult.