re: Bella Ramsey on being diagnosed as autistic while filming The Last of Us

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Ope. You forgot to switch unknown.

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His alters posts are great.

Got to start them off with "I hardly post, but" meanwhile 50k posts as unknown.

This chick looks incredibly easy to draw.

Can someone change the Norman Oswald gif to say "you know, im something of an autist myself" for theunknown to have?

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So what value would screening and letting everyone know bring?

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To be fair, this is really two different questions.

1.) What benefit is being screened?

You can be financially successful and still have issues. Be that depression, autism, or other mental issues - imagine if someone had better understood what Kurt Cobain or Heath Ledger or Robin Williams were suffering from. Having money doesn't magically rid one's self of these problems.

2.) Why let everyone know?

This is more nuanced, and obviously no one here can presume to know 100% what she was thinking or feeling, but she did say this in an article:

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It’s the subject of their first ever script, a feature they’ve written and are hoping to direct called Toast and Jam, after the one thing that “helped me get over my eating disorder”. Every night, they would have some bread with jam – it became a regular habit that exorcised the guilt they felt over eating: “It was a routine and that felt good to me.”

On the subject of routines, Ramsey is a big fan. “I’ve spoken a bit about neurodivergence before, but I always for some reason didn’t want to…” they trail off. “I felt like I didn’t want to say what it was… Shoot.” They gather their wits and finally declare: “I got diagnosed with autism when I was filming season one of The Last of Us.”

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While shooting in Canada, a crew member with an autistic daughter assumed that Ramsey had it too, setting them off on a journey that ended in a formal psychiatric assessment and diagnosis. It confirmed something that Ramsey had “always wondered” about. As a child, they’d routinely felt out of place in school – a self-described “weirdo” and “loner” more comfortable around adults than their unpredictable adolescent peers. There were other hints too: sensory issues common to people on the autism spectrum and their painful hyperawareness of other people’s micro-expressions and body language. They aren’t a fan of the heavy waterproofs and thermals that come with filming in the cold Canadian wilderness – “too much stuff on my body”, they explain, fidgeting as if remembering it now in person.

Their autism, they point out, actually improves their craft. “I’ve always been watching and learning from people. Having to learn more manually how to socialise and interact with the people around me has helped me with acting.” Being on set, too, offers a routine: “I have a call time, and I’m told what to wear, how to stand, where to stand and what to eat.” They describe the diagnosis as “freeing… It enables me to walk through the world with more grace towards myself about not being able to do the easy everyday tasks that everyone else seems to be able to do.”

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Maybe coming out helps other people realize that autism is 100% a detriment, but rather something that can balance other issues and people can thrive with it in certain situations. One of my staff was diagnosed with it, not a severe case, but all I did was adjust things to give them a bit more structure and they went from an underperformer to one of the best techs I've ever had work for me.

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I mean she does

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What do you think that means?

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Her facial features look like a person with a disability is what it means

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No, they do not.

What medical background are you basing your "has a mental disability based on facial structure" diagnosis are you working off of?

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Well, you're not her.

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Neither is they

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If I was her, I wouldn't have wanted that out at this point.

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I get what you're saying... but at the same time, this is a person with Autism we're talking about, not herpes.

I see no issue being open with things that are a part of your life and how they affect you on a daily basis.

Now, that's not the road I would take if I were in that situation. But, I don't see any reason to get stressed about it when someone else does take that route.