Illustration: Jim Cooke / GMG
Elizabeth E. looted everything in Fallout 3‘s Raven Rock. She collected three units of vodka, five stealth devices, four cuts of mirelurk meat and 88 Stimpacks, which weighed her down a considerable 1,437kg. Her pack was so heavy that travelling from Raven Rock to Fort Independence took four hours. She was over-encumbered and couldn’t fast-travel. Elizabeth didn’t mind; that way, she could talk to all the non-player characters on the way. After three playthroughs, her save file recorded over 500 hours.
“The psychologist who diagnosed me called me an ‘information hoarder,” Elizabeth told me. When she was 33, a doctor recognised in her several traits common among people with autism. She’s 35 now and a voice-over producer who games, she estimates, around 30 hours a week. Routine and structure rule her life. Sometimes, the unpredictability of other people disorients her. Also, she’s a passionate collector, both of information and items. In Fallout 3, she says, she could find a location, systematically explore it, collect anything of value and talk to every NPC. After that, she’d read each terminal to piece together lore and, finally, move onto the next location.
“Fallout had so much lore spread across the series and the world that it feeds my desire to know more,” Elizabeth told me. “I could exhaust conversation trees with the NPCs, then read their diary entries on their terminals, and learn so many things about them and their world.”
For people diagnosed with autism, video games can offer special satisfaction in a world that is unpredictable and unfathomable. We spoke to several gamers with autism about what the medium means for them. For some, games offer structure, for others escape. Still others find themselves inspired to dive to depths in games that would go unexplored by others.
Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD, refers to a group of characteristics shared by people with autism. Until 2013’s fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual, the psychologist’s bible, more mild autism was referred to as “Asperger’s,” a term many sources still use to describe themselves. Clinical psychologist Micah Mazurek says that, to diagnose somebody with ASD today, she looks at two main categories: social communication skills, like reading facial expressions, and repetitive behaviours or restricted interests. A lot of people with autism are passionate collectors, laser-focusing on one fandom or game in ways most neuro-typical fans might not.
Years ago, Mazurek helped one of her college-aged patients, who was originally diagnosed with Asperger’s, through a video game addiction. That’s when she became interested in ASD and “screen time.” “A lot of people with autism have really strong visual skills and prefer to gather information visually,” Mazurek told me. “Games are obviously very stimulating in that way.” In 2015, Mazurek interviewed 60 gamers with autism. She learned that games, and especially role-playing games like Skyrim or Fallout 3, can satisfy wants common among people diagnosed on the spectrum. Her study on under-18 autistic boys indicated that they spend nearly twice as much time gaming as typically-developed boys, with 31% preferring role-playing games to all other genres.
“It’s just more comfortable if you know what to expect [in games],” Mazurek theorised. “If this behaviour is gonna get this response in the video game world, in the real world you can’t always predict how people will react to you.”
Across the internet and, now, in several IRL gaming circles, gamers who betray a level of enthusiasm beyond the norm are referred to offhand as “autists.” An eye for specifics or a remarkable memory for lore draws the same toxic stereotypes of the outdated insult “retard.” On /r/gaming a year ago, a poster asked why “autistic” has become a meme used “to describe people who like a certain series.” On 4chan last week, a poster asked which “autistic OCD cringe shit” players do with games. Responses ranged from pursuing a Halo achievement for killing an entire level’s enemies without being touched to “obsessive” trophy collection or following real-life food safety rules in-game.
Autism came to be associated with impassioned gamers, in part, because of a Sonic the Hedgehog megafan referred to as Chris-Chan. In the mid-2000s, Chris-Chan, who was diagnosed with autism early in his life, illustrated the first issue of his Sonic fan comic, Sonichu, from his Virginia home. In it, his Sonic goes on adventures with his friends, as he does. It was unpolished and unapologetically earnest, just the kind of thing to surface on mid-2007 4chan. After discovering his Encyclopedia Dramatica page, which contained a mocking portrait of his habits and online history, Chris-Chan began fighting back against his trolls. On YouTube, Chris-Chan tried to reason with them. But it just added fuel to their malicious little war. A 10-year harassment campaign followed, which is still playing out on Chris-Chan’s social media.
The gamers I interviewed had uniformly faced the stereotypes he did. Using “autistic” as an insult excludes autistic people from regular society. It contributes to the stigma around neurodivergence. It equates difference with something disgraceful. And Elizabeth E. sees it all over the internet. It infuriates her. “They latch on to the one thing about autism that they heard and misuse the word and try to turn it into an insult,” she said. “I cannot understand people who lack basic human compassion and think it’s funny to tear others down.”
And yet, some said the stereotype isn’t entirely without truth, although its application is toxic. Alwin, who was diagnosed with autism in college, says it’s true that people with autism can get over-excited. “It maybe has to do with feeling emotions a bit more intensely,” he said. When he feels an emotion, it’s “like a full-body thing.” It can be about games; or about music or books. If he’s excited about Horizon Zero Daw, though, and someone tells him “don’t be so autistic about it,” he might just laugh. It’s ridiculous, in his opinion, to make “autism” a gross synonym for “nerd,” or something worse. It doesn’t make any sense, he says. Autism means a lot of things.
“All people have hobbies and interests we gravitate towards,” Mazurek said. “It’s not necessarily the case that if someone has a strong interest and spends a lot of time on it its pathological. To meet that criteria when we’re thinking about a disorder, it has to impair your functioning.”
A love of structure and rules is common among people with ASD. It ties together the DSM’s two ASD-defining categories: difficulties in social communication and a tendency toward repetitive behaviours. So, for example, it can be a challenge to pick up irony cues from a straight-faced friend because, in any other instance, their behaviour would signal earnesty. It’s out of the norm. Or, when there are train delays, somebody with ASD might become quite agitated. Likewise, folks with autism often exhibit an uncanny mind for rules, memorising the most trifling details of enormous RPG tomes. That’s what’s referred to as “special interest,” a term that describes Elizabeth’s Fallout 3 run-throughs.
For people with autism, games’ structured dialogue options can be be comforting. A tender conversation with an NPC leaves less room for interpretation than one with a real-life person. The player doesn’t have to worry about missing nonverbal signals, or not knowing what to say. Elizabeth said that, in Fallout, she can express herself clearly and without consequences. “I screw up in a conversation, I can reload the save instead of feeling crushing embarrassment because I said something wrong,” she explained. “My conversation options are laid out in front of me, allowing me to choose what I want to say without tripping over my words or saying it in a way that could be misinterpreted.”
Elizabeth much prefers single-player games to online multiplayer ones; she says other people are too unpredictable. “NPCs follow the rules. Other players don’t,” she added.
Alwin Nijsen, a 32-year-old student who writes on accessibility in gaming, gets the same benefits from the predictability of conversations in games. Sometimes, he can get confused when people send contradicting signals. When another person’s talking to him conversationally, he sits back, thinks and narrows down all possible meanings into just a few of the most likely ones (other sources described conversations as a “choose-your-own-adventure book”). He can take things very literally. In these situations, responding to others heightens his anxiety. “With a social experience, there are an infinite number of replies, which can lead to an infinite number of reactions to another person. It’s a lot less predictable,” he said. “Even in more complex games, like Mass Effect, you can easily tell what kind of response you are going to give. There’s no chance of accidentally being rude to someone.”
Structure is a big draw for gamers with autism, and it exists on a more abstract level than dialogue. Skylar, a Canadian streamer who also works in insurance, says she’s often overwhelmed by open-ended situations, both in conversation and life. She’ll short-circuit, a feeling she describes as “choice paralysis.” She turns to “treadmill games” like Diablo and Destiny, which churn her through pre-determined goals, to relieve some of the stress of life. It’s easy to plan efficient run-throughs. The loot systems are structured. “Since video games have, by nature, rigidly defined rulesets a lot of that fear goes away since I know exactly what I’m capable of and what I’m not,” she said.
Sometimes, loving games is just about pure escapism and stress relief. It doesn’t have to be complicated. “I’m just like anyone else,” Leonard Johnson told me. He games 20 hours a week on top of his day job as a QA tester. Right now, he’s playing Nier. “I work 40 hours a week, pay my bills, and game when I have the chance.” He’s in a healthy romantic relationship and runs a YouTube channel. Although he says he’s a “slave to routine,” he’s firm in his belief that he gets enamoured of games the same way anyone else would, and not necessarily because of qualities associated with autism.
Elizabeth embraces what having autism means for how she games. “It’s who I am, and I can’t change it and I won’t change it,” she told me. She’s happy indulging her interests and embracing what she calls her “autistic tendencies.” She doesn’t want to “perform.” If she worried about everything that made her different, she would be swimming in a sea of anxiety. The worlds of her favourite video games were made to be explored; why shouldn’t she appreciate them to their fullest? “I’m just going to do what makes me happy. If that means playing my favourite game for hours on end because that’s my happy place, then where’s the problem?” she said.
Comments
49 responses to “What People Miss When They Use ‘Autistic’ As An Insult”
I think the people using Autism as an insult don’t actually care what it really means.
Great article though.
Pretty much. It’s the same as them throwing the word “cuck” around, it has nothing to do with what the word actually means and it’s just used as an insult.
That’s by no means an excuse of course, it’s still ultimately a bunch of tryhards who think being offensive makes them interesting.
It’s also used in many other ways, some of them good.
It’s a few Catch 22’s and even natural linguistics.
With a raised awareness of ASD through multiple levels of media, it’s long passed the buzzword stage.
That level of widespread saturation had a number of reactions.
From there given its very depiction as a mental health issue, finding usage in insults is natural.
If you’re arguing that it follows that jackasses who use other mental illnesses for insults would also use this mental illness as an insult, I agree. If you’re arguing that it’s somehow more acceptable because other examples exist, I strongly disagree.
Uh nope, neither of those things.
Well since you’ve offered no clarification, I’m going to go with the second one.
I wasn’t aware you asked for a clarification, you presented two options with prepared responses.
You can go with what ever you like I guess, I’m not going to walk in to that pre prepared mudhole
Sorry, I assumed you wrote your post with the intention of it being understood. You evidently think I misinterpreted your post but you haven’t made any attempt to clear up any misunderstanding.
This isn’t complicated, there’s no mudhole here. I’m just trying to figure out what you meant and you’re making it unnecessarily difficult.
Also for @zombiejesus.
It’s not just insults per-se; some try to use the condition to try and discredit those who post opinions that differ to their own.
Not to dig up the past to much but let’s just say a user that shall remain nameless didn’t like a post I made and rather than rebuttal with alternative objectivity tried to imply I ranked high on the ASD spectrum.
It really is a sad time when users even resort to shoe-horn users into DSM categories just because the posted opinion differs from their own.
I like the running joke poking fun at the weird self diagnosis comments.
Such as:
“I think your dog might be Arthritis”
I’m a supervisor at a remote roadhouse atm and the other night I had a customer use autistic as an insult towards my staff because they were following protocol on a attempted return of goods that thr customer had damaged since leaving the store. I proceeded to tear shreds in the guy, telling him to fuck off outta my store and to not come back lol.
Also kicked a guy out last night for calling me racist when I told him we don’t do kitchen meals after 6. I ain’t putting up with no shit =p
I think young people are really sensitive about being socially aware and not being awkward or weird. When they talk about ‘cringe’ and ‘autism’ they’re trying to show off how ‘normal’ and ‘socially adjusted’ they are (which is highly ironic.)
I’ve never once heard anyone use ‘autistic’ as an insult. Is that a thing???
yeah it’s a popular internet thing now
Unfortunately, yes. People are using “autistic” as an insult.
Two words. The Internet.
internet nerds have become the worst kind of bullies. I wonder if these dickheads ever do any self reflection or just suppress it and lash out at everything.
Psychologists would have a field day with these people.
I agree. It’s pretty sad, but Internet “nerds” as you say, are actually really angry, negative people. Happens in person too.
I remember going to PAX AUS 2014, and when I was watching one of Penny Arcade’s panels (I am a huge fan of PA and attend PAX AUS every year), there was this fellow sitting in front of me. Every time someone from the audience shouted something up to Gabe or/and Tycho (as the audience generally does), this person always whispered things like, “Shut the f*** up.” or “F***ing c***s”, etc.)
I probably shouldn’t be harsh. For all I know, that person in front of me could have mental health issues of their own, but from an assuming perspective, they just seemed very angry.
I didn’t mean nerd as an insult btw.
Just as an identifier for people who are gamers or use the internet or technology in a non-casual fashion.
I’m stereotyping here but a lot of the time these people are young males who are perhaps not socially adjusted and or lonely or feel marginalised for whatever reason. This unfortunately breeds anger, and to them, the internet is a way they can safely lash out at everything with no repercussions.
But I feel everyone has a a choice to behave reasonably or not. The kind of toxic shit that often goes down on parts the internet is cowardly and abhorrent.
These people need to either get help or have a good look at themselves.
If they behaved that way in public they would get locked up or punched out. And they know it.
Oh, don’t worry. I wasn’t suggesting that you were using the word “nerd” as an insult. I’m sure many, perhaps all of us here, can identify as a “nerd”, or “geek” at least.
I know quite a few people who seem very lovely in person, but unfortunately, get them behind a key board and computer screen and for some unnatural reason, they just become self-entitled, “the world owes me everything” wankers.
You are absolutely correct. These people know that what they are doing and saying is completely wrong, knowing that if they did it “iRL” they would suffer severe consequences, but because they are safely behind their computer and somewhat anonymous (except for Facebook and whatnot), they feel safe, secure, untouchable.
It’s like… how does that saying go? “Give a man a mask, and he will show his true face”, I think? I reckon this quote applies for angry Internet dwellers behind their computer. There’s little to no consequence for trolling (or so they think), so they go ahead and do it.
I’ve not heard this before but I like it. And can totally relate to it, given how many of my costumes have incorporated some form of mask 😛
i use it despite being on the spectrum myself and one of my little sisters being profoundly affected by it :\ but i’m not the sort of person that gets all hot and bothered about meaningless insults.
I was on a program a few years back and we went to a school camp for ASD kids.
Those little shits were an absolute blast who give quarter to nobody.
I had to lift my insult game to keep them from burning me alive and salting the corpse.
I’ve done it. I remember years back, had a friend who was ridiculously knowledgeable on Smash and had written numerous in-depth character guides that were stupidly long. A bunch of us were talking Smash and I was hardly able to follow what was being said to me (more of a play-by-feel kinda guy rather than really being consciously aware of what I’m doing/should be doing and why) as though it were the most obvious thing in the world, and I just shrugged it off/took a stab at him saying “I’m not autistic enough to get any of this”, or something along those lines.
Also I remember this part of one of Dunkey’s vids where someone was throwing it (among other things) around pretty freely:
(3:33 if the time thingo doesn’t work)
It is, with the people who finally let “lay off calling people ‘tards, dude” replies sink into their brains but didn’t know why; so they just jumped to a similar word and decided ‘problem solved’.
When are people going to talk about everyone in mainstream media saying things like they are ocd just because they don’t like mud on their carpets or like a neat desk when in reality OCD can be a crippling disorder?
Couldn’t agree more. OCD has been trivialised so much.
A lot of terms for poor situations, historic groups, mental and phyisical disorders have been trivialised in this age of blerting out what ever you want without thinking about it.
Rape, nazi and gay instantly spring to mind. Everyone does it on some level, that is not to say that I think it is acceptable, but it does happen.
I have been known to tell my homosexual friends to stop being “gay” whenever they act like princesses. Everyone does it.
I haven’t been diagnosed with OCD but I think I sometimes show traits associated with it. I sometimes flippantly say things like “I got a little OCD with my filing” or things to that effect. I realise that could offend but from my perspective it’s healthy to talk about it.
Not to say that you do or do not have OCD but heres some clarification if you were curious (apologies if you already know this):
Being fastidious or neat with filling doesn’t necessarily equate to OCD. OCD presents as a number of behaviours/rituals (often nonsensical and arbitrary) that the person feels compelled to do repeatedly to rid or prevent upsetting or distressing idealisations from coming true.
So, if you’re ordering your files to the point that it is causing you distress or interfering with your day in order to stop yourself from feeling like you’re going to contract a horrible disease or to prevent you from hurting your significant other (or countless other unrealistic, upsetting scenarios), then that’s OCD. If you’re doing it because you just feel like ordering your files is rewarding or you feel better if things are neat then it’s probably not.
Yep. OCD seemed to slip under the radar and become acceptable for people to use offhand, despite how utterly crippling it can be.
Mass media and marketing have not helped much in regards to OCD treatment.
like this? 😛
I agree. Lots of people say “I’m OCD” or whatever, but they don’t realize that people who have legitimately diagnosed OCD really do suffer. I believe you are right, that is is unfortunately a crippling disorder.
I think everyone needs to take a big step back and look at whats happening here.
Dyslexia? Does anyone actuially have dyslexia? I dont mean “Yeah, I diagnosed myself because my eyes were hurting when I was redaing.”
OCD? Wanting to keep your shit together and organised is a disorder?
ADHD use to be 1 in 100,000. Now 1 in 10 children in the US are “diagnosed” as having ADHD.
Autism was similar. 1 in 100,000. Now 1 in 50?
Yes I know there are rare individuals who have these issues, but people strut around wearing these lables like badges of honour.
People DO need to use terms like Autistic as an insult so people will stop using it as some trendy, self identity label.
No one takes ADHD, OCD or dyslexia seriously now. Theyre all throw around terms that everyone lables themselves with. Now that mean nothing.
Autism is close to becoming that too.
Stop using disorder diagnosis as self identifiers.
Its bullshit. All of it.
Disorders are real and can seriously impact peoples lives. It’s (mostly) not that there’s more of it or that people are abusing labels, it’s that mental health and mental illnesses are being treated more seriously now and we are getting better at diagnosing it. Before, many people could live their whole lives without realising why they were having difficulty learning / reading / socialising, but now we can more readily identify the causes and better treat it.
“Disorders are real and can seriously impact peoples lives.”
Yes, when theyre taken seriously and correctly diagnosed and treated.
“we are getting better at diagnosing it.”
“but now we can more readily identify the causes and better treat it.”
Wrong.
None of the four “disorders” I listed require any lab tests or imaging. They are all “diagnosed” after just a couple of minutes with a psychiatrist who will then prescribe a “suitable treatment”.
Dyslexia is self-diagnosable!
So are we getting better at diagnosing? Wrongly over-diagnosiong? Or miss-diagnosing?
Yes, some disorders are self diagnosable. Others can be diagnosed without lab test by a psychiatrist because they mental disorders, not physical disorders.
Before ADHD / ADD was properly studied many people with it were simply treated as stupid and left behind in their studies. Now, people understand why it happens and can treat it with medication. I have a friend and ADD and another with ADHD – both found the medication extremely helpful in maintaining concentration at school.
With Dyslexia it’s pretty easy to diagnose, but it wasn’t always well known. Now that it’s effects are known people suffering from it can be provided with tools and resources to minimise it’s impact. Believe it or not Comic Sans has been found to be extremely useful in this case.
There’s more to it and I’m glad that researches are spending time taking this seriously. The people suffering from these conditions have always been here and always will be. It’s best that we understand the problem and address it instead of passing it off as people simply being stupid.
It took quite a few visits to the Psychiatrists when I was a kid to get diagnosed as ADHD. First they changed my diet, then tried different kinds of physical activities to see if those helped, had me try meditation and behavioural therapy before I got medication. And even with medication I needed more behavioural therapy.
Still, each time I get a prescription I need to see a specialist to write it for me. Generally with a 2 month waiting list, and they usually only write a 3 month repeat at a time. The specialists aren’t covered by Medicare, so that’s a nice $300 out of my pocket each month to just get a script for the concerta I need. And they do small tests to make sure I still need it. Not overt ones that you notice, but after enough times I can tell when they’re using conversation to measure my attention span. And I can tell when the Psychiatrist is testing me to see if I actually have ADHD when I need to see a new one, thanks to moving.
And you know what? I’m fairly lucky that the diagnoses are more relaxed than they used to be. My father has ADD, except in his days they weren’t diagnosed, they were called stupid and told they were only suited for manual labour. And when they did start recognising it as a disorder, he was an adult and it was the popular belief that only children had ADD.
So yeah, you can take your air quotes around disorder, you can take your implication that ADHD is overdiagnosed and your implication that people are using it to be trendy or whatever, and you can shove it up your ass.
As an apsie, I agree with the above guy. fact is…. people don’t damn well self-diagnose themselves to be “trendy.” they do it because they did the damn research and realized they’re affected by it, and this is usually AFTER it’s screwed their lives up in some way.
btw, Stupidity and Ignorance aren’t disabilities.
In a way I agree with you but in other ways not so much.
I agree with the fact everything seems to be overdiagnosed however we are in a world now where we have more information on these things so we may see more diagnosed with it.
I got told about 5 years ago my son was autistic and should be tested to confirm that (apparently school teachers now look for it in their students ), I argued with my wife for months while he was being tested and scoffed at everything she replied with. It wasn’t until I looked at the diagnosis letter and it all added up. I then got tested for shits and giggles I guess, I score 6.5/7 on their test and am deemed as high functioning, my parents have since shunned the information and don’t agree at all.
Hasn’t changed me at all and to be honest it explains a little about me.
The weird thing is my son and I have another diagnosed medical issue and one of the big traits with everything that has it is autistic like traits so I may not actually have it but because the information on my medical issue is still quite low Austrian may just be what we get diagnosed as.
It took over a year for me too be diagnosed with Aspergers Disorder. Better awareness leads to more ppl being diagnosed, However i agree that ppl use autism like hipster glasses .
It’s a bit of both. Mental disorders and illnesses are being further defined, and we’re getting better at identifying them. People are also more aware of them too, so there’s a great many people who have suffered for a time and not known why, and now they have the info to get diagnosed, and improve their quality of life exponentially. It’s not always about just finding a label, sometimes there’s medication or therapies that can assist you leading a better life.
Sadly there’s probably just as many people who are desperate to find something wrong to define them, make them feel special, or just excuse negative behaviour they’re too lazy to fix themselves.
Have a friend who was utterly convinced they were autistic. Turns out they’re not, they’re just a little introverted and odd. I wondered a couple of times if I might have something wrong with me, but realised I’m just a bit odd and always have been. Misspent youth, drug use and other stressful factors in life like witnessing death and violence probably contributed. I stopped wondering and realised it’s just me, this is the sum of the equation that is my life, and anything I feel I do that’s negative is on me to fix.
It’s always nice to see the trivialising of severe personal issues in a rant that came right out of Uncle Steve’s Conservative Chain Email basket.
And putting aside your own issues here, here’s something for you to think about (although I doubt you will).
Let’s assume for a second that you are correct. That there are LEGIONS of people self identifying with these illnesses in order to get attention, instead of bootstrapping themselves lickety split up the corporate ziggurat like yourself.
Had you stopped for one second to consider what that means to do that? To have such a pathologically overwhelming need for attention that you have to claim an imaginary illness?
That’s a significant mental illness itself, champ.
But then again, I get the feeling you are the kind of person who thinks depression can be cured by a good run around the oval on a cold morning and ‘pulling your socks up’.
I myself have Asperger’s syndrome and know that people don’t know what autism is and just know ADHD. Its called the Autism Spectrum. I believe that people need to know all the forms of autism and understand how it affects people. Many people with Asperger’s find it difficult to make friends and turn to video games to have fun and feel accepted/
Hey i’m a fellow aspie 🙂
With social difficulties (varied depending on the nature of the autism, and the social development during nurture), ASD still have an interest in socialising despite the difficulties, and “parallel play” is a common form. Spectator sports, fishing, computer games, team sports… where the interaction between people is limited to enjoying the activity as an individual, or the context of the activity rules most of the conversation as a special interest.
I personally dont trust others with knowing about Aspergers, cause the first thing they do after you tell them is google/wikipedia it, and get all the wrong information spoon feed a lot of unfiltered information that is sorely over detailed and not applicable to me. (Your not an aspie, you dont do this…) or start treating you like your a glass of nitro-glycerine or a fragile flower.
Paging Dr. @shithead.
Not sure if Christine Weston Chandler is the best poster child for this sort of article…
Eh, doesn’t bother me. and I’m retarded.
Its nothing new, the origin of this is sadly US mainstream and US internet media for about a decade, for a long time “Ass Burgers” was a joke, a trope character trait they can slap on a comedy relief character or a funny naming condition they can call a nerd who was tropely nerdy. I have in the past called out a few youtubers I followed for using that term. Cause calling out someone for being a Geek or Nerd or a Retard was frowned upon, and Ass Burgers sounded funny. Its become less prolific now, but its a shame it started there.
Sadly there are people on the internet, that think there are no limits to insulting people in this fashion… and sadly they are the ones more in need of mental health plan. These are people who send death threats to Youtubers and developers cause they insult their “one game” (Bioware facial animation drama, No Man Sky, Every negative comment sent to Jim Sterling or Totalbiscuit), who have a complete meltdown if they lose rank, and who have no filter and hurl insane level of abuse at people online. The characterisation of a persons behaviour being severe and recurrent outbursts that are grossly out of proportion in intensity or duration to the situation, is a common symptom for conditions on the DSM-V in the mood, aggression and addiction conditions. Throwing stones in glass houses.