It’s a condition that exists on a spectrum, as does its treatments or coping mechanisms. That said, I’m the “take my assigned medication” type, so I always took the full dose in the game.
There's no specific autism medication that I'm aware of, but psychiatric diseases often have plenty of comorbidity. There's some ADHD popup in the game that distracts you with Wikipedia, there's misophonia, it sounds like the character has a whole mix of different things.
Edit: Just asked her and the final cocktail they have settled on is aripriprazole (Abilify, an atypical antipsychotic) and hydroxyzine (first-generation antihistamine with anxiolytic and sedative properties).
Autism is an extremely diverse and complex phenomenon. No two autistic people experience the world in the same way. This simulation is based on the experiences of a single autistic individual and is not representative of all autistic people, although, I suspect many autistic people will recognize some aspects of their own experience in this simulation.
[1] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/09/250927031224.h...
There are point diffs on your stats each turn. The positive diffs are always the same for the same choices regardless of day.
The negative choices have an additional 25% added to them each day, so -10 the first day for a choice would be -12 (floor) the second day, -15 the third day, etc.
There is no normal experience, only the kinds of experiences that people have. Some people have buckets of experience that are worse or more challenging than others, everyone has shared experiences that cross-sect.
These labels are useful insofar as grouping experiences together that tend to co-occur makes it easy to talk about certain categories of aggregate experiences or strategies for navigating life, but I think too many people relegate too much importance to these arbitrary labels, like "autism", derive too much of their identity from them, and too often use them as excuses to not deal with life's challenges and complexities head on.
Every waking moment on the spectrum
thinking it isn't real isn't entirely helpful
Yeah you might experience symptom X but for me symptom X is literally crippling. You can take your minimization of the autistic experience and go jump off a cliff with it.
It is exactly this kind of generalization that I'm referring to in my comment.
If anything, we are both equally frustrated by the fact that everyone who has experiences they consider "autistic" to happily jump on the bandwagon, despite the fact that it is a relatively small percentage of the population whose has experiences that are sufficiently severe or unusual to warrant any kind of label at all.
While going through the simulator, I was shocked with the response to some choices and situations. I was not aware that these things were so disruptive to some people.
I know it feels nice to be able to craft a simple narrative, but this narrative feels more harmful and misconstrued than useful.
There's also an overlap in traits.
I'm AuDHD (autism + ADHD). You can read about my ADHD side if the experience (with memes!) here:
The lack of executive function is overlapping, but this particular post might be more of an ADHD simulator.
The very first "Follow the morning routine" or not is where this veers off my experience of the spectrum.
"Changing plans because of situations internal or external" is hard.
The option should've been "Spend 20 minutes making eggs again, because the yolks weren't the right kind of runny", miss the train, take a cab to work, but tell the driver that you've now got a system for eggs which you didn't have today (yeah, fun fact, the recipe was off because they don't refrigerate them over in France).
Happened to my grandfather even though he was probably the best damned cab driver in all of Michigan.
What helps:
- Challenging the idea that you need to mask to be successful. If masking is a recipe for burnout, then it actually seems like it's a strategy that will lower your chance for success. How much of the need here is self-imposed?
- Owning your calendar and timing for meetings to better suit your energy.
- Regular therapy and reflection, honestly.
- Regular exercise, doesn't matter who you are or what form, this is essential.
I can respect that this "simulation" fosters empathy, but worry that it also awfulizes/catastrophizes solvable problems. Figuring out functional routines and managing burnout is just as big a part of the job as writing code. It's very much a personal responsibility, maybe not in the job description, maybe harder for some than others, but it is our responsibility.
I’m lucky enough to be on the lower/moderate side of things, but man all of this stuff hit home in its own way. Annoying noises (for me it’s the whine of cheap electronics or the chaotic bass of some music genres/upstairs neighbors), the forceful imposition of others in my space (“cameras on!”, scented cleaners, voluntold activities), and the daily task micromanagement to get by (do I call a friend/family member since they’ve texted me three times today about a trivial matter, or do I watch comfort shows and work on a personal project?).
This shit is hard, and adding in the requirement to engage in political maneuvering to succeed and thrive makes it exponentially worse.
I just want to do a good job and go home to live the best life I can. I suspect most autists are the same.
I'm trying to give people a feel for what masking, decision fatigue, and burnout can look like day-to-day. That’s hard to explain in words, but easier to show through choices and stats. I'm not trying to "define autism".
I’ve gotten good feedback here about resilience, meds, and difficulty tuning. I’ll keep tweaking it. If even a few people walk away thinking, "ah, maybe that’s why my coworker struggles in those situations," then it’s worth it.
Appreciate everyone who’s tried it and shared thoughts.
The bad part is: when HR forces you to take some time off because you're sick, you can't regenerate, really. And if you're sick you don't have the mental capacity left to dampen the noises.
I always explain the perception of life to others as it being like living and working next to a construction site. All the time, including when you try to sleep. The world is full of too many noises, and social interactions are noises, too.
I also would love to see NICU being in there, too. Maybe with appointments the next day putting you in waiting mode so you can't sleep and rest in the game?
p_ing•54m ago
THE WORST! Why can't we just work?! Do stuff, make money, get the f- out.
ge96•45m ago
joshcsimmons•43m ago