The Autism Social Contagion Caught Her. Then She Got Out. | Ep. 20 with Christina Buttons

The Jeremy Boreing Show · May 8, 2026 · 1h 22m

When Christina Buttons was 30, she was diagnosed with autism — and felt

immediate relief. The diagnosis explained her teenage mental health

crises, her social difficulties, her sense that something about her was

just "off." She joined the online autism community, started advocating,

and built an identity around it.

Then she started reporting on it. And what she found made her question

the diagnosis itself.

In this conversation, Christina walks through the broadening of the DSM

criteria, the "female autism phenotype," social camouflaging, and how a

clinical disorder became a social identity…