Former Prison Break star Wentworth Miller has spoken out for the first time about receiving an autism diagnosis.
In a lengthy Instagram post, Miller, 49, first made public his diagnosis which he received last fall. He also offered an update on his adjustment to living with the condition.
“This fall marks 1 year since I received my informal autism diagnosis. Preceded by a self-diagnosis. Followed by a formal diagnosis,” he wrote on July 25. “It was a long, flawed process in need of updating. IMO. I’m a middle-aged man. Not a 5-year-old. And (it’s a ‘both/and’) I recognize access to a diagnosis is a privilege many do not enjoy.”
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“Let’s just say it was a shock. But not a surprise,” he added.
Miller then went on to say that he continues to adjust to understanding his condition, and that he doesn’t want to sound like some kind of spokesperson for people living with it. In essence, he has begun to examine his life in a new context.
“I don’t want to run the risk of suddenly being a loud, ill-informed voice in the room,” he said. “The #autistic community (this I do know) has historically been talked over. Spoken for. I don’t wish to do additional harm. Only to raise my hand, say, ‘I am here. Have been (w/o realizing it).'”
“This isn’t something I’d change,” Miller clarifies. “No. I get – got – immediately being autistic is central to who I am. To everything I’ve achieved/articulated. Oh – I also want to say to the many (many) people who consciously or unconsciously gave me that extra bit of grace + space over the years, allowed me to move thru the world in a way that made sense to me whether or not it made sense to them… thank you.”
“And to those who made a different choice… well. People will reveal themselves,” he concluded. “Another gift.”
Wentworth Miller is no stranger to sharing personal details online. He came out as gay in 2013, and opened up about struggles with depression and suicide attempts while struggling with his sexuality. At present, he has taken a hiatus from acting, and says he only wants to play gay characters in the future.
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Fahd
Autism is a spectrum disorder. He no doubt was mildly touched by the autism stick, but he’s no Sheldon Cooper.
I wish him luck getting any sympathy from parents raising a child with severe autism as he goes through his adjustment to his own diagnosis.
Personally, I’d recommend he do what he can to keep and increase the money flowing to autism causes, because the big A has been an epidemic since the 1990s. Children with severe autism become adults with severe autism and their parents age. So far there’s no cure and most children with severe cases don’t benefit very much from therapeutic interventions although its tough to generalize about a spectrum disorder. Families who have a child or children with severe autism need all the help they can get and a sympathetic celebrity who shares the same label should do what he can to raise funds for them. And it’s great that he’s good-looking, gay and out, too.
Troyfight
@Fahd …wow, well said. So true. And my first reaction to his news was “what exactly is his level/ symptoms or…?” Anyway…..it does help that he brings more of a platform to it. And it also helps that occasionally I’d like wrap him in my arms.
Heywood Jablowme
Gee, if only there were a way for you guys to search online for “signs of mild autism in adults.”
Cam
@Heywood Jablowme
Gee, if there was only a way for the same old right wing troll and it’s multiple screennames to not come onto a thread about an out of the closet LGBTQ person and attack them.
Your troll game is boring and sad.
Heywood Jablowme
@Fahd: I was diagnosed with mild autism as an adult. Of course I’d suspected it for a long time before that. Your comment struck me as (uncharacteristically!) callous and dismissive towards Miller for NOT having “severe” autism. Would you be happier if he’d never said anything about the diagnosis? Do you dislike Miller for some reason?
(I hadn’t planned to write more than my reply above, but unfortunately I was accosted here by a hateful hypocritical troll! – so I thought it best to explain a bit.)
Cam
But wait a sec! I’ve also claimed that now that there are two of my personality, I’m only capable of responding doing that and otherwise too busy. I must be either dumb or crazy.
Which could it be, or could it be both?
DarkZephyr
@Fake Cam
You are THIS obsessed with Cam that you have to impersonate him now? This is reaching new levels of low. You have GOT to seek help.
Cam
@Heywood Jablowme and Fake Cam
LOL!! Oh, let’s see, under your other screennames you’ve claimed to be a MULTITUDE of things, always as a defense for attacking somebody who actually IS one of those.
You’ve done the “As a lesbian (before attacking lesbians), The “I’m a gay man but…(before supporting Republicans bigots), you’ve claimed to be a person of color before attacking Black people. The only group I don’t think you’ve claimed to be part of is Trans. So I guess that answers the question of who you hate more, Black people or Trans people.
And here you go again, you come in to ALWAYS write something negative about an out of the closet LGBTQ person, then when busted, you’re trying to claim you’re part of his group.
Your troll game is sad….but your obsession with me is just hilarious….as your Miss Terri Screename would say.
Heywood Jablowme
Queerty: I do not have other screen names here (as you probably know). Please ban Cam for his daily, nasty, hateful, endlessly obsessive, “mean-spirited” violations of the Queerty Comment Policy.
Mack
You’re a whiner too. Everyone knows you have many names on here. Guess you think no one can figure it out.
Cam
@Mack Shut up, Cam. Who’s me. You’re all me. There’s really only one poster here, me.
Because I’m the only one who matters.
Heywood Jablowme
@Mack: No, I do not have any other screen names here. This is why I’ve often asked Queerty to check IP addresses and ban anyone doing that. Cam doesn’t want that, for reasons we can easily guess. And I don’t know why Cam has such an irrational obsession with me. I’ve never posted anything pro-Trump or right-wing and he can’t cite anything, even though everything we write here is on Google. Cam will probably say I made up my autism in response to HIS comment – but no, I’ve written about it here before.
Just curious – what do you think are my “many names on here”? Who has time for “multiple screen names”? Cam and, most likely, nobody else. Cam is the one who is bat-sh*t crazy obsessed with the subject.
I just saw Fake Cam’s comments. (Sigh.) So I guess I should add that not only do I NOT know who’s doing the Cam parody, I can’t even guess how it’s (supposedly) done. If someone is “stealing” his password, Cam should just change the freakin’ password. If it’s more complicated than that, well, Cam never asks Queerty to do anything about it. So I lean toward Liquid Silver’s theory that Cam is doing it himself as a ploy to get sympathy. The only argument against that is how Fake Cam is a hell of a lot funnier!
Liquid Silver
Heywood–funnier and a lot saner. FakeCam is literally both balanced and absolutely a hoot. Queerty should keep him around just for laughs. Both for the commentary and for the fact that it’s clearly driving RealCam even further off his (very small) rocker.
DarkZephyr
@Heywood Jablowme,
Here’s the thing Dude. Very few of your comments lately seem to come without either you adding your two cents to something Liquid Silver has said or vice versa and you both like to go on anti-Cam tirades, its kinda sus how that always works out. When I first saw Fake Cam’s posts I *immediately* just assumed it was one of you two and I can totally see why someone would think you are both the same person using different names. I will give you the benefit of the doubt and trust that this isn’t the case. But surely you can see why it might be a little sus?
Heywood Jablowme
@DarkZephyr: I get what you’re saying. I’m not Liquid Silver, and as I said I can’t even figure out how Fake Cam is doing it. How do you “steal” a screen name? Wouldn’t the site just say the name is already being used?
Okay, I will try to refrain from the “anti-Cam tirades” but I find it suspicious that so-o-o-o many supposed “right-wing troll accounts” pop up just to say something that Cam will inevitably object to… and then they don’t say anything in response. Never! That seems odd. If they were real commenters (and not Cam accounts) they’d have more to say, at least some of them.
There is nothing in my OP that was an “attack” on Wentworth Miller, of course, and if anyone is interested I can explain some things about autism. 🙂
BaltoSteve
@Heywood_Jablowme. I too have been wondering how the fake Cam account thing is going on. The only thing I have been able to come up with is that is is a matter of alphabets. C, A, and M are all present not only in the English alphabet but also the Cyrillic alphabet. And some in some programs the members of the different alphabets are considered to be unique characters in their own right. It’s definitely someone at Queerty should take a look at.
Cam
@ Heywood Jablowme and fake @Cam
LOL!!!
Oh precious, you tried to whine that you don’t have multiple screennames, and yet you couldn’t resist could you, you switched to my stolen screenname and within a few minutes had to come on and support your post.
WOW, even when you’re faking sincerity your trolling game is sad and weak.
Heywood Jablowme
@BaltoSteve: Thanks, that is a very interesting theory. It would explain a few things. Whatever is causing Fake Cam, it sure doesn’t seem to bother Real Cam much! He is not clamoring for action from Queerty.
Cam
@Heywood Jablowme
For an account that keeps claiming it isn’t a troll, you certainly seem to be keeping tabs on me.
Wow, you’re REALLY really bad at this.
Heywood Jablowme
@Sybil: So you did complain to Queerty like Black Pegasus did? What did they tell you?
I’m guessing something like “Sorry, no one has compromised your account. There just seems to be someone with multiple personality disorder using it.”
Liquid Silver
@Dark…so two people who generally agree with each other are sus?
Thanks, Cam. Your troll game is sad and weak, or whatever. 🙂
Cam
@Heywood Jablowme and @Liquid Silver
Uh Oh, Heywood, you called me “Sybil”. Oooops, you’ve called me that under some OTHER screennames. But please by all means, keep claiming not to be the same troll.
And It’s also adorable that it was pointed out that one of the pieces of proof you were a troll is that you came on constantly to defend another known troll screenname “Liquid Silver”. And ever AFTER that was pointed out, you still did the same thing here.
WOW! You are beyond terrible at this. Your troll game is …….well, it doesn’t exist.
Heywood Jablowme
@Sybil: I routinely call you Sybil, yes, under this screen name. I haven’t noticed any other screen name doing so. Can you provide a cite? Your memory is unreliable and I’ve proven you factually incorrect several times using Google.
I’m so glad my “troll game” doesn’t exist, since I don’t have multiple screen names and I’m not a troll.
Cam
Now I have to stop using DarkZephyr, too? Crap, between that and having to abandon MissTerri, this is getting annoying.
Whoops…was that out loud?
Heywood Jablowme
@Fahd: To get back to the subject of autism: Your criticism of Wentworth Miller seems very weird to me. I assure you, it doesn’t occur to any of us to look for “sympathy from parents raising a child with severe autism.” Why on earth would we do that? It’s hard enough to get sympathy from ANY neurotypical person, as your negative and dismissive comment demonstrates all too well.
There are a lot of celebrities with mild autism, but you’re the first neurotypical person I’ve seen declare that celebrities with mild autism have a duty to focus attention on children with severe autism, or even on finding a “cure” for a probably-incurable neurological problem. That’s not how it works, unfortunately!
Cam
@Heywood Jablowme
You’ve waited quite a while to try to repair your trolling mistakes. After multiple troll postings under this screenname, constantly posting right before or right after other troll screenname, you now try to post the occasional “rational” posting.
This reminds me of when Trump would give one 5 minute speech without vomiting all over himself and his supporters in media would start screaming about how “Amazing” and “Presidential” he was now. LOL
Try switching to a new name, you’ve burned this one out.
Heywood Jablowme
So if someone posts too quickly that proves they’re a troll, and if they wait too long to post that also proves they’re a troll. Got it. This Cam guy sure knows a lot about trolling. 🙂
Numerical values of letters:
C = 3rd letter
A = 1st letter
M = 13th letter
3 + 1 + 13 = 17
17th letter of the alphabet is Q.
This proves Cam is Q!
Cam
@Heywood Jablowme
Translation: The right wing troll account came on to do what it always does, which is say something negative about an out of the closet LGBTQ celeb.
It got caught, now is desperately trying to deflect.
Your troll game is sad that Eric Trump feels bad for you.
Heywood Jablowme
@Sybil: I didn’t say anything negative about Wentworth Miller. I objected to something negative that another poster said about him. Try reading it again.
missvamp
you trolls are really f-ing annoying. you can derail anything. queerty really needs to ban you morons.
as to the subject matter. i have autism & i find some of these comments really offensive. you nt’s really don’t even need to weigh in on this subject matter. saying he should be donating to autism charities- seriously? why do we- aspies/auties- need to donate to charities that benefit us? how about you do that to further the cause instead, if you think it’s so valuable. do you think only rich people & celebrities donate to charities? that is so short sighted of you. besides- groups like autism speaks are horrible. it’s a for profit group anyway. it’s not a real “charity” & in fact tries to do reprogramming- kinda like gay conversion therapy. so maybe do some research before talking out of your ass.