this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2023
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Autism
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A community for respectful discussion and memes related to autism acceptance. All neurotypes are welcome.
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So true and I recommend anyone who spends time in online autism communities just get involved in IRL autism communities instead. I find online autism communities utterly toxic and full of gatekeeping and hatred for self diagnosis, which no one I've met in person has ever had a problem with.
Thanks for saying that. I was genuinely baffled that nobody actually came to support this.
No problem. I remember talking to my friend who works in autism support before my assessment, and I was shocked when he said it's still valid to identify as autistic even if you get a negative diagnosis. I said "they wouldn't like that on the autism forums" and he just rolled his eyes. The online community really isn't what the community is like!
My assessor said the same thing. There's a spectrum of symptoms and no objective test, and ultimately for low support needs, whether yours reach the clinical significance for a diagnosis is a judgement call. You wouldn't have passed the preliminary meeting to get a full assessment at all if you didn't have autistic traits.
Thanks for elaborating. I mean, I would say someone who thinks they are autistic would most likely have a reason for that. Mostly that is more than one or or one very strong autistic trait. Without that I would ask how they concluded they might be autistic.
An then there is the somewhat tinfoil hat style idea that you have trolls and non autistic people in online communities to an extend who can make the majority if a group is very small and not moderated enough. That way you can end up with people preferring to judge if others are valid instead of blanket accepting everyone.
There are a lot of factors that can contribute to this. Also, I have met people who pretty sure are on the spectrum but who are ableists par excellence since they were molded to fit society’s standards. So, there is a ton of stuff to take care of in a sub like this.