Autism

From what I've seen, here are some of the arguments against self-diagnosing:

• Allistic people using autism as an excuse for their behaviors/difficulties, then denying the difficulties that actually autistic people experience and misrepresenting autistic people.
• Narcissistic and psychopathic people pretending to be autistic to manipulate others, including actually autistic people.
• Misdiagnosing themselves when their difficulties are actually related to other root causes, such as prolonged childhood abuse.

In the first two arguments, the problem with self-diagnosing is the social impact it has on others, including the autistic community. I can see why some people are against self-diagnosing since it could make their lives harder, especially autistic people. The last one is more about helping the individual properly understand them-self and developing a proper course of action to improve their lives, so it's an argument rooted in care.

I am not entirely against self-diagnosis. However, I think it could be re-phrased to "self-identified" since "diagnosis" is a medical term. It would be like a person saying, "I'm self-diagnosed with depression." That person isn't diagnosed with depression, though they very well may be depressed. It's really just a pedantic issue from my perspective. Regardless, I don't really care one way or the other because I understand what they are saying and think that an actually autistic person self-identifying as autistic is valid enough. Still, while I wont invalidate someone for self-identifying by gatekeeping autism, I tend to be a little cautious at first because of my experiences with people pretending to be autistic. In this case, I think the issue is that some jerks just can't let us have nice things.

You need a third party to evaluate it.

It’s almost impossible to be truly objective when looking back at your own actions and how you reacted.

My mother has mental health issues which I personally think are due to BPD. She thinks her problem is just that she pulls her hair and feels stressed, and has absolutely no awareness of her other abnormal behaviours.

It’s kind of on the opposite side of self diagnosis but I think it’s still relevant, because ultimately her internal logic makes all of her actions seem normal to her and she can’t view it objectively.

Who wrote this rubbish? Doctors aren’t willingly recommending abuse, and most of them refer to specialists.

I looked for a diagnosis. Called lots of providers and, in summary, they only providers that could accept me were expensive and lengthy. I don't have light or sound sensitivity (which isn't required) so I don't need accommodations. I don't have trama and have worked through most of my issues so I don't need therapy. There's objectively no benefit to getting a diagnosis for me other than claiming I have ASD. And there's some negatives, especially if traveling abroad. So yeah, with that, I don't want a professional diagnosis. I did lots of research and checked more than enough boxes in the DSM-5 to validate myself. Others' validation isn't worth a couple thousand dollars and hours of consultation over a year. If I needed support, it might be worth it, but personally, I feel I'm in a good place.

I was searching for why I am different and found that it had a name and there are other who have similar experiences that I can relate to. That's good enough for me.

I get gatekeeping and that people may be spreading false information or making the community look bad. Call them out then. Otherwise, an educated self-diagnosis isn't harming anyone. Let people be at peace with their sense of self.

Also on self diagnosis: unfortunately too many people.read a Facebook post and then self diagnose thelrmselves with

Not trying to argue against this image, I'll skip that as I don't know much about it, but yeah. I actually know a few people who self diagnosed with autism, ocd and whatnot and they're just in it for the attention it gets them

This is why there is such a trend in misinformation these days, a breakdown of distrust in institutions. I get why there is that distrust.. institutional issues are easy to find in all fields, however that doesn’t stop them from being correct on the whole.

Look at Covid denialism, denying the results of the last election… the loss of peoples ability to believe experts in their fields. Unless people here are actual doctors no one here has the expertise to give a diagnosis. Everyone has become an expert these days and does their own research, reality doesn’t care about your intuitions on this though.

Saying this, you might be right you could be autistic based on your own feelings/observations. That still doesn’t make it a diagnosis.

I saved a pic of an article I was reading, this is a good example of being an expert and being someone that has interest in a subject but not having the training and knowledge to fully understand it, I read this a bunch of times and still don’t actually understand it as I’m sure most people here won’t either.

There is nothing wrong with being sceptical of experts as they can be wrong and wanting second opinions on things however that doesn’t make you an expert because you can google things.

I‘m a little shocked at the amount of gatekeeping in this community. That was less of a problem on reddit tbh.

We „the autistic community“ have decided that self diagnosis is valid and that is a fact. So lets just not discuss the idea of the boogeyman posing as an autistic person and just accept people.

Thanks and have a great day. :)

To be honest, I didn't even know I had ASD until I got my diagnosis for ADHD, which I didn't know I had either. And now that ADHD is, let's say, under some control, my ASD traits are more evident.

EDIT: I was diagnosed 6 months ago, just for clarification, at 35 years old.

Living in a country that is still on ICD-10 (Autism definitions from the literal 80s), and professionals refusing to test anyone who isn't a child with severe dysfunction: Screw gatekeeping.

Yes, there are people who claim this or that incorrectly, and are really REALLY annoying about it, but don't let those assholes define how you treat people who have spent a lot of time figuring themselves out and need to not feel like a crazy space alien.

"Most doctors recommend abusive therapy to kids and teens" I've experienced that first hand and is the reason why I feel that being diagnosed was the worst thing to happen to me and is the reason why I typically try to hide the fact I'm autistic only ever admit it when I feel absolutely safe

Happy to to get a formal diagnosis if anyone wants to cash app me $2,500!

My legitimately incredible health insurance doesn't give a shit if I'm autistic despite my doctor and therapist both wanting me screened! Not to mention the ~18 month wait to see the one person that does adult screenings in my state.

I was diagnosed in my late 40s. And yes my wife and I looked it up, and having that diagnosis can only limit the treatment available to me. But the US mental health system is underfunded.

It's also impacted thanks to the epidemic and lockdown of 2020. So, it's going to be hard to be treated in the US unless you have money.

And then the public serving mental health system is connected to our penal system and has similar abuse issues. One in three inpatients are abused, either sexually or violently, or are put on tranquilizers by the nurse (collaborating with the house psychiatrist) so you won't be any trouble. If you're committed in a public institution expect to not get any better while you're in. And they'll cover up any harm done.

(For private facilities, do research in advance regarding their rate of incidents. If you can have legal council available to you do so.)

So we have to depend on each other for help. So its imporant that we assume everyone else is here in good faith until there's evidence otherwise. Note a lot of us are not good with interpersonal discourse. A lot of us instinctively mask for fear of harm and persecution — a concern in the US, UK, Canada and elsewhere as the rising transnational white power movement gains momentum and expands its list of undesirables.

In Australia, our healthcare doesn’t fund diagnosis’ for people over 18. So even if you can find someone that will assess you as an adult, you have to pay out of pocket. I recently (last month) got a diagnosis because I found a psychologist who has a sliding fee scale. I was self-diagnosed for 6 years before that.

an on-record autism diagnosis: can be used to deny you custody of children, to have your kids taken away, to forcibly institutionalize you

Yep. That's why I'm not pursuing one. Also why I'm not looking into transitioning.

I'm in the "can't find a doctor" camp. I had one doctor diagnose me with ADHD and BPD, but referred me to another doctor to be tested for autism, and had a ton of trouble just trying to get the appointment that now I'm just trying to find another doctor that offers mental health care and takes my insurance; but this was a bitch and a half to begin with with the doctor I have now, and the more I look the more I see just how fucked up this side of health care really is. Overworked, understaffed, full of people who do not give a single fuck about you, etc.

It's harder every day to even want to continue living.

I still don't understand why so many people are against self-diagnosis. Someone is suffering and trying to find help, a lot of people, especially minorities and women, can't find it professionally. What's wrong with those people looking for help themselves? Having a word for what is different with you helps finding this help.

I'm not talking about people claiming to be autistic and demanding attention and accomodations, that's a whole different story but trying to keep people from finding help themselves seems to be very wrong to me.

Reading all the comments I think what's going on is that some places it's tough as nails to even get recognized as autistic much less get assistance for it and other places professionals understand autism and can help and some places you will be abused for being autistic

When there's hundreds of comments you know it's going to be a trashfire in the comment section. Still make me disappointed in people though, somehow.