EDIT: please, if you don’t agree with the arguments in the video, come in and discuss, don’t just downvote the thread.
I found this video with many arguments supporting self-diagnosis validity and wanted to share.
Main point may be that there is no valid reason to look for a self-diangosis than the fact of being autistic, and needing support for that. At least until there will be equitable access to medical care, self-diagnosis is the only way for people to understand themself and understand the support they may need in their life.
But, there is much more in the video, take a look at it by yourself!
I don’t think it’s a good idea to be convinced of something that is not supported by a professional expertise. What if you are wrong?
However, there is no harm to find similarities with autistic people, and use their experience to improve yourself in some situations if their tricks to handle them also work for yourself.
I personally suspect I am autistic, but I won’t be convinced until it has been approved by a professional (if I ever feel the need to know for sure). Meanwhile, I like to read experiences from others and sometimes, they provide tips that really helped me. But the best thing I learned so far is that there is no problem to be different and do things your own way most of the time if it is much easier for you to handle this way.
I agree with everything you say except with the following
Exactly, what if you are wrong? What bad is it? What would change if someone thinks he is autistic, and he isn’t? Why in the first place would anybody think he is autistic if he wasn’t?
These are serious questions, not rhetoric ones
I won’t repeat what others said, but another point is that some people are desperate at feeling “special” (or serve a narrative where you are not responsible for your failures). By accepting an incorrect self-diagnosis, you can start to mimic autistic traits (even unconsciously) to fit better the label you desperately want to wear.
I have to admit I was too happy and relieved when I started to suspect I was also autistic. It was somehow validating my whole life, and providing me a convenient explanation for all my failures and why I am alone nowadays. But after a while, I realized it was not as simple, and I could just be desperate at finding an external cause to this, rather than objectively trying to determine whether I truly am autistic.
In the end, I realized being autistic or not is not what should matter to me. It shouldn’t change who I am. Instead, it is giving me a direction to follow to improve myself, which is a great improvement compared to before. I can be wrong on my self-diagnosis, but the direction I follow is a good step forward whether I am autistic or not.
The only thing I can think of is if a significant portion of people self diagnose as autistic and they really aren’t. Say they’re convinced by some silly stereotypes they’ve heard
That won’t impact that person. But it could mean other people starting to take it much less seriously in others which may be harmful to them I don’t pretend to know if that would happen. But just a thought
This is a good point, and it may be what some people imply by being disrespectful.
I’m not on TikTok, but I understand that this may be what is being happening (or at least perceived) there
this is a helpful comment
What if the ‘professional’ is wrong? I self diagnosed after I was already in my 50’s. This means that I went for over 50 years without an assortment of professionals figuring it out.
There is zero doubt in my self-diagnosis. It wasn’t made on a whim. It wasn’t made in a rush. It has been life changing.
Shocking that people are downvoting you. I self diagnosed and then went to see a doctor to check my findings.
I read a ton about it, asked around and made some tests on my own because I was curious and wanted to know if and how my experiences were reasonable. The outside picture turned out for me to be very important.
Turns out, I was right. Multiple doctors supported it. After a little more than a year now and multiple visits to many specialists, we know why this hasnt been picked up on.
I also visit a group of people diagnosed or seeking diagnosis. Its mostly how you say, doctors can absolutely be wrong and often make wrong calls. But somehow the patients are the ones dumped on.
I think a lot of folks have a superiority complex with their diagnosis, as if that was somehow making them „true“ or „better“ than folks without and there is the „boogey man“ who claims to be something to get „aTtEnTiOn!“ this is a strawman that anti lgbtq folks use for example to dump on trans people. I have to assume that this is the case here too.
Sadly, lemmy is partly socially isolated folks locked in moms basement who try to win the internet. Its not about winning folks. We‘re not better than you and vice versa.
There are extremely few resources available to someone my age. I’ve been married for a very long time and figuring this out really helped resolve some issues we’d struggled with. I have a successful, professional career.
I simply can’t come up with a compelling reason to get officially diagnosed. If someone can give me a compelling reason to do so, then I have the means to do so. I just don’t see the point of putting myself through it nor taking up the limited professional services where someone else desperately needs the professional diagnosis and the resources it would make available to them.
In a lot of ways, autism diagnosis now is where diabetes diagnosis was 25 years ago when I got that diagnosis. More doctors are starting to have an awareness of it, but few are even qualified/willing to diagnose. I had all of the signs and test results to show I was diabetic, but the doctor I went to was unqualified/unwilling to declare it.
You‘re making perfect sense. I have nothing of value to add to this.
If you dont have kids that might benefit from you having a diagnosis and them having a resource to pin their own struggles in life against, its not really that beneficial.
For me it was necessary since I hit a roadblock in life when covid hit. If you ever hit this roadblock, you should probably go on with the diagnosis nut given your completely correct assessment of diagnosis today, a couple years later (if ever) makes no difference but improves your chances of a correct diagnosis. Additionally, you will always have jerks questioning your words because of their mental health, not yours.
Professional expertise is not something that is locked up and can only be accessed by a professional. You’re suggesting something equivalent to no lay person should be allowed to change their own brakes on their car because of the professional expertise involved.
In the course of self-diagnosis, one has access to a ton of professional expertise and assessment without ever having a face to face with a professional.
I tend not to trust myself on subjects I am not an expert. It feels strange to me to give more credit to a few hours of research / reading books than a professional who likely studied the subject in much more details, and also encountered other autistic people.
Besides, we have so many biais about that. Finding an answer to your « uniqueness » is so convenient, that you will likely reject anything that does not fit the story, and put emphasis on things that fit the story. Even if you were an expert, you shouldn’t be the one to evaluate your own case.
I don’t say professionals are perfect and make no mistake, but trusting yourself on subjects as complex as this one will likely lead to the wrong conclusions.
Anyway, my message was not really about that. You are free to consider yourself as autistic if it helps you. I personally won’t do it for myself because I do not consider myself to be competent on the subject, and I don’t think it’s that important for me (I understand that it can be very important for others).
I prefer to focus on my issues and the solutions I can find, and if those solutions are coming from autistic people, it just makes it easier for me to find resources about it.
It’s frustrating that so many professionals don’t have training on autism. I would have had a lot of life benefit if I could have been diagnosed decades ago instead of only recently. As I mentioned to someone else, I’m not averse to getting professionally diagnosed, but I can see absolutely no benefit in doing so. I’m in my 50’s. I’m not aware of any resources that will be opened up to me upon an official diagnosis that make it worth the time, effort, and cost. I remain open to learning otherwise and reconsidering…
If the lay person in question has no expertise, fuck up the installation, and he kills a person he lend it to because his brakes didn’t work, he’ll be held responsible for basically sabotaging his car