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!
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.