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!
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.