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!
You keep assuming that people don’t use their self diagnosis as a springboard to work on themselves and finally having the right tools to do so. A lot of people don’t use their self diagnosis to feel special, it’s an explanation to them for why they are the way they are and how to help themselves.
A lot of us self diagnosed people are part of the lost generation mentioned in one of the papers above. When I was a child, autism without a learning disability wasn’t even recognized. It just didn’t exist and I had to cope until I went into burnout several times. It took until I found a young therapist to even learn that my problems might be caused by autism. My GP still is of the opinion I couldn’t be autistic because I can look into his eyes.
(And for what it’s worth, I’m not officially diagnosed because in my city of close to 2mil people there are exactly two places that diagnose adults and only one of them has experience diagnosing women.)
I mentioned on my first comment of this discussion that self-diagnosis is good for a person to get interested in the subject and learn more about which could eventually lead to an official diagnosis.
And part of my comment explained why this is not always an option.