Instead of “I’m autistic” say “I was diagnosed with autism”.
These days there’s no shortage of self-diagnosed, no professional opinion needed, thank you very much youngsters walking around and behaving like world owes them a thing, just because they neither do, nor want to fit into the society. This makes neurotypical people doubtful about declarations like that.
For those that did not get a diagnosis as a kid, self-diagnosing is how they begin to discover that component about themselves (I’m newly there right now in my 30’s, parent present in my life didn’t even know what autism was until the 2010’s, I am going to be seeking a professional diagnosis), so I would be mindful that some of the self-diagnoses may be telling the truth and it’s not all fad joiners/charlatans/attention seekers
To your credit, fakers probably would be somewhat obvious, but I don’t have real life experience with a fake autist, mostly the opposite, autists thinking they’re NT.
So let all people who cannot afford a diagnosis go fuck themselves, right?
nor want to fit into the society
The more power to them. This society is disgusting, and it’s people who want society to evolve according to their values the ones who change it for the better, not the ones who go through life bowing their head to injustices.
There’s also no shortage of people who have been on waiting lists for years for a diagnosis.
Mine took almost 4 years between referral and assessment. Two of my friends have been waiting two and four years respectively when both were told the list was “about 18 months long”, with medical professionals asking the latter if they’re sure they want to keep waiting, trying to get them to come off the list. And this is an area that has shorter wait times than average for the country.
When you’re dealing with that kind of scarcity of diagnosis it’s not reasonable to dismiss anyone who has self-identified out of hand. Of course there are and have always been pretenders and misguided teens who want to feel special, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out that a lot of those are some kind of neurodivergent and that desire to feel special is born of trying to find a “right fit” in a world that feels wrong.
Instead of “I’m autistic” say “I was diagnosed with autism”.
These days there’s no shortage of self-diagnosed, no professional opinion needed, thank you very much youngsters walking around and behaving like world owes them a thing, just because they neither do, nor want to fit into the society. This makes neurotypical people doubtful about declarations like that.
For those that did not get a diagnosis as a kid, self-diagnosing is how they begin to discover that component about themselves (I’m newly there right now in my 30’s, parent present in my life didn’t even know what autism was until the 2010’s, I am going to be seeking a professional diagnosis), so I would be mindful that some of the self-diagnoses may be telling the truth and it’s not all fad joiners/charlatans/attention seekers
To your credit, fakers probably would be somewhat obvious, but I don’t have real life experience with a fake autist, mostly the opposite, autists thinking they’re NT.
💀
So let all people who cannot afford a diagnosis go fuck themselves, right?
The more power to them. This society is disgusting, and it’s people who want society to evolve according to their values the ones who change it for the better, not the ones who go through life bowing their head to injustices.
There’s also no shortage of people who have been on waiting lists for years for a diagnosis.
Mine took almost 4 years between referral and assessment. Two of my friends have been waiting two and four years respectively when both were told the list was “about 18 months long”, with medical professionals asking the latter if they’re sure they want to keep waiting, trying to get them to come off the list. And this is an area that has shorter wait times than average for the country.
When you’re dealing with that kind of scarcity of diagnosis it’s not reasonable to dismiss anyone who has self-identified out of hand. Of course there are and have always been pretenders and misguided teens who want to feel special, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out that a lot of those are some kind of neurodivergent and that desire to feel special is born of trying to find a “right fit” in a world that feels wrong.