We „the autistic community“ have decided that self diagnosis is valid
You are not the entire autistic community. Accept that people can have different opinions.
I never said that. But I am part of it and I am happy that we accept people who self diagnose since it is tremendously difficult in certain circumstances to get a diagnosis.
Additionally, I find it unfair to not state „the autistic community as a whole has decided but my opinion is different“. People will get the wrong impression and we further empower aba and other anti autistic measures if we allow gatekeeping.
I‘m not trying to fight here. I just want people not alienated. Make any sense?
Your view makes sense and you’re free to believe it.
But many others have different views.
For example the comment of whoisearth described a negative experience with overinclusion. Their view is valid and to be considered.
You answered with “let’s just not try and gatekeep and we’re on the same page”, simply ignoring their point and asking them to unconditionally adopt your view.
You are free to only consider your view and ignore or even discredit others (as “gatekeeping”).
But do not act like you represent us.
Thanks. I just want to clarify on some things which might be obscure since autism and all:
- I accept that whoisearth made these experiences but I don’t come to the same conclusion.
simply ignoring their point and unconditionally adopting your view
No. That is not what I said. It just does not make sense to me to draw a conclusion like that from this experience. Also, the „silent masses“ is not an argument, no sources have been cited and it is an anecdotal fallacy. (I.e.: I made this experience so this is representative)
If you google „autism self diagnosis valid“ you will find many articles stating that in general, self diagnosis is a way of dealing with the very limited resources in autism healthcare and considered a more helpful strategy at this point.
We are talking about people harming themselves or worse because they are helpless and don’t know what to do. Gatekeeping cost’s lives.
Also, if someone wants to challenge me, attack the idea that invalidating self diagnosis is gatekeeping (which will probably fail) and not me personally because it shows lack of character.
The summary of this imo is that the experience of parents to autistic children to late/undiagnosed autistic adults could not be more different and we should probably just leave our pent up emotions at home and try to find common ground and accept eachother. What happens otherwise (which we have seen) is two sides usually living in their echo chambers and disresprecting the other side when they come in contact.
It’s pretty impossible for me to explain autistic thinking of an adult to anyone not on the spectrum because it’s night and day from allistic thinking.
