Honestly, memes aside, go look for a professional diagnostic.
Otherwise you are not autistic you think you are autistic
A diagnosis doesn’t magically turn a switch on, if a person is autistic, they have been all their lives, even if they never get diagnosed. What is this invalidating bullshit?
As someone who worked with the community, there’s nothing more annoying than people who are just a little quirky claiming they have some diagnosis.
Usually because they just want an excuse to not fit in.
Social skills are skills.
Very few people are just naturally good at it, most people have to work hard at it. And few groups work harder than people who are actually diagnosed.
It’s just a lot of lazy people “diagnose themselves” and want to treat it as a get out of jail card for never working on their social skills. They want as much credit for their no effort result as people who have spent decades trying to improve their social skills to end up at the same place.
Like, just slapping a “diagnosis” on themselves means they don’t have to try anymore. Even if they actually have it, being diagnosed means they’d have to actually do something about it. It’s way easier to just claim you have it and not do anything about it.
I‘m a little shocked at the amount of gatekeeping in this community. That was less of a problem on reddit tbh.
We „the autistic community“ have decided that self diagnosis is valid and that is a fact. So lets just not discuss the idea of the boogeyman posing as an autistic person and just accept people.
Thanks and have a great day. :)
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.
A posted picture by an individual is not a community collectively deciding.
I know and I wasn’t specifically addressing that picture but also multiple comments stating that someone might abuse self diagnosis, which to me is just gatekeeping.
That’s not gatekeeping
This is gatekeeping:
We „the autistic community“ have decided that self diagnosis is valid and that is a fact. So lets just not discuss
This is so not the case as on reddit and I’m disappointed to hear someone say that. As the father of an L2 child the majority of autistic and “autistic” people online are the exception not the rule. This is why subreddits like spicyautism came around because of the deluge of asshats who don’t represent the silent masses of autism minimizing the struggles of life.
I’m sorry if that comes across confrontational but it’s the reason why for many, myself included, the main autistic subs became a toxic cesspool of self diagnosed people invalidating real autistic people because they know better.
It really comes off confrontational. As an autistic adult with an autistic wife I can vouch for the exact opposite. It took me years to get a diagnosis, same for my wife.
We don’t have any resources for autistic adults, doctors don’t know shit about autism in adults and if someone has an abuse trauma, they get institutionalized for that instead of looking at the bigger picture.
I don’t wan to fight you. Your feelings and experiences are valid. Let’s just not try and gatekeep and we‘re on the same page, deal?
@Haui @whoisearth
I don’t understand your “It really comes off confrontational.” What is it in your words.
I had one visit with a pcp, and then read his session notes because I could. It was obvious that he really didn’t get what I said and instead reported that I was flakey, rather than consider that there was more depth than he could recognize. I wrote to correct him. I may have to teach him that diferent is not bad or dumb or a disability, it can also be a superpower. Just because I stim behind my back, doesnt mean that I can’t understand particle physics and ask hard questions, or sometime overload and need to leave the room. Medicine is dumb.
You are right, yo don’t want to fight me. As a camo I’m not exactly sure that my feelings are valid, even though my memories are sharp, and I know what I did would piss some people off. I mean, the past is the past and i’m not denying it happened. The reframe is comfort. Every day, millions of 'Oh yeah’s.
I’m working on figure it out.
Spicyautism came about as a troll subreddit for non-autistic parents of autistic children to talk about how much they hate low support needs autistic adults. They only posts there that get more than 20 upvotes are “Here’s why I don’t think L1s really have autism”
We „the autistic community“ have decided that self diagnosis is valid and that is a fact.
So true and I recommend anyone who spends time in online autism communities just get involved in IRL autism communities instead. I find online autism communities utterly toxic and full of gatekeeping and hatred for self diagnosis, which no one I’ve met in person has ever had a problem with.
Thanks for saying that. I was genuinely baffled that nobody actually came to support this.
No problem. I remember talking to my friend who works in autism support before my assessment, and I was shocked when he said it’s still valid to identify as autistic even if you get a negative diagnosis. I said “they wouldn’t like that on the autism forums” and he just rolled his eyes. The online community really isn’t what the community is like!
My assessor said the same thing. There’s a spectrum of symptoms and no objective test, and ultimately for low support needs, whether yours reach the clinical significance for a diagnosis is a judgement call. You wouldn’t have passed the preliminary meeting to get a full assessment at all if you didn’t have autistic traits.
Who wrote this rubbish? Doctors aren’t willingly recommending abuse, and most of them refer to specialists.
ABA is abuse and very commonly recommended to autistic people (or more often, forced on autistic kids by parents).
Please show me where a currently licensed doctor is referring people to it.
I just searched “aba therapy near me” and “aba therapy clinic” and got dozens of results. They’re not close-but-not-exact matches, either. These are places that literally describe themselves on their home page as focusing on delivering ABA services to children.
Considering referrals issued by a licensed doctor are considered confidential, and illegal to share without patient consent in many areas, the ability/inability to present such a referral as evidence is not a good criteria for whether it happens or not. But the prevalence of specialists that offer these services certainly indicates that specialists are finding it a profitable business model. I suppose it is possible that the vast majority of their business does not come from doctor referrals, but that seems unlikely.
I thought it stood for American Bar Association. I still do, since no other definition was offered. I would disagree that the American Bar Association is abuse.
Doctors aren’t willingly recommending abuse
Boomer doctors aren’t dead yet, and haven’t learned anything since the 70s.
But seriously, think about whatever industry you’re in. Surely there are the ‘old guys’ who haven’t kept up with the progress, but are still around kind of doing a poor job of things. Not all old people, surely, but a fair number. At least, that’s how it is in IT.
Ahh yes old people are dumb and bad, what a highly enlightened take you have there, you spend way too much time online
Anyone who willingly lumps a bunch of people into a one size fits all category tells me all I need to know about that person
Damn, it sounds like you’re lumping a bunch of people into a one size fits all category, telling me everything I need to know about you. (I believe that 70% of people are liquid, so that should tell you everything you need to know about me)
That still doesn’t mean they recommend “abuse.” Every doctor in the US must renew their medical license every few years and that means taking continuing medical education classes. Nobody is recommending therapy from the 70s anymore.
Also, it’s still vague about what this “abuse” is so it’s hard to debunk a vague accusation.
Also, it’s still vague about what this “abuse” is so it’s hard to debunk a vague accusation.
So you’ve already made up your mind that it’s something that needs to be debunked before you even know what “abuse” refers to?
It’s shit like this that keeps hurting credibility of anyone defending established practices, right or wrong.
ABA therapy. That is the abuse being referred to.
I have a distinct recollection of professors at a UNC Chapel Hill department cocktail party comparing notes on their psychoanalysts in the late 2000’s.
Depends how long ago. There’s still an old ped in my city that doesn’t believe in autism and ADHD.
If he or she is still licensed, report them to the state medical board. They should be referring people to a psych specialist anyway.
Happy to to get a formal diagnosis if anyone wants to cash app me $2,500!
My legitimately incredible health insurance doesn’t give a shit if I’m autistic despite my doctor and therapist both wanting me screened! Not to mention the ~18 month wait to see the one person that does adult screenings in my state.
Does this mean I’m normal now?
