Is self-diagnosis okay/valid/a good thing?

Post Reply New Topic

I'm 39 and got diagnosed at the same age. How many years do I have to wait before I become old enough to stop being ageist?

I don't think that it is good for people to say that they have autism to provide an eggsplanation to themselves or others for their lives, whatever that means. They can do the same by recognizing their traits, circumstances, choices, and all the other factors that contribute to the way their lives are or have been. Saying that one has autism when one is not diagnosed with autism is misrepresentation with potential negative effects for others, such as people who have autism.

I know quite a few middle-aged and older people diagnosed with autism.
The oldest person who participated in my research studies is 70.
None of them appear obviously autistic, but a professional was able to recognize autism in them.

I self-diagnosed myself based largely on my daughter's diagnosis. While I might be a "gene carrier", I realise now that I was searching for aspects of my life that I happily re-classifed as autistic traits but realise now it's just confirmation bias as I have always been comfortably functional and sociable all my life.

As much as it sucks I'm an just NT with a few autistic traits. I'm probably no more autistic than Jerry Seinfeld.

Here's the thing I don't understand about self-diagnosis (and by "self-diagnosis" I mean people who are, according to themselves, sure they have ASD but haven't been officially diagnosed. I don't mean people who merely suspect they're on the spectrum):

How can you be so certain you have ASD and not something else? Sure, you can read and identify with the traits/symptoms you read about online but there's certain overlap between disorders and there's a reason even medical professionals are discouraged from diagnosing themselves. I'm not saying you're wrong when you say you're autistic (that's of course impossible for me to know), I just don't understand how you can be so sure.

Before I got diagnosed I suspected I was on the spectrum but I also suspected I was depressed, had social anxiety disorder, OCD and generalized anxiety disorder. I didn't know which of those I really had, if I had all of them or any of them. If you say you have autism and you're wrong, it doesn't really harm anyone but yourself (though you might not think that harms you either) but wouldn't it bother you if you would've believed in something, identified with something, only to find out you're wrong? And then you might think "yeah, but if I don't get assessed that will never happen" and that's probably true, but isn't it scary to think that you could just be biased and think you have something when you actually don't?

I really don't mean to offend anyone by saying this so I hope I didn't. I'm not saying you who identify as self-diagnosed autistics are wrong (because, like I said, that's impossible for me to know) and I understand that it's really difficult to get assessed sometimes due to the cost etc., but I'm just trying to understand because I could never live with that thought myself. The thought about possibly being wrong (that thought bothers me sometimes now that I'm officially diagnosed as well but much less so seeing as the psychologist who diagnosed me is specialized in assessing and working with adults with ASD).

Do you understand what I mean? It's a bit difficult to explain but I tried anyway.