Published on 12, July, 2020
Reading through various threads on here over the 3 months or so that I've been here, people say they've got things like high masking and all sorts of other things added to a diagnosis of autism. How do you know? Do these extra bits help you understand yourself better, do you get more help?
I just thought you got diagnosed as autistic and maybe one other thing like ADHD, but it would seem not, where does one go to get this sort of additional information in the UK?
TheCatWoman said:Do these extra bits help you understand yourself better, do you get more help?
These are all pretty much just labels for autistic traits.
There is a degree of elitism when it comes to the term High Masking as well as it helps those with it feel superior to those who are low masking - and it is often given to the subjects by the psychotherapists to make them feel bette about the diagnisis.
It is also descriptive but because it is also divisive then it is a subject of contention still.
It is part of the reason why Aspergers has been "discontinued" as a medical term - it is a subset of autism and the general drive is to get autism identified as a single condition that can get more support and acknowledgment from the world.
At the end of the day I suspect there is a degree of tribalism where people with one trait or another will tend to band together as much for the shared experience as for the feeling of belinging.
As my old gran would say "fine words butter no parsnips" which is odd as she hated parsnips and never made them for us.