Do you think it is wrong for someone to say they are autistic when they aren't diagnosed?

Do you think it is wrong for someone to say they are autistic when they aren't diagnosed?

I don't want to cause any arguments on here just wanted people's honest opinions because I am not diagnosed myself and not sure i want to go down the assessment route and feel at present that I would only be doing so for other people's benefit to prove I am and not my own.

Parents
  • If someone has taken the tests, which are available online, answered honestly and got a result that indicates high likelihood of autism I don't see a problem. That's my situation - I do not have a formal diagnosis and don't intend to pursue one at present. Everyone is welcome in this community.

    I think the problem is with people on social media who apparently just decide they are autistic to be trendy - I don't have experience of this as I don't use social media.

  • I agree with Lotus, I was talking about people who decide they're on the spectrum with my step son at the weekend, he's ADHD and uses social media a lot and said he's sick of people popping up a declaring their ND because they're "quirky". We both feel such people undermine those of us who really do have autism or ADHD. I don't mind if people do proper online tests, I think thats probably how most of us latelings discovered our autism or ADHD

  • Reading what you, Lotus and a few others have said about people on social media treating neurodivergence as an 'aesthetic', I am both thankful that I'm no longer on social media and saddened that anyone can regard autism spectrum disorder as a way to get more likes, comments or shares. Appropriation is the word that best describes it, and like most other kinds of appropriation it sounds like no thought whatever is given to those being appropriated.

  • I don't think those sort of people do think if I'm honest, f they did they wouldn't do it.

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