Under one of my posts in an autistic community on Reddit I got told not to self-diagnose, and it shattered me to pieces by that (the post wasn't really related to self-diagnosis).
I'm so afraid to reach out to autistic communities ever again, in fear that I'll get a similar feedback. I even deleted Reddit I used to like because I'm frightened to see any new replies.
In Russia to get a formal autism diagnosis as an adult isn't possible *at all*. I'm just lost and scared… I want to have autistic friends, but I fear that I'll never fit in.