“Trendy” diagnoses

I'm afraid I don't agree and I have very black and white thinking about this. It will be unpopular because it looks like everyone in this thread is self-diagnosed, but I don't believe there is such a thing as self-diagnosis. It's a a logical impossibility, the nature and definition of diagnosis means you can't do it to yourself, particularly since you are not a trained qualified professional who is able to make diagnoses.

Alien0n3arth said:

they will not take you seriously, there high risk of hearing the stupid  “trendy” comments about diagnoses that everyone wants to have

This is in fact one of the negative consequences of the self-diagnosis crowd - it means autism doesn't get taken seriously any more.

Self-diagnosis and over-diagnosis from paid diagnosis mills has real world harms to people with autism, in terms of diluting the limited help available and making it less likely for autistic people to get the help they need - this already happened recently in Australia. It means people with autism don't get taken seriously and it's one of the reasons I don't tell people I'm autistic, because they'll just think I'm part of the trendy crowd jumping on the bandwagon. It won't be taken seriously.

There are enormous communities now on TikTok and Reddit and YouTube and other social media, of mostly self-diagnosed people who all have convinced themselves they have autism because of online questionnaires which have very high rates of false positives, and research shows are unreliable for diagnosing autism, and because they relate to memes and think autism is quirky or an identity. They share with each other various things that have nothing to do with autism and reinforce it in echo chambers (you get banned if you question any of it).

This is not good and actually quite dangerous. They're turning a neurodevelopmental disorder and disability into a club for people with the same opinions and personalities, and go out of their way to warn people to avoid doctors and healthcare professionals who might tell them they aren't autistic, and claim to know more about autism than the professionals who do the diagnoses. It's crazy.

Self-diagnosis actually harms those who diagnose themselves. Many autism traits can be characteristics of other conditions, from anxiety to depression to PTSD or personality disorders, many of which have treatments. If you diagnose yourself and avoid seeing a professional then you potentially deny yourself treatment and make yourself suffer unnecessarily.

None of this means any of you here don't have autism or shouldn't post here. Before I was diagnosed, I was on a waiting list for 4 years. I did not feel comfortable saying that I had autism then, because I didn't know whether I did; I just strongly suspected it. And it's fine to join autistic communities and get help if you feel that fits for you or that you might have autism. If the diagnosis was negative, I would have respected that. I would still have autistic traits, but perhaps not above the threshold for a diagnosis. I could still have related to the community and found benefit from it.

Not having a diagnosis doesn't mean you don't have autism, it just means you don't have a diagnosis. You might get one in the future, or have reasons for not thinking it's worth getting one. That's all fine. But you still aren't diagnosed with autism.

I'm afraid I don't agree and I have very black and white thinking about this. It will be unpopular because it looks like everyone in this thread is self-diagnosed, but I don't believe there is such a thing as self-diagnosis. It's a a logical impossibility, the nature and definition of diagnosis means you can't do it to yourself, particularly since you are not a trained qualified professional who is able to make diagnoses.

Alien0n3arth said:

they will not take you seriously, there high risk of hearing the stupid  “trendy” comments about diagnoses that everyone wants to have

This is in fact one of the negative consequences of the self-diagnosis crowd - it means autism doesn't get taken seriously any more.

Self-diagnosis and over-diagnosis from paid diagnosis mills has real world harms to people with autism, in terms of diluting the limited help available and making it less likely for autistic people to get the help they need - this already happened recently in Australia. It means people with autism don't get taken seriously and it's one of the reasons I don't tell people I'm autistic, because they'll just think I'm part of the trendy crowd jumping on the bandwagon. It won't be taken seriously.

There are enormous communities now on TikTok and Reddit and YouTube and other social media, of mostly self-diagnosed people who all have convinced themselves they have autism because of online questionnaires which have very high rates of false positives, and research shows are unreliable for diagnosing autism, and because they relate to memes and think autism is quirky or an identity. They share with each other various things that have nothing to do with autism and reinforce it in echo chambers (you get banned if you question any of it).

This is not good and actually quite dangerous. They're turning a neurodevelopmental disorder and disability into a club for people with the same opinions and personalities, and go out of their way to warn people to avoid doctors and healthcare professionals who might tell them they aren't autistic, and claim to know more about autism than the professionals who do the diagnoses. It's crazy.

Self-diagnosis actually harms those who diagnose themselves. Many autism traits can be characteristics of other conditions, from anxiety to depression to PTSD or personality disorders, many of which have treatments. If you diagnose yourself and avoid seeing a professional then you potentially deny yourself treatment and make yourself suffer unnecessarily.

None of this means any of you here don't have autism or shouldn't post here. Before I was diagnosed, I was on a waiting list for 4 years. I did not feel comfortable saying that I had autism then, because I didn't know whether I did; I just strongly suspected it. And it's fine to join autistic communities and get help if you feel that fits for you or that you might have autism. If the diagnosis was negative, I would have respected that. I would still have autistic traits, but perhaps not above the threshold for a diagnosis. I could still have related to the community and found benefit from it.

Not having a diagnosis doesn't mean you don't have autism, it just means you don't have a diagnosis. You might get one in the future, or have reasons for not thinking it's worth getting one. That's all fine. But you still aren't diagnosed with autism.

I understand where you're coming from in terms of the actual phrase 'self-diagnoses', as diagnoses is a professional term; so perhaps 'self-identified' might be the better phrase for non-diagnosed neurodivergence.

I am diagnosed Autistic (etc), but self-identified ADHD (technically my psychiatrist 'strongly recommended' I approach for an ADHD assessment, which pretty much says all I need to know regarding that).

"There are enormous communities now on TikTok and Reddit and YouTube and other social media, of mostly self-diagnosed people who all have convinced themselves they have autism because of online questionnaires which have very high rates of false positives." --- I assume you must be referring to bogus questionnaires, similar to like personality quizzes similar to 'what kind of potato are you' or something, because the psychometric tests (AQ 10/50, EQ, SQ, RAADS-R, Aspie Quiz, CAT-Q, RBQ-2A being the main ones) are used in the assessment process, so if they have high rates of false positives, why would the professionals use them?

"Self-diagnosis actually harms those who diagnose themselves. Many autism traits can be characteristics of other conditions, from anxiety to depression to PTSD or personality disorders, many of which have treatments. If you diagnose yourself and avoid seeing a professional then you potentially deny yourself treatment and make yourself suffer unnecessarily."---- This is also inaccurate. There aren't a great deal of diagnosed Autistics (in terms of late-diagnosed) that didn't start from a place of self-diagnosed (self-identified) and in many countries it is simply too expensive to seek a diagnoses, and sometimes dangerous to do so (e.g. cultural perception of Autism). I agree that trauma and neurodivergence share many characteristics, but from my experience, I was actually wrongfully diagnosed with PTSD (I have C-PTSD, but the 'professional' who diagnosed me wasn't trained in neurodivergence) so my neurotype was reduced to behavioural symptoms, and I receive zero support during vital developmental years, and was put on medication that made me worse; my point being that having a professional diagnose you doesn't guarantee lack of harm. Also, on a side note, most trauma therapies tend to be ineffective because they are designed for top-down processing neurotypes; Trauma and neurodivergence tend to lean toward bottom-up processing as standard, and the treatments for Autism (in terms of emotional regulation, quality of life, etc) and treatments for trauma are exactly the same (e.g. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), so there really isn't any harm being done.         

"Self-diagnosis and over-diagnosis from paid diagnosis mills has real world harms to people with autism, in terms of diluting the limited help available and making it less likely for autistic people to get the help they need" --- There is no help for Autistic adults in my experience (outside of benefits), and any help available requires an official diagnosis, so no diagnosed person is being denied the help they need on the basis of a self-identified person; however, we are all being denied the help we need due to lack of funding and lack of cultural neurodivergence understanding/acceptance (both medically and public), and I would argue 'that' is what has given rise to chat rooms, forums, and social media platforms, etc, regarding neurodivergence.

In a nutshell, how people choose to identify is their business, it doesn't do me any harm, and if it brings them peace and allows them to know/understand themselves better and how to keep themselves safe and healthy, then it can't be bad.

I will respect that if the professional tells me I have autistic traits but not strong enough to be autistic, but I get upset hearing the “trendy” comments after just telling the psychologist my problems. 
I Already had a psychiatrist misdiagnosing me with Tourette and forcing me on awful meds (I wasn’t adult yet) and a psychologist telling me that I just need to paint my favorite pictures and smile more and gave me meds for depression. None of this helped because the core problem was that I felt inferior to others. My problem was not lack of motivation to do anything, I always loved doing things, but felt terribly stressed in a company of people. She would just need to ask me more questions to deeper understand what’s the problem. So they both didn’t help me. That one saying the trendy thing told me there is nothing I can do about being too fragile and bursting easily into tears. I’m looking for help, for a professional that will help me maybe my problem has to do with trauma for example. 
i agree with your point and admit to be in the crowd doing the wrong thing, but it’s a result of me being numerous times mistreated and also misdiagnosed by those who were supposed to help. 

I have to respectfully disagree with some of it too.

While I am now diagnosed - I probably wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the idea of self-diagnosis. I'm not going into any more detail - but by 'here', I don't mean the board. The diagnosis in the end was just a rubber stamp, and didn't give me anything new. It was my self diagnosis and things that I read on the board here that got me through. Not a piece of paper.

Interesting post, Paper, but I have to respectfully disagree with some of your points.

Paper said:

Self-diagnosis actually harms those who diagnose themselves

In my case, self diagnosis and finding out about autism was my treatment. I get anxious or depressed sometimes, but I don't like taking prescription antidepressants and don't think therapy would help - I have my own ways of coping, which have improved after researching autism. The medical profession have told me I wouldn't get any help even if I had a formal diagnosis, and there are long waiting lists for mental health issues.

Paper said:

Self-diagnosis and over-diagnosis from paid diagnosis mills has real world harms to people with autism, in terms of diluting the limited help available and making it less likely for autistic people to get the help they need

I've never heard of "paid diagnosis mills" - I only used the screening tools used by medical professionals, read books written by experts/ diagnosed autistic people, and asked questions on this site. Yes, there is only limited help available, but putting everyone through formal diagnosis who believes they are autistic further reduces funds available and extends the waiting time, and not everyone can afford to go private. It's another reason I didn't insist on a formal diagnosis, because I know there are others who need formal diagnosis to access support they need and I don't - it would just have been a label, and my doctor assured me I could be referred later if that changed and I needed support. 

Finally, I just want to say that the term "diagnosis" is difficult for me, because autism isn't a disease and can't be cured. Also, having a stressful interview with mental health practitioners who may have varying levels of knowledge and their own personal views and possibly biases, isn't 100% reliable.

I don't care if people don't believe I'm autistic because I don't have a formal diagnosis, I know myself now and I know I belong here.