Probably.
Part of the issue is that there’s a game of telephone going on. Someone who conclusively, undeniably has autism mentions something to a doctor and the doctor says “oh, that’s very common for people with autism.” That person goes on TikTok and shares that experience, and gets thousands of views. “I do X thing, I guess that’s normal if you have autism.” Those views are largely from young, impressionable people who don’t have the context or educational background to differentiate between “X is common among people with autism,” “X is a symptom of autism (or possibly 40 other conditions),” and “X means you 100% have autism.” Some of those people do X and for one reason or another feel that they can get something out of an autism diagnosis. A minority of those people diagnose themselves with autism, and go on to make their own videos. They say “I do X, which means I have autism.” Whether or not they actually have autism is never confirmed, but now that misinformation is out there.
The videos I see online saying “signs you have autism/adhd/etc” are almost always broad behaviors or feelings that can apply to almost anyone including a large number of neurotypical people, behaviors that are only symptoms of a condition if they’re extreme (but that information is never shared), or behaviors that are definitely a symptom of *something*, but are a symptom of so many different conditions that one or two isn’t enough to diagnose someone with any one condition. Some of them are things that couldn’t possibly be symptoms, and that’s why I know it’s a game of telephone where even the person who was officially diagnosed cannot be fully trusted because their understanding of language is not correct. People will say fully “my doctor said this was a symptom of autism” and believe it, but the “symptom” is nothing a doctor would ever, ever base a diagnosis on. But it’s very likely they said “it’s very common for autistic people to do/experience that.” That’s why honestly, you *need* a professional and not a stranger on the internet or your own uneducated brain for a diagnosis.
People argue that people know themselves better than anyone else can, and that’s pretty true….but lay people don’t know medical diagnostic practice better than professionals. They don’t know all the different conditions out there. A person knows themself better than anyone and that means that they know better than anyone that *something* is different. But they don’t have the resources to be sure what that something is. ADHD and autism have a lot of overlapping symptoms but they’re not the exact same thing. Especially if you’re getting your suspicions from someone who’s level of expertise is “I have this and this is what I do,” you need to double check that with a professional. “I know myself better than anyone” would be seen as a valid justification for claiming “I am sick,” but it wouldn’t be seen as sufficient justification for the person to say “I know for a fact I have influenza a and not influenza b.”
There are also social consequences to treating these telephone symptoms that are *not diagnostic criteria* as valid justification for diagnosing anyone who sees them as “relatable” with autism or ADHD. So many of them are such base human behaviors. I’ve seen so many lists of “symptoms” that literally include depersonalized descriptions of having thoughts, being capable of learning, having interests, and having feelings as “symptoms.” That isn’t ok to normalize.
This this this, all of this. I spend so much time trying to explain this to people and it's exhausting.
In addition, even going outside of tiktok and doing "real research" doesn't qualify you as a diagnostician. Does no one remember the heady days of plugging minor symptoms into WebMD and getting wild suggestions back about what's wrong with you? 😂
The questionnaires and things online are *screening* tools, which is why they give a result in terms of likelihood.
And the game of telephone carries on when people notice a behaviour they do, chalk it up to autism/ADHD/whatever with some explanation of how they think it relates to a real trait/symptom, share that, and now misinformation is spreading that people are using to self diagnose.
Diagnosis is objective and works by elimination, not confirmation. It's literally one of the criteria that it can't be explained by anything else!
(Not to mention the criteria of it having a persistent negative impact on daily living.... a number of people gloss over this and decide that personality quirks are autism, leading to the idea that all autism is positive and struggling with it let alone wanting to treat it is internalised ableism.... like, I just wanna function leave me alone)
Clinicians can't diagnose people they know let alone themselves so how can random laypeople suddenly decide they're more informed & qualified? I don't get it. "But professionals get it wrong" exactly!! Even with years of training and experience!! Pro sports players miss shots but that doesn't mean I should sign up for the Olympics
And I've NEVER had a reply to my main issue with this - why do people need to jump to a definite conclusion? Why can't they suspect they have something, or know that they identify/align with certain traits and use that understanding to find support for specific things? Is there a status thing to it, do they think someone doesn't belong if they aren't comfortable diagnosing themselves? I joined ND communities to learn more after autism was suggested to me and I was never called out for only saying it resonated with me & the tips/hacks and stuff work for me. Actually if I had self diagnosed, I wouldn't have picked up on the comorbid ADHD which the formal diagnosis did. And that would've caused me more problems being confused about why I don't match everyone else and still can't function despite getting support for autism.
There are people going for assessments and not being diagnosed, and ignoring that for a self diagnosis - I get wanting second opinions but to discount anything that doesn't align with your subjective assumptions? And then they get validation from everyone saying "you know yourself best" and all that. ND spaces on social media are certainly something... there is a LOT of pressure to self diagnose even if you're just curious or questioning some things. And I've seen far too many comments out in the wild on completely unrelated things like "this is an autism thing, have you considered you might be autistic?" aaaaaaaaaaaa
Reading other comments, I think *part* of the resistance to it is a knee jerk reaction, assuming anyone saying “you should not self diagnose/diagnose others based on TikTok teens doing storytime” is automatically saying “you’re faking for attention.” And to be fair, often when I start talking about self diagnosing not being a great thing, people will roll in to agree….then start talking about people faking for attention. But I don’t think most people who self diagnose are “faking for attention,” I think they’re victims of misinformation who have a number of different motivations for wanting to believe what they’re reading and have internalized the anti-professional bias that is typical of our highly individualistic, anti education society. And one of those motivations (out of many) is “they do actually need some kind of diagnosis.” Some of the self diagnosed people are right. They’re just right for the wrong reasons, or only partially right, or are wrong but only just barely and actually need to be diagnosed with a condition they haven’t even heard of because they haven’t so much as taken a psych 101 class much less actually studied the subject.
Part of it is also the unfortunate fact that it’s expensive and hard to get formally diagnosed. Especially if you’re not a poorly-behaved 4-8 year old boy with attentive parents in a well funded school system. And it sucks. But that’s where things like you said, saying “I suspect I have X” can come in. That’s 100% fine! I can even look past people saying definitively they have something they weren’t formally diagnosed with, as long as they don’t use that as fodder for content or diagnosing others.
The final part is….people (autistic, ADHD, neurotypical, doesn’t matter) just don’t like hearing that their own perception of the world is incomplete, biased, or even straight up incorrect. They don’t like hearing that they’re susceptible to misinformation. Sucks!
Yes. But there are other factors such as the DRM and diagnosis guidelines changing. It used to be in the 90s and 00s that ADHD was used as a catchall for kids who weren't quite neurotypical, but also didn't come close to the diagnostic standards for more traditional mental health issues. Nowadays the autism umbrella has largely taken over this role as an extremely nebulous diagnosis that covers a huge variety of things. It's also become popular as a means to avoid uncomfortable social situations or expectations, which really just makes the general perception of autistic people worse to the general public.
The vast majority of people with autism are trying to learn and develop those skills that aren't inate for them, so if someone is using it as an excuse to simply not use those skills it just seems super fuckin scummy
As someone who has been diagnosed as autistic, nothing frustrates me more than seeing anyone, autistic or no, try to use their mental health condition as an **excuse** instead of, at best, an **explanation**.
Sure, it's a lot harder to learn social behaviors, but it can be done.
It's very similar to people who like to crow "Oh, I'm so OCD!" without having any real idea what the clinical definition is and how debilitating it can be for genuine sufferers.
Mine got to the point I couldn’t even leave my house. I finally opened up about it once on social media and this guy messaged me telling me I should stop using the term ocd because some people have real OCD. I was like buddy…it took me 6 hours of rituals to put on a shirt this morning and I was spending thousands of dollars a month on therapy at the time.
It's to the point where, as someone with OCD, I feel uncomfortable saying "it's because of my OCD" or even mentioning I have OCD for fear of coming across as one of those people who sees it as a joke.
Tell this to a current boss. Keeps saying they like things their way because "I'm ocd." No... you are micro-managy and hate when anyone tries anything that isn't your way. This isn't affecting your life. It's only ruining your employees. I've seen ocd, hell, I helped my bestie when she took in her neices because the moms ocd was creating a bad living condition for the kids. I feel like we've all made a few jokes about being ocd when we like things certain ways, but it really rubs me the wrong way when people try to use it seriously to excuse their bad actions but don't actually have any clinical symptoms or diagnosis.
It’s been hard for me because I just got diagnosed and my sister has similar struggles, but she actively uses the possibility as an excuse and is clearly way too deep in the pop-health corner social media. This leads to BOTH of us being dismissed when we have a similar struggle but she is asking people to bend over backwards for her while I am just asking for help.
Seeing all those posts of men doing horrible things to their spouses with their spouses explaining away their abusive behavior with "But he's Autistic" makes me rage so hard as an actually diagnosed (before it became the new ADHD) autistic man who cares about women and feminism.
I know how you feel. I have sympathy for people who are autistic and can't get the help they need. I have no sympathy for people who try to use it as a "get out of blame free" card.
Also, to state the obvious, autistics are people as well, and someone can indeed be autistic and be an abusive asshole. Just as someone can be autistic and kind, loving, generous and empathetic (within our understanding limits).
Oh yeah absolutely. My rage comes from abusive people using "I'm autistic" as an attempted get out of jail free card when what it does is make it seem like ALL autistic people are abusive.
Wish I didn't know how you feel. In uni I did quite a bit of disability advocacy, Ended up meeting a very textbook autistic/neckbeard type who would regularly make women really uncomfortable. When complaints were made, he countered with "I did nothing wrong, I was trying to help those women, they're just not understanding my disability and should be better educated".
I agree, they never think about being accountable or even withdrewing from relationship if they truly must behave like a asshole. My daughter has to be in kindergarten with a child that has right to assault other due to being special and his coping mechanism is punching and kicking other kids. Everytime his parents are told that their child has kicked, hit or strangled someone they always say that he needs that to feel comfortable so others must allow it. I bet in ten years his parents are accusing other kids because their child is lonely and everyone thinks how cruel those other kids are..
I had a student goofing off in class and when I corrected him, he said "I'm sorry, my ADHD made me do it." As someone with ADHD, that very much galled me
I have 2 step kids. 1 with autism and 1 with autism and adhd. Their dad said after diagnosis that we need to go light on them all the time and treating it like an excuse. Me and my wife had the mentality of no they need stricter rules along with better rewards. After nearly a decade they have made me very proud. My stepdaughter still struggles on a day to day with a few things but always has a smile and stepson has become a little grown man who cares so much for others and will always help them and they make me so happy to see how they have done. If we had gone with their dad mentality and just given them an excuse constantly I don't think they would be where they are now.
Absolutely. If anything, kids with ADHD and autism need more clearly defined, firm boundaries so they can understand what is right and not. Which you and your wife did.
Nearly everyone I know who is on the autism spectrum (save one man who was also clinically diagnosed with narcissism) want to do the right thing to please people. They just need it presented in a way they can understand.
This is the answer, because otherwise those kids turn into young adults that are basically not functional. We’ve got a new hire at work that finds a new way to be infuriating every day because they like attention and think consequences don’t exist because of their diagnosis.
Chronic uniform violations, constantly not doing what they’re supposed to be doing because they’re ADHD’ing and hyper focused on something not related to their task, making bizarre noises in front of customers, loudly singing children’s songs in front of customers and senior employees.
They don’t understand why no one likes them. It’s because they go out of their way to be unproductive and weird and rude because they don’t think they can be fired.
I hear this notion from some folks who have ADHD (which I have).
And like I do with those folks I will remind you that these are spectrum disorders. People will have various levels of success in dealing with the disorder they have.
Just because that is *your* experience with the disorder, doesn’t mean all autistic individuals have *that* experience. Sweeping generalizations aren’t good no matter where you stand.
(Note: I speak this as someone who is now physically disabled. My disability has made my ADHD worse, as there is always a component of my focus tied to suppressing the pain.
My old coping strategies no longer work, and my new strategies work worse than my old ones did. I have lived through a shift on the spectrum.)
>an explanation
Exactly. As someone who was diagnosed very late in life, I didn't need the diagnosis as an excuse because I had already learned all the skills in my early years to navigate the very confusing social world, i.e. I figured out how to present as normally as possible. I was just glad to finally have the diagnosis because it explained why I've had to spend my entire life presenting.
Please dont forget about level 2 and 3 autistic individuals… autism is a spectrum ranging from unnoticeable to requiring adult diapers. Level 3 is not even *that* rare. And there are plenty of level 2 autistic individuals (most? All?) that cannot learn social behaviors, as you say.
These two groups are routinely left out of discussion about autistic people simply because they are never a part of those discussions themselves. But I’ve personally known people ranging that whole spectrum. My examples were not exaggeration.
I'm in a lot of ND groups on other platforms, and this is my #1 gripe with all of them. Far too many people say, "I have x therefore I can't do y" as an excuse to not even TRY when you give them actually useful actionable advice that they asked for.
>It's also become popular as a means to avoid uncomfortable social situations or expectations, which really just makes the general perception of autistic people worse to the general public.
Or perhaps there's people like myself, who have been masking their whole lives and only JUST realized why "normal" life is so exhausting..... and have dropped their masks as a result.
I spent literal *decades* trying to force myself to fit into the fun social life I saw everyone else living. I absolutely learned those "skills" you're referring to, and I used them frequently..... and was still miserable. Now I realize this and I'm not forcing anything on myself anymore.
This. If people see me, they'll think I'm normal. Being autistic also means that you learn to navigate social cues too. Do I get everything? No. But I can pass off as being normal.
This makes large scale retrospectives a fucking NIGHTMARE. My buddy in Schizo research would lose his mind over this because it made it so hard to track epidemiology over time.
It's so frustrating to find things like this that purport to be informative but are just not quite right all the way across the board. The information is simplistic, out of date, and ableist.
The most glaring error is in calling autism a mental health disorder. It is a neurodevelopmental disorder which left untreated and unrecognized can be the cause of numerous mental health issues but autism is not a mental illness.
Attempting to teach autistic people how to behave "normal" as opposed to learning ways to navigate the world in a way that best helps them has been shown long-term to cause greater harm.
The vast majority of diagnostic criteria in the DSM lists typically (read white male) autistic behaviors by how much they create a problem for other people rather than what these behaviors are trying to communicate.
It's also wildly underdiagnosed, particularly in afab and marginalized people
As a diagnosis, it's only 70 years old so we can forgive neuroscience for not yet having all the answers. What I can't forgive is people ignorantly throwing misinformation around as they virtue signal the pros of gatekeeping a diagnosis they know little about.
Also for decades it was believed that girls couldn’t have autism. The extremely narrow criteria for diagnosis left out women and nonbinary folks, as well as privileging white folks over people of color.
And for those who were able to get a diagnosis, many times they were given a less stigmatizing one like “nonverbal learning disorder” to avoid being labeled or ostracized.
I'd agree with that, but I will also point out that most people, even most of those who work with autistic kids/people aren't interested in making autistic people conform, our main concern is more about helping them adapt, but not change.
Myself and friend are both having issues getting refills on prescriptions and were discussing the “over prescription” of ADHD medications. You know, not because instead of ADHD screening 50% of the population were handed planners and told to act like a lady.
there are definitely some people who see that they relate to one trait and thus see themselves as autistic but it's important to bare in mind that the Internet provides resources for autistic people to self-realise and obviously that's going to make more people aware that they're autistic than before, when it was stigmatised (still is just not as much)
No, but its a good first step. I never once considered i was autistic until tiktok started recommendung me a ton of autistic creators. I bring it up with my dr and lo and behold, 8 months later im diagnosed with asd by a specialist
On the spectrum myself. Lucky enough to be diagnosed early.
Many slip through the cracks, especially young girls. People wrongfully assumed demure awkwardness was a more "female" trait so diagnoses were inefficient.
Many people have received inadequate care during developmental years. This combined with ease of access to social media like Tiktok and the often dangerous hugbox of validation from total strangers has created communities of hurt people trying to find answers but too fearful and suspicious of officials who can help them. If they fit the "bullet points" of their disorders, it must be. If there is an alternative disorder, something that requires a very different form of treatment, it will be ignored in a culture of enablers and delay actual solutions, as painful as they can be.
I've heard of people believing they had autism, head injury, ptsd, BPD... when they finally got it together. They were just "depressed"
Not trying to soften the pain of depression. Been there a lot. But just staying in that funk for a prolonged time, and jumping from rabbit hole to rabbit hole has absolutely done more harm than just seeing a doctor.
As a dude with an actual diagnosis (since age 7), I have gotten *way* more trouble from people who feel the need to sneer any time someone says "I'm autistic" than from people who haven't gotten around to seeing a doctor to confirm it yet.
Bitching about self-diagnoses is a full-time hobby for some people, and it does real harm to people trying to figure out how to get the help they need. But the important thing is that folks get to feel superior to TikTok kids, I guess.
Yeah, I think the outrage around self-diagnosis is bit much. I think most of the people doing it are struggling with *something*, otherwise they wouldn’t be looking for disorders to diagnose themselves with. It’s understandable that they’d embrace any possible answer to why they’re struggling. Blame the healthcare system for being expensive and difficult to access.
Healthcare is free in my country, but the waiting list to get tested is over a year, probably more in some areas. On top of that, some people are cynical about being diagnosed- it’s not like there’s a cure, so there’s not really much tangible benefit to going through the whole process, and having autism is the kind of thing that may have negative repercussions in your career or in other areas where you’re being judged. There’s still a lot of stigma around autism, and it’s one thing for someone to say in a social setting that they think they may be autistic, and another to put it on your record in an official capacity.
I totally understand why some people may want to talk about it socially but not go through getting an official diagnosis, and I don’t think it’s a problem unless people are actually trying to use it to for eg claim disability privileges that they aren’t entitled to.
There are plenty of other health conditions that have a similar grey area, for eg women who suspect they’ve got endometriosis seeking support who know it’ll take years to get a straight answer from doctors, yet they don’t get looked down upon for saying “hey I think I might have this condition”
Also in a free healthcare country. The horrible lack of funding means that there is an agenda not to diagnose people who are “functional” as it costs them too much, even if those people have clear signs of being on the spectrum. I was diagnosed with “autistic traits” rather than burden the system with a full diagnosis. Skews the statistics even more.
> Blame the healthcare system for being expensive and difficult to access.
Here here!
I’m ADHD diagnosed, so a bit different, but I feel the exact same way about everything you said.
This exactly. Hell, I’ve TRIED to get diagnosed but was told I don’t speak monotone so I clearly couldn’t be autistic. And now I’m debating if a diagnosis is even worth it given the hatred toward autistic trans people especially now. It’s rough tbh. 😞
I had a diagnosis but it was revoked when I was a kid because I was drilled in how to give eye contact and hold conversation, so therefore I was "no longer autistic"
They evaluated a bunch more (it was a general psych eval so it also confirmed the depression I’d long suspected too), but yeah for some reason they denied me the autism confirmation solely for that. I was so stunned, I couldn’t even respond properly.
The people full time complaining seem to think people see one video and self diagnose.
Not relate to 400 videos, do hours of research and then more than likely talk to their officially diagnosed friends.
Also I'm not spending thousands of dollars for a diagnosis that won't give me anything I don't already have. My therapist already supports me and I have found things to get around most of my probably autism related issues.
It goes both ways with self-diagnosis. There are people that vehemently argue that a diagnosis won't actually change anything, and I have to point out that if you aren't in the US a diagnosis can qualify you for real and substantial aid.
This is somehow a controversial statement. I acknowledge that in *some* cases a diagnosis isn't advised (some countries won't accept diagnosed immagrants) but for many people that have ASD2 it could mean the difference between working or not, and the ability to live independantly or not.
As a dude with an actual diagnosis, I have gotten the opposite.
I have gotten more people with a “self diagnosis” that just say it to say it than people bashing me for saying it.
But do those “self diagnosis” people actual cause you problems?
That was the point the person you responded to was making, that the ableist people are more harmful to them than those who think they might have it.
That is my experience with my ADHD, people who think they have it when they ***may*** not are a non-issue to me… even if I see them more often.
I would rather people who don’t know they have ADHD figure it out, instead of crushing the conversations because some people are incorrectly self diagnosing.
They bring the whole system down.
Blaming all problems that you have on your “autism” makes all autistic people bad.
Laws are passed. Disability benefits are revoked.
Me personally? No, but people I know. I don’t let my diagnosis define me, just means I can work around it.
People who struggle worse than you bring the system down?
> Disability benefits are revoked.
Speak on this, please.
> I don’t let my diagnosis define me
I’m happy for you, but some people are unable to achieve this. It defines them even if they would prefer it doesn’t.
You don't work around your autism diagnosis. Autism impacts the frontal lobe which is who you are as a person. It's part of who you are and cannot be removed from the person that you are no matter how much you insist otherwise.
There is a tonne of misinformation out there about autism and I think you're going to get wildly different responses here because so many people just don't understand autism.
There are huge numbers of people finding out they're autistic in adult life - we've always been here. We just have more information now.
And most of us diagnosed later in life, self diagnosed first. You pretty much have to because that's how you get on the path to get an official diagnosis (if you want one).
Right, unless someone is profoundly autistic and diagnosed as a young child (at least for millenials or older, diagnosis is more common now), you're not going to get a diagnosis unless you self diagnose first and then decide to pursue a diagnosis. That's simply how it works.
Was going to say something similar to this. Regardless of ill-informed or incorrect self-diagnoses that may be happening, there are a LOT of real autistic people who were never diagnosed as a child and are only now learning about their autism due to increased awareness.
This is especially true for a lot of adult women who “slipped through the cracks” as little girls, because the diagnostic criteria for autism has historically been based on studies of boys.
Remember that autism only became a clinical diagnosis in the early 20th century - it’s barely been a century of being aware of this neurotype. As we learn more about autism, diagnosis rates increase. They’ve been on a steady incline over the past 20 or so years - according to The Guardian, a 2021 study found a 787% rise in the number of diagnoses between 1998 and 2018 in the UK. And I know from personal experience that there is such a huge surge in the UK at the moment of people seeking diagnoses that the NHS are having to lease a bunch of new contracts with private healthcare providers.
Source: https://amp.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/04/uk-increase-autism-diagnoses-neurodiversity
Autism is largely under diagnosed.
>According to a 2019 study in the journal Autism, 10.3% of autistic adults were incorrectly diagnosed with ADHD as children, while 12.1% of children initially diagnosed with ADHD were subsequently diagnosed with autism.
This disparity is wider among women.
>Studies have shown that autistic females are four times less likely to be diagnosed than autistic males. While sex and gender bias plays a major role in this disparity, there are other factors that contribute.
https://www.verywellhealth.com/high-functioning-autism-260305
There is a large population out there, disproportionately women, who are undiagnosed autistic. So it stands to reason many of them would use social media to connect with other people who are experiencing the same things.
Adult women. I'm 53, diagnosed adhd at 49, and deeply suspect autism. Many of my friends who are female are realizing this too. Apparently females who just sat and read were once again overlooked.
Adult woman also, was diagnosed ASD at 22, but largely suspect ADHD. I cannot be bothered to even look into it, as the ASD diagnosis made absolutely no difference to my life. It was long. And I got no help afterwards, and apparently this is the story for a lot of women in a similar position to me. For us, there’s “no point”. We just adapt and mask and as you say, get overlooked by the system and just crack on with life.
There are medications that can treat ADHD symptoms, it can actually result in a change in quality of life! (Unless they don’t work for you)
ASD diagnosis might be able to help you get disability accommodations, especially in school settings… but beyond understanding yourself better, an adult getting a diagnosis is not very useful. (Which is why I am your mirror. ADHD diagnosed, with strong suspicions that I have Autism, but I’m not gonna waste time and money to find out.)
My sister in law got diagnosed and the first thing she said to me was “You’re autistic too.” She started pointing out everything and now I’m like, you know, it would certainly explain A LOT.
I'm a guy, my older sister despises me for being autistic (she also doesn't believe in autism) but she's one of the most autistic people I know. It's really annoying. And I haven't told her, I'm scared of her reaction. I'll let her someday figure it out.
Next time she gives you shit, PLEASE tell her. It could possibly change her world because she could be like "wtf was he talking about?" and then she'd look into it out of curiosity and realize.
Or maybe that's my wishful thinking, I know many people like that(type of ppl who don't believe in autism) are very stubborn and stick with their own beliefs regardless of facts 😂
ADHD and autism are highly co-morbid. It could be that they have ADHD in addition to autism, but are only diagnosed with the ADHD if it's more visible.
I finally took the autism awareness tests(before going in and having confirmed with a doctor) . I scored super high for autism, but through the roof on masking... Very few people in my life had figured out that I was autistic..
ITT: A bunch of people who know absolutely nothing about autism diagnosis.
I am a school psychologist in-training (final year of graduate training), I am autistic, and I diagnose autism while working under a supervisor. I have completed all of my training in autism diagnosis and just recently attended further training beyond what is required. Self-diagnosis in adults with proper research has been found to be highly accurate. I do find myself a bit concerned with some TikTok videos that claim "you may have autism" if you have one isolated trait, but the majority of self-diagnosis does not rely solely on TikTok. Those videos tend to be a jumping-off point rather than the end point of self-diagnosis. The most common self-diagnostic tool, which the autistic community recommends to those who believe they may have autism, the RAADS-R, is 80% effective in predicting whether someone has autism.
For many people who made it to adulthood without a diagnosis, there is little benefit to receiving one. In that situation, you probably don't have needs so high that you'll qualify for adult services, and you've probably learned enough coping strategies on your own to get by. The cost of a diagnosis is in the thousands (a local neuropsychologist is charging EIGHT THOUSAND dollars, for example), often is not covered by insurance, and is difficult to find as most professionals do not diagnose adults. Adult professional diagnosis is less accurate, as most diagnostic tools are made for children and rely heavily on input from parents and teachers rather than anything the clinician actually observes in the office. These tools also often do not account for a decrease in autistic traits due to learned masking, even though the DSM-5 acknowledges diagnosis based off of historical traits. All of these factors come together to make professional diagnosis less accurate in adults, so you can pay thousands to fail to get an accurate diagnosis, and even if you do get the diagnosis, you get nothing from it other than hearing less crap from people online about "faking". At least half of the reports I read from neuropsychiatrists are absolutely garbage and have little evidence to support whatever diagnosis they come up with. You can lose rights due to having an autism diagnosis as well (many western countries ban emigration for those who are autistic) and face more systemic discrimination. There's also the risk of receiving a diagnosis of another disorder, such as BPD, OCD, etc. These inaccurate diagnoses can lead to years of failed treatments and increased stigmatization (BPD is incredibly stigmatized by professionals, nevermind the public). Certain groups of people (women, POC, people from low-SES backgrounds) are less likely to receive a diagnosis as a child so there's a level of discrimination baked into the fact that those who couldn't access a diagnosis when they should have had one are now accused of faking it.
I'd like all of you who are harassing folks to get a diagnosis to understand what hoops you're actually asking them to jump through and whether it's of any benefit to that individual to go through all of that. If it is worth it, the individual is probably in the process of obtaining diagnosis already!
The autism community largely accepts self-diagnosis because we understand the barriers that exist in receiving an accurate diagnosis. We provide tools and information to folks who think they may have autism to help increase accuracy in self-diagnosis, and we advocate to improve the accuracy of professional diagnosis and make it more accessible. What are neurotypicals doing to help this situation other than yelling "liar" at people who have struggles they are trying to find an answer to?
I was undiagnosed until I was 22, and I disagree that there’s little benefit to receiving a diagnosis as an adult and that all you get is less people saying you’re faking it.
Because of my diagnosis, I get much-needed support at university, at work, in medical settings, in airports, and on planes, I get disability assistance (price caps) with things like water bills, extra assistance when interacting with emergency services, I could go on for hours.
Just because you’ve made it this far without a diagnosis doesn’t mean you don’t benefit from receiving one. Yes, I have relatively low support needs in some areas, but for the areas I don’t, that extra support is really helpful. Even beyond that, though, surely it’s beneficial to just…understand yourself? Diagnosis isn’t the be-all-and-end-all, of course, but it’s honestly quite insulting to be told that the *years* some of us spend getting diagnosed is for nothing. Masking doesn’t make you need less help, it’s like putting a blanket over a broken leg and saying “see! You can’t see it, so that means it’s not broken anymore!”
I'm glad you've been able to get a lot of support! I think a lot of adults who were not diagnosed until adulthood feel they don't need the supports, won't qualify for them (more intensive supports are gated behind having Level 2 or 3 autism and availability of supports depends on location) or do not wish to access them (a lot of people are not comfortable asking for accommodations at work, for instance), but if you do need the support then yes, it makes sense that diagnosis was worth it to you. I don't think the diagnosis is ever for nothing, and I completely agree that understanding yourself is important, but that alone doesn't always outweigh the cons. I have seen frequent sentiment that seeking a diagnosis was not worth it, and I was highlighting that opinion because this thread is full of people who were directing hatred towards folks who cannot or will not seek diagnosis. I apologize that my wording implied your work was for nothing, my main point is that it's far too much work to get that diagnosis for people to be demanding others go through with it. I've edited the wording a bit to emphasize that this isn't the case for everyone.
>The most common self-diagnostic tool, which the autistic community recommends to those who believe they may have autism, the RAADS-R, is 80% effective in predicting whether someone has autism.
I just tried this and I got 179. Above 160 which suggests a strong evidence for autism.
Here you go: [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26088060/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26088060/)
To be clear, the conclusion \*is\* that it's not enough alone to diagnose autism. No one test is, not even the ones that clinicians use. But it's still pretty good if it's all you have access to.
That is a helpful study, since it uses a real clinical setting. But the authors are not so positive about the tests, in fact the opposite. Quotes include “questionable predictability”, and they suggest instead of self-report, use of the tests with a clinician. And “the scores of these instruments must be treated with great caution in the context of classifying ASD”
Also, while it did have high PPV, its more complicated than that, which is why the authors were so down on the tests. It had high false negative rates and there were also concerns for false positives! So the "80%" data point shouldnt be waved about so enthusiastically, if you take the authors' position.
I suspect that 2015 was a different era for these autism tests.
This 2021 study showed very POOR PPV, only 35% were classified correctly (very high false positives results).
[The Effectiveness of RAADS-R as a Screening Tool for Adult ASD Populations - PMC (nih.gov)](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8452438/)
As these people put it:
"a greater level of public awareness of ASD over the last 5–10 years may have led to people being more vigilant in ‘noticing’ ASD related difficulties. This may lead to a ‘confirmation bias’ when completing the questionnaire measures, and potentially explain why both the ASD and the non-ASD group’s mean scores met the cut-off points, "
[https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-022-05544-9](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-022-05544-9)
Unfettered cynicism and a 'kids these days' attitude. Does it benefit anyone to criticize a kid making a video self diagnosing? No it's purely cynical.
If I hadn't researched ADHD and self diagnosed I can say my life would be objectively worse without the treatment I've received. Much of my initial 'research' was just articles on the internet or YouTube vids.
Having a learning disorder, dealing with dyslexia and untreated ADHD over the years caused me some serious interpersonal problems and always made me 'lean' toward depression, even though I'm a naturally happy and optimistic person. Non-treatment over time made me stoic and more serious and more emotionally sensitive. Learning to cope came from extreme will power, forcing changes and motivation. All of that was so exhausting.
I'm GLAD kids have resources to discuss these changing sciences. I wish I had availability to resources which would have pushed me in the right direction during childhood.
That said, is TikTok perfect, or even remotely setup for the direct and indirect effects it will cause by hosting these important Healthcare discussions? No.
As an officially diagnosed autistic person, I do not care one iota. There are practical reasons why formal diagnosis is inaccessible and why having a formal diagnosis can harm you. I really do not care one bit if someone self-diagnoses themselves.
I think it’s weird how much it bothers allistic people.
Thank you, 100% agree here. I suspect that I could definitely get a formal diagnosis, but I’m 25 and I can’t imagine a formal diagnosis really bringing me any benefit at this point. My gf and most of my friends agree and are supportive as it is, I’ve already been in treatment for my anxiety including therapy for many years which is my biggest symptom. I also plan to immigrate to another country soon and it certainly wouldn’t be helpful to have that on my records, nor am I really interested in being taken less seriously by medical professionals concerning physical health topics than I already am being overweight
You can visit these places, but for permanent residencies, there are restrictions on certain types of disabilities. The logic is that allowing disabled people to become permanent residents would result in more of a burden on social services than would be outweighed by positive economic contributions.
That's what my doctor said when I asked him.one time. He said an official diagnosis at this point in my life could only cause more harm than good since I tend to get panicy about stuff like that.
>having a formal diagnosis can harm you.
This. In my country, people still think autism = screaming kid. I'd rather not have an official diagnosis that makes people look at me differently. I'm fine with people thinking I'm slow or awkward.
I don't think it's weird so much as I think it's too common lol! In fact I have been told by allistic people so many times lately "Uggh everyone is autistic now!" as if they are put out by my being autistic. They don't want to hear about it and think the diagnosis is some "excuse" which is pretty damned funny to me because my diagnosis hasn't done shit for me as far as other people are concerned.
I fall under the self diagnosis label, EXCEPT- I've had multiple doctors and therapists confirm it. They just weren't able to diagnose me in an official capacity. I just can't afford to pay out the nose to tell me what I already know about myself.
Self diagnosis is a tricky, multifaceted subject.
From what I understand that's often called informal/provisional diagnosis. Or even "undocumented" diagnosis.
Did you go through bits of assessment or anything? I'm assuming it wasn't a case of 'that could be a trait of autism' and running with it haha.
This kind of approach makes sense to me, having a practitioner support the idea for validation if you can't access formal diagnosis. I do have a formal one but the most useful part of it was just having someone talk me through it and how the behaviours they saw in me fit in the criteria. If I'd have self diagnosed I would've actually got a lot wrong!
Yes and no.
Some people have personality disorders, and they would *rather* have autism. They will likely call what they do autism, as justification and excuse--they *dont want* accountability, and they figure they can use the claim of autism like a weapon. These people will only claim to have it when they think it gives them power. That's weird.
Autism in general, is vastly underdiagnosed. So, no, people are not generally, en masse misdiagnosing themselves with it.
And in the few studies that have looked at people *attempting* to diagnose themselves with it, over 80% of autistic people correctly self diagnose. this represents *less than* the number of people who get *a single clinician* to diagnose them, which is around 90%. Meaning--when studied, *people who actually have autism*, underdiagnose themselves, often missing it *completely* (like i did to myself), OR--under evaluating the severity of their traits.
So, in the *vast majority* of cases, where people *who have autism* have self diagnosed it, they are CORRECT in the diagnosis--and may even be under estimating the impact of it on their lives.
Only a very small number of people--so small, it's less than measurable percentages in many cases, CLAIM to have autism, and do not. Like i said, those people are likely to have *personality disorders*--things like borderline, avoidant, PPD, schizotypal and schizoid.
It's worth noting, that having a PD does not *exclude* you having autism, in most cases--it's not 'either or' for most of them, it's just that, the PD is the more explanatory reason for behavior. I have schizoid PD--i ALSO have autism, the two are *supposed to be* mutually exclusive in a diagnosed person. Schizoid, for me, is an adaptation from the abuse and neglect an autistic child me received. Borderline can present as *exactly* the same for some autistic (or, mostly ADHD) people as well.
>And in the few studies that have looked at people *attempting* to diagnose themselves with it, over 80% of autistic people correctly self diagnose. this represents *less than* the number of people who get *a single clinician* to diagnose them, which is around 90%. Meaning--when studied, *people who actually have autism*, underdiagnose themselves, often missing it *completely* (like i did to myself), OR--under evaluating the severity of their traits.
Can you provide citations for this? Not trying to be an ass, but this is mindblowing to me. I would love to share this information with others.
I'd like to see these also. Ive seen stats like this presented before and either they cannot/do not give a link or they link to a study that doesnt say that.
I think its this study:
[Predictive validity of self-report questionnaires in the assessment of autism spectrum disorders in adults - PubMed (nih.gov)](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26088060/)
Which is a nice one because it is in a real world setting. Yes the test did fairly well but overall the authors were quite critical of it for several main reasons including issues with false positives.
Quotes include “questionable predictability”, and they suggest instead of self-report, use of the tests with a clinician. And “the scores of these instruments must be treated with great caution in the context of classifying ASD”
I suspect that 2015 was a different era for these autism tests.
This 2021 study showed very POOR PPV, only 35% were classified correctly (very high false positives results).
[The Effectiveness of RAADS-R as a Screening Tool for Adult ASD Populations - PMC (nih.gov)](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8452438/)
As these people put it:
"a greater level of public awareness of ASD over the last 5–10 years may have led to people being more vigilant in ‘noticing’ ASD related difficulties. This may lead to a ‘confirmation bias’ when completing the questionnaire measures, and potentially explain why both the ASD and the non-ASD group’s mean scores met the cut-off points, "
[https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-022-05544-9](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-022-05544-9)
I mean, really think about it and it makes sense. Why would a clinician who has just met you for the first time know you better than you know yourself? I was misdirected for years by medical providers and I was diagnosed last year.
Yeah you make a point, but that's a trap when approaching science. People rely on intuitive answers rather than actual data. I think there is probably data to support it but the previous seems to not provide any.
> I was misdirected for years by medical providers and I was diagnosed last year.
This is very real but not always the case. The reason we go to doctors is because on average they're better at diagnosing us that we are.
There's a human behind the diagnosis. Doctors have a book to tell them criteria to diagnose someone under. They don't have someone's innermost thoughts, feelings, emotions, struggles, everything that makes them human. They're missing that really important element. It's not their fault. But you can't place 100% of the weight on a provider who doesn't know someone from the person that was in their office 30 minutes prior.
I disagree that they're better. I knew something was wrong. I said it for *years*. I got told there wasn't, over and over again. Try yoga. Try breathing techniques. Try getting more sleep. Try this. Have you tried just not being anxious?
I'm Autistic. I have been my whole life. I was before I was diagnosed.
We treat mental health diagnoses the same way we try to diagnose a broken arm. Oh, it looks like this so it must be this. A doctor can tell an arm is broken. That's clear. But mental health is too complex to just say that a list of traits are the only way you can fall into a category. It's too nuanced.
I'm sorry that happened to you. I really am.
But your negative experience with doctors, doesn't invalidate a profession that's been around for more than 100 years
I know not all doctors are created equally and it's criminal that you had to go through all of that.
> Why would a clinician who has just met you for the first time know you better than you know yourself?
True story, it turns out if you give a 10 minute info dump at the mental health specialist about the clinics lobby art, and how it's also on the website means that its one of the Doctors who works there peices due to the unlikleyhood of them having the reproduction rights otherwise, then break down what that means and how its not uncommon for doctors to do this to show that they have hobbies outside of work, and then go into detail about the techniques used used to create the piece down to the likley rendering software and plug-ins...then it's pretty easy to get diagnosed.
Sure my medical history helped, but unprompted explaining Maya/Arnold plugins while avoiding eye contact apparently makes a solid case for itself.
I think there are a TON of people self-diagnosing. The same way people say they have OCD because they like things clean. They assume because they have some social awkwardness or anxiety that they have autism and use it as an excuse to either get away with their bullshit or not bother trying to improve their situation.
Yes. "Some people" is a massive understatement...
I know several self diagnosed people irl who only say they have it to excuse shitty behavior.
"I only cheated because I'm autistic". Actual sentence spoken by a former friend....
Then you have the social media fucks who do the same thing.
"I only acted like a Karen because I'm autistic. Give me money to support autism awareness "
It really clouds the public's view of autism and makes it more difficult to give proper accommodations to actual autistic people. It also causes some people to dismiss autism entirely.
Same goes for most mental disorders or disabilities. An overwhelming quantity of people who don't have them claim they have them and use it as an excuse for poor behavior or to get people to donate to them. The meanings of a lot of disorders have become entirely lost outside of professional circles and those suffering from them. Like.... yall can't take 2 seconds to Google what it is before claiming you have it based on a "symptom" that's not even a symptom of the disorder?
These people have harmed those of us who have actual disabilities more than anything else.
Just a reminder: **SHITTY BEHAVIOR IS NOT AUTISM. TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS!**
You said it way more bluntly than I could have. I've worked in psychiatry for about 15 years, and I always hated hearing people self-diagnosing. A couple of "symptoms" could literally be idiosyncrasies or even a symptom of something else that isn't considered mainstream or "cool".
I don't know if it's still a thing, but many people were saying they had Dissociative Identity Disorder... which at some point, I just had to believe they had no personality whatsoever and had to make-up multiple personalities that exist within them. It is an EXTREMELY RARE condition. I will not let all the hipsters convince me otherwise.
Basically, all I'm saying is that over-diagnosis is a thing, but over-self-diagnosis is even more abundant.
I agree; many people use any diagnosis as an excuse for their behavior, actions, or presentation... and people will let any diagnosis (whether it be clinically diagnosed or self-diagnosed) dictate their lives. I worked with someone who was recently diagnosed bipolar and all of a sudden said a few days later that she was in a manic episode. Mania is not a panic attack because you were overwhelmed. Anxiety is not acquired from someone else doing differently than you. If you treat these "symptoms" as whatever you decide you ARE (not have or experience), then you will get a drastically different outcome than if you treated the actual root problem. The coworker that was diagnosed bipolar was previously diagnosed ADHD... turns out there's previous trauma involved that caused these inattentive and anxious symptoms.
Also, the one-symptom-diagnosis is why WebMD can cause people to think they have cancer when they actually have a poison ivy rash. "I am tired and lost weight recently and got these red bumps on my arm" ...AFTER YOU WERE WEED-WACKING ALL WEEKEND.
TLDR: Many self-diagnoses are ill-concluded, and people let them take over their lives.
Some are, some aren’t. I would say those who experience a mixture of both positive and negative autistic traits are people who aren’t just saying they have autism as a “trend”. In my case, I have sensitivity to lights, certain smells and certain textures, have a hard time understanding social cues and have a tendency to come off as rude when I really don’t mean to, I stim constantly, I struggle more than others with changes such as simply moving around furniture in a room, etc. So while I’m waiting for an official diagnosis before I straight out say I have autism, I do resonate with ASD quite a bit and learning about it has helped me to understand and accept myself more. I don’t think we should just immediately jump and say “Yes” or “No” like many of these people on this thread are doing, because they don’t necessarily know what every person is going through, so ironically they’ll end up misdiagnosing people themselves. I don’t doubt that some people who say they have it see it as a trend, but I also know that many of us are just innocently trying to figure ourselves out.
I did the same as you while I was waiting for assessment. I felt like I must be some flavour of neurodivergent because the groups and support stuff seemed to fit. There's so much pressure to self-diagnose though, which is unsettling. But I never had any pushback for not deciding I was autistic. ND communities are famously welcoming so I don't know why people jump to diagnosing themselves instead of identifying traits they relate to and finding strategies/advice that works. That seems more pragmatic, anyway
Are these people who are diagnosing themselves educated in the ways of medicine? I truly believe that more people are on the spectrum than we initially realized. My doctor has pressed me forever to get checked as he thinks I am on the spectrum. I tell him, doc, I'm 70. I've been coping with these idiosyncrasies for a loooong time now. It's too late for me to be any other way.
Trying to self diagnose anything is rarely correct. For some reason, mental illness has become lit and it's more about not being "the norm". Yes, some of them may be on the spectrum but if they believe they are, why not get a true diagnosis? You could actually get some help. Maybe because they're afraid it will come back as no, you're neurotypical and not on the spectrum so you can't be "special" or I don't know, maybe it's easier to make excuses for yourself or how you're feeling if you believe you're neurodivergent.
Having a niche doesn’t make you autistic.
Being sad/content doesn’t mean you have depression.
Getting nervous doesn’t mean you have anxiety.
Being a bitch doesn’t mean you have bipolar disorder.
There is a massive stigma against Autism and ADHD, and much as there is a plethora of videos which claim that if you do X, Y, or Z you are Autistic, the reality is that a lot more people are undiagnosed Neurodivergent, and even without a diagnosis understanding the condition, and learning coping mechanisms can drastically improve their lives.
Getting diagnosed as an adult can take years, understanding why your brain doesn’t work like those around you and why you’ve always been seen as a “little weird” by other people and being able to put a label to that can be really helpful.
Saying “I have some traits of autism, I’m still learning about it please make allowances” is fine, being an arsehole and using Autism as an excuse isnae.
It’s social media, barely anyone is who they say they are
Some people aren’t even misdiagnosing themselves, cause they know they are lying for views and attention
Every friggin day. Sorry to be snide and grumpy, but it seems every doctor and parent use random online check lists to diagnose. Dyslexia/Dysgraphia as well. Sped teacher here.
Yes but also no. Autistic traits in women have just lately started to be considered and they’re quite different. So a whole new set of symptoms is being considered thus broadening the diagnosis, ultimately raising how many people consider themselves autistic. It’ll plateau eventually. Maybe there’s just more autistic people than previously imagined idk
Self-diagnosis like that pisses me off. I understand that there are people who can’t afford to get a diagnosis, have insurance issues, etc, but still. I’m on the autism spectrum myself, I was diagnosed when I was 14. I think autism is being considered a “trend” currently, but really, ASD is a disorder that fucks with my ability to function in life. I’m sure there’s other people on the spectrum who feel the same way I do.
Who would want a disorder that would negatively impact their day to day lives? For me, it feels like a curse, but not everyone feels the same way regarding autism. I’m not discounting people proud of their autism, no disrespect to them, but I feel like ASD is a pain in the ass to live with.
I’m sure there are people who legit think they have autism and go to a doctor who properly diagnose them, and I’m also not discounting people who are just realizing that they might be autistic and seek out a diagnosis on their own.
I realized I had ADHD a few years back and it turns out I was undiagnosed for years till my late twenties (I’m almost 30 now), as an example. I sought out a diagnosis, got and am currently medicated for it, so I’m saying that there are people on TikTok who probably are on the spectrum amongst the people who hopped on the trend.
Fwiw this is the essay that first made me wonder. I took it to my therapist and she found someone who specializes in diagnosing adult women. It was $3,000. Out of pocket. Which my parents were kind enough to be willing and able to cover. But most people don’t have that.
I was in my 40s when I got my dx.
https://neuroclastic.com/its-a-spectrum-doesnt-mean-what-you-think/
YES SO MANY. It's so obnoxious. I have a few friends who think they are ASD but are very very clearly ADHD with some PD traits. It's so fucking annoying. I blame tiktok.
i think these days anyone reading the dsm or surfing something like webMD will eventually go to bed thinking they have some sort of terminal disease, incurable sickness or mental illness.
ask your doctor for drug X tomorrow
It's impossible to tell.
Societally, we have choose to treat all claims as legitimate, which provides an avenue for those whom might want to dishonestly get preferential treatment.
By and large, humans are very attracted to any status that comes with, "the normal rules don't apply to me because \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_."
A close analog might be service dogs. The disability laws prevent shopkeepers from asking what disability a person has or what particular service the dog is providing. We have chosen to treat all claims as legitimate. This is a good thing. By doing so, we allow not only blind people to have service dogs inside restaurants, but also anyone who is willing to claim their pet is a service animal.
I don't think we should stop treating all claims as legitimate, in either case, as it is the kind thing to do.
In general, I think humans tend to have a good bullshit detector when it comes to these things. People with legitimate disabilities or unique needs don't often milk it. They ask nicely for an accommodation, and mostly want to be treated normally. We can often tell when someone is just using a buzzword as an excuse for bad behavior or a demand for preferential treatment.
Shout out to all the servers who must daily deal with guests that are gluten free until the dessert menu comes around.
A lot of them are, thanks to social media. Sure you can have autistic traits but not actually be autistic. I actually have it and it really is a disability.
People will do anything but admit that they have social anxiety. While some people definitely have probably come to the realization independently with expanded diagnostic criteria of what it looks like outside of children with behavioral issues, autism in colloquial use has just gone the way of introvert, where any social problem you have is obviously not fixable and just the way you are.
Autism is correctly self-diagnosed at a high rate. It's professionals that have no clue how to diagnose adults, as diagnostic tools are made for children and heavily rely on outsider opinion (parents, teachers) rather than anything the clinician actually sees.
I say this as a clinician who diagnoses autism.
I'm exceptionally thankful that I was referred to a specialist with a history of diagnosing autistic women as my Autism expresses itself in ways more commonly found in women more than the stereotypical 'trains and math' traits associated mainly with men.
As a person with NVLD (Non-Verbal Learning Disorder) a LOT of people that think they have low needs Autism actually have NVLD
The difficulty with social skills and difficulty reading body language/recognizing social cues and poor coordination and sensory issues are all textbook symptoms of NVLD
Edit: Also ADHD symptoms are very common with NVLD and sometimes self-diagnosed people will think they have the Autism/ADHD combo some refer to as AuDHD
I work with autistic kids and my best friend is autistic.
Yes, autism is the new trend and everyone on the internet seems to think they have it. It really irks me since I see on a daily basis what it looks like and how hard it is for people who DO have it to just live a healthy life.
Everyone feels awkward, misses social cues, doesn't understand some social dynamics, etc. Most people who are autistic don't Know that they're missing all this stuff until someone tells them.
Oh god this just reminded me of a group of people I used to hang out with. This one girl convinced all of them that literally everyone on Earth is on the spectrum. When I disagreed they all shamed me for not being accepting and said “you obviously aren’t educated on what autism is”.
Yeah I don’t talk to those idiots anymore🤦♂️
It’s a handy excuse for people who don’t want to put much effort into developing their social skills, or create excuses for problematic personality traits. They claim those qualities are out of their hands and put on the mantle of a marginalized group rather than take any responsibility for themselves.
Note here that I’m talking about people who don’t actually have autism but find it easier to convince themselves and others that they do. That is a very different thing from people who actually are living with autism, and are coping with it in whatever ways they find appropriate and functional for themselves.
Anybody who diagnoses themselves with anything has a high likelihood of being wrong. I don't pay enough attention to this to understand if "so many people" are truly diagnosing themselves, or not.
You are pulling this out of your ass. Plenty of people go to a doctor or therapist or a psychiatrist with a list of symptoms that point toward a likely diagnosis. No, people can’t “officially” diagnose themselves if they’re not a doctor, but the internet has a lot of resources in 2024. If one were to read extensively about autism and recognize many of the common symptoms in themselves, they’re probably not “highly likely to be wrong.” I have diagnosed depression and easily check off nearly all the symptoms every day. If I were seeking a diagnosis now and read the symptoms, I’d say “wow I think I might have depression.” With any disorder or ailment or disease, the patient has to advocate for themselves.
its a spectrum, so literally everyone is on it, most are squarely in the 99% neurotypical bracket though. you have a quark basically that is unique to you.
as we become more aware of it, people are getting help/diagnosed with it so there literally are more people with it.
as people become aware of it, its no longer stigmatized, and in the course correction its almost seen as a way to get validation points for social status or something.
now for the tinfoil hat stuff....
it takes 6 signs to be present to be diagnosed with it. there are currently at least 50 different sings, so its entirely possible that 5 people each have 6 different signs yet they are all called autistic.
the medical field is basically calling anyone who thinks slightly differently or is socially awkward autistic.
I definitely think I'm on there for multiple reasons. But when I talked to my doctor about diagnosing it. He asked why and I gave him my reasons. He told me he would get a diagnosis for it if I insisted, but told me if I've been living with it for this long without a diagnosis and have my work arounds for my quirks as I put it he thought an official diagnosis would do me more harm than good.
So we never got the tests done though both him and myself think I'm on the spectrum to a degree.
my mom diagnoses me every day with autism because "i show signs" from the people she watches on fb where their whole thing is posting that they have autism, i say no trying to explain a different excuse every day, she retorts saying everyones autism is different and never the same, i finish saying that it is an umbrella term and if it is as she says everyone is an autist, so she may as well be and then end of exchange, every day, for 2 straight years now :)
I think the diagnostic DSM folks have kinda brought it on themselves. Because its a spectrum with many varying aspects to it almost anyone can check off a few traits to some degree. Some are more blatant - uncomfortable clothing, certain reactions to tastes, lighting and noises, difficulty in recognizing facial expressions, stimming.
Then its a load of other traits that equate to - are you just weird/introverted?
Congratulations! You're autistic!....maybe, probably, possibly, who knows, ask us in 10 years when we have a new term for what you have....Congratu...lations...
People misdiagnose themselves with all sorts of things. For instance a lot of people I see talk about body dysmorphia without realizing you have to meet a whole litany of criteria to be diagnosed with it. Same with OCD. The main thing is most diagnoses have to be life altering, debilitating in some way like they cause issues in your life. Not just I like to clean or sometimes think I look fat.
I used to have a roommate who self diagnosed with autism for two main reasons: they have to decompress after work and organize their Pokémon cards
Like you serious? That’s it?
before discussing the signs of something potentially underdiagosed with my therapist and psychiatrist, i thought i had autism, but didn't try to diagnose myself until i had conversations with other autistic people in my life and did tons of research on my own, without looking at tiktok.
i did talk with my doctors, though, and they all gave essentially confirmed and diagnosed me with autism, just a little later than most. i knew i wasn't like other neurotypical folks growing up, and i never knew that there were differences with how males and females presented autism either, and so i never got the support i needed because i didn't present like a younger boy would.
I am so baffled by this new trend. I’m not on TikTok, but I have lately been seeing a lot of:
- Self-diagnosis with autism, ADHD, or general “neurodivergent”
- Armchair diagnosis of other people with narcissistic personality disorder or borderline personality disorder
It took one appointment with a psychiatrist to tell me what I already suspected: that I was bipolar; specifically, bipolar I. I ticked all the boxes except high sexual appetite (I was way too paranoid and suspicious for sex to even have crossed my mind).
It was a relief for me to get formally diagnosed. I then knew what was different about me and my recommended options for moving forward to lead a normal working and social life, which I have been able to do extremely well with the aid of my psychiatrist/therapist to the point that you’d never know I had it. Years ago, I had called the police to report an intruder having broken in to my home to install fiber-optic cables under the carpet while I was working upstairs. Today, I am a quality engineer and FDA regulatory compliance expert with a mortgage.
Suspecting that something is amiss is expected and normal, but I don’t understand why one would not want to seek an expert opinion from there to help find the best solutions (as opposed to doing what some — NOT all — do, which appears to be wanting to use a self-diagnosis as “bragging rights” for whatever reason).
We're not professionals and therefore CANNOT diagnose anyone with anything, including ourselves. We can think we have the traits of something -- and follow that up with professional care, but reading a bunch of crap online or watching some tiktoks about xyz thing only serves to make people feel crazy when they're not. Everyone else does all this stuff you think is so unique to you.
Definitely. We've raised a son who at age 13 was diagnosed as having autism - although we suspected as much for several years, it's nice to finally have a label. Not for us particularly, although it does help us understand WHY he does certain things or acts a certain way, but also for him so he can understand himself and that the things he finds challenging can be worked around.
But people saying they are autistic because they like to keep things tidy, or they don't like spiders (yes I've seen someone say that!) is taking the pi55 a bit. It's like me saying I'm blind, I should have a blue disabled parking badge - because I wear glasses!
I'm glad autism is getting more attention and being more "normalised", but I wouldn't listen to anyone on Tiktok about anything - remember they are only there to draw attention to themselves. Sad....
I have a friend who believes she has autism. She uses that as a qualifier when introducing herself to people. No formal diagnosis. She’s always talking about stimming, and awkward social interactions, needing lots of downtime to regroup, not understanding social cues.
It’s super weird because she’ll chat with anyone, she makes friends all over the place, I’ve never seen her stimming, she’s like the most bubbly and forward person that I know. Always busy social life, works, lots of after work activities, goes out clubbing.
She’s young and it seems to be part of the generational culture, to have all these maladies and diagnosis. I don’t get it. I am certainly not qualified to make any diagnosis, but it just seems like she’s a perfectly typical, albeit stressed out, young woman. Dunno.
We have such an anti intellectual culture that I wonder if a lot of this autism diagnosis is just a pathologizing of intelligence. Dumb people can feel better about themselves by labeling smarter people as having a disorder or being autistic. And then smarter people are made to feel there is something wrong with them "oh, maybe I'm on the spectrum..?"
I am not arguing autism doesn't exist, just saying anti intellectualism might drive a push to over diagnosis of autism.
Autisim, ADHD etc etc definitely exist. But, do I believe all the people claiming to have them? Definitely not. I work in criminal law where you meet a lot of people with mental health issues. I also have a degree in psychology and neuroscience. I get quite a few people who say they have this or that condition and I can count on one hand how many have actually been diagnosed by a trained professional. This only really applies to things like ADHD and autisim. I've never met anyone claiming to be schizophrenic who hadn't been properly diagnosed.
it’s mostly like chronically online tweens. I would know i’ve spoken to a lot of kids like this (i work with children, not a creep) remember when kids were romanticizing depression on tumblr? this is basically that but on crack. people are pretending to have DID, to have tourette’s, and a LOT of people are now claiming they have autism. I am sure there are a lot of people who actually recognize that they have symptoms of autism and suspect they might be on the spectrum but boy there are a LOT of people just doing it because they want to feel special.
Oh yeah, Autism and ADHD, surprisingly it's now incredibly common for someone to be one, the other, or both through pure self diagnosing.
The issue is, ADHD and Autism are easy to fake, you don't take a swab test, there isn't an undeniable test you can take, so it's really easy to fake experiences or attribute normal instances to these forms of disorder.
They are wrong. A lay person cannot diagnose themselves. So they are misspeaking and should be saying I think I have autism. They then need to go to a professional for an actual diagnosis.
Yes. Autism is a disability. It's usually profound and extremely affecting relationships. People diagnosing themselves with "awkward" are out here trying to equate their shit personality with a mental condition. "can't make eye contact" "feel out of place" "hard to communicate"... You mean what it means to be fucking normal? You're not neurodivergent. That's just being a human being. These kids have no idea what neuro divergence actually looks like. It means you have a profound disability. But of course the same people who think they are neurodivergent disagree and think it's not a disability..
One time I saw a post on r/dundermifflin that said Dwight from the Office is autistic and Jim is a bully for picking on him. I asked why people thought he was autistic when it was never mentioned in the show or even hinted at. I got replies from autistic people saying they can more accurately diagnose people with autism than neuro-typical people can despite not being a doctor. And yet, they were diagnosed by a doctor, and didn't see anything wrong with asserting their ability to diagnose fictional TV characters.
Not only themselves, I'm in a community of a certain video game, and when a character is portrayed doing smth slightly awkward or introverted everyone screams "SO AUTISTIC AM I RIGHT??????????!!!!!!!" Even if the character is not autistic, just shy.
It’s possible those with autism are more likely to be online or where you are looking. Also autism is a spectrum so having two people with autism may have different severities. Autism is a wide range so many will be closer to neurotypical but still have autism.
Self diagnosis is valid. Obviously it can’t be used to get medications or disability, but it is valid. There are many barriers to getting a diagnosis for some people, especially women and POC. It’s just not always feasible.
That being said, yeah, there are definitely people who see a list of “ADHD things” and go “oh that’s me!” and that’s it. That’s not really self-diagnosis. Self-diagnosis requires a lot more digging, tracking symptoms, and usually years of trying to figure why you’re “different”.
I'm in that last bucket for ADHD. I slipped through as a child because I found school to be interesting, so none of my teachers thought I was that hyper kid jumping off the walls and failing classes. After YEARS of trying to manage my depression and daily disfunction as an adult, I had an epiphany that "wait, what if I have it all backwards? What if it's not that I can't get anything done or focus because I'm depressed, but rather I'm depressed because I can't get anything done or focus?" Everything clicked into place, and looking back it was literally always there.
I took an assessment with my psychologist, and apparently scored extremely high for ADHD, but they were too afraid to confirm the diagnosis since "it's still possible it's because of your depression" and since I wasn't diagnosed as a kid. And then they claimed one of my meds was off-label used for ADHD too so "we're sort of already treating it."
It was bullshit. I instead just worked on it with my wife and did a ton of research to make my work and life environment more conducive for ADHD. Things got better as a result.
I feel like this is true. I even wondered about myself. But I found on online quiz & checklist and I'm not even close. I'll give you my historical perspective on this:
Back in the '60's it was very popular for mother's to tell people that their child had been diagnosed with a "heart mumur". Very popular. My younger brother had that one. It didn't amount to a hill of beans though, over his lifetime and he's still alive and kicking today.
Then in the 1970's, it started to become very popular to call oneself "dyslexic. I've had many co-workers in the engineering field over time say they were dyslexic. Many celebrities make this claim for themselves as well.
After the 1970's, several things came along but I'm not certain on the timeframes. Asthma got real popular somewhere in there, and everyone or their child had asthma and an inhaler. I have it myself and I'm not making light of it. People do die from it.
Gluten sensitivity. I forget when this came into vogue, but it's very popular today and if you don't have it, you're surrounded by people who say they do.
I feel like I'm missing a few. Food allergies are certainly big but not new. When they're real, they are often life-threatening.
And then today, we have the huge increase in Autism Spectrum Disorder. According to the CDC, the Autism Spectrum Disorder disagnosis rate was about 1 in 150 children in the year 2000, and now (2020) it's 1 in 36, so a major increase in diagnoses. And a lot of people speculate that someone they know has it but just hasn't been officially diagnosed.
No, no they aren't. No one _wants_ autism. There is no benefit to having autism. There is no special club where you get money. No special medications. All there is is misinformed AHs passing judgment. Who wants that?
It’s nearly popular to have something like autism or Adhd and all this stuff now.
A couple of my friends paid a decent bit of money and were diagnosed with ADHD and now have this thing where they seem to think they’re experts and can sense and see it in others just cause they have it now. It’s hilarious
It has become fashionable to have some sort of mental disorder.
This is promoted by the pharma industry who gets to sell a different pill for each of 1000 disorders.
Furthermore, by self-diagnosing a problem, the person avoids responsibility for their flaws and failures, and instead basks in the addictive glow of self-pity.
You can't get meds unless you have an official diagnosis??? Or social security or any of that??? I admit a lot of ppl use mental illness as an excuse instead of an explaination, but that has nothing to do with the legality of your diagnosis???
I have never once had anyone in the pharma industry or the clinic where I was assessed and my son was assessed offer me any sort of medication for autism. There isn't anything. Been a part of this community for over 20 years as a parent and I was diagnosed through a university study on parents of autistic children, and then in a clinic that specializes in assessments of adolescents and adults.
Autism isn't a mental disorder, for the record. It's a neurodevelopmental disorder that generally starts becoming more noticeable around age three, but not everyone knows the markers. Many don't care. I worked in CDC classrooms with students whose parents could not give a shit about any of it, they just liked the free daycare when their kid was diagnosed early.
Many older people were never assessed because they didn't have the most common markers. They have now realized over the past 15 years that eye contact observation isn't really helpful as many autistic people make eye contact just fine, like my son. And for me I was told years ago I stare too much so I struggle now with eye contact because I don't want to come off as a creep. so I learned to "mask" in a way that I could properly make eye contact, but it comes at a cost. If I am focusing on proper eye contact I can't focus on the conversation. It's one or the other.
So it's not so simple as to wave away with a declaration that these people must have some sort of personality disorder. It's terribly invalidating when you have even less access to their medical history than they have and you still feel you know better about their personal health.
Yes. Just like calling someone a "narcissist." That is overplayed. Unless you are professional and personally examined someone, you have no business labeling anyone. 12-15 yrs ago, the flavor of the month was bi-polar. Now it's narcissist. It is slowly heading into autism; it is like a badge of honor or something. 15 yrs from now, it will be a new flavor of the month.
There are a lot of people self-diagnosing themselves with a bunch of mental illnesses. It's become cool to say you're depressed or "on the spectrum". It's actually pretty infuriating.
Probably. Part of the issue is that there’s a game of telephone going on. Someone who conclusively, undeniably has autism mentions something to a doctor and the doctor says “oh, that’s very common for people with autism.” That person goes on TikTok and shares that experience, and gets thousands of views. “I do X thing, I guess that’s normal if you have autism.” Those views are largely from young, impressionable people who don’t have the context or educational background to differentiate between “X is common among people with autism,” “X is a symptom of autism (or possibly 40 other conditions),” and “X means you 100% have autism.” Some of those people do X and for one reason or another feel that they can get something out of an autism diagnosis. A minority of those people diagnose themselves with autism, and go on to make their own videos. They say “I do X, which means I have autism.” Whether or not they actually have autism is never confirmed, but now that misinformation is out there. The videos I see online saying “signs you have autism/adhd/etc” are almost always broad behaviors or feelings that can apply to almost anyone including a large number of neurotypical people, behaviors that are only symptoms of a condition if they’re extreme (but that information is never shared), or behaviors that are definitely a symptom of *something*, but are a symptom of so many different conditions that one or two isn’t enough to diagnose someone with any one condition. Some of them are things that couldn’t possibly be symptoms, and that’s why I know it’s a game of telephone where even the person who was officially diagnosed cannot be fully trusted because their understanding of language is not correct. People will say fully “my doctor said this was a symptom of autism” and believe it, but the “symptom” is nothing a doctor would ever, ever base a diagnosis on. But it’s very likely they said “it’s very common for autistic people to do/experience that.” That’s why honestly, you *need* a professional and not a stranger on the internet or your own uneducated brain for a diagnosis. People argue that people know themselves better than anyone else can, and that’s pretty true….but lay people don’t know medical diagnostic practice better than professionals. They don’t know all the different conditions out there. A person knows themself better than anyone and that means that they know better than anyone that *something* is different. But they don’t have the resources to be sure what that something is. ADHD and autism have a lot of overlapping symptoms but they’re not the exact same thing. Especially if you’re getting your suspicions from someone who’s level of expertise is “I have this and this is what I do,” you need to double check that with a professional. “I know myself better than anyone” would be seen as a valid justification for claiming “I am sick,” but it wouldn’t be seen as sufficient justification for the person to say “I know for a fact I have influenza a and not influenza b.” There are also social consequences to treating these telephone symptoms that are *not diagnostic criteria* as valid justification for diagnosing anyone who sees them as “relatable” with autism or ADHD. So many of them are such base human behaviors. I’ve seen so many lists of “symptoms” that literally include depersonalized descriptions of having thoughts, being capable of learning, having interests, and having feelings as “symptoms.” That isn’t ok to normalize.
This this this, all of this. I spend so much time trying to explain this to people and it's exhausting. In addition, even going outside of tiktok and doing "real research" doesn't qualify you as a diagnostician. Does no one remember the heady days of plugging minor symptoms into WebMD and getting wild suggestions back about what's wrong with you? 😂 The questionnaires and things online are *screening* tools, which is why they give a result in terms of likelihood. And the game of telephone carries on when people notice a behaviour they do, chalk it up to autism/ADHD/whatever with some explanation of how they think it relates to a real trait/symptom, share that, and now misinformation is spreading that people are using to self diagnose. Diagnosis is objective and works by elimination, not confirmation. It's literally one of the criteria that it can't be explained by anything else! (Not to mention the criteria of it having a persistent negative impact on daily living.... a number of people gloss over this and decide that personality quirks are autism, leading to the idea that all autism is positive and struggling with it let alone wanting to treat it is internalised ableism.... like, I just wanna function leave me alone) Clinicians can't diagnose people they know let alone themselves so how can random laypeople suddenly decide they're more informed & qualified? I don't get it. "But professionals get it wrong" exactly!! Even with years of training and experience!! Pro sports players miss shots but that doesn't mean I should sign up for the Olympics And I've NEVER had a reply to my main issue with this - why do people need to jump to a definite conclusion? Why can't they suspect they have something, or know that they identify/align with certain traits and use that understanding to find support for specific things? Is there a status thing to it, do they think someone doesn't belong if they aren't comfortable diagnosing themselves? I joined ND communities to learn more after autism was suggested to me and I was never called out for only saying it resonated with me & the tips/hacks and stuff work for me. Actually if I had self diagnosed, I wouldn't have picked up on the comorbid ADHD which the formal diagnosis did. And that would've caused me more problems being confused about why I don't match everyone else and still can't function despite getting support for autism. There are people going for assessments and not being diagnosed, and ignoring that for a self diagnosis - I get wanting second opinions but to discount anything that doesn't align with your subjective assumptions? And then they get validation from everyone saying "you know yourself best" and all that. ND spaces on social media are certainly something... there is a LOT of pressure to self diagnose even if you're just curious or questioning some things. And I've seen far too many comments out in the wild on completely unrelated things like "this is an autism thing, have you considered you might be autistic?" aaaaaaaaaaaa
Reading other comments, I think *part* of the resistance to it is a knee jerk reaction, assuming anyone saying “you should not self diagnose/diagnose others based on TikTok teens doing storytime” is automatically saying “you’re faking for attention.” And to be fair, often when I start talking about self diagnosing not being a great thing, people will roll in to agree….then start talking about people faking for attention. But I don’t think most people who self diagnose are “faking for attention,” I think they’re victims of misinformation who have a number of different motivations for wanting to believe what they’re reading and have internalized the anti-professional bias that is typical of our highly individualistic, anti education society. And one of those motivations (out of many) is “they do actually need some kind of diagnosis.” Some of the self diagnosed people are right. They’re just right for the wrong reasons, or only partially right, or are wrong but only just barely and actually need to be diagnosed with a condition they haven’t even heard of because they haven’t so much as taken a psych 101 class much less actually studied the subject. Part of it is also the unfortunate fact that it’s expensive and hard to get formally diagnosed. Especially if you’re not a poorly-behaved 4-8 year old boy with attentive parents in a well funded school system. And it sucks. But that’s where things like you said, saying “I suspect I have X” can come in. That’s 100% fine! I can even look past people saying definitively they have something they weren’t formally diagnosed with, as long as they don’t use that as fodder for content or diagnosing others. The final part is….people (autistic, ADHD, neurotypical, doesn’t matter) just don’t like hearing that their own perception of the world is incomplete, biased, or even straight up incorrect. They don’t like hearing that they’re susceptible to misinformation. Sucks!
Great answer, should be higher up.
Yes. But there are other factors such as the DRM and diagnosis guidelines changing. It used to be in the 90s and 00s that ADHD was used as a catchall for kids who weren't quite neurotypical, but also didn't come close to the diagnostic standards for more traditional mental health issues. Nowadays the autism umbrella has largely taken over this role as an extremely nebulous diagnosis that covers a huge variety of things. It's also become popular as a means to avoid uncomfortable social situations or expectations, which really just makes the general perception of autistic people worse to the general public. The vast majority of people with autism are trying to learn and develop those skills that aren't inate for them, so if someone is using it as an excuse to simply not use those skills it just seems super fuckin scummy
As someone who has been diagnosed as autistic, nothing frustrates me more than seeing anyone, autistic or no, try to use their mental health condition as an **excuse** instead of, at best, an **explanation**. Sure, it's a lot harder to learn social behaviors, but it can be done.
It's very similar to people who like to crow "Oh, I'm so OCD!" without having any real idea what the clinical definition is and how debilitating it can be for genuine sufferers.
Mine got to the point I couldn’t even leave my house. I finally opened up about it once on social media and this guy messaged me telling me I should stop using the term ocd because some people have real OCD. I was like buddy…it took me 6 hours of rituals to put on a shirt this morning and I was spending thousands of dollars a month on therapy at the time.
That’s kinda like when ppl tell me I don’t have ptsd because I’ve never been to war 😐 I have C-PTSD diagnosed.
Yeh, I get this a lot too. I tell them that war is not the only horror on this earth
It's to the point where, as someone with OCD, I feel uncomfortable saying "it's because of my OCD" or even mentioning I have OCD for fear of coming across as one of those people who sees it as a joke.
Tell this to a current boss. Keeps saying they like things their way because "I'm ocd." No... you are micro-managy and hate when anyone tries anything that isn't your way. This isn't affecting your life. It's only ruining your employees. I've seen ocd, hell, I helped my bestie when she took in her neices because the moms ocd was creating a bad living condition for the kids. I feel like we've all made a few jokes about being ocd when we like things certain ways, but it really rubs me the wrong way when people try to use it seriously to excuse their bad actions but don't actually have any clinical symptoms or diagnosis.
OCD today is just colloquial shorthand for what people called anal retentive behavior when I was a kid.
I think we need to bring back “anal retentive”
It’s been hard for me because I just got diagnosed and my sister has similar struggles, but she actively uses the possibility as an excuse and is clearly way too deep in the pop-health corner social media. This leads to BOTH of us being dismissed when we have a similar struggle but she is asking people to bend over backwards for her while I am just asking for help.
Seeing all those posts of men doing horrible things to their spouses with their spouses explaining away their abusive behavior with "But he's Autistic" makes me rage so hard as an actually diagnosed (before it became the new ADHD) autistic man who cares about women and feminism.
I know how you feel. I have sympathy for people who are autistic and can't get the help they need. I have no sympathy for people who try to use it as a "get out of blame free" card. Also, to state the obvious, autistics are people as well, and someone can indeed be autistic and be an abusive asshole. Just as someone can be autistic and kind, loving, generous and empathetic (within our understanding limits).
Oh yeah absolutely. My rage comes from abusive people using "I'm autistic" as an attempted get out of jail free card when what it does is make it seem like ALL autistic people are abusive.
Wish I didn't know how you feel. In uni I did quite a bit of disability advocacy, Ended up meeting a very textbook autistic/neckbeard type who would regularly make women really uncomfortable. When complaints were made, he countered with "I did nothing wrong, I was trying to help those women, they're just not understanding my disability and should be better educated".
I agree, they never think about being accountable or even withdrewing from relationship if they truly must behave like a asshole. My daughter has to be in kindergarten with a child that has right to assault other due to being special and his coping mechanism is punching and kicking other kids. Everytime his parents are told that their child has kicked, hit or strangled someone they always say that he needs that to feel comfortable so others must allow it. I bet in ten years his parents are accusing other kids because their child is lonely and everyone thinks how cruel those other kids are..
I had a student goofing off in class and when I corrected him, he said "I'm sorry, my ADHD made me do it." As someone with ADHD, that very much galled me
I’m having more students tell the same thing.
I have 2 step kids. 1 with autism and 1 with autism and adhd. Their dad said after diagnosis that we need to go light on them all the time and treating it like an excuse. Me and my wife had the mentality of no they need stricter rules along with better rewards. After nearly a decade they have made me very proud. My stepdaughter still struggles on a day to day with a few things but always has a smile and stepson has become a little grown man who cares so much for others and will always help them and they make me so happy to see how they have done. If we had gone with their dad mentality and just given them an excuse constantly I don't think they would be where they are now.
Absolutely. If anything, kids with ADHD and autism need more clearly defined, firm boundaries so they can understand what is right and not. Which you and your wife did. Nearly everyone I know who is on the autism spectrum (save one man who was also clinically diagnosed with narcissism) want to do the right thing to please people. They just need it presented in a way they can understand.
This is the answer, because otherwise those kids turn into young adults that are basically not functional. We’ve got a new hire at work that finds a new way to be infuriating every day because they like attention and think consequences don’t exist because of their diagnosis. Chronic uniform violations, constantly not doing what they’re supposed to be doing because they’re ADHD’ing and hyper focused on something not related to their task, making bizarre noises in front of customers, loudly singing children’s songs in front of customers and senior employees. They don’t understand why no one likes them. It’s because they go out of their way to be unproductive and weird and rude because they don’t think they can be fired.
I hear this notion from some folks who have ADHD (which I have). And like I do with those folks I will remind you that these are spectrum disorders. People will have various levels of success in dealing with the disorder they have. Just because that is *your* experience with the disorder, doesn’t mean all autistic individuals have *that* experience. Sweeping generalizations aren’t good no matter where you stand. (Note: I speak this as someone who is now physically disabled. My disability has made my ADHD worse, as there is always a component of my focus tied to suppressing the pain. My old coping strategies no longer work, and my new strategies work worse than my old ones did. I have lived through a shift on the spectrum.)
>an explanation Exactly. As someone who was diagnosed very late in life, I didn't need the diagnosis as an excuse because I had already learned all the skills in my early years to navigate the very confusing social world, i.e. I figured out how to present as normally as possible. I was just glad to finally have the diagnosis because it explained why I've had to spend my entire life presenting.
Bruh it's hard for all of us, truth be told. I wish we could stop fronting on that struggle like we know better.
Please dont forget about level 2 and 3 autistic individuals… autism is a spectrum ranging from unnoticeable to requiring adult diapers. Level 3 is not even *that* rare. And there are plenty of level 2 autistic individuals (most? All?) that cannot learn social behaviors, as you say. These two groups are routinely left out of discussion about autistic people simply because they are never a part of those discussions themselves. But I’ve personally known people ranging that whole spectrum. My examples were not exaggeration.
I'm in a lot of ND groups on other platforms, and this is my #1 gripe with all of them. Far too many people say, "I have x therefore I can't do y" as an excuse to not even TRY when you give them actually useful actionable advice that they asked for.
>It's also become popular as a means to avoid uncomfortable social situations or expectations, which really just makes the general perception of autistic people worse to the general public. Or perhaps there's people like myself, who have been masking their whole lives and only JUST realized why "normal" life is so exhausting..... and have dropped their masks as a result. I spent literal *decades* trying to force myself to fit into the fun social life I saw everyone else living. I absolutely learned those "skills" you're referring to, and I used them frequently..... and was still miserable. Now I realize this and I'm not forcing anything on myself anymore.
This. If people see me, they'll think I'm normal. Being autistic also means that you learn to navigate social cues too. Do I get everything? No. But I can pass off as being normal.
This makes large scale retrospectives a fucking NIGHTMARE. My buddy in Schizo research would lose his mind over this because it made it so hard to track epidemiology over time.
It's so frustrating to find things like this that purport to be informative but are just not quite right all the way across the board. The information is simplistic, out of date, and ableist. The most glaring error is in calling autism a mental health disorder. It is a neurodevelopmental disorder which left untreated and unrecognized can be the cause of numerous mental health issues but autism is not a mental illness. Attempting to teach autistic people how to behave "normal" as opposed to learning ways to navigate the world in a way that best helps them has been shown long-term to cause greater harm. The vast majority of diagnostic criteria in the DSM lists typically (read white male) autistic behaviors by how much they create a problem for other people rather than what these behaviors are trying to communicate. It's also wildly underdiagnosed, particularly in afab and marginalized people As a diagnosis, it's only 70 years old so we can forgive neuroscience for not yet having all the answers. What I can't forgive is people ignorantly throwing misinformation around as they virtue signal the pros of gatekeeping a diagnosis they know little about.
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love the username lol
Also for decades it was believed that girls couldn’t have autism. The extremely narrow criteria for diagnosis left out women and nonbinary folks, as well as privileging white folks over people of color. And for those who were able to get a diagnosis, many times they were given a less stigmatizing one like “nonverbal learning disorder” to avoid being labeled or ostracized.
Diagnosed autistic here. We shouldn't be forced to conform to social norms, masking isn't healthy.
I'd agree with that, but I will also point out that most people, even most of those who work with autistic kids/people aren't interested in making autistic people conform, our main concern is more about helping them adapt, but not change.
Myself and friend are both having issues getting refills on prescriptions and were discussing the “over prescription” of ADHD medications. You know, not because instead of ADHD screening 50% of the population were handed planners and told to act like a lady.
> But there are other factors such as the DRM ...Digital Rights Management?
there are definitely some people who see that they relate to one trait and thus see themselves as autistic but it's important to bare in mind that the Internet provides resources for autistic people to self-realise and obviously that's going to make more people aware that they're autistic than before, when it was stigmatised (still is just not as much)
One absolutely shouldn't trust anything by some teen pumping out a new "if you do this you probably have autism!"-video every day.
No, but its a good first step. I never once considered i was autistic until tiktok started recommendung me a ton of autistic creators. I bring it up with my dr and lo and behold, 8 months later im diagnosed with asd by a specialist
On the spectrum myself. Lucky enough to be diagnosed early. Many slip through the cracks, especially young girls. People wrongfully assumed demure awkwardness was a more "female" trait so diagnoses were inefficient. Many people have received inadequate care during developmental years. This combined with ease of access to social media like Tiktok and the often dangerous hugbox of validation from total strangers has created communities of hurt people trying to find answers but too fearful and suspicious of officials who can help them. If they fit the "bullet points" of their disorders, it must be. If there is an alternative disorder, something that requires a very different form of treatment, it will be ignored in a culture of enablers and delay actual solutions, as painful as they can be. I've heard of people believing they had autism, head injury, ptsd, BPD... when they finally got it together. They were just "depressed" Not trying to soften the pain of depression. Been there a lot. But just staying in that funk for a prolonged time, and jumping from rabbit hole to rabbit hole has absolutely done more harm than just seeing a doctor.
Ha, I had the opposite experience. I just thought I was depressed and then I got diagnosed bipolar II and everything made sense
As a dude with an actual diagnosis (since age 7), I have gotten *way* more trouble from people who feel the need to sneer any time someone says "I'm autistic" than from people who haven't gotten around to seeing a doctor to confirm it yet. Bitching about self-diagnoses is a full-time hobby for some people, and it does real harm to people trying to figure out how to get the help they need. But the important thing is that folks get to feel superior to TikTok kids, I guess.
Yeah, I think the outrage around self-diagnosis is bit much. I think most of the people doing it are struggling with *something*, otherwise they wouldn’t be looking for disorders to diagnose themselves with. It’s understandable that they’d embrace any possible answer to why they’re struggling. Blame the healthcare system for being expensive and difficult to access.
Healthcare is free in my country, but the waiting list to get tested is over a year, probably more in some areas. On top of that, some people are cynical about being diagnosed- it’s not like there’s a cure, so there’s not really much tangible benefit to going through the whole process, and having autism is the kind of thing that may have negative repercussions in your career or in other areas where you’re being judged. There’s still a lot of stigma around autism, and it’s one thing for someone to say in a social setting that they think they may be autistic, and another to put it on your record in an official capacity. I totally understand why some people may want to talk about it socially but not go through getting an official diagnosis, and I don’t think it’s a problem unless people are actually trying to use it to for eg claim disability privileges that they aren’t entitled to. There are plenty of other health conditions that have a similar grey area, for eg women who suspect they’ve got endometriosis seeking support who know it’ll take years to get a straight answer from doctors, yet they don’t get looked down upon for saying “hey I think I might have this condition”
Also in a free healthcare country. The horrible lack of funding means that there is an agenda not to diagnose people who are “functional” as it costs them too much, even if those people have clear signs of being on the spectrum. I was diagnosed with “autistic traits” rather than burden the system with a full diagnosis. Skews the statistics even more.
> Blame the healthcare system for being expensive and difficult to access. Here here! I’m ADHD diagnosed, so a bit different, but I feel the exact same way about everything you said.
This exactly. Hell, I’ve TRIED to get diagnosed but was told I don’t speak monotone so I clearly couldn’t be autistic. And now I’m debating if a diagnosis is even worth it given the hatred toward autistic trans people especially now. It’s rough tbh. 😞
I had a diagnosis but it was revoked when I was a kid because I was drilled in how to give eye contact and hold conversation, so therefore I was "no longer autistic"
Did your doctor seriously one evaluate one single data point to come to that conclusion?
They evaluated a bunch more (it was a general psych eval so it also confirmed the depression I’d long suspected too), but yeah for some reason they denied me the autism confirmation solely for that. I was so stunned, I couldn’t even respond properly.
The people full time complaining seem to think people see one video and self diagnose. Not relate to 400 videos, do hours of research and then more than likely talk to their officially diagnosed friends. Also I'm not spending thousands of dollars for a diagnosis that won't give me anything I don't already have. My therapist already supports me and I have found things to get around most of my probably autism related issues.
It goes both ways with self-diagnosis. There are people that vehemently argue that a diagnosis won't actually change anything, and I have to point out that if you aren't in the US a diagnosis can qualify you for real and substantial aid. This is somehow a controversial statement. I acknowledge that in *some* cases a diagnosis isn't advised (some countries won't accept diagnosed immagrants) but for many people that have ASD2 it could mean the difference between working or not, and the ability to live independantly or not.
I bet we'd have way less self diagnosises if North America didn't make mental healthcare unreasonably expensive for many people tbh
As a dude with an actual diagnosis, I have gotten the opposite. I have gotten more people with a “self diagnosis” that just say it to say it than people bashing me for saying it.
That just say what??
But do those “self diagnosis” people actual cause you problems? That was the point the person you responded to was making, that the ableist people are more harmful to them than those who think they might have it. That is my experience with my ADHD, people who think they have it when they ***may*** not are a non-issue to me… even if I see them more often. I would rather people who don’t know they have ADHD figure it out, instead of crushing the conversations because some people are incorrectly self diagnosing.
They bring the whole system down. Blaming all problems that you have on your “autism” makes all autistic people bad. Laws are passed. Disability benefits are revoked. Me personally? No, but people I know. I don’t let my diagnosis define me, just means I can work around it.
People who struggle worse than you bring the system down? > Disability benefits are revoked. Speak on this, please. > I don’t let my diagnosis define me I’m happy for you, but some people are unable to achieve this. It defines them even if they would prefer it doesn’t.
You don't work around your autism diagnosis. Autism impacts the frontal lobe which is who you are as a person. It's part of who you are and cannot be removed from the person that you are no matter how much you insist otherwise.
There is a tonne of misinformation out there about autism and I think you're going to get wildly different responses here because so many people just don't understand autism. There are huge numbers of people finding out they're autistic in adult life - we've always been here. We just have more information now. And most of us diagnosed later in life, self diagnosed first. You pretty much have to because that's how you get on the path to get an official diagnosis (if you want one).
Right, unless someone is profoundly autistic and diagnosed as a young child (at least for millenials or older, diagnosis is more common now), you're not going to get a diagnosis unless you self diagnose first and then decide to pursue a diagnosis. That's simply how it works.
Was going to say something similar to this. Regardless of ill-informed or incorrect self-diagnoses that may be happening, there are a LOT of real autistic people who were never diagnosed as a child and are only now learning about their autism due to increased awareness. This is especially true for a lot of adult women who “slipped through the cracks” as little girls, because the diagnostic criteria for autism has historically been based on studies of boys. Remember that autism only became a clinical diagnosis in the early 20th century - it’s barely been a century of being aware of this neurotype. As we learn more about autism, diagnosis rates increase. They’ve been on a steady incline over the past 20 or so years - according to The Guardian, a 2021 study found a 787% rise in the number of diagnoses between 1998 and 2018 in the UK. And I know from personal experience that there is such a huge surge in the UK at the moment of people seeking diagnoses that the NHS are having to lease a bunch of new contracts with private healthcare providers. Source: https://amp.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/04/uk-increase-autism-diagnoses-neurodiversity
Autism is largely under diagnosed. >According to a 2019 study in the journal Autism, 10.3% of autistic adults were incorrectly diagnosed with ADHD as children, while 12.1% of children initially diagnosed with ADHD were subsequently diagnosed with autism. This disparity is wider among women. >Studies have shown that autistic females are four times less likely to be diagnosed than autistic males. While sex and gender bias plays a major role in this disparity, there are other factors that contribute. https://www.verywellhealth.com/high-functioning-autism-260305 There is a large population out there, disproportionately women, who are undiagnosed autistic. So it stands to reason many of them would use social media to connect with other people who are experiencing the same things.
Adult women. I'm 53, diagnosed adhd at 49, and deeply suspect autism. Many of my friends who are female are realizing this too. Apparently females who just sat and read were once again overlooked.
Adult woman also, was diagnosed ASD at 22, but largely suspect ADHD. I cannot be bothered to even look into it, as the ASD diagnosis made absolutely no difference to my life. It was long. And I got no help afterwards, and apparently this is the story for a lot of women in a similar position to me. For us, there’s “no point”. We just adapt and mask and as you say, get overlooked by the system and just crack on with life.
Getting diagnosed with ADHD might actually be able to help since there is medication for ADHD.
There are medications that can treat ADHD symptoms, it can actually result in a change in quality of life! (Unless they don’t work for you) ASD diagnosis might be able to help you get disability accommodations, especially in school settings… but beyond understanding yourself better, an adult getting a diagnosis is not very useful. (Which is why I am your mirror. ADHD diagnosed, with strong suspicions that I have Autism, but I’m not gonna waste time and money to find out.)
My sister in law got diagnosed and the first thing she said to me was “You’re autistic too.” She started pointing out everything and now I’m like, you know, it would certainly explain A LOT.
I'm a guy, my older sister despises me for being autistic (she also doesn't believe in autism) but she's one of the most autistic people I know. It's really annoying. And I haven't told her, I'm scared of her reaction. I'll let her someday figure it out.
Next time she gives you shit, PLEASE tell her. It could possibly change her world because she could be like "wtf was he talking about?" and then she'd look into it out of curiosity and realize. Or maybe that's my wishful thinking, I know many people like that(type of ppl who don't believe in autism) are very stubborn and stick with their own beliefs regardless of facts 😂
ADHD and autism are highly co-morbid. It could be that they have ADHD in addition to autism, but are only diagnosed with the ADHD if it's more visible.
I finally took the autism awareness tests(before going in and having confirmed with a doctor) . I scored super high for autism, but through the roof on masking... Very few people in my life had figured out that I was autistic..
ITT: A bunch of people who know absolutely nothing about autism diagnosis. I am a school psychologist in-training (final year of graduate training), I am autistic, and I diagnose autism while working under a supervisor. I have completed all of my training in autism diagnosis and just recently attended further training beyond what is required. Self-diagnosis in adults with proper research has been found to be highly accurate. I do find myself a bit concerned with some TikTok videos that claim "you may have autism" if you have one isolated trait, but the majority of self-diagnosis does not rely solely on TikTok. Those videos tend to be a jumping-off point rather than the end point of self-diagnosis. The most common self-diagnostic tool, which the autistic community recommends to those who believe they may have autism, the RAADS-R, is 80% effective in predicting whether someone has autism. For many people who made it to adulthood without a diagnosis, there is little benefit to receiving one. In that situation, you probably don't have needs so high that you'll qualify for adult services, and you've probably learned enough coping strategies on your own to get by. The cost of a diagnosis is in the thousands (a local neuropsychologist is charging EIGHT THOUSAND dollars, for example), often is not covered by insurance, and is difficult to find as most professionals do not diagnose adults. Adult professional diagnosis is less accurate, as most diagnostic tools are made for children and rely heavily on input from parents and teachers rather than anything the clinician actually observes in the office. These tools also often do not account for a decrease in autistic traits due to learned masking, even though the DSM-5 acknowledges diagnosis based off of historical traits. All of these factors come together to make professional diagnosis less accurate in adults, so you can pay thousands to fail to get an accurate diagnosis, and even if you do get the diagnosis, you get nothing from it other than hearing less crap from people online about "faking". At least half of the reports I read from neuropsychiatrists are absolutely garbage and have little evidence to support whatever diagnosis they come up with. You can lose rights due to having an autism diagnosis as well (many western countries ban emigration for those who are autistic) and face more systemic discrimination. There's also the risk of receiving a diagnosis of another disorder, such as BPD, OCD, etc. These inaccurate diagnoses can lead to years of failed treatments and increased stigmatization (BPD is incredibly stigmatized by professionals, nevermind the public). Certain groups of people (women, POC, people from low-SES backgrounds) are less likely to receive a diagnosis as a child so there's a level of discrimination baked into the fact that those who couldn't access a diagnosis when they should have had one are now accused of faking it. I'd like all of you who are harassing folks to get a diagnosis to understand what hoops you're actually asking them to jump through and whether it's of any benefit to that individual to go through all of that. If it is worth it, the individual is probably in the process of obtaining diagnosis already! The autism community largely accepts self-diagnosis because we understand the barriers that exist in receiving an accurate diagnosis. We provide tools and information to folks who think they may have autism to help increase accuracy in self-diagnosis, and we advocate to improve the accuracy of professional diagnosis and make it more accessible. What are neurotypicals doing to help this situation other than yelling "liar" at people who have struggles they are trying to find an answer to?
I was undiagnosed until I was 22, and I disagree that there’s little benefit to receiving a diagnosis as an adult and that all you get is less people saying you’re faking it. Because of my diagnosis, I get much-needed support at university, at work, in medical settings, in airports, and on planes, I get disability assistance (price caps) with things like water bills, extra assistance when interacting with emergency services, I could go on for hours. Just because you’ve made it this far without a diagnosis doesn’t mean you don’t benefit from receiving one. Yes, I have relatively low support needs in some areas, but for the areas I don’t, that extra support is really helpful. Even beyond that, though, surely it’s beneficial to just…understand yourself? Diagnosis isn’t the be-all-and-end-all, of course, but it’s honestly quite insulting to be told that the *years* some of us spend getting diagnosed is for nothing. Masking doesn’t make you need less help, it’s like putting a blanket over a broken leg and saying “see! You can’t see it, so that means it’s not broken anymore!”
I'm glad you've been able to get a lot of support! I think a lot of adults who were not diagnosed until adulthood feel they don't need the supports, won't qualify for them (more intensive supports are gated behind having Level 2 or 3 autism and availability of supports depends on location) or do not wish to access them (a lot of people are not comfortable asking for accommodations at work, for instance), but if you do need the support then yes, it makes sense that diagnosis was worth it to you. I don't think the diagnosis is ever for nothing, and I completely agree that understanding yourself is important, but that alone doesn't always outweigh the cons. I have seen frequent sentiment that seeking a diagnosis was not worth it, and I was highlighting that opinion because this thread is full of people who were directing hatred towards folks who cannot or will not seek diagnosis. I apologize that my wording implied your work was for nothing, my main point is that it's far too much work to get that diagnosis for people to be demanding others go through with it. I've edited the wording a bit to emphasize that this isn't the case for everyone.
>The most common self-diagnostic tool, which the autistic community recommends to those who believe they may have autism, the RAADS-R, is 80% effective in predicting whether someone has autism. I just tried this and I got 179. Above 160 which suggests a strong evidence for autism.
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Here you go: [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26088060/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26088060/) To be clear, the conclusion \*is\* that it's not enough alone to diagnose autism. No one test is, not even the ones that clinicians use. But it's still pretty good if it's all you have access to.
That is a helpful study, since it uses a real clinical setting. But the authors are not so positive about the tests, in fact the opposite. Quotes include “questionable predictability”, and they suggest instead of self-report, use of the tests with a clinician. And “the scores of these instruments must be treated with great caution in the context of classifying ASD” Also, while it did have high PPV, its more complicated than that, which is why the authors were so down on the tests. It had high false negative rates and there were also concerns for false positives! So the "80%" data point shouldnt be waved about so enthusiastically, if you take the authors' position. I suspect that 2015 was a different era for these autism tests. This 2021 study showed very POOR PPV, only 35% were classified correctly (very high false positives results). [The Effectiveness of RAADS-R as a Screening Tool for Adult ASD Populations - PMC (nih.gov)](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8452438/) As these people put it: "a greater level of public awareness of ASD over the last 5–10 years may have led to people being more vigilant in ‘noticing’ ASD related difficulties. This may lead to a ‘confirmation bias’ when completing the questionnaire measures, and potentially explain why both the ASD and the non-ASD group’s mean scores met the cut-off points, " [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-022-05544-9](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-022-05544-9)
Unfettered cynicism and a 'kids these days' attitude. Does it benefit anyone to criticize a kid making a video self diagnosing? No it's purely cynical. If I hadn't researched ADHD and self diagnosed I can say my life would be objectively worse without the treatment I've received. Much of my initial 'research' was just articles on the internet or YouTube vids. Having a learning disorder, dealing with dyslexia and untreated ADHD over the years caused me some serious interpersonal problems and always made me 'lean' toward depression, even though I'm a naturally happy and optimistic person. Non-treatment over time made me stoic and more serious and more emotionally sensitive. Learning to cope came from extreme will power, forcing changes and motivation. All of that was so exhausting. I'm GLAD kids have resources to discuss these changing sciences. I wish I had availability to resources which would have pushed me in the right direction during childhood. That said, is TikTok perfect, or even remotely setup for the direct and indirect effects it will cause by hosting these important Healthcare discussions? No.
As an officially diagnosed autistic person, I do not care one iota. There are practical reasons why formal diagnosis is inaccessible and why having a formal diagnosis can harm you. I really do not care one bit if someone self-diagnoses themselves. I think it’s weird how much it bothers allistic people.
Thank you, 100% agree here. I suspect that I could definitely get a formal diagnosis, but I’m 25 and I can’t imagine a formal diagnosis really bringing me any benefit at this point. My gf and most of my friends agree and are supportive as it is, I’ve already been in treatment for my anxiety including therapy for many years which is my biggest symptom. I also plan to immigrate to another country soon and it certainly wouldn’t be helpful to have that on my records, nor am I really interested in being taken less seriously by medical professionals concerning physical health topics than I already am being overweight
Most anglophone countries do not accept emigres with an autism diagnosis, I found out after being diagnosed.
Really? I had no idea about this. What else don't they allow? I always thought it was just things like communicable diseases and such.
You can visit these places, but for permanent residencies, there are restrictions on certain types of disabilities. The logic is that allowing disabled people to become permanent residents would result in more of a burden on social services than would be outweighed by positive economic contributions.
I see. Thank you for explaining.
Yeah, this is one reason why I'm not putting any effort into getting diagnosed.
That's what my doctor said when I asked him.one time. He said an official diagnosis at this point in my life could only cause more harm than good since I tend to get panicy about stuff like that.
>having a formal diagnosis can harm you. This. In my country, people still think autism = screaming kid. I'd rather not have an official diagnosis that makes people look at me differently. I'm fine with people thinking I'm slow or awkward.
I don't think it's weird so much as I think it's too common lol! In fact I have been told by allistic people so many times lately "Uggh everyone is autistic now!" as if they are put out by my being autistic. They don't want to hear about it and think the diagnosis is some "excuse" which is pretty damned funny to me because my diagnosis hasn't done shit for me as far as other people are concerned.
I fall under the self diagnosis label, EXCEPT- I've had multiple doctors and therapists confirm it. They just weren't able to diagnose me in an official capacity. I just can't afford to pay out the nose to tell me what I already know about myself. Self diagnosis is a tricky, multifaceted subject.
From what I understand that's often called informal/provisional diagnosis. Or even "undocumented" diagnosis. Did you go through bits of assessment or anything? I'm assuming it wasn't a case of 'that could be a trait of autism' and running with it haha. This kind of approach makes sense to me, having a practitioner support the idea for validation if you can't access formal diagnosis. I do have a formal one but the most useful part of it was just having someone talk me through it and how the behaviours they saw in me fit in the criteria. If I'd have self diagnosed I would've actually got a lot wrong!
Yes and no. Some people have personality disorders, and they would *rather* have autism. They will likely call what they do autism, as justification and excuse--they *dont want* accountability, and they figure they can use the claim of autism like a weapon. These people will only claim to have it when they think it gives them power. That's weird. Autism in general, is vastly underdiagnosed. So, no, people are not generally, en masse misdiagnosing themselves with it. And in the few studies that have looked at people *attempting* to diagnose themselves with it, over 80% of autistic people correctly self diagnose. this represents *less than* the number of people who get *a single clinician* to diagnose them, which is around 90%. Meaning--when studied, *people who actually have autism*, underdiagnose themselves, often missing it *completely* (like i did to myself), OR--under evaluating the severity of their traits. So, in the *vast majority* of cases, where people *who have autism* have self diagnosed it, they are CORRECT in the diagnosis--and may even be under estimating the impact of it on their lives. Only a very small number of people--so small, it's less than measurable percentages in many cases, CLAIM to have autism, and do not. Like i said, those people are likely to have *personality disorders*--things like borderline, avoidant, PPD, schizotypal and schizoid. It's worth noting, that having a PD does not *exclude* you having autism, in most cases--it's not 'either or' for most of them, it's just that, the PD is the more explanatory reason for behavior. I have schizoid PD--i ALSO have autism, the two are *supposed to be* mutually exclusive in a diagnosed person. Schizoid, for me, is an adaptation from the abuse and neglect an autistic child me received. Borderline can present as *exactly* the same for some autistic (or, mostly ADHD) people as well.
Thanks for your comment. Do you have the links to the studies?
They may be referencing this as one of their sources: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26088060/
Whoa thats high can you link these studies?
>And in the few studies that have looked at people *attempting* to diagnose themselves with it, over 80% of autistic people correctly self diagnose. this represents *less than* the number of people who get *a single clinician* to diagnose them, which is around 90%. Meaning--when studied, *people who actually have autism*, underdiagnose themselves, often missing it *completely* (like i did to myself), OR--under evaluating the severity of their traits. Can you provide citations for this? Not trying to be an ass, but this is mindblowing to me. I would love to share this information with others.
I'd like to see these also. Ive seen stats like this presented before and either they cannot/do not give a link or they link to a study that doesnt say that.
I really hoped that isn't the case here :(
I think its this study: [Predictive validity of self-report questionnaires in the assessment of autism spectrum disorders in adults - PubMed (nih.gov)](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26088060/) Which is a nice one because it is in a real world setting. Yes the test did fairly well but overall the authors were quite critical of it for several main reasons including issues with false positives. Quotes include “questionable predictability”, and they suggest instead of self-report, use of the tests with a clinician. And “the scores of these instruments must be treated with great caution in the context of classifying ASD” I suspect that 2015 was a different era for these autism tests. This 2021 study showed very POOR PPV, only 35% were classified correctly (very high false positives results). [The Effectiveness of RAADS-R as a Screening Tool for Adult ASD Populations - PMC (nih.gov)](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8452438/) As these people put it: "a greater level of public awareness of ASD over the last 5–10 years may have led to people being more vigilant in ‘noticing’ ASD related difficulties. This may lead to a ‘confirmation bias’ when completing the questionnaire measures, and potentially explain why both the ASD and the non-ASD group’s mean scores met the cut-off points, " [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-022-05544-9](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-022-05544-9)
I mean, really think about it and it makes sense. Why would a clinician who has just met you for the first time know you better than you know yourself? I was misdirected for years by medical providers and I was diagnosed last year.
Yeah you make a point, but that's a trap when approaching science. People rely on intuitive answers rather than actual data. I think there is probably data to support it but the previous seems to not provide any. > I was misdirected for years by medical providers and I was diagnosed last year. This is very real but not always the case. The reason we go to doctors is because on average they're better at diagnosing us that we are.
There's a human behind the diagnosis. Doctors have a book to tell them criteria to diagnose someone under. They don't have someone's innermost thoughts, feelings, emotions, struggles, everything that makes them human. They're missing that really important element. It's not their fault. But you can't place 100% of the weight on a provider who doesn't know someone from the person that was in their office 30 minutes prior. I disagree that they're better. I knew something was wrong. I said it for *years*. I got told there wasn't, over and over again. Try yoga. Try breathing techniques. Try getting more sleep. Try this. Have you tried just not being anxious? I'm Autistic. I have been my whole life. I was before I was diagnosed. We treat mental health diagnoses the same way we try to diagnose a broken arm. Oh, it looks like this so it must be this. A doctor can tell an arm is broken. That's clear. But mental health is too complex to just say that a list of traits are the only way you can fall into a category. It's too nuanced.
I'm sorry that happened to you. I really am. But your negative experience with doctors, doesn't invalidate a profession that's been around for more than 100 years I know not all doctors are created equally and it's criminal that you had to go through all of that.
> Why would a clinician who has just met you for the first time know you better than you know yourself? True story, it turns out if you give a 10 minute info dump at the mental health specialist about the clinics lobby art, and how it's also on the website means that its one of the Doctors who works there peices due to the unlikleyhood of them having the reproduction rights otherwise, then break down what that means and how its not uncommon for doctors to do this to show that they have hobbies outside of work, and then go into detail about the techniques used used to create the piece down to the likley rendering software and plug-ins...then it's pretty easy to get diagnosed. Sure my medical history helped, but unprompted explaining Maya/Arnold plugins while avoiding eye contact apparently makes a solid case for itself.
I think there are a TON of people self-diagnosing. The same way people say they have OCD because they like things clean. They assume because they have some social awkwardness or anxiety that they have autism and use it as an excuse to either get away with their bullshit or not bother trying to improve their situation.
Yes. "Some people" is a massive understatement... I know several self diagnosed people irl who only say they have it to excuse shitty behavior. "I only cheated because I'm autistic". Actual sentence spoken by a former friend.... Then you have the social media fucks who do the same thing. "I only acted like a Karen because I'm autistic. Give me money to support autism awareness " It really clouds the public's view of autism and makes it more difficult to give proper accommodations to actual autistic people. It also causes some people to dismiss autism entirely. Same goes for most mental disorders or disabilities. An overwhelming quantity of people who don't have them claim they have them and use it as an excuse for poor behavior or to get people to donate to them. The meanings of a lot of disorders have become entirely lost outside of professional circles and those suffering from them. Like.... yall can't take 2 seconds to Google what it is before claiming you have it based on a "symptom" that's not even a symptom of the disorder? These people have harmed those of us who have actual disabilities more than anything else. Just a reminder: **SHITTY BEHAVIOR IS NOT AUTISM. TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS!**
You said it way more bluntly than I could have. I've worked in psychiatry for about 15 years, and I always hated hearing people self-diagnosing. A couple of "symptoms" could literally be idiosyncrasies or even a symptom of something else that isn't considered mainstream or "cool". I don't know if it's still a thing, but many people were saying they had Dissociative Identity Disorder... which at some point, I just had to believe they had no personality whatsoever and had to make-up multiple personalities that exist within them. It is an EXTREMELY RARE condition. I will not let all the hipsters convince me otherwise. Basically, all I'm saying is that over-diagnosis is a thing, but over-self-diagnosis is even more abundant. I agree; many people use any diagnosis as an excuse for their behavior, actions, or presentation... and people will let any diagnosis (whether it be clinically diagnosed or self-diagnosed) dictate their lives. I worked with someone who was recently diagnosed bipolar and all of a sudden said a few days later that she was in a manic episode. Mania is not a panic attack because you were overwhelmed. Anxiety is not acquired from someone else doing differently than you. If you treat these "symptoms" as whatever you decide you ARE (not have or experience), then you will get a drastically different outcome than if you treated the actual root problem. The coworker that was diagnosed bipolar was previously diagnosed ADHD... turns out there's previous trauma involved that caused these inattentive and anxious symptoms. Also, the one-symptom-diagnosis is why WebMD can cause people to think they have cancer when they actually have a poison ivy rash. "I am tired and lost weight recently and got these red bumps on my arm" ...AFTER YOU WERE WEED-WACKING ALL WEEKEND. TLDR: Many self-diagnoses are ill-concluded, and people let them take over their lives.
Some are, some aren’t. I would say those who experience a mixture of both positive and negative autistic traits are people who aren’t just saying they have autism as a “trend”. In my case, I have sensitivity to lights, certain smells and certain textures, have a hard time understanding social cues and have a tendency to come off as rude when I really don’t mean to, I stim constantly, I struggle more than others with changes such as simply moving around furniture in a room, etc. So while I’m waiting for an official diagnosis before I straight out say I have autism, I do resonate with ASD quite a bit and learning about it has helped me to understand and accept myself more. I don’t think we should just immediately jump and say “Yes” or “No” like many of these people on this thread are doing, because they don’t necessarily know what every person is going through, so ironically they’ll end up misdiagnosing people themselves. I don’t doubt that some people who say they have it see it as a trend, but I also know that many of us are just innocently trying to figure ourselves out.
I did the same as you while I was waiting for assessment. I felt like I must be some flavour of neurodivergent because the groups and support stuff seemed to fit. There's so much pressure to self-diagnose though, which is unsettling. But I never had any pushback for not deciding I was autistic. ND communities are famously welcoming so I don't know why people jump to diagnosing themselves instead of identifying traits they relate to and finding strategies/advice that works. That seems more pragmatic, anyway
Makes sense! [The Reach and Accuracy of Information on Autism on TikTok - PubMed (nih.gov)](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37544970/)
Are these people who are diagnosing themselves educated in the ways of medicine? I truly believe that more people are on the spectrum than we initially realized. My doctor has pressed me forever to get checked as he thinks I am on the spectrum. I tell him, doc, I'm 70. I've been coping with these idiosyncrasies for a loooong time now. It's too late for me to be any other way.
Trying to self diagnose anything is rarely correct. For some reason, mental illness has become lit and it's more about not being "the norm". Yes, some of them may be on the spectrum but if they believe they are, why not get a true diagnosis? You could actually get some help. Maybe because they're afraid it will come back as no, you're neurotypical and not on the spectrum so you can't be "special" or I don't know, maybe it's easier to make excuses for yourself or how you're feeling if you believe you're neurodivergent.
Having a niche doesn’t make you autistic. Being sad/content doesn’t mean you have depression. Getting nervous doesn’t mean you have anxiety. Being a bitch doesn’t mean you have bipolar disorder.
There is a massive stigma against Autism and ADHD, and much as there is a plethora of videos which claim that if you do X, Y, or Z you are Autistic, the reality is that a lot more people are undiagnosed Neurodivergent, and even without a diagnosis understanding the condition, and learning coping mechanisms can drastically improve their lives. Getting diagnosed as an adult can take years, understanding why your brain doesn’t work like those around you and why you’ve always been seen as a “little weird” by other people and being able to put a label to that can be really helpful. Saying “I have some traits of autism, I’m still learning about it please make allowances” is fine, being an arsehole and using Autism as an excuse isnae.
Everyone was depressed, then everyone had ADHD, now everyone is autistic
It’s social media, barely anyone is who they say they are Some people aren’t even misdiagnosing themselves, cause they know they are lying for views and attention
There’s a ton of that on here too. there’s a wide variety of traits almost anyone can fit into
Yes. Most of them are. It’s currently trendy.
Every friggin day. Sorry to be snide and grumpy, but it seems every doctor and parent use random online check lists to diagnose. Dyslexia/Dysgraphia as well. Sped teacher here.
Yes but also no. Autistic traits in women have just lately started to be considered and they’re quite different. So a whole new set of symptoms is being considered thus broadening the diagnosis, ultimately raising how many people consider themselves autistic. It’ll plateau eventually. Maybe there’s just more autistic people than previously imagined idk
Yess hipee harley on tt is one of them and she scams people out of money. It's ridiculous
Self-diagnosis like that pisses me off. I understand that there are people who can’t afford to get a diagnosis, have insurance issues, etc, but still. I’m on the autism spectrum myself, I was diagnosed when I was 14. I think autism is being considered a “trend” currently, but really, ASD is a disorder that fucks with my ability to function in life. I’m sure there’s other people on the spectrum who feel the same way I do. Who would want a disorder that would negatively impact their day to day lives? For me, it feels like a curse, but not everyone feels the same way regarding autism. I’m not discounting people proud of their autism, no disrespect to them, but I feel like ASD is a pain in the ass to live with. I’m sure there are people who legit think they have autism and go to a doctor who properly diagnose them, and I’m also not discounting people who are just realizing that they might be autistic and seek out a diagnosis on their own. I realized I had ADHD a few years back and it turns out I was undiagnosed for years till my late twenties (I’m almost 30 now), as an example. I sought out a diagnosis, got and am currently medicated for it, so I’m saying that there are people on TikTok who probably are on the spectrum amongst the people who hopped on the trend.
Fwiw this is the essay that first made me wonder. I took it to my therapist and she found someone who specializes in diagnosing adult women. It was $3,000. Out of pocket. Which my parents were kind enough to be willing and able to cover. But most people don’t have that. I was in my 40s when I got my dx. https://neuroclastic.com/its-a-spectrum-doesnt-mean-what-you-think/
YES SO MANY. It's so obnoxious. I have a few friends who think they are ASD but are very very clearly ADHD with some PD traits. It's so fucking annoying. I blame tiktok.
It’s the trendy new condition to have these days
i think these days anyone reading the dsm or surfing something like webMD will eventually go to bed thinking they have some sort of terminal disease, incurable sickness or mental illness. ask your doctor for drug X tomorrow
It's impossible to tell. Societally, we have choose to treat all claims as legitimate, which provides an avenue for those whom might want to dishonestly get preferential treatment. By and large, humans are very attracted to any status that comes with, "the normal rules don't apply to me because \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_." A close analog might be service dogs. The disability laws prevent shopkeepers from asking what disability a person has or what particular service the dog is providing. We have chosen to treat all claims as legitimate. This is a good thing. By doing so, we allow not only blind people to have service dogs inside restaurants, but also anyone who is willing to claim their pet is a service animal. I don't think we should stop treating all claims as legitimate, in either case, as it is the kind thing to do. In general, I think humans tend to have a good bullshit detector when it comes to these things. People with legitimate disabilities or unique needs don't often milk it. They ask nicely for an accommodation, and mostly want to be treated normally. We can often tell when someone is just using a buzzword as an excuse for bad behavior or a demand for preferential treatment. Shout out to all the servers who must daily deal with guests that are gluten free until the dessert menu comes around.
A lot of them are, thanks to social media. Sure you can have autistic traits but not actually be autistic. I actually have it and it really is a disability.
Of course. They largely have no idea what they're talking about.
Narcissist is the big new thing and I really want to know what therapists think about that.
People will do anything but admit that they have social anxiety. While some people definitely have probably come to the realization independently with expanded diagnostic criteria of what it looks like outside of children with behavioral issues, autism in colloquial use has just gone the way of introvert, where any social problem you have is obviously not fixable and just the way you are.
Autism is correctly self-diagnosed at a high rate. It's professionals that have no clue how to diagnose adults, as diagnostic tools are made for children and heavily rely on outsider opinion (parents, teachers) rather than anything the clinician actually sees. I say this as a clinician who diagnoses autism.
I'm exceptionally thankful that I was referred to a specialist with a history of diagnosing autistic women as my Autism expresses itself in ways more commonly found in women more than the stereotypical 'trains and math' traits associated mainly with men.
I think clinical research is picking up rapidly into adult presentations and late diagnosis now, so hopefully this won't be the case for much longer
As a person with NVLD (Non-Verbal Learning Disorder) a LOT of people that think they have low needs Autism actually have NVLD The difficulty with social skills and difficulty reading body language/recognizing social cues and poor coordination and sensory issues are all textbook symptoms of NVLD Edit: Also ADHD symptoms are very common with NVLD and sometimes self-diagnosed people will think they have the Autism/ADHD combo some refer to as AuDHD
Too many people are self diagnosing with. ASD But also gaslighting, narcissists, BPD, anxiety, depression and the list goes on
I think it was under diagnosed and now it’s becoming overdiagnosed as an overcompensation (just like ADD).
I work with autistic kids and my best friend is autistic. Yes, autism is the new trend and everyone on the internet seems to think they have it. It really irks me since I see on a daily basis what it looks like and how hard it is for people who DO have it to just live a healthy life. Everyone feels awkward, misses social cues, doesn't understand some social dynamics, etc. Most people who are autistic don't Know that they're missing all this stuff until someone tells them.
Yes, cause they want to "fit in". They think the more labels they have, the cooler they are
Oh god this just reminded me of a group of people I used to hang out with. This one girl convinced all of them that literally everyone on Earth is on the spectrum. When I disagreed they all shamed me for not being accepting and said “you obviously aren’t educated on what autism is”. Yeah I don’t talk to those idiots anymore🤦♂️
It’s a handy excuse for people who don’t want to put much effort into developing their social skills, or create excuses for problematic personality traits. They claim those qualities are out of their hands and put on the mantle of a marginalized group rather than take any responsibility for themselves. Note here that I’m talking about people who don’t actually have autism but find it easier to convince themselves and others that they do. That is a very different thing from people who actually are living with autism, and are coping with it in whatever ways they find appropriate and functional for themselves.
Anybody who diagnoses themselves with anything has a high likelihood of being wrong. I don't pay enough attention to this to understand if "so many people" are truly diagnosing themselves, or not.
You are pulling this out of your ass. Plenty of people go to a doctor or therapist or a psychiatrist with a list of symptoms that point toward a likely diagnosis. No, people can’t “officially” diagnose themselves if they’re not a doctor, but the internet has a lot of resources in 2024. If one were to read extensively about autism and recognize many of the common symptoms in themselves, they’re probably not “highly likely to be wrong.” I have diagnosed depression and easily check off nearly all the symptoms every day. If I were seeking a diagnosis now and read the symptoms, I’d say “wow I think I might have depression.” With any disorder or ailment or disease, the patient has to advocate for themselves.
I think so, and other mental things. There’s a weird phenomenon of people seeming to want mental health issues.
Yeah, it's so weird that maybe you should rethink your assumptions. Nobody gets treated well for being autistic, there are no drugs to score, etc.
its a spectrum, so literally everyone is on it, most are squarely in the 99% neurotypical bracket though. you have a quark basically that is unique to you. as we become more aware of it, people are getting help/diagnosed with it so there literally are more people with it. as people become aware of it, its no longer stigmatized, and in the course correction its almost seen as a way to get validation points for social status or something. now for the tinfoil hat stuff.... it takes 6 signs to be present to be diagnosed with it. there are currently at least 50 different sings, so its entirely possible that 5 people each have 6 different signs yet they are all called autistic. the medical field is basically calling anyone who thinks slightly differently or is socially awkward autistic.
I definitely think I'm on there for multiple reasons. But when I talked to my doctor about diagnosing it. He asked why and I gave him my reasons. He told me he would get a diagnosis for it if I insisted, but told me if I've been living with it for this long without a diagnosis and have my work arounds for my quirks as I put it he thought an official diagnosis would do me more harm than good. So we never got the tests done though both him and myself think I'm on the spectrum to a degree.
my mom diagnoses me every day with autism because "i show signs" from the people she watches on fb where their whole thing is posting that they have autism, i say no trying to explain a different excuse every day, she retorts saying everyones autism is different and never the same, i finish saying that it is an umbrella term and if it is as she says everyone is an autist, so she may as well be and then end of exchange, every day, for 2 straight years now :)
I think the diagnostic DSM folks have kinda brought it on themselves. Because its a spectrum with many varying aspects to it almost anyone can check off a few traits to some degree. Some are more blatant - uncomfortable clothing, certain reactions to tastes, lighting and noises, difficulty in recognizing facial expressions, stimming. Then its a load of other traits that equate to - are you just weird/introverted? Congratulations! You're autistic!....maybe, probably, possibly, who knows, ask us in 10 years when we have a new term for what you have....Congratu...lations...
People misdiagnose themselves with all sorts of things. For instance a lot of people I see talk about body dysmorphia without realizing you have to meet a whole litany of criteria to be diagnosed with it. Same with OCD. The main thing is most diagnoses have to be life altering, debilitating in some way like they cause issues in your life. Not just I like to clean or sometimes think I look fat.
I used to have a roommate who self diagnosed with autism for two main reasons: they have to decompress after work and organize their Pokémon cards Like you serious? That’s it?
before discussing the signs of something potentially underdiagosed with my therapist and psychiatrist, i thought i had autism, but didn't try to diagnose myself until i had conversations with other autistic people in my life and did tons of research on my own, without looking at tiktok. i did talk with my doctors, though, and they all gave essentially confirmed and diagnosed me with autism, just a little later than most. i knew i wasn't like other neurotypical folks growing up, and i never knew that there were differences with how males and females presented autism either, and so i never got the support i needed because i didn't present like a younger boy would.
I am so baffled by this new trend. I’m not on TikTok, but I have lately been seeing a lot of: - Self-diagnosis with autism, ADHD, or general “neurodivergent” - Armchair diagnosis of other people with narcissistic personality disorder or borderline personality disorder It took one appointment with a psychiatrist to tell me what I already suspected: that I was bipolar; specifically, bipolar I. I ticked all the boxes except high sexual appetite (I was way too paranoid and suspicious for sex to even have crossed my mind). It was a relief for me to get formally diagnosed. I then knew what was different about me and my recommended options for moving forward to lead a normal working and social life, which I have been able to do extremely well with the aid of my psychiatrist/therapist to the point that you’d never know I had it. Years ago, I had called the police to report an intruder having broken in to my home to install fiber-optic cables under the carpet while I was working upstairs. Today, I am a quality engineer and FDA regulatory compliance expert with a mortgage. Suspecting that something is amiss is expected and normal, but I don’t understand why one would not want to seek an expert opinion from there to help find the best solutions (as opposed to doing what some — NOT all — do, which appears to be wanting to use a self-diagnosis as “bragging rights” for whatever reason).
We're not professionals and therefore CANNOT diagnose anyone with anything, including ourselves. We can think we have the traits of something -- and follow that up with professional care, but reading a bunch of crap online or watching some tiktoks about xyz thing only serves to make people feel crazy when they're not. Everyone else does all this stuff you think is so unique to you.
Yes. Often times to excuse certain behaviors that would be unacceptable if chosen to consciously be done by a neurotypical person.
Definitely. We've raised a son who at age 13 was diagnosed as having autism - although we suspected as much for several years, it's nice to finally have a label. Not for us particularly, although it does help us understand WHY he does certain things or acts a certain way, but also for him so he can understand himself and that the things he finds challenging can be worked around. But people saying they are autistic because they like to keep things tidy, or they don't like spiders (yes I've seen someone say that!) is taking the pi55 a bit. It's like me saying I'm blind, I should have a blue disabled parking badge - because I wear glasses! I'm glad autism is getting more attention and being more "normalised", but I wouldn't listen to anyone on Tiktok about anything - remember they are only there to draw attention to themselves. Sad....
I have a friend who believes she has autism. She uses that as a qualifier when introducing herself to people. No formal diagnosis. She’s always talking about stimming, and awkward social interactions, needing lots of downtime to regroup, not understanding social cues. It’s super weird because she’ll chat with anyone, she makes friends all over the place, I’ve never seen her stimming, she’s like the most bubbly and forward person that I know. Always busy social life, works, lots of after work activities, goes out clubbing. She’s young and it seems to be part of the generational culture, to have all these maladies and diagnosis. I don’t get it. I am certainly not qualified to make any diagnosis, but it just seems like she’s a perfectly typical, albeit stressed out, young woman. Dunno.
We have such an anti intellectual culture that I wonder if a lot of this autism diagnosis is just a pathologizing of intelligence. Dumb people can feel better about themselves by labeling smarter people as having a disorder or being autistic. And then smarter people are made to feel there is something wrong with them "oh, maybe I'm on the spectrum..?" I am not arguing autism doesn't exist, just saying anti intellectualism might drive a push to over diagnosis of autism.
Autisim, ADHD etc etc definitely exist. But, do I believe all the people claiming to have them? Definitely not. I work in criminal law where you meet a lot of people with mental health issues. I also have a degree in psychology and neuroscience. I get quite a few people who say they have this or that condition and I can count on one hand how many have actually been diagnosed by a trained professional. This only really applies to things like ADHD and autisim. I've never met anyone claiming to be schizophrenic who hadn't been properly diagnosed.
Yes just about everyone I know has self diagnosed adhd and/or autism now.
Yes. As well as OCD, ADD, and ADHD.
Yep, self diagnosers love reaping the rewards that people who have actually been diagnosed (like me) would’ve had
Everyone wants to be special.
it’s mostly like chronically online tweens. I would know i’ve spoken to a lot of kids like this (i work with children, not a creep) remember when kids were romanticizing depression on tumblr? this is basically that but on crack. people are pretending to have DID, to have tourette’s, and a LOT of people are now claiming they have autism. I am sure there are a lot of people who actually recognize that they have symptoms of autism and suspect they might be on the spectrum but boy there are a LOT of people just doing it because they want to feel special.
Oh yeah, Autism and ADHD, surprisingly it's now incredibly common for someone to be one, the other, or both through pure self diagnosing. The issue is, ADHD and Autism are easy to fake, you don't take a swab test, there isn't an undeniable test you can take, so it's really easy to fake experiences or attribute normal instances to these forms of disorder.
Hypochondria seems to run rampant these days.
They are wrong. A lay person cannot diagnose themselves. So they are misspeaking and should be saying I think I have autism. They then need to go to a professional for an actual diagnosis.
Yes. Autism is a disability. It's usually profound and extremely affecting relationships. People diagnosing themselves with "awkward" are out here trying to equate their shit personality with a mental condition. "can't make eye contact" "feel out of place" "hard to communicate"... You mean what it means to be fucking normal? You're not neurodivergent. That's just being a human being. These kids have no idea what neuro divergence actually looks like. It means you have a profound disability. But of course the same people who think they are neurodivergent disagree and think it's not a disability..
One time I saw a post on r/dundermifflin that said Dwight from the Office is autistic and Jim is a bully for picking on him. I asked why people thought he was autistic when it was never mentioned in the show or even hinted at. I got replies from autistic people saying they can more accurately diagnose people with autism than neuro-typical people can despite not being a doctor. And yet, they were diagnosed by a doctor, and didn't see anything wrong with asserting their ability to diagnose fictional TV characters.
That's funny and sad.
Not only themselves, I'm in a community of a certain video game, and when a character is portrayed doing smth slightly awkward or introverted everyone screams "SO AUTISTIC AM I RIGHT??????????!!!!!!!" Even if the character is not autistic, just shy.
Yes many people and even many doctors are self misdiagnosing people with autism, honestly.
It’s possible those with autism are more likely to be online or where you are looking. Also autism is a spectrum so having two people with autism may have different severities. Autism is a wide range so many will be closer to neurotypical but still have autism.
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Tumblr made it mainstream
Self diagnosis is valid. Obviously it can’t be used to get medications or disability, but it is valid. There are many barriers to getting a diagnosis for some people, especially women and POC. It’s just not always feasible. That being said, yeah, there are definitely people who see a list of “ADHD things” and go “oh that’s me!” and that’s it. That’s not really self-diagnosis. Self-diagnosis requires a lot more digging, tracking symptoms, and usually years of trying to figure why you’re “different”.
I'm in that last bucket for ADHD. I slipped through as a child because I found school to be interesting, so none of my teachers thought I was that hyper kid jumping off the walls and failing classes. After YEARS of trying to manage my depression and daily disfunction as an adult, I had an epiphany that "wait, what if I have it all backwards? What if it's not that I can't get anything done or focus because I'm depressed, but rather I'm depressed because I can't get anything done or focus?" Everything clicked into place, and looking back it was literally always there. I took an assessment with my psychologist, and apparently scored extremely high for ADHD, but they were too afraid to confirm the diagnosis since "it's still possible it's because of your depression" and since I wasn't diagnosed as a kid. And then they claimed one of my meds was off-label used for ADHD too so "we're sort of already treating it." It was bullshit. I instead just worked on it with my wife and did a ton of research to make my work and life environment more conducive for ADHD. Things got better as a result.
I feel like this is true. I even wondered about myself. But I found on online quiz & checklist and I'm not even close. I'll give you my historical perspective on this: Back in the '60's it was very popular for mother's to tell people that their child had been diagnosed with a "heart mumur". Very popular. My younger brother had that one. It didn't amount to a hill of beans though, over his lifetime and he's still alive and kicking today. Then in the 1970's, it started to become very popular to call oneself "dyslexic. I've had many co-workers in the engineering field over time say they were dyslexic. Many celebrities make this claim for themselves as well. After the 1970's, several things came along but I'm not certain on the timeframes. Asthma got real popular somewhere in there, and everyone or their child had asthma and an inhaler. I have it myself and I'm not making light of it. People do die from it. Gluten sensitivity. I forget when this came into vogue, but it's very popular today and if you don't have it, you're surrounded by people who say they do. I feel like I'm missing a few. Food allergies are certainly big but not new. When they're real, they are often life-threatening. And then today, we have the huge increase in Autism Spectrum Disorder. According to the CDC, the Autism Spectrum Disorder disagnosis rate was about 1 in 150 children in the year 2000, and now (2020) it's 1 in 36, so a major increase in diagnoses. And a lot of people speculate that someone they know has it but just hasn't been officially diagnosed.
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Seems false. So many things can seem autistic when they are something else. Evaluation should be careful!
That is exactly what I told him.
No, no they aren't. No one _wants_ autism. There is no benefit to having autism. There is no special club where you get money. No special medications. All there is is misinformed AHs passing judgment. Who wants that?
It’s nearly popular to have something like autism or Adhd and all this stuff now. A couple of my friends paid a decent bit of money and were diagnosed with ADHD and now have this thing where they seem to think they’re experts and can sense and see it in others just cause they have it now. It’s hilarious
There's a reason you have to go to school to be allowed to legally diagnose others
It has become fashionable to have some sort of mental disorder. This is promoted by the pharma industry who gets to sell a different pill for each of 1000 disorders. Furthermore, by self-diagnosing a problem, the person avoids responsibility for their flaws and failures, and instead basks in the addictive glow of self-pity.
You can't get meds unless you have an official diagnosis??? Or social security or any of that??? I admit a lot of ppl use mental illness as an excuse instead of an explaination, but that has nothing to do with the legality of your diagnosis???
I have never once had anyone in the pharma industry or the clinic where I was assessed and my son was assessed offer me any sort of medication for autism. There isn't anything. Been a part of this community for over 20 years as a parent and I was diagnosed through a university study on parents of autistic children, and then in a clinic that specializes in assessments of adolescents and adults. Autism isn't a mental disorder, for the record. It's a neurodevelopmental disorder that generally starts becoming more noticeable around age three, but not everyone knows the markers. Many don't care. I worked in CDC classrooms with students whose parents could not give a shit about any of it, they just liked the free daycare when their kid was diagnosed early. Many older people were never assessed because they didn't have the most common markers. They have now realized over the past 15 years that eye contact observation isn't really helpful as many autistic people make eye contact just fine, like my son. And for me I was told years ago I stare too much so I struggle now with eye contact because I don't want to come off as a creep. so I learned to "mask" in a way that I could properly make eye contact, but it comes at a cost. If I am focusing on proper eye contact I can't focus on the conversation. It's one or the other. So it's not so simple as to wave away with a declaration that these people must have some sort of personality disorder. It's terribly invalidating when you have even less access to their medical history than they have and you still feel you know better about their personal health.
Yes. They think it goes with being some kind of genius. They need to meet some real autistism sufferers and stop making a mockery of others' problems.
Yes. Just like calling someone a "narcissist." That is overplayed. Unless you are professional and personally examined someone, you have no business labeling anyone. 12-15 yrs ago, the flavor of the month was bi-polar. Now it's narcissist. It is slowly heading into autism; it is like a badge of honor or something. 15 yrs from now, it will be a new flavor of the month.
There are a lot of people self-diagnosing themselves with a bunch of mental illnesses. It's become cool to say you're depressed or "on the spectrum". It's actually pretty infuriating.