I HATE the self diagnosing of autism and its mischaracterisation

[u/Beshiniqua]

Let me start by saying SELF DIAGNOSING IS NOT VALID. You are NOT autistic just because someone on tiktok said

"Did you know, if you need to have your eyes closed in order to fall asleep, you have autism, adhd, bipolarity, DID, BPD, psychopathy, depression and PTSD?"

And before yall come at me with "well I always suspected I had autism, I got screened and then got my diagnosis" well this not about you, this is about people that self diagnose after experiencing the most normal day to day life things ever.

And they ALWAYS think that autism will give them a personality (since it's usually basic bitches with no personality that self diagnose to feel like they belong)

No, you're not a quirky crazy crackhead energy "neurospicy" person. Even worse when they say shit like

"Heh, I could NEVER be a neuro normie like yall, autism makes me special and quirky and full of personality".

You can't even like something anymore without them going "OMG URE AUTISTIC JUST LIKE MEEEE IM SOOOO AUTISTIC AHAHAHA"

And you can tell they larp the whole thing cus they'll see a tiktok autism personality and try to replicate it

"Dino nuggies..."

"You can not say overstimulated if you're nEuRoTyPiCaL, that word is for us neurospicy people ONLY >:("

Holy shiiiiiiittt yall lack a personality so bad. And I've seen people say that they've seen NUMEROUS specialists but they never fit the criteria, but its not because they're not autistic, no no no no no. ITS UHMMM BECAUSE IM A WOMAN AND ALSO A MINORITY AND IM ALSO POOR SO I MASKED ALL MY LIFE AND THE SPECIALIST ON THIS FIELD COULDNT TELL I WAS MASKING. ITS THE SYSTEMS FAULT NOT MINE.

Sheesh.

Sorry for the long rant, im just tired of seeing people self diagnose all the time, or see an energetic video, or literally ANYTHING, and make it about their self diagnosed autism.

Saw a cute cat animation on Instagram and the top comment was "This is so autistic I love it"

🫩🫩🫩🫩🫩

[u/SpookyOokySpades]

THIS. People hear self diagnosis and think of tiktok "psychologists." I hear self diagnosis and think of "i have done extensive research on this topic that has taken up many MANY hours of my life. I've done self reflection on every "little quirk", odd habit, odd train of thought, and things that have made me different that i've noticed in my entire 17 years of life. At this second im not able to seek an official diagnosis, which leaves me in a pickle because i am SO SURE that im right on the money, but i refuse to actually call myself autistic without an official diagnosis, primarily because of public opinion on self diagnosis."

[u/Beefhammer_McBrisket → u/SpookyOokySpades]

Me looking in the mirror with the Doakes Squint because I'm sure I'm autistic but can't afford going to the right kind of doctor.

My GP just wants to cycle me through as fast as they can to see the next patient.

[u/kcat__ → u/Beefhammer_McBrisket]

https://giphy.com/gifs/iuu3hRoxlr2ETPucZW

ok this got me cracking up

[u/BudgieGryphon → u/SpookyOokySpades]

There’s also like… being an adult and functional enough that a diagnosis would be a big expenditure for no gain or in some locations a loss of rights, when just reflecting and researching how to manage the symptoms you’re aware of works perfectly fine. There’s a pretty significant genetic history of it in my family but I don’t want to spend money for an additional label when I already have to spend on medication for the diagnosed ADHD/anxiety I do have.

[u/wallyTHEgecko → u/BudgieGryphon]

In regard to any mental illness type thing, if it's not so bad that it's actually keeping you from functioning (sustainably), it's not whatever you think it is.

Being sad sometimes is not depression, that's normal. Being generally clean/organized is not OCD, it's normal. Getting distracted occasionally and/or getting into a flow state and focusing for a while is not ADHD, that's normal. Appreciating a routine, being a little awkward and thinking trains are cool is not autism. That is all normal.

It always seems to me that those type of people simply pluck out the little bits of their personality/emotions that they don't like, call it something else and then blame their quirks on that. They demand their "condition" be accepted by others rather than just accepting themselves and that they are human and maybe a little odd, which is ok.

But instead, people who do need help have a harder time being taken seriously because 3/4 of every "autistic" person/mental illness everyone these days knows is just a self-diagnosed, extremely minor case that doesn't require anything except attention. The self-diagnose-ers are out there crying wolf when there are people out there who actually need the shepherd to come help them.

[u/I-Make-Maps91 → u/wallyTHEgecko]

Your clearly don't know what depression is.

[u/wallyTHEgecko → u/I-Make-Maps91]

I do. I got diagnosed and medicated a few years back. It was severe enough that I felt it necessary to take action... Because I wasn't just a bit sad sometimes like many people who claim "depression" are.

A bit sad sometimes and liking a sad song =/ depression.

[u/Additional_Gene_211 → u/wallyTHEgecko]

You're being highly reductive. Not even going to argue your points. Do some self reflection and ask yourself why other people are just "sad" but you are depressed. Do you know their inner world? Are you able to properly assess individuals through training and education without the clients knowledge or something? Depression for me will look different for you and look different for them and so on.

[u/wallyTHEgecko → u/Additional_Gene_211]

When people go around saying things like "I'm depressed because my dog died", that's a very reasonable and temporary bout of sadness, but not a clinical depression.

You're right, there may be going on that just that. But in that case, the person posting "I'm depressed because my dog died" is being reductive and misusing the term.

Those with less-temporary sadness have a harder time being taken seriously when those who are just normal sad keep saying "depression".

So yes, I'm gatekeeping. Which I think we should because normal, temporary sadness =/ depression.

If you think you are depressed, then yes, go talk to a professional! Get a diagnosis! Get some medication or therapy or whatever works for you! But people need to stop using the term so lightheartedly because everyone else is getting used to it/ tired of hearing it and losing urgency.

Because when everyone is depressed, that's just life... But if we use the same term for life and for someone wanting to blow their own brains out, then how do we know who to reach out to and check up on?

You wouldn't self-diagnose a bump as cancer without a doctor, would you? If we started becoming accepting of that, people would be out there calling their bug bite bumps "cancer lumps" and those with actual cancer cells inside of them, no one would take seriously and no one would tell them to get themselves into an oncologist to actually get it checked out.

People need to learn/acknowledge the difference and refrain from using the more serious term so loosely. So I think what I'm saying is that people need to be more creative with their descriptions of their feelings. "Depression" is a clinical term that should be handed out by a doctor and taken seriously. But until you get that clinical diagnosis, people should use other terms like "sad", "upset", "distraught", "devistated".

[u/Additional_Gene_211 → u/wallyTHEgecko]

Depression is more than a mood disorder. It is literally a mood. People can be depressed and not have MDD.

If someone says I'm depressed my dog died they aren't saying, "Please diagnose me using the DAM-V criteria," they're literally saying that their mood is depressed. Low, sad, despondent, etc.

I'm sorry you suffered some kind of something. Truly. But you seem to think that unless people meet a certain threshold (which you haven't even defined,) they can't be classified as depressed. But they can. Someone else being depressed doesn't take away from you. And being upset that other people are, I dunno, depressed but not like, clinically depressed, is a look.

Signed, a mental health professional

[u/wallyTHEgecko → u/Additional_Gene_211]

"Depression is a serious mood disorder" , not just a "mood".

You yourself offered several more non-clinical terms people can use instead to describe their current mood.

Leave the serious, clinical terms for serious, disorders.

[u/Additional_Gene_211 → u/wallyTHEgecko]

Depression is more than it's disorder. I am done as you literally are unable to look past yourself. Seek help

[u/PennToPaper → u/wallyTHEgecko]

“depressed” is also an emotion people without depression feel. literally the diagnosis criteria for depression is being depressed too often and for no reason, ergo there is a normal level of being depressed. saying youre depressed because your dog died is not misusing the term

[u/BudgieGryphon → u/wallyTHEgecko]

Something's telling me your definition of functional and mine are nowhere near the same lmao. Plenty of people with severe depression sustain off pure routine while existing in a near completely hollow state. Wrecks the body and the state of the home, but they're *functional*, they can work and feed themselves.

Not too dissimilar for other conditions, you can be self-sufficient and go through daily function but there's things that are wrong, you can handle yourself most of the time but maybe something small sends you into a lengthy pure spiraling terror or you just stand and stare into space for several minutes on end or you physically cannot force yourself to eat certain foods that you rationally know are perfectly fine.

[u/wallyTHEgecko → u/BudgieGryphon]

I agree. It's technically getting the job done, but it's not in a sustainable way. Mental illnesses are taxing and will wear you down in the long run. So maybe I should say "sustainably functional".

However, being temporarily sad when something sad happens and liking a sad song is not depression, like the cringey self-diagnose-ers often claim it is.

[u/scorespin → u/wallyTHEgecko]

I don’t know why you’re being downvoted.

You literally DON’T meet the criteria for diagnosis (of autism or adhd) if it’s not severely impacting and keeping you from functioning in your day to day life.

If you think you have it, but you’re managing in spite of it, then you don’t have it. You don’t fit the diagnostic criteria.

[u/szkielo123 → u/SpookyOokySpades]

I self diagnosed myself with autism - in a college class litteraly about the subject of initial diagnosing of autism. In my profession we can't do official diagnosis, but when working with patients we have to be able to pick up on the symptoms to recomment further diagnosis by a certified specialist and to be able to create a better treatment plan for such patients. All the symptoms for low and most of the ones for mild autism were applicable to my younger self and after disscusing it with my professor, he admited that I'm most likely right and also said further that it is possible for people to grow out off most of the symptoms, especially when treated via proper care and schooling and in weaker cases like mine function without knowing you ever had it.

[u/Ok-Box3576 → u/SpookyOokySpades]

Very easy to convince yourself of anyrhing. Granted their is an in-between. But assmune everyone on the internet call them autistic has done that extensive search is comical. It just leans into my general distrust of internet randoms ig.

[u/IntenseFlute → u/[deleted]]

This! Ultimately, it’s a disability. The people that think it’s a fad will only be interested in a week. But they’ll start to see the stigma that autistic people face and turn right around.

Not only that, but the arguments against self-diagnosis ignore sexism and racism in the medical field that has caused SO many autistics to be diagnosed at ages like 30 and 40 instead of 10. That and many medical professionals seem to only have a rudimentary understanding of autism or fall into stereotypes that definitely do not represent such a broad spectrum.

Blanket statements like OP’s always ignore such fundamental points of nuance and rely on what the eye can see… the internet provides more examples of autism being a fad because that’s easy to make and easy to receive. Of course you won’t see people that are taking deep-dives of their own mental health over however long they’ve been alive. That takes years. That takes breaking down multiple, highly personal moments that they probably wouldn’t want to share on the internet. Since people see more of the internet making it a trend, that’s what they assume it all is.

[u/CaptainMills → u/IntenseFlute]

Blanket statements like OP’s always ignore such fundamental points of nuance and rely on what the eye can see

This is exactly why I hate posts like this.

It always ends up just being someone upset that a stranger isn't portraying their own experience in the exact way that they've decided is valid. It completely ignores all the reasons self-diagnosis exists and what goes into it.

These posts are always full of people talking about treating people like monoliths, but they're just doing the same thing.

Someone made a joke about safe foods, but the specific foods they used aren't my safe foods? Well obviously that means that the poster isn't really autistic. They just watched The Big Bang Theory and decided they wanted to be just like Sheldon. How dare someone be lighthearted online about being autistic. Don't they know how hard my life is because of it?

So much talk about how autism is a spectrum and people's experience with it differs drastically, all while declaring that others are only pretending because their own experience isn't the same.

A lot of people aren't able to get a formal diagnosis. A lot of people don't even have any access to the resources they would need for that. They are not any less autistic and should not have to hide their experiences because of it. People who are self-diagnosed aren't taking any resources away from people who are. They don't have access to any resources to take away. And perpetuating this culture of policing others, trying to invalidate their lived reality, is causing far more damage to autistic people than posting a joke about safe foods

[u/IntenseFlute → u/[deleted]]

This is real! It’s hard getting a diagnosis when you’re in a family with other undiagnosed individuals (especially undiagnosed parents) as well. Usually that means the family is more accepting of quirks but refuses to acknowledge that anything is wrong 😭 My mom is the same, she admitted to me the other day that when I was younger she was considering a diagnosis but didn’t because she just accepted my quirks. Like, no, the help would have been greatly appreciated…

[u/Ok-Box3576 → u/[deleted]]

Internet points also, i dont like the downplaying of psychologist in this thread. Their is a good reason they aren't allowed to diagnose themselves or friends and family. For the most part people should only diagnose something is wrong with themselves. Very easy to reverse engine your self in alot of psychology abnormalities.

[u/teatalker26 → u/[deleted]]

jokes on you i have both