this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2025
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Autism

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Is self diagnosing an ok thing to do? (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by SharkPlushy@lemmy.world to c/autism@lemmy.world
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I'm asking because I'm suspicious I might have autism but I cannot access a psychiatrist.

If I do self diagnose and no matter how much evidence I find that I have autism at the end of the day I don't know that for a fact.

So if I go around claiming I'm autistic when I don't even know for a fact I am, it feels extremely disrespectful to people with autism right?

It'll be even worse if I do get access to a psychiatrist and they tell me no I'm not and I'm just weird or something.

EDIT: I don't want to reply to everyone one by one but I do wanna say thank you for everyone's kind and helpful answers. I appreciate it.

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[–] SharkPlushy@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Depends, self diagnosing seems extremely challenging and introduces doubts and bias so it can't be 100% accurate. Which an outside perspective can help with.

I've done [insert] my whole life so it's normal.

I found out [insert] isn't normal and common in autism.

I look into autism. Oh but I don't do all those other things.

Maybe me doing [Insert] is just me being weird but I don't have autism!

After a few weeks I find out another [insert] that I do is also common in autism. Cycle repeats.