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On Self-Diagnosis
(lemmy.dbzer0.com)
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this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2023
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From what I've seen, here are some of the arguments against self-diagnosing:
In the first two arguments, the problem with self-diagnosing is the social impact it has on others, including the autistic community. I can see why some people are against self-diagnosing since it could make their lives harder, especially autistic people. The last one is more about helping the individual properly understand them-self and developing a proper course of action to improve their lives, so it's an argument rooted in care.
I am not entirely against self-diagnosis. However, I think it could be re-phrased to "self-identified" since "diagnosis" is a medical term. It would be like a person saying, "I'm self-diagnosed with depression." That person isn't diagnosed with depression, though they very well may be depressed. It's really just a pedantic issue from my perspective. Regardless, I don't really care one way or the other because I understand what they are saying and think that an actually autistic person self-identifying as autistic is valid enough. Still, while I wont invalidate someone for self-identifying by gatekeeping autism, I tend to be a little cautious at first because of my experiences with people pretending to be autistic. In this case, I think the issue is that some jerks just can't let us have nice things.
I can see your point here, but what is to stop somebody from begaving that way and just claiming to have an official diagnosis, rather than a self diagnosis to begin with? There's always going to be people who behave in bad faith in any group, People who are going to lie and manipulate are just going to do that. There's no way to avoid that, that doesn't result in alienating people with systemic barriers to diagnosis. With what we know about the bias in diagnosis to begin with as well as all the other reasons people have pointed out. I think rejecting self diagnosis as a valid means of finding support, and community is going to harm more people than keep out bad faith actors.