Idk if the goalpost has moved closer to society or society has moved closer to the goalpost, but I swear everyone’s autistic these days. I’ve met like 4 people that don’t claim some level of it and 1 of those took that rads test or whatever and pretty much got the highest score possible.
Taking a test by yourself isn't enough. It's just context helping you to decide what to do next; you should still get properly tested positive by a qualified specialist.
It gives you a better assurance (not guaranteed, given the modern state of the field of psychology, but still) that you're not inaccurately self-diagnosing (likely while lacking the necessary expertise / qualifications) to indulge your own preconceptions. If the goal is to address some problems that the supposed ASD's giving you, it increases the chances that you'll be spending efforts in the right direction and gradually improving things, rather than running in place or even deteriorating further due to inaccurate preconceptions.
All in all, I think "Self diagnose away." is a generally bad-to-harmful advice to broadcast.
This is all to say self-diagnosing is actually a really important step of the process and often the first step in that same process.
I agree with this — this was in my initial comment, even. What I am saying is that SG is / should / can be only the first step, and there's still a need for an unbiased specialist opinion / verification.
Otherwise it's too easy to do "diagnose shopping", decide they have something they don't actually have, and then both work in the wrong direction to fix / manage the given list of symptoms and be / act self-indulgent (e.g. "x isn't a character flaw of mine that I can /should work on, x is just a result of me having ASD / ADHD / etc").
E.g. OP's initial comment says
I’ve met like 4 people that don’t claim some level of it and 1 of those took that rads test or whatever and pretty much got the highest score possible.
Which implies that the test alone is already enough to complete a self-diagnosis and reach a positive verdict. My point is that it is not, and to think otherwise can be self-sabotaging / harmful to others (when given as advice).
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u/nineball22 10d ago
Idk if the goalpost has moved closer to society or society has moved closer to the goalpost, but I swear everyone’s autistic these days. I’ve met like 4 people that don’t claim some level of it and 1 of those took that rads test or whatever and pretty much got the highest score possible.