getting diagnosed with autism at 23 was the best thing that had happened to me in many many years and sure would have been nice if it was something I could have considered on my own

Also damn I wonder if there are race or gender disparities in autism diagnosis. Probably Not Fortunately

  • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I mean self diagnosis can be unhelpful at times. This is coming from someone that has waited years for access to healthcare, diagnosis, etc and did try self diagnose. You can consider it yourself, but diagnosing yourself is where it can get dodgy. If you do try diagnose yourself, medical professionals, if/when you do eventually see them, are less likely to take your problems seriously and more likely to throw you in the hypochondriac box. It's unfortunate, but I've experienced this. So if you are planning to self diagnose (I don't suggest doing so), don't bring it up to your doctor.

    You probably aren't wrong but even if you are, you still deserve to find community around whatever shared experience brought you to this conclusion.

    This right here is why these online "communities" on twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, Reddit, etc, are some of the worst spaces for people with chronic illnesses, conditions and neurodiverse people to hang out in. There is no "shared experience" one can verify here. They turn into depression treadmills of unverifiable internet strangers bringing each other down instead of helping others. Filled with people indulging their unhealthy behaviours, such as coming up with terms no medical professional would endorse like FP (favourite person) to describe/romanticise unhealthy attachments to others for example (Online BPD communities do this a ton). Also advising people to see quack doctors like chiropractors, "just try weed bro", etc. (More common in physical chronic illness communities). Unfortunately you cannot substitute real community with anonymous randoms on the internet.

    Again, this is coming from someone who is chronically ill.

    • Wertheimer [any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      “just try weed bro”, etc. (More common in physical chronic illness communities)

      This is the truth. Once I saw a post on /r/migraine that said something like "I've tried everything, including cannabis, and nothing helps" and half the replies were just "have you tried cannabis tho?"

      • AmericaDelendeEst [any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I’ve tried everything, including cannabis, and nothing helps” and half the replies were just “have you tried cannabis tho?”

        Have you tried doing cannabis, ON WEED

      • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Weed is the new magic treatment for zoomers and millenials. Even though smoking it is unhealthy (because smoking anything is unhealthy, do edibles if you can, vapourise for harm reduction if edibles don't work) and in terms of neuropathic pain, it can only help for central neuropathic pain, it cannot help for peripheral neuropathy. At least from what we know as of now.

    • BigAssBlueBug [they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Do what I did, realise I was probably autistic, and when I went to the neuropsych, say I was recommended by friends so they're not as suspicious :troll:

    • justjoshint [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I dont participate in Internet communities other than this one so you could totally be right i guess

      but plenty of people have no opportunity to get assessed for this and I think they should be allowed to understand themselves too

      • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Yeah hexbear is generally more healthy because we have the "we are not a crisis service rule". But outside of that, it really is the wild west. Some spaces are good, some are really bad. I just found self diagnosis more harmful long term, both for physical and mental illness, because it hampered my interactions when I could finally afford to get treatment.

        • justjoshint [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I'm sorry you had that experience, I wouldn't be surprised if it were relatively common. But I don't think it's a sufficient reason to throw out self-diagnosis entirely (not that I think that's what you're doing).

          Also I'm sorry if my post made you mad or reminded you of bad memories, I posted this because I was pissed off but didn't really consider that this was a contentious issue.

    • Aryuproudomenowdaddy [comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I avoid opening my mail, sometimes forever, and can avoid simple tasks for months or years while always knowing that they need to be done. I just assume I have ADD.