@100mountains @kkffoo @pathfinder @KaCi @actuallyautistic @allautistics @neurodivergence

Okay, I've decided I'm going to comment here.

In many parts of the world people in lower economic classes often can't access professional diagnoses. Even in the UK, as I understand from discussions, the health care system doesn't always provide health care diagnostics that are truly expert/competent in diagnosing autism, particularly in women and PoC, LGBTQ, etc.

So your approach is exclusionary and discriminatory against lower economic classes. I realize you may have reasons unique to your experience that leads you to suggest this approach, but it's not exactly supportive of the neurodiversity paradigm which is based upon principles of acceptance and inclusivity of diverse neurotypes.

Can you "tell" who is self-diagnosed or not? I don't think so. Self assessment takes back control from the medical establishment, and allows us to define ourselves without the imposed authority of a system that has historically been conceptually flawed in understanding autism and neurodivergence.

@obrerx @100mountains @kkffoo @pathfinder @KaCi @actuallyautistic @allautistics @neurodivergence I was told by the specialist who dx'd my kid that I'm "likely" on the spectrum. But in my area, only private clinics do adult assessments with appointments averaging $5000. Even if someone had suggested I was ND as a kid, I wouldn't have been assessed cause my dad didn't "believe in psychology" (it was suggested my sibling was but they didn't follow it up).
Not accepting self-dx is classist nonsense