@moi @actuallyautistic @alice Gatekeeping is far more harmful than the occasional self-misdiagnosis. Eventually, those folks will figure it out and move on, after getting to know autistic people and developing a better understanding of what autism is, or seeing a professional and learning of their mistake. I lived for 13 years as a self-diagnosed autistic person before having the $$ to get a formal dx. Those years would have been way more difficult had I not been welcomed into the community as someone who belonged, considering that I did, in fact, belong.

Nothing is getting watered down or becoming meaningless here.

@moi

As @hosford42 suggests, I suspect that the number of people who mis-self-diagnose is very small.

I would theorise that they fall into three main categories:

1. Hypochondriacs, credulous and highly suggestible individuals. They will often "try out" anything they become aware of (condition, illness, disease) but will likely move on to something else.

2. Celebrities who think it's fashionable to have ND traits. They will use these to advance their career and/or excuse their bad behaviour. Some may actually be ND but that's largely irrelevant.

3. Genuine seekers who want to find out more and learn about themselves. A small number of those will eventually conclude that they are NT but it will almost certainly have been an interesting voyage of discovery for them.

Of those categories, 1 can safely be ignored; 3 is to be encouraged, welcomed and helped towards whatever conclusions they reach.

It's really only 2 that's an issue because they stereotype and distort public awareness. They try to exploit it in various ways, be that autism, ADHD, OCD or whatever. We need to speak out in a way that makes it clear that, for example, Elon Musk is a narcissistic, sociopathic megalomaniac monster who MAY also be autistic.

@actuallyautistic @alice