Why self-diagnose with autism -- answer from Quora

This was a question addressed to me on Quora

Why do people self-diagnose themselves with autism? I’m autistic, and my entire life has revolved around hiding it. People do treat me differently based on whether they know. Whether or not you have it: why would you want to draw attention to it?

This was the answer given on April 2

I self-diagnosed, then went to a psychiatrist to confirm.

If you have it, you may think you can hide it, but that’s actually not true.

Neurotypical people immediately notice that something is wrong. However, they may simply think that you’re insensitive or narcissistic or have some other undesirable personality trait, when really you have a disability. If they understand the disability, they can accommodate it. If they don’t understand it, they can’t.

This is particularly important in the workplace in the USA, where employers over a certain size are legally required to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. They are only required to do this if they are notified of the disability and requested accommodation. Generally, they would need a doctor’s note, if the disability is invisible.

I attended a seminar at my local community college about people with disabilities transitioning from high school to college. A salient point of that seminar was that people with disabilities are most likely to succeed in college if they are good at self-advocacy — particularly explaining what accommodations they need and why they need them. Again, if your disability is invisible, and if you try to keep it “secret” you can’t self-advocate (tho I assure you that neurotypicals around you have definitely noticed something atypical about you — and have probably drawn negative conclusions about it) .

This business about people drawing negative conclusions when they notice something different about you has been studied in the psychological research — and is a particular factor in the development of racism. The antidote is to discuss differences, rather than hiding them and pretending that they don’t exist.

#autism #psychiatry #autistic