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Comment by dragonwriter | Hacker News Reader

> actually autistic people such as my wife and I cannot get the official diagnoses

If you don't have an official diagnosis, on what basis do you claim to be any more “actually autistic” than the other undiagnosed people that see themselves that way and are seeking an official diagnosis?

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Because I had a diagnosis in another country a decade ago.

That explains how you know about yourself, but it doesn’t explain how you know that the others seeking diagnosis are not autistic.

It seems like a bad idea to stigmatize people for seeking diagnosis.

There are plenty of stories of actually autistic people who don’t get diagnosed until much later because the people around them dismissed it or didn’t support them because their difficulties were not so visible.

Yeah, I'm one of them. But this is a real problem that psychiatrists themselves complain about. Many have even stopped doing autism diagnoses due to the sheer number of people who come in over some simple behavioral tick and demand their autism badge.

Until you experience it yourself, you can't understand just how frustrating and demeaning it is.

It does makes sense, sadly.

I’m surprised people are seeking diagnosis just to have the label. What actual benefits are they getting?

An excuse to not have to live up to standard societal "norms". An explanation for why life seems hard.

Life is indeed harder for some exactly for the reason that societal norms are being imposed on them. Think corporations and the norms they impose on all the industries. I personally work hard to mask my differences but it does take a lot more effort on my part. All these efforts could have been used to be more productive and efficient.

Why should people need an excuse not to live up ‘standard’ societal norms?

In any case someone can be wrong about having autism, but not wrong that they have a particular challenge that others do not.

Self-satisfaction that they are complicated people who are 'working on themselves' because our medical system affords it. It's now commonplace to hear people say things like "It's my OCD acting up" when they don't have obsessive compulsive disorder. And where does that go? Think of the huge numbers of people who take ADD or ADHD meds for 'neuro enhancement' while the larger swaths of people who truly need treatment for those can't afford it.

Would a lesser demand for those meds make them cheaper? I would think it would be the opposite. Many of those meds are available as generics as well.

Isn't what he says actually proving he is on the spectrum? The thought process sounds familiar.

> because the people around them dismissed it or didn’t support them because their difficulties were not so visible.

Not to downplay any difficulties you or someone else may have had, but a counter to this I am seeing some people claim on twitter that they should just be able to state their diagnosis without getting one and want accommodations for it because of poverty or family would look down on it.

This is very dangerous. People just assume they see a characterization on TV and assume they have that. Symptoms can be shared between different classes of syndromes. ADHD and High Functioning Autism both can share, on the surface, similar sensory processing issues, anxiety, and obsessive thinking in my experience; but I imagine the therapy and day to day accommodations that one with ADHD needs is much different that one with Autism (honestly I barely remember the therapy I got in school and I am hoping more people can chime on this).

Sure, but seeking diagnosis from a trained professional should mean that the differences between those cases will be detected. I acknowledge that IRL it is a messy field and there is high variance in quality of practitioner. But seeking help shouldn't be discouraged. It should be up to the professionals to determine if someone actually has "Autism" or "something else" (or nothing). And also to do some amount of triaging! Criticism of the process shouldn't generally be targeted at individuals seeking help.

Well... isn't this part of it? A lot of people are more or less satisfied with the coping mechanisms they've established and don't really need to get a diagnosis because they don't want further treatment. And I don't think this is unreasonable, especially when treatment mostly takes the form of helping you establish coping mechanisms.

> Not to downplay any difficulties you or someone else may have had, but a counter to this I am seeing some people claim on twitter that they should just be able to state their diagnosis without getting one

How is this in any way related to the comment you are replying to? It seems like you misunderstood.

I did misread it, my bad.

> ADHD and High Functioning Autism both can share, on the surface, similar sensory processing issues, anxiety, and obsessive thinking in my experience

ADHD and autism also have significant comorbidity, though its possible only one or the other is initially diagnosed when they coöccur.

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