self diagnosis is valid.
I agree. And in my country, waiting lists for any professional diagnosis are extremely long, especially for adults.
Comment on RFK JR just told us Elon Musk can't use the toilet unassisted
Broadfern@lemmy.world 1 week agoAs much as I hate to say this in response to your comment, self diagnosis is valid.
Mostly the context is for people without resources, however, so your point is fair. Taking away validity for marginalized groups’ experiences is at risk with that stance though.
Thanks if you read this and I hope you have a great day otherwise. /gen
LuckyPierre@lemm.ee 1 week ago
Tungsten5@lemm.ee 1 week ago
Self diagnosis is not valid. Stop pretending it is
andros_rex@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I am fairly confident (as are my therapists) that I am somewhere on some sort of spectrum. However, when I looked at the process of getting a formal diagnosis, it was several thousand dollars which would not be covered by insurance and would be a full year at least on a waiting list.
The average of diagnoses for AFAB folks is around 30. Clinicians are not trained in recognizing the way that ASD presents in girls, and are to this day often taught that it doesn’t really present in girls at all (a current gig is tutoring intro psych - this was in a students textbook!)
Self-diagnosis is problematic, but you also must acknowledge that accessing resources to even get evaluated are often completely out of reach.
kn0wmad1c@programming.dev 1 week ago
They are for most people, but he’s literally the richest man in the world.
LuckyPierre@lemm.ee 1 week ago
Same here in the UK.
Maximum target waiting time is 13 weeks - AFTER you get a referral from a GP - and not all of those are willing to refer adults who are high functioning because they see it as taking a rare resource away from those more in need.
But even with that referral, 84% of people are waiting longer.
Private is possible, and 3-4 weeks, but that costs around £4,000.
Without a professional diagnosis, you won’t qualify for any assistance, either from the state or your workplace.
(I self diagnosed as autisitic in my 50s, after a childhood diagnosis of dyslexic. I now think was a misdiagnosis of autism.)
Katzimir@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 week ago
Self diagnosis for adhd and asd is a pretty strong predictor for an actual diagnosis. Also self help is a huge part of therapy/management anyway, so why not do some self help and acceptance? theres no 'cure ’ to either. making it your personality and an excuse for being an asshole is a symptom of assholism. That, however, is really hard to self diagnose due to the nature of being an unreflected selfish manbaby egomaniac.
Liberteez@lemm.ee 1 week ago
It is dangerous in some countries to get an official diagnosis for a disability. I respect that some people know they have a problem, but fear a label
Zorque@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Some people also wear a label as a badge of honor, or as an excuse for their malign actions. Elon has little to lose with his claims, and so much to excuse.
protist@mander.xyz 1 week ago
Well.sure, but this is all so far beside the point…
AllHailTheSheep@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
is it? do we really think autistic people or others with disabilities won’t be targeted by the current administration in the US? they’re following the Nazis playbook pretty accurately so far and that was kind of a major point for them. I mean the term Asperger’s was coined by a Nazi scientist after performing experiments on the disabled people they rounded up and out in camps.
andxz@lemmy.world 1 week ago
From someone with two major surgeries behind me, one of them involving a tumour inside my head, this sounds outright idiotic.
I’d be dead unless I realized something was wrong other than what the doctors at the time described as “just a few headaches”. Took me upwards of 10+ different doctors before they finally listened and found it. Exactly where I described the pain and pressure coming from.
Listen to your body, and for fucks sake stop giving bad advice to people.
ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 1 week ago
That’s not really self-diagnosis is it? Self-diagnosis would be you already claiming there was a tumour before doctors found something.
Knowing something off is not diagnosing yourself.
P00ptart@lemmy.world 1 week ago
It’s certainly in the same vein, but you’re right, not exactly the same.
Though as far as self diagnosis with autism is concerned, I don’t see that as a bad thing. Even if they aren’t on the spectrum, realizing they have some shared personality traits will cause more “normies” to have a sympathetic view towards autism, causing it to have less stigma. People hear that certain traits are related to autism and recognize those same traits in themselves, and then they can relate better. If only more people could do this with race, religion and gender, people would have more compassion for others as a whole.
But Elon? Fuck that guy.
andxz@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I knew it wasn’t just random headaches but something else, potentially a lot worse. I was right in that instance, at the very least. You’re right that I couldn’t tell them exactly what it was, but since it was quite localised I had my suspicions.
Trying to tell a doctor that you suspect something isn’t exactly easy unless they actually happen to listen, which they didn’t, for far too long.
When they finally did the surgery it was a lot worse than it could’ve been. I was lucky enough that it was a pre-cancerous tumor though. A few months more and it would probably have been too late.
I’ll admit that I worked in a related field at the time though, so I wasn’t entirely relying on guesswork. Not that that meant anything to a single one of the doctors I met before the last one that actually gave me the MRI scan I had begged for for months. I was in surgery the next week.
So you tell me, was the right course of action to just listen to what the doctors said, or not?
Tungsten5@lemm.ee 1 week ago
That is not self-diagnosis. Just google the term if you don’t know the meaning
surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Because the psychiatrist is able to read the text book better than you?
They’re not magic. It’s check boxes.
Tungsten5@lemm.ee 1 week ago
It has nothing to do with how well you can read a book. People are not good at self-judgement. It is very common that people under or over estimate themselves. It is easier to have an outsider make a judgement. I am convinced that you put pretty much zero thought into your comment. Maybe: try to think
surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Here’s a thought for your thinker: your self evaluation only needs to be better than the world worst psychiatrist to be just as valid.
seliaste@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 week ago
How do ypu get a diagnosis without self diagnosing first