slashmarks:

j4ckwynand:

a few times now I’ve seen anons ask stim and autism blogs about suspecting they might be autistic, and the answer seems to often be “definitely get a pro dx if you can!!! but self dx is ok if you can’t I guess”

but they don’t mention any of the potential drawbacks of having a pro dx?

like…it’s not just about whether you have money and time or no.

It’s about whether you’re white or a person of color. It’s about whether you might want to adopt kids someday. It’s about whether you’re cis or trans/nb and what kind of medical treatment you might want in relation to that. It’s about whether you have or want a driver’s license. It’s about whether you have other disabilities/conditions whose treatment might be affected (guess who they don’t like giving organ transplants to).

That’s just a sampling of the factors that might influence that decision in the US. I’m sure it’s a different mess of stuff elsewhere.

Getting diagnosed is actually a pretty heavy decision!

I feel like casually tossing out “make sure to get a diagnosis if you can!” is just a tiny bit irresponsible.

How about “do some research to decide if you want or need a diagnosis”? I think that might be a more balanced answer.

Also immigrations for a lot of countries and child custody in court cases and whether you might ever want a job with security clearance and whether you have family that might maliciously want you under guardianship or try to take your kids and how afraid you are if getting cancer or heart disease or whatever some day and being considered unlikely to comply w medical instructions and therefore not a candidate for treatment