2w ago

Is self diagnosing an ok thing to do?

I'm asking because I'm suspicious I might have autism but I cannot access a psychiatrist.

If I do self diagnose and no matter how much evidence I find that I have autism at the end of the day I don't know that for a fact.

So if I go around claiming I'm autistic when I don't even know for a fact I am, it feels extremely disrespectful to people with autism right?

It'll be even worse if I do get access to a psychiatrist and they tell me no I'm not and I'm just weird or something.

EDIT: I don't want to reply to everyone one by one but I do wanna say thank you for everyone's kind and helpful answers. I appreciate it.

36 comments

If you are in America it's probably best not to get formally diagnosed right now IMHO. This might be alarmist but I think we might be doing eugenics again soon so YMMV.
- Yes... "Alarmist". Given the concentration camps and rumored database of neurodivergents, I think this (not getting formally diagnosed)is more proactive than alarmist

Yes. My therapist advised me only to seek official diagnoses if I wanted to try medication (for ADHD at least which I also probably have). Being officially diagnosed can lead to discriminating behaviour against you by insurance and even immigration depending on where you live.
- I mostly agree with this--I commented not long ago in another thread that the political situation in the US has convinced me not to seek any diagnosis right now. But I would say that there can be reasons that aren't specific to medication in particular that you might want a diagnosis. Sometimes there are non-medication accommodations that you can get (e.g. at work) with a diagnosis that they might not be open to giving you without one. Sometimes this can be huge! I've had times where I was in two different different locations in the same office at different times, and in one, half my field of view was taken up by a throughway where people walked across the office, and in the other my view was against a wall and behind a little corner of wall, and I got so much more work done in the second spot. It was just tremendously less overstimulating. So the prospect of being able to get that kind of issue taken seriously is part of what tempted me about seeking diagnosis.
  
  Oh yeah, this is actually an awesome point that I didn't even think of. Thanks!

You can simply say "i suspect that i have autism"

The entire list of mental disorders is made up - people have just grouped certain symptoms together and gave them an invented name. This can be useful for categorizing and treating people, but ultimately your mind is your own and nobody can really say what's going on inside. I have diagnosed myself and find categorizing myself as autistic useful - although I hate the idea that whatever goes on in my brain is considered a disorder, so I prefer the term neurodivergent. I'd use official diagnoses where they are useful for getting help and support, but always take them with a grain of salt. Psychiatry is not an exact science and both diagnosis and treatment are often not much more than trial and error.
Be especially careful when you are a person who has every reason to be angry about something in their life and someone tries to diagnose you with something like "Is-angry-for-no-good-reason" disorder, as it used to be the case of women suffering from 'hysteria' and abused teenagers getting diagnosed with personality disorders.

If you identify with any of the things on the list. It's definitely not at all wrong to do some mild self diagnosis. The thing to remember, is that diagnosis official or otherwise does not excuse behavior. But it can help you to understand it and overcome it. And there's no downside in that.
- I got diagnosed way later in life and by happenstance (a psychologist informally recommended me to check it, and later did so).
  It was a big improvement in my life, both helping me understand why I am this way and cutting myself some slack.
  While youtube videos and books helped, it truly was interacting with a professional that could see the whole thing from the outside, and giving me directions on how to improve certain things, embracing who I am and helping me fit in this world.
  Like driving a truck in a sea of cars, do not expect others to empathize with your situation, but you can addapt and better understand yourself, hopefully meeting people with similar conditions.
  Just a kind reminder: It's hard telling you've got a flat tire from inside the car.
  
  100%. It's sort of like an owner's manual for your life lol. It really can help you understand your impulses and frustrations. And even overcome them sometimes. It's not possible all the time. But just knowing can make all the difference.
- The thing to remember, is that diagnosis official or otherwise does not excuse behavior
  Do you mean it doesn't excuse being rude to people?
  
  Sort of, yes. Basically don't be a Sheldon. If you are capable of taking care of yourself or self-diagnosing. You are also capable of understanding and mitigating your behavior and triggers. As well as knowing when to apologize to neuro normies.
  Going back to the reference to the show. Nearly all of the main characters on there could be seen as being on the Spectrum somewhere. Sheldon's utter lack of self-awareness and treatment of others was a setup for jokes etc. It was infantalizing. That sort of thing in real life would stress even the best of friends. Neurodivergent or otherwise.
  Diagnosis is about understanding. Understanding is the treatment. And understanding goes both ways. It's a bridge between us and neuro normies.
- Yes in my experience, more people with self diagnoses seem to use it as an excuse for behaviour they dont seem willing to work on. I suspect the people I have in mind may even be a little more bibolar than autistic, and unpopular opinion: but those are also the people who are vehement that cannabis helps them cope even though a lot of those behaviours are common with cannabis dependecy.

I think the real question is whether self diagnosing is ok with you.
- Depends, self diagnosing seems extremely challenging and introduces doubts and bias so it can't be 100% accurate. Which an outside perspective can help with.
  I've done [insert] my whole life so it's normal.
  I found out [insert] isn't normal and common in autism.
  I look into autism. Oh but I don't do all those other things.
  Maybe me doing [Insert] is just me being weird but I don't have autism!
  After a few weeks I find out another [insert] that I do is also common in autism. Cycle repeats.

Getting a diagnosis can be extremely difficult for people. In my area you either need to pay about $5k or go through a 2+ year ordeal.
Even with all that, diagnostic methods are murky at best. There is no binary you have it or you don't kind of thing, no physical test that can conclusively say you are autistic.
All that to say as someone who went through the process to get diagnosed. I think self diagnosis is perfectly valid with autism.

Self-diagnosis (and diagnosis by non-professionals who just ask me if I'm autistic unprompted) seems good enough for me. Given people just assume I'm autistic regardless, I don't see how it makes a different whether I have a professional diagnosis or not.

I think underdiagnosis is a bigger issue than overdiagnosis when it comes to autism. As someone who was professionally diagnosed, I know how life changing diagnosis can be.
The issues of accidental misdiagnosis are far outweighed by the benefits of diagnosis, self-made or otherwise. And I think self-diagnosis is usually pretty accurate with autism.
Even with a professional diagnosis I still doubted my symptoms were autism. "surely everybody hates scratchy clothing though?" etc. Plus all the masked symptome we repress.
I was literally in an autism support group and I still didn't recognize symptoms! When I first joined the group someone said "I have to leave a restaurant if I'm feeling overwhelmed, and miss out on eating my meal". I thought to myself "this sounds excessive and dramatic, just stay at the restaurant and put up with it, geez."
But then later in life I realized how wrong I was. Leaving early is actually the best action. Now I'm the one who is leaving the restaurants early! It's not dramatic, it's autism. Autism is difficult to recognize and accept.
For example, hearing too many sounds at once makes me feel removed. Without an autism diagnosis I never would have even considered the sounds or bright lights may have been the issue. I would have never considered it! It took me decades to realise mall lighting was the culprit for a bad mood. Decades of not even making those connections. Imagine that.

This is the Internet. We're all self-diagnosed autistics here.

its ok, I am self diagnosed I need official diagnosis just to try to get some benefits from gov. When i tell others i just say that i am self diagnosed and not diagnosed by specialist just as it is

On a personal level, I don't trust personal diagnoses for things like autism because, from my understanding, it could be something similar to ADHD or something else that might be confused for autism that's causing any issues you might have.
I would personally at least let people you tell this to, if you go through with using a self-diagnosis, that it's not confirmed so they don't get confused or whatever else they may feel if you ever somehow get diagnosed in the future.
Can't speak for everyone, but I'd be a little annoyed if someone kept confidently claiming it's gotta be autism and then they get diagnosed and it turns out to be something else. Not annoyed enough to wanna do anything, but more annoyed about the confidence about a self-diagnosis.

i feel its a bad time to have any official diagnosis of anything, really, otherwise you're gonna end up on someone's list
- What do you mean?
  
  i don't know where you are from, but in the US the government is very excited to be putting people on lists, especially people with disabilities and stuff like autism https://www.npr.org/2025/05/08/nx-s1-5391310/kennedy-autism-registry-database-hhs-nih-medicare-medicaid
  
  They are more than likely referring to the US administration wanting to have a list of people diagnosed with autism.
  I'm sure they have perfectly legitimate and considerate reasons for this. (Insert the worlds largest eye roll here. So much so that my eyes detach from my head.)
  
  The US likes to disappear people who are different.

I diagnosed myself, although I do plan to pursue whatever official methods are available once I start seeing my new psychiatrist. I don’t see it as a problem. Especially because it’s a spectrum; it’s not either or, black and white, have it or don’t. Any mental health professional who treats your feelings as invalid, or questionable, is probably a person you don’t want to see again, IMHO.

What are you even going to do if you were proper diagnosed? There is no fix, no cure for it, it's only for you to know that you have different wiring in your brain and you know that already because that is the only way things make sense. I'm not proper diagnosed but it makes sense that I'm neurodivergent because I know I've been different all my life in how I see things versus how others see them. The best thing I can do with that self-diagnosis is to simply accept and embrace my neurodivergence and maybe even lean fully into my weirdness if so called because I know that that weirdness allows me to see things clearly when others cannot, and prioritize things correctly when others cannot, and problem solve through life like a champ when others cannot. That weirdness is not a weakness, but a superpower, so maybe just keep it secret ;)
- I'm not trying to fix anything. I just want to know myself better and why I do the things that I do. I don't care what others think of me anymore.

I am not a professional, but I think I can relate - I've kind of been thinking the same thing.
For me, I don't think it really matters if I have an official diagnosis. I don't have an external incentive to get one and it won't change how I act. I also don't really bring it up to anyone, unprompted. Mostly because other people probably don't give a shit and likely didn't even think about it. They'll just think I'm weird, more often than not.

Yes.

It's ok.

36 comments