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.
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?
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.
Oh I’m not American.
Most people aren’t.
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