I’ve been internet-diagnosed with autism plenty of times, but the one time I went to get evaluated, they said I didn’t have “it.”

But if it’s a spectrum with different combinations of different traits at different levels of intensity, maybe a diagnosis is irrelevant and what matters is what your constellation of traits actually is, regardless of an official diagnosis (which, let’s face it, is probably highly subjective outside of some constellations–that is to say, with a long enough list of psychologits, I could probably get a dx).

Personally, for me, what this means is I can look to autistic literature to see what resonates with me without worrying about the fact that I don’t share many of the hard markers for autism. For instance, my investment in the truth often conflicts with social niceties even though I can read people’s emotions. I can see myself as an unofficially atypical person in a lot of ways.

I’ll leave my resonsances in the comments below. Feel free to share yours.

  • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.worksOP
    7·
    3 days ago

    Your comment has been filed under “Tips for the Coming Genocide.” I don’t check the hispanic box on ANYTHING these days.

    But the CURRENT benefit of getting an autism diagnosis is that it qualifies you for Americans with Disability Act protections (ADA) at work. For instance, if they’re trying to fire you for being “anti-social”, for instance, they couldn’t legally do that if you had an autism diagnosis.

    I knew a guy that introduced himself immediately as having autism. He was socially quite terrible and would go into fits of rage when he felt people weren’t respecting him. His old store didn’t want to risk firing him and risking an ADA lawsuit, so they put him forward as an internal candidate to our store with absolutely GLOWING reviews (I’d worked at his store for a few weeks and saw that he was a disaster), and the reviews were so glowing that he was promoted at our store into a SUPERVISORY position. Within a few months, everyone hated him and he almost got into a few physical altercations with other coworkers. But even then–and there’s cameras everywhere–he wasn’t fired, just transfered to a different position, setting up displays at various stores where he could work alone.

    I felt bad for him because he was really wanted a lot of social contact even though he bungled every relationship and I don’t think he’d be happy working by himself.

    Edit: Other benefits of ADA protections are you can get accomodations that make work easier, like being allowed to wear headphones, etc.