EDIT: please, if you don’t agree with the arguments in the video, come in and discuss, don’t just downvote the thread.
I found this video with many arguments supporting self-diagnosis validity and wanted to share.
Main point may be that there is no valid reason to look for a self-diangosis than the fact of being autistic, and needing support for that. At least until there will be equitable access to medical care, self-diagnosis is the only way for people to understand themself and understand the support they may need in their life.
But, there is much more in the video, take a look at it by yourself!
Thank you for taking the time of explaining what you think, your point of view is very resonable:
I don’t think there is consensus. On the contrary, there is a lot of ongoing discussion. You can easily find papers that say different things. The second link I mentioned highlight how the usual tests can report autism when the diagnosed porblem is different, just as an example.
And I have to agree with you that there is a lot of people (maybe the majority? Probably the majoirity of vocal people on tiktok) that takes this thing in a way that looks not as serious as it should, but there is a lot of people that documents itself, maybe starting from the content creators, but then finding more reliable and serious resources. I myself read the famous book form Atwood (which is focused on children tho) and the one from Devon Price, and others, plus a ton of papers. There actually is a lot of confusion and new theories (serious ones) popping up at an impressive rate. Have you hears the one called monotropism?
Your opinion, explained like you just did, was exactly what I wanted to know. To me at least, it matters.