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if you genuinely believe that no one is qualified to describe themself as autistic unless they have a professional diagnosis, then by that same logic, wouldn’t you also believe that you aren’t qualified to tell other people they aren’t autistic? 🤔
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Anonymous 13h

cause if the only person who’s qualified to have an opinion on my neurotype is my psychiatrist… are you my psychiatrist? no? then it sounds like we agree that there’s no reason for me to listen to you on the subject of whether or not I’m autistic

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Anonymous 10h

This is simple. Only a psychiatric evaluation should be taken seriously. An autistic person could say that another person *SEEMS* autistic, but that isn’t an evaluation and does not give the undiagnosed person to the right to present the disability as an actual diagnosis. So basically, an autistic person is making an observation based on their lived experience. It cannot be superseded by an actual diagnosis. The undiagnosed person is in no position to make a solo claim in any capacity.

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Anonymous replying to -> OP 13h

or I mean, where do you draw the line? if one is so intent on deferring to the professionals, why not defer to the specific professionals who say that “self-diagnosis” does tend to count for something? people will come across awfully smug about “only listening to licensed pros” even while they use that as permission to not do their own critical thinking

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Anonymous replying to -> #1 9h

the irony of starting off such an incoherent reply with “this is simple” 😭😭😭

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Anonymous replying to -> #1 9h

like… first you say “only a psychiatric evaluation should be taken seriously”, but then you say “[observation based on their lived experience] cannot be superseded by an actual diagnosis”? you’re contradicting yourself. do you just not know what “superseded” means? and what’s all this talk of whether or not someone “has the right” to call themselves autistic? that’s not your call to make. being into authoritarianism doesn’t automatically qualify you as the authority lol

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