[VampireWillow]

a) I've never heard anyone say "we're all a little autistic". I think by and large people see autism as a spectrum that you can be on or not.

b) Her idea of how autism is diagnosed is wildly optimistic. It can work for self-diagnosis, ie "no diagnosis", but every psychologist and psychiatrist has a different idea of how to diagnose it. If you don't present repetitive movements, it will likely be very difficult to get a diagnosis.

One of the problems is how the DSM works. To vulgarize, it's a tool to diagnose dysfunctional abnormality. But atypical doesn't mean dysfunctional in the same way as for neurotypical people. And "normal" changes based on culture and context, the very concepts used to describe symptoms will change over time.

I think it's easier for individuals to recognize that they are neurologically atypical, but that's simply not a diagnosis just yet, so they can be misdiagnosed a lot. And there are fads in psychiatry that follow popular culture somewhat, so if yesterday's ADHD is today's autism, the goalposts are moving.

So hey, maybe trying to put a single label on such a complicated spectrum will always be a problem, and we should provide help and resources to people who need it without trying to boil things down to one word.