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by larve
1315 days ago
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As a self-diagnosed autistic (dodged a diagnosis as a kid, in hindsight quite good seeing how france in the 80ies had some pretty rough approaches to it) that came to that conclusion at age 40, believing for most of my adulthood I wasn't because "look how many friends I have", the reason people seem to "celebrate" it is that it finally gives context to a lifelong suffering and feeling of alienation. It's not like it will make your life any easier, since accommodations are scarce to come by, an official diagnosis can come with significant discrimination, and if you made it this far, it doesn't feel like a great way to spend your resources. It however allows me to not only realize that my experiences are shared, but to finally be able to learn strategies and find therapists that are helpful, vs actually aggravating the situation (say, framing you as argumentative and arrogant or schizoid or whatever, when what is going is mostly a communication mismatch). However, my nephew got diagnosed and it allowed him to find a school that accomodates his cognitive style. He's gone from puking every day and turning into a shell of himself to being back to the bright and happy kid that he is. While in some ways I'm sad I didn't have that opportunity, it makes me so happy to see that the field has made progress exactly by widening its diagnostic net. |
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These reasons and others are why I do not believe the rise in autism is due to a change in diagnosis. There are very few incentives to getting a diagnosis and so many obstacles. It also doesn't take into account that many autistic children have their diagnosis dropped as adults.