[idontknowifican]

it always felt a bit more reactionary to me. a lot of people feel like they were unjustly treated, and the label helps them feel better about that stuff. normally i have seen an adult with a fresh diagnosis go really hard in to that identity, only to realize they over did it and land in a more neutral space.

as someone who has a bunch of adult friends getting autism or add/adhd diagnosed, there is an immediate phase of “all of my problems are caused by this”, followed by “how do i cope with this”, and finally “this is just helpful context for me”.

there are quite a few that get stuck on one of those phases, but largely most people loop back around to a more reasonable view.