“I think that these days what we mean by “autism” is basically “weird person disease.””
Sorbie Richner, Rich Girl Rehab
“Accurate diagnosis requires consideration of multiple diagnoses. Sometimes, different diagnoses can overlap with one another and can only be differentiated in subtle and nuanced ways, but particular diagnoses vary considerably in levels of public awareness. As such, an individual may meet the diagnostic criteria for one diagnosis but self-diagnoses with a different diagnosis because it is better known.”
Sam Fellowes, Self-Diagnosis in Psychiatry and the Distribution of Social Resources
Unsurprisingly, these days I meet many people in the psychiatric clinic who are convinced that they have autism, or suspect (with various degrees of confidence) that they have autism, or report being diagnosed with autism at some point in their lives by some clinician. And for a fair number of such individuals, I cannot say with reasonable certitude that they have autism. The reasons they give for considering autism vary widely, but tend to be along the lines of…
“Eye contact makes me very uncomfortable.”
“I suck at small talk.”
“I have rigid routines.”
“I hyper-focus on my hobbies.”
“I am always fidgeting.”
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