Looking at comments about self-diagnosis

Post Reply New Topic

Hi everyone

I am an autism advocate and researcher. I recently became interested in this idea of biocitizenship, which is basically when people band together and form a community based on some kind of biological connection to fight for rights, etc. This term came out of people who fought for medical care and appropriate diagnoses after the Chernobyl disaster. I think the neurodiverse community is a good example and even model of this notion! I am also interested in the idea of biocertification, which came out of disability activist and scholar Ellen Samuels' new book. This is basically the documentation one needs to prove something biological, like disability status for a parking pass or "amount" of Native American blood for remunerations and things like that. Anyways, I think these ideas are really interesting in relation to neurodiversity. So I am looking on this site for conversations that mention or focus on self-diagnosis. I am not entirely sure what I am going to write about this but am reading and thinking a lot. I just wanted to let everyone know about this. I am happy to answer questions and am also open to anyone's thoughts about this subject. Thank you!

It has been a theme on this site recently and whenever it comes up it causes arguments. This is a long thread which contains viewpoints on self diagnosis. Hope this helps. It is fairly recent and it's 26 pages long with plenty of contrasting viewpoints.

viewtopic.php?t=287673

Welcome to Wrong Planet. Just to add to what iliketrees has already said, the subject of self-diagnosis is a perennial one here and generally causes heated discussion. The link he gave you to a recent thread is a perfect example of this.

So please tread carefully when entering into or starting conversations about self-diagnosis. Opinions tend to be polarised, although well-informed.

In my opinion, too much emphasis is placed upon semantics within this context.

"Diagnosis," within this context, has a bit of a looser definition than "diagnosis" in the medical sense. I believe 99% of "self-diagnosers" would agree that a "self-diagnosis" carries less weight than an official diagnosis.

I have come to believe that, in order not to create offense at every turn, that one should state that one has gone through a "self-assessment," leading to one "self-suspecting" that one has autism/Asperger's.

Thanks everyone. This is really helpful. I don't plan on actually participating in discussion but reading them and learning the various positions. But I will definitely look at any suggestions or thoughts you all have. I just wanted to let everyone know that I was here and why!

In other words, you'll be the guy standing peering out from behind the piano while the bar room brawl ensues!

Nah just kidding. It does get to be a kind of fist fight of words though.