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If you're considering a professional autism diagnosis, it's worth researching what a diagnosis would do for you.

Depending on individual circumstances, an autism diagnosis can put people in danger and I can't recommend it.

A diagnosis doesn't really give you more information on autism, it just confirms you are autistic. It can mean you get accommodations for school or work, and help you get disability pensions and the like. For those things a diagnosis would be required. You don't need a diagnosis to understand the condition, be part of the community, or start making changes to your life.

So why might a professional diagnosis be bad? It depends on where you live and how marginalised you are as a person.
During 2020 there were many reports out of the UK of diagnosed autistic people being given involuntary Do Not Rescusitate orders by their doctors, to compensate for COVID hospital overwhelm. Some people did die. Autistic people across the world were also put lower on triage lists and received less care when hospitals rationed healthcare in that time. They were given lower priority for ventilation and other life support. This was the case for multiple countries, not just UK.

In the UK and some USA states, having an autism diagnosis can prevent you from accessing gender affirming care (trans healthcare), because of rising rhetoric that autistic people cannot do informed consent (which is bullshit). The expectation is this could get a lot worse and expand to more elective surgeries and treatments. So you need to consider how laws might become worse in the future.

I have heard anecdotal evidence of an autism diagnosis being used as evidence against autistic parents and then having children removed from the family. Sometimes after court the children are returned, but it's an awful process.

If you are a thin, white, cishet man who is unlikely to be thrown under the bus in a medical setting, you are probably pretty safe. If you have concerns about the other things I spoke of, then I would talk to more people and look at the laws where you live that may impact you. I urge BIPOC folks especially to consult the BIPOC autistic community on this.

To clarify, a diagnosis of autism in a vacuum is not dangerous. It's not different to a diagnosis of other things. However due to recent politics, there are risks attached and for some people its a considered decision.

#autistic #autism #actuallyAutistic #neurodivergent #neurodiversity #disability #NEISvoid #disabled