this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2026
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Autism

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What even is the use of a diagnosis? (feddit.org)
submitted 6 days ago by cows_are_underrated@feddit.org to c/autism@lemmy.world
29 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

So I have been thinking about this for a while. I Am quite sure, that I am somewhere on the spectrum. Im not sure if Its autism or ADHD or somewhere between. I do observe quite a lot of behaviours in myself that regularly get associated with neuroduvergent people (example: I constantly observe different people to analysis how they act in "social interactions" (or other stuff too), because I kind if don't know what society expects as social norms (etc.)).

Logically the next step would be to go to a psychologist and get tested for neurodivergency. The thing is, that I seriously do not see the use in doing so. I know all the different quirks I have quite good and how to deal with them. I also wouldn't say, that they cause any sort of "day to day problems" for myself. Why should I invest the effort to search for a psychologist (I really should do that, but thats for this shitload of other problems I have) to get tested just so that I have a piece of paper that does not change anything in my day to day life.

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[–] Arcanepotato@crazypeople.online 1 points 4 days ago

There are a bunch of reasons not to but I won't dwell on those. I pursued a diagnosis for two main reasons:

One: ADHD meds saved my life. After trying to treat the wrong thing for 20+ years I appear to finally be going in the right direction and I thought if it could be confirmed as autism that would be helpful in directing my approach to unfucking myself.

Two: want to pursue accommodations at work. I hadn't realized that I had near ideal working conditions for most of my career so far...by accident. I'm not so concerned about the accommodations being granted - my work has been trying to keep me happy for a while now - but more to justify the requests?

Some of the stuff I am thinking of asking for is career limiting. And that's fine! I'm mid career and I'm not interested in more formal leadership roles than I have now, and am only performing this current leadership role to support the development of the next generation. But I know it will be seen as me not believing in myself.

Sure, I could do some of this stuff, but only to the detriment of my health and I need to stop redlining myself constantly. With the diagnosis I can say, "Look, I have a literal disability. I know it just looks like a stutter, stubbornness and sometimes getting overwhelmed but it's more than that and the only way to get better is to stop pushing myself so much."