I'd add that self diagnoses should not be treated as fact by yourself or others around you. I'll use myself as an example. I am diagnoses as ADHD. Anyone I am going to be around alot will be better of knowing that and how it makes me act abnormal. I am not diagnosed as diabetic. But my dad was and I have all the symptoms. So I may bring that up in the few situations it could be a problem. I suspect I'm somewhat autistic given a vary long list of things. I have no reason to bother anyone about that outside of seeking actual testing. But there are plenty of people who would just treat the last two as indisputable facts and demand to be treated as if they were professionally diagnosed. This is NOT acceptable behavior.

Why not

@@apatternedhorizon because we're all idiots who know nothing.

@@renmcmanus I have all the symptoms of autism - have from an early age. My parents never took me to a doctor for it. Thankfully, it's not a medicatable condition, so I've never been tempted. But my sister has ADHD. If you try to self-medicate for ADHD, it can go very poorly. In addition to the fact that you aren't trained to calculate dosing, if you happen to be wrong about your diagnosis, medication can kill you. Especially if you have _another_ undiagnosed condition to exacerbate a response. Self-diagnosis can help with coping - knowing I probably have autism helps me be aware of certain behaviours and process my thoughts differently, hopefully with fuller, more accurate context. But that's about all it can do. Keep the stakes low, don't medicate if you aren't medically proficient.

@@renmcmanus so I get what your trying to get at, but it depends on the severity of the individual and what they are dealing with. I've personally been diagnosed since I was a single digit, I am very much a supporter of people whom suffer from mental health issues and neurodivergence's and you see a hell of a lot when you interact with people outside yourself whom have the same "issue". And if you met me in real life I 100% believe you would ask what is wrong with this person, even though we might have similar symptoms we both might not be able to handle them in different ways. I also have seen it where a person has gone to several different psychologists and gotten several different diagnosis. in truth in my experience the person who finds out first what is wrong is the one suffering from it. and then receive a diagnosis because they can no longer deal with it. though the other way around is possible it is the less likely of the scenarios. also i want to jump in here real quick about autism because my nephew is autistic and me and him can completely understand each other to the point where his doctor wanted to speak with me and diagnose me with autism. the truth of the matter is most people with ADHD are able to understand how other think because our own brains work on completely different levels and through even the slightest form a body language we can pick up on issues from a whole group of people. So what you might think is you being autistic is actually your ADHD brain interpreting something that you have been in contact with before and you don't even realize it. but to reiterated what I said in the beginning I understand what your trying to say but its not like that for everyone and for some people theses things can be crippling

U can’t have an excuse to not come into work in the morning

Typo.