Asking for accomodations can be quite nebolous. And even if they are nebolous they can be insufficient or non-responsive to your actual needs. On the collective level asking fo rsuch things makes it more routine and improves the general availability. It can also make sense to have the diagnosis so that if you choose to ask you have more bases but not ask it for everythign and gauge it more case-by-case basis whether being a ill fit for a general mold is a bigger pain than negotiating a totally ad hoc thing.
The framing of “diagnosis” is very healthcare centric. Instead of “self-diagnosis” we could also speak of “identification”. When other people view have a different opinion then having an “objective measure” can make it a societal thign rather than just viewpoints of individuals. Especially those of aspergers type thing or “high-functioning” can face the problem that people that are not familiar will outright disbelieve with things like “you speak perfectly fine you can’t be autistic” or “you have too good grades to be autistic”. Even the low and high functioning labels are problematic because it isn’t really a core question most of the time but plays pretty squarely to common negative attitudes. An alternative viewing would have how it might be important for countries to get recognised. Its not about whether it is an effective or ineffective society but rather acknowledging its existence.
A question that might be intertwined is also whether you should take your autism seriously. A person that feels the autistic traits speak to them but never really goes forward with them is likely to have it as a very personal drama and contemplation. Diagnosis is how it gets taken seriously in healthcare. But separately from diagnosis being openly autistic or connecting to autistic culture might still be worthwhile to do even if a diagnosis is forgone. Compare a person that discovers their grandfather was Irish and then starts to consider themself irish or one that has always known it but has chosen to forgot or de-emphasise it.
Autistic persons get all of the other stuff and the expression of the other stuff can be modified. This can help unconfuse diagnosticians and you are less likely to be considerer hypocondriaric. For example pain expression can be quite muted compared to experience levels so tools like “between 1-10 how is it feeling?” and loudness of screams. Focus patterns that produce special interests will also modify what depressive “lack of enthusiasm to normal activity” will mean etc. But yes a non-neurological healtcare provider (and even one whose field is neurology) might use a cached thought based on such marks. I am estimating that things are getting more understood and communicated that fear about treatment in old age dementia are not really well-founded. For those that can appear or give an understanding of being neurotypical, remaining masking if the receivement would be bad could stay in the cards ie making it easy for people not to discriminaate by imposing a literal veil of ignorance. For those that will illadvertly give off a vibe most other explanations would be even worse.
If you just unexplainedly say that “I am unconfortable with sudden changes” people might think you are an asshole or on purpose diffcult or something like that. If you say that it is because of autism then the “its nothing personal” is an easier sell. For example I have a problem with questionaries because I will answer them very literally. This means I will treat a double negation as a positive while some other people will “typo” correct it to treat like a negation. Dealing with that can be very baffling on both sides when most of the interaction is not. Asking for a correctly pharsed question sheet or filling the sheet with unintuitive data can seem as sabotaging the questionary. I would imagine that dealing with a person that have a lot of unconnected quirks could be quite confusing so providing the “arching narrative” can help there. And it can hedge against wrong narratives such as “I am just autistic, not stupid”, “I am not unimaginative, just literal”
I do have a conondrum as saw an opinion of a boss that said that if a computer programmer has trouble with eyecontact they are less qualified in the jobs core activity as discussing code with other programmers or customers is part of the package. I would argue that effective communication is part of it but it doesn’t need to happen via providing social comfort via eyecontact to the discussion partner. Being able to navigate and negotaite the neurotypical expectations would seem superchallening without being able to justify the unorthodox behaaviour as legimate (and effectively call out and bust the ablism in that kind of stance)
Seeking diagnosis does not pathogolise the trait I think. Compare to the worry of deepening an image of sexual deviants for getting recognised for being gay. I do think that the resources for treatment and diagnosis can be quite thin and my worry would be that those that its more optional getting it before or hindering those for whom it is quite crucial would be an issue. UK takes bride in the NHS (but also likes to complain about it). I think in US the individual more directly pays for their care so this could be a lesser issue (by seeking the thing out you also brign comparable resources).
Speaking of which getting a condition recognised only to be told that there is no cure or mitigation of it can feel like a pointless endeavour. If there are some life difficulties their connection to the neurotype can be relieving that one doens’t need to worry about what all it could be. Its also a spectrum in the sense that its not a hard yes or no but the implications change for different shades of it. This might be considered improvement as trying to torture the autism away with ABA or exile from society as being a reject just basic acceptance goes a long way.
Asking for accomodations can be quite nebolous. And even if they are nebolous they can be insufficient or non-responsive to your actual needs. On the collective level asking fo rsuch things makes it more routine and improves the general availability. It can also make sense to have the diagnosis so that if you choose to ask you have more bases but not ask it for everythign and gauge it more case-by-case basis whether being a ill fit for a general mold is a bigger pain than negotiating a totally ad hoc thing.
The framing of “diagnosis” is very healthcare centric. Instead of “self-diagnosis” we could also speak of “identification”. When other people view have a different opinion then having an “objective measure” can make it a societal thign rather than just viewpoints of individuals. Especially those of aspergers type thing or “high-functioning” can face the problem that people that are not familiar will outright disbelieve with things like “you speak perfectly fine you can’t be autistic” or “you have too good grades to be autistic”. Even the low and high functioning labels are problematic because it isn’t really a core question most of the time but plays pretty squarely to common negative attitudes. An alternative viewing would have how it might be important for countries to get recognised. Its not about whether it is an effective or ineffective society but rather acknowledging its existence.
A question that might be intertwined is also whether you should take your autism seriously. A person that feels the autistic traits speak to them but never really goes forward with them is likely to have it as a very personal drama and contemplation. Diagnosis is how it gets taken seriously in healthcare. But separately from diagnosis being openly autistic or connecting to autistic culture might still be worthwhile to do even if a diagnosis is forgone. Compare a person that discovers their grandfather was Irish and then starts to consider themself irish or one that has always known it but has chosen to forgot or de-emphasise it.
Autistic persons get all of the other stuff and the expression of the other stuff can be modified. This can help unconfuse diagnosticians and you are less likely to be considerer hypocondriaric. For example pain expression can be quite muted compared to experience levels so tools like “between 1-10 how is it feeling?” and loudness of screams. Focus patterns that produce special interests will also modify what depressive “lack of enthusiasm to normal activity” will mean etc. But yes a non-neurological healtcare provider (and even one whose field is neurology) might use a cached thought based on such marks. I am estimating that things are getting more understood and communicated that fear about treatment in old age dementia are not really well-founded. For those that can appear or give an understanding of being neurotypical, remaining masking if the receivement would be bad could stay in the cards ie making it easy for people not to discriminaate by imposing a literal veil of ignorance. For those that will illadvertly give off a vibe most other explanations would be even worse.
If you just unexplainedly say that “I am unconfortable with sudden changes” people might think you are an asshole or on purpose diffcult or something like that. If you say that it is because of autism then the “its nothing personal” is an easier sell. For example I have a problem with questionaries because I will answer them very literally. This means I will treat a double negation as a positive while some other people will “typo” correct it to treat like a negation. Dealing with that can be very baffling on both sides when most of the interaction is not. Asking for a correctly pharsed question sheet or filling the sheet with unintuitive data can seem as sabotaging the questionary. I would imagine that dealing with a person that have a lot of unconnected quirks could be quite confusing so providing the “arching narrative” can help there. And it can hedge against wrong narratives such as “I am just autistic, not stupid”, “I am not unimaginative, just literal”
I do have a conondrum as saw an opinion of a boss that said that if a computer programmer has trouble with eyecontact they are less qualified in the jobs core activity as discussing code with other programmers or customers is part of the package. I would argue that effective communication is part of it but it doesn’t need to happen via providing social comfort via eyecontact to the discussion partner. Being able to navigate and negotaite the neurotypical expectations would seem superchallening without being able to justify the unorthodox behaaviour as legimate (and effectively call out and bust the ablism in that kind of stance)
Seeking diagnosis does not pathogolise the trait I think. Compare to the worry of deepening an image of sexual deviants for getting recognised for being gay. I do think that the resources for treatment and diagnosis can be quite thin and my worry would be that those that its more optional getting it before or hindering those for whom it is quite crucial would be an issue. UK takes bride in the NHS (but also likes to complain about it). I think in US the individual more directly pays for their care so this could be a lesser issue (by seeking the thing out you also brign comparable resources).
Speaking of which getting a condition recognised only to be told that there is no cure or mitigation of it can feel like a pointless endeavour. If there are some life difficulties their connection to the neurotype can be relieving that one doens’t need to worry about what all it could be. Its also a spectrum in the sense that its not a hard yes or no but the implications change for different shades of it. This might be considered improvement as trying to torture the autism away with ABA or exile from society as being a reject just basic acceptance goes a long way.