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"you are not a professional, you can& #39;t diagnose" is an absurd argument when we talk about autism because most professionals have no clue what autism looks like beyond stereotypes. /1
The majority of doctors are NOT confident communicating with or accurately diagnosing autistic people. /2 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1362361320949734">https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/1...
This means misdiagnosis is the NORM for autistic people, and many of us go years being diagnosed with anything but autism. /3 https://autisticsciencelady.wordpress.com/2019/06/15/adult-misdiagnosis-the-default-path-to-an-autistic-identity/">https://autisticsciencelady.wordpress.com/2019/06/1...
No, I& #39;m not a "professional", but I have access to google scholar and the autistic community for research and outrospection, and I know myself better than any doctor who spends an hour with me + decides I& #39;m bipolar bc I look like a girl and have intense moods. /4
and yes, a lot of diagnoses have nearly identical symptom profiles. do you know why? because the DSM is a crude diagnostic tool based entirely on observable behavior. /5
This means the observer& #39;s personal biases are inevitably inserted into the diagnostic process, and considering that most doctors are white men, people end up being categorized based on race, gender, and class more than on actual facts about their brains. /6
The DSM criteria for autism is also inherently flawed, because it defines autism by how socially disruptive someone is, which means if you& #39;ve learned to mask, you can evade diagnosis altogether. /7
ASD is called a "social communication disorder", when we know from research on the double empathy problem that this is a misrepresentation based on the fact that non-autistic researchers struggle to understand autistic communication styles. /8
This study showed that autistic groups do not differ from non-autistic groups in their ability to share information with each other. The breakdown in communication happens between autistic and non-autistic people. /9 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1362361320919286">https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/...
Stimming is called "stereotyped and repetitive movements" in the DSM and it& #39;s often treated like a medical mystery, when any autistic person can tell you it& #39;s a thing we do to regulate our nervous systems and cope with sensory + emotional overload. /10
I honestly don& #39;t even know why restricted interests are pathologized, just let people enjoy things intensely. Nobody pathologizes doctors for studying one organ for a decade of their lives, nobody is like, hm, that musician just can& #39;t stop making music! must be a disorder! /11
AND A SIDE NOTE: why is talking to people who aren& #39;t physically there considered psychosis, but when you& #39;re praying to God, it& #39;s religion?? Psychiatry is super culturally biased. /12
We treat the DSM like a holy text when it& #39;s really just a collection of best guesses cobbled together in the last 50 years. Doctors barely even know how psychiatric medication works! Treatment is completely trial and error! /13
Let us not forget that being queer ("sexual orientation disturbance") was pathologized in the original DSM, and being trans still is ("gender dysphoria disorder"). /14
Disorders were also invented to explain why enslaved people tried to escape ("drapetomania"), and schizophrenia became disproportionately applied to Black men, particularly activists, during the civil rights movement. /15 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2010-02544-000">https://psycnet.apa.org/record/20...
Psychiatric diagnosis is highly problematic for a laundry list of reasons. Please stop worshipping the DSM and putting "professionals" on a pedestal. Doctors are fallible, and in my experience, often wrong. /16
