Is an autism diagnosis reliable?

[AION]

So I recently got a diagnosis saying I’m on the autism spectrum  and I’m going to be brutally honest here .. I don’t buy it. I’m not writing this to offend anyone who identifies as autistic or finds their diagnosis helpful or grounding. I’m writing this because I need to speak my truth, and maybe some of you have had similar experiences and can relate.

 

Let’s start with the basics. They say I’m “on the spectrum,” but I genuinely don’t recognize myself in the typical descriptions of autism. I don’t have fixations. I don’t rock back and forth, I don’t get overwhelmed by lights and sounds, I don’t have rigid routines that I melt down if broken. In fact, I thrive in chaos. I’m highly adaptive. I’m quick on my feet. And the idea that I lack empathy , the stereotype people so often associate with autism , is outright absurd in my case.

 

If anything, I feel too much. I pick up on things others don’t. I can walk into a room and feel what people are feeling. I’ve had moments where people have literally asked me, “How did you know I was thinking that?” I’ve always assumed that was my mirror neurons working on overdrive. I intuitively read faces, tones, micro-expressions. I sense the unspoken dynamics in conversations. I’ve had to tone that ability down because it makes people uncomfortable when you see through them that easily. That doesn’t sound like a deficit in social cognition  that sounds like hypersocial awareness.

 

The only thing I do relate to is getting stuck in my head. I analyze a lot. I can overthink and sometimes get lost in my own inner world. But I see that more as part of being intensely introspective, intelligent, maybe even creative, not as a disorder. I’ve always thought deeply. I reflect on life, people, systems, ideas. That doesn’t feel pathological to me, it feels human. If anything, it feels like a gift.

 

So here’s what I think is really going on: I’m neurodivergent, sure  but not in the boxed-up, medicalized, DSM-style way they want to label people. I think differently, I move differently through life, I question things deeply. I don’t fit into the standard molds, and for a lot of therapists or psychologists, that’s just too much. They can’t figure me out, so they fall back on the autism label  because it’s easier than admitting their framework doesn’t fit someone like me. It’s a way to cope with their own limitations.

 

And that’s the part that actually pisses me off.

 

There’s a lot of talk these days about how nuanced and diverse neurodivergence is, but in practice, many professionals still treat these labels like cookie cutters. If you don’t behave in a way that fits their standardized expectations of “mental health,” suddenly you’re disordered. If you question authority or don’t conform to their communication style, boom, now you’re “autistic.” It’s a catch-all for anyone who makes them feel out of depth.

 

What’s worse is that this kind of labeling is often used to invalidate people’s perceptions of themselves. If I say I feel deeply for others, I’m told I must be misinterpreting or masking. If I explain that I have a nuanced understanding of social dynamics, they tell me I must be intellectualizing it, not actually feeling it. It’s like they’ve already decided the story, and anything that contradicts it gets reinterpreted as “a symptom.”

 

I’m tired of it. I’m tired of therapists with a narrow skillset projecting their own confusion back onto me as if I’m broken. I’m tired of being told that I must not really understand people, because that’s not what someone “on the spectrum” would do. And I’m tired of being put in a category that doesn’t reflect who I am  just to make it easier for someone else to make sense of me.

 

Here’s what I believe:

 

I’m intensely perceptive, emotionally and intellectually.

I think deeply and get lost in my thoughts sometimes, but that’s a trait, not a disorder.

I’m socially attuned  perhaps even hyper-attuned  to other people’s inner states.

I’m neurodivergent, yes, but not autistic in the way they describe it.

Most therapists are simply not equipped to deal with people who don’t fit their models.

 

 

I’m writing this because I know I can’t be the only one who feels this way. Maybe you’ve also been handed a diagnosis that didn’t sit right with you. Maybe you’ve also felt like you were being squeezed into a category that flattens the complexity of who you really are. Maybe you’ve also seen the limitations of the mental health system and how it deals with people who are outside the norm  but not disordered. People treat you different if you say you have the diagnosis so I don’t tell people.

 

I’m open to hearing other people’s perspectives, even from those who do identify with their autism diagnosis. I don’t think one experience invalidates another. But I want to create space here for people who feel mislabeled, misunderstood, or misdiagnosed  especially those of us who live somewhere off the map. 

 

[LastThursday]

Just some thoughts off the top of my head. 

Autism Spectrum is just that, a constellation of traits that you may or may not have. IMO there is an argument for dividing the spectrum up into different conditions, as they really are quite different as you point out. I don't know the history of classification too well, but I think there used to be separate conditions (i.e. Aspergers) instead of a spectrum. 

The only reason I can see for getting a diagnosis in anything is that whatever it is is negatively impacting your life: if there is no problem, then there is no disorder to diagnose. Labelling can be helpful to some people, as it can give them an explanation for their problems and can offer them support. But as you say, a label can be restrictive if others choose to discriminate you based on it or you use the label as an excuse for not engaging with life. A label is always someone's subjective opinion even if if it's dressed up as objective "truth" - you don't have to accept the label.

I suspect that like you I'm neurodivergent, and I know that I have had social difficulties in the past and to some degree still do. I don't want a diagnosis, because I don't feel that it would be useful to me and/or because my life isn't too negatively impacted by it. My niece has been diagnosed with autism, and if it helps her then all the better for her I would say.

 

[SwiftQuill]

@AION I get what you're saying but I don't think all psychologists treat ASD as a disorder. Yes I know the "D" stands for disorder. But many psychologists do have a nuanced, non pathological interpretation of it.

My psych sometimes says I have autistic traits, sometimes says I'm on the spectrum. But she has told me many times there's nothing wrong with that. It's a condition, a set of traits, but she doesn't approach it as an illness. She treats this as a neutral condition, like "introversion" or "openness to experience". It has good sides and drawbacks.

I think ASD as a diagnosis can be useful for you to understand yourself better. For me at least it provides a good lens to explain my personality, behaviors, and social challenges.

ASD, if anything, can be perhaps too broad of a category. Too much empathy can be a symptom. Lack of empathy can be a symptom. Too much focus can be a symptom. Lack of focus can be a symptom.

I think really the only common pattern in ASD is difficulty in social integration.

Anyway I suggest not to care too much about the label of autism. You can accept it, and use it as a tool to study yourself. Or you can reject it. For many people who have high functioning autism or very moderate traits, it can be difficult to distinguish between a character flaw and a part of the "condition". If you think the diagnosis doesn't serve you personal development strategy then ignore it.

Edited May 30 by SwiftQuill

[Basman]

The pros of getting a diagnosis is predominately about acceptance, unmasking and access to support and accommodation, but if those are all things that you don't feel you need you'll probably just find it stigmatizing I bet. In that case it is better do without in my opinion. You don't need specialized treatment if you don't have debilitating symptoms if it stigmatizes more than it helps. Just treat whatever issues you have as is.

[Salvijus]

Maybe everyone is on the spectrum. 0.01% of autism is not a big deal. 

Edited May 30 by Salvijus

[integral]

7 hours ago, SwiftQuill said:

My psych sometimes says I have autistic traits, sometimes says I'm on the spectrum. But she has told me many times there's nothing wrong with that. It's a condition, a set of traits, but she doesn't approach it as an illness. She treats this as a neutral condition, like "introversion" or "openness to experience". It has good sides and drawbacks.

This is true but it also reveals the limitations of Western psychology. They're not able to fit everything into a larger framework so they still keep these super broad terms and cast big Nets that basically lose all meaning. It's similar with the big five, it is one of the most useless models.

What they have to do is dissect the Mind into many models and then view it from all these different perspectives at the same time and then incorporated it all into a larger framework.

Most models are very limited in isolation.

Edited May 30 by integral

[Carl-Richard]

If I may ask, what help were you seeking that required a diagnosis?

[AION]

17 hours ago, Carl-Richard said:

If I may ask, what help were you seeking that required a diagnosis?

I was stuck in my mental swamp, not taking action and such. But I discovered regular psychologists can't help me with this. I helped myself through meditation and Ralston's book of not knowing helped me to get out of the mental swamp and into being(real life) and start living.  Not knowing is a super power because I'm a person who is curious and wants to know everything and I can get bogged down in my own imagination. Probably because I have such a powerful mind. 

[AION]

@SwiftQuill
I resonate with much of what you said. It’s encouraging that your psychologist views autism more as a personality constellation than a pathology. That kind of framing is helpful, especially in a culture where the DSM tends to essentialize human behavior into checklists. The notion that ASD can simply be a lens through which to understand oneself (rather than a prison) is powerful. I’m also skeptical, however, about how useful or coherent the category is if it includes traits as broad as "too much empathy" and "lack of empathy." It begins to sound less like a diagnosis and more like a poetic umbrella for difference. Maybe that’s not a bad thing but it raises philosophical questions about precision, usefulness, and truth.

@Basman
You make a good point about unmasking and access to support. That’s the pragmatic side of diagnosis, and I completely understand why some people would pursue it for those reasons. Still, I wonder: if the diagnosis is primarily for "fitting in better" or for securing accommodations, then isn’t it ultimately shaped by our society's failure to allow diversity in ways of being  

 

@integral
I agree the broad brushstrokes of Western psychology tend to flatten nuance in an effort to produce scalable, publishable models. While I respect the utility of certain frameworks like the Big Five, they are often contextless and don't account for developmental, spiritual, or cultural layers of mind. As you said, what’s needed is a kind of perspectival integration ,models in dialogue rather than in competition. Maybe autism is better understood through a web of frames: cognitive science, phenomenology, somatics, spirituality, and even cultural critique.  

[Aaron p]

@AION cool post bro. 

I actually resonate deeply with it. I myself have autism I'm pretty sure but not lots. It was basically not managed well for my entire childhood with Christian parents who just sing to jesus all day as a means to try fix things.

On 30/05/2025 at 11:50 AM, AION said:

If anything, I feel too much. I pick up on things others don’t. I can walk into a room and feel what people are feeling. I’ve had moments where people have literally asked me, “How did you know I was thinking that?” I’ve always assumed that was my mirror neurons working on overdrive. I intuitively read faces, tones, micro-expressions. I sense the unspoken dynamics in conversations. I’ve had to tone that ability down because it makes people uncomfortable when you see through them that easily. That doesn’t sound like a deficit in social cognition  that sounds like hypersocial awareness.

 

The only thing I do relate to is getting stuck in my head. I analyze a lot. I can overthink and sometimes get lost in my own inner world. But I see that more as part of being intensely introspective, intelligent, maybe even creative, not as a disorder. I’ve always thought deeply. I reflect on life, people, systems, ideas. That doesn’t feel pathological to me, it feels human. If anything, it feels like a gift.

I resonate with this all very very deeply. This is me. although I personally experienced a lot of pain and suffering in early life which made me supppa strong and spiritually sensitive. This might sound like bs but my degree of energetic sensitivity notably surpasses reading facial expressions or reading the room. I can actually read things that relate to me without being near them. Like I can just know shit with incredible accuracy. I can feel the energy in my ass cheeks (not even joking) lol. Sometimes it's blurry and not clear but sometimes it's mega clear and super powerful and impossible, you should try do this bro sounds like you can do it. God tells me the future lol. I mean I can't control it or when I hear it or how clearly I hear it, but just little glimpses here and there, really really fucking powerful.

Anyway, yeah, Im pretty sure I got hit with a dose of the 'tism prism. Used to make me super weird and just energetically strange lol. But burned through all the karma and now I'm great. 

The way I know I have it (and maybe the way you might be able to tell if you yourself have it) is when I get stressed. When I get stressed out it feels like my entire mind melds together like play dough and becomes hard to compartmentalise stuff. Feels like an energetic swelling. Kinda feels like sometimes my mind just becomes one thing like a blob of play dough and because it's just a swelling blob of energy it can't do much. But eh, it's rare. 

Perhaps look at some times when you get really stressed and just analyse your memories to see if there's ever been times where you just can't deal with shit and it swells like an energetic ball of expanding retardation 

Btw just to directly answer your question in relation to how trustworthy diagnoses are... Honestly psychologists and doctors are human like you and me. Granted their humans with a lot of theoretical research and high standards with methods that are quite effective certainly many times more effective than what they were 100-500 years ago... But they're still human. I haven't personally validated or verified this claim but my suspicions are that different professionals would give different diagnosis depending on who they are what age they are they're experience and where they're from. Not sure if it's real or not but I also seen a video of a person delivering and identical list of symptoms and manifestations to multiple psychologists and medical practitioners and they all gave diagnoses of disorders that were different but all hovering around the same kind of thing. So they are accurate to a degree but I mean even in my own experience they're not that good and it depends where you're from heavily. But I also don't want to appear to try to undermine the validity of medical practitioners and psychologists and the methods that they used to diagnose... Lots of it is very accurate but some of it isn't. Just hold without believer or disbelieving. They can be right and they can be wrong... But they definitely do more good than harm overall

Edited Sunday at 04:38 PM by Aaron p

[Hojo]

Autism means you can pick up on energy levels around you super hard and have less of an identity. So you said you had it. 

Autistics are not not empathetic ,Its like ultra empathy. Its like being gaslit on the energy level.

Its kinda like Im not a human I dont have an identity but I am super tuned into my antennea and feel qualia way more.

I think I have a form of it and I see thats why I was so depressed. I would go into rooms and feel the negative energy of other humans and think its directed at me or that its how I felt. Like if you are in a room with someone and they feel like shit, you feel it and think why does this person not like me but really they are just negative energy its not their fault or yours.

They stim because when an autistic person just sits there,their identity starts dissolving very fast and its feels like dying.

Being autistic is like a super power you are highly tuned to energy. It can also get out of control and some of them are in very negative energy areas and just start loosing it.

Like an autists will hear and taste colours normally. They will look at patterns and objects and just get blasted with qualia non stop.

But they suck at the identity part of life, talking, self, eye contact, following orders, making friends, speech, writing.

Autism is more what reality is when you dont have a body then not. You will just fly around experiencing qualia, the body lets you stay in one place while you do it so you can not become the thing.

Autism is a gift , people dont realize what autism is. Its not what scientists are saying. You can look at people and feel their qualia.Its like you are a psychologist with no training you automatically can know what the person is feeling.

Ignore everything scientist and negative beleifs towards autism. You have it you can see it you can use it you know what it is more than a scientist or psychologist. You can use their tools they give you to help but they dont know whats its like you do. Its like hyper intution trust yourself.

Edited Sunday at 03:00 PM by Hojo

[Sugarcoat]

I got evaluated for autism but didn’t meet enough criteria for the diagnosis. Autism apparently needs to show in childhood, and I didn’t have the symptoms in childhood so that’s one of the reasons I didn’t get the diagnosis. 
 

 Doctors write in my journal that I have delusions. Imagine being so outside the norm, having such unique experiences that it’s labeled as delusion. That’s my situation. It doesn’t bother me though. 
 

Autism has certain criteria. And when you’re properly evaluated they look to see if you fit those criteria. Maybe you just fit enough criteria to get the diagnosis (doesn’t sound like it according to your post, don’t know what the hell you told them about yourself that made you fit the criteria). Then it’s a valid diagnosis. But then it could be debated if someone could fit criteria for a diagnosis but still not have the diagnosis. But then it’s a question of, what even defines the diagnosis? Is it something that could be observed in the brain? Is there such a thing as an “autistic brain”. If it is, then that’s a very reliable criteria to fill.

 

In order to answer wether your diagnosis is reliable or not, you’d have to research the autism criteria, what defines it, what the science behind it says, and then secondly you’d have to see if the place and psychologist that evaluated you follow the standard science properly. 

Edited Sunday at 08:30 PM by Sugarcoat

[Basman]

On 31/05/2025 at 1:50 PM, AION said:

Still, I wonder: if the diagnosis is primarily for "fitting in better" or for securing accommodations, then isn’t it ultimately shaped by our society's failure to allow diversity in ways of being?

No, because autism is a kind of disability depending on the severity. A lack of affect is a kind of mild disability at least since we are a social species. Severe forms of autism on the other hand are debilitating. Specialized treatment is how society accommodates for disabilities. 

I've seen autistic people not being able to hold a job because it was "too dusty" where they worked. How is society supposed to accommodate sensitivity to that level? 

By the way, when I wrote "acceptance" in my previous post, I was mainly referring to self-acceptance as a result of better self-understanding ("why am I such a weirdo?" etc.)

Edited Sunday at 08:55 PM by Basman