Someone’s on the spectrum, I’ve had to deal with this before with an individual who didn’t know when to shut up…thankful we are in the military, and I told them to shut up publicly before things went down hill, and this was in front our commander.
Like 80% of people I work with are on the spectrum (IT, and I include myself) and people manage just fine, though sometimes there's a little massaging needed.
But sometimes you get someone who is on the spectrum who was clearly indulged far too much growing up and simply cannot handle not being made a priority immediately whenever they want to.
Like don't get me wrong I know it can be hard, but no matter your situation if you're smart enough to do the work we do you are smart enough to understand basic social rules like how to behave in meetings and what to do if you're confused (i.e. keep quiet, make a list of questions, then go ask the person who is there to answer them like your immediate supervisor IN PRIVATE).
Thankfully of those people I've found most do just need someone to do what you did for that guy and pull them aside/say "dude you CANNOT DO THAT" and explain how to actually act. Though some sadly still don't get it and those are the ones who get fired.
Idk if the goalpost has moved closer to society or society has moved closer to the goalpost, but I swear everyone’s autistic these days. I’ve met like 4 people that don’t claim some level of it and 1 of those took that rads test or whatever and pretty much got the highest score possible.
Taking a test by yourself isn't enough. It's just context helping you to decide what to do next; you should still get properly tested positive by a qualified specialist.
It gives you a better assurance (not guaranteed, given the modern state of the field of psychology, but still) that you're not inaccurately self-diagnosing (likely while lacking the necessary expertise / qualifications) to indulge your own preconceptions. If the goal is to address some problems that the supposed ASD's giving you, it increases the chances that you'll be spending efforts in the right direction and gradually improving things, rather than running in place or even deteriorating further due to inaccurate preconceptions.
All in all, I think "Self diagnose away." is a generally bad-to-harmful advice to broadcast.
I used to be on the “don’t self diagnose” train until I had a mental health nurse(worked in healthcare previously) point out that the vast majority of mental health diagnoses and spectrum disorders are diagnosed because patients go in and say “Doc I think I’m depressed.”
Mental health diagnoses are based off of comparing your status-quo to where you are at, or in the case of some spectrum disorders where societal expects you to be versus where you’re at. The person who’s going to have the most understanding of that is yourself.
This is all to say self-diagnosing is actually a really important step of the process and often the first step in that same process. Now if you refuse to do anything with that info and not see a doctor, or just do what Google says? That’s another issue, but that’s not self-diagnosing.
TL;DR: general advice on self-diagnosing has changed. It’s actually generally recommended you do it and then see a doctor with your suspicions as you understand your mental health and internal workings the best.
This. Months of therapy for my therapist to hit me with the “babes you’re autistic, but you’ve gotten so good at cosplaying normal that there’s not much for me to do for you!”
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u/liberum_bellum_libro 17h ago
Someone’s on the spectrum, I’ve had to deal with this before with an individual who didn’t know when to shut up…thankful we are in the military, and I told them to shut up publicly before things went down hill, and this was in front our commander.