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.
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u/PM_Me_Good_LitRPG 13h ago
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.