Invalidating statements you can safely ignore as an undiagnosed autistic person

"I don't know who needs to hear this, but you're not autistic"

I've seen a shocking number of people starting posts and videos like this lately... including clinicians, which has been especially disheartening to see... and I think it's time we talk about it.

Because no one needs to hear this.

Not a single person.

Not because some people aren't wrong about being autistic.

Because the entire premise of this statement is flawed in the first place. 

Because it's an assertion based on a highly flawed assumption...

That people are self-diagnosing in droves after watching a single TikTok video.

So, if I'm assuming positive intent here, that a well-meaning person truly believes this... it makes sense that they would think people would be just as quick to un-self-diagnose from a single video.

But here's the problem. The major flaw in this thinking...

People don't actually self-diagnose after watching a single video.

There is no evidence to support this claim. None. 

What's actually happening is that people are seeing autistic people talk about autism and are getting curious. 

And as they engage with the content on social media, the algorithm feeds them more of it, and they are suddenly falling down a very deep rabbit hole about autism.

They watch. They read. They learn. They self-discover.

It's a whole entire process. 

A long one. And often an extremely thorough one.

Do some people get it wrong after all of that? Sure. Some do. But not most. (There's research on this. I'll share it in another post.)

So, back to the whole "I don't know who needs to hear this, but you're not autistic" thing...

No one is going to watch a video that says this and suddenly be convinced they're not autistic. 

Because, just like they needed mounds of information to come to the conclusion about BEING autistic (even if it turned out to be wrong)... they need ACTUAL information explaining WHY they're not autistic to come to the conclusion that they're not.

And we're not talking about any information here.

We're talking about information that explains how autism isn't the right diagnosis FOR THEM.

Which no single person can offer in a single video. 

It's impossible. 

So, all these videos do is invalidate and condescend people who know a boatload more about autism IN THE CONTEXT OF THEIR OWN LIVED EXPERIENCES than any of the people claiming there is no way they're autistic.

So who needs to hear it?

No one.

The end.