Introduction

My reasons not to get an autism diagnosis

It wasn't until I turned 50 that I came to fully realize I was on the autism spectrum. I first began to get the inclination that I might be on the spectrum around the age of 40 when I first discovered my passion for coding Excel macros. This newfound love was a revelation, as the programming language used, mirrored the way I processed the world.

My Initial Signs

Around this time, I read an article about a Microsoft supervisor who was noting that his coders, all with Asperger's, could visualize complete coding structures in their minds and make edits to the coding and visualize how those edits would affect how the code ran. This struck a chord with me as I realized that was what I was doing inside my own head. I probably would have immediately pursued this clue about the mystery of me if it weren’t for my total aversion to mental health labels.

My Mother's Experience

Labels can have devastating effects, as I saw with my mother, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia while pregnant with me. This label haunted her, her entire life and arguably did more harm than the diagnosis itself. This experience solidified my resistance to any form of labeling. The more I learnt over my journey, the more I realized this resistance was highly justified.

Realization and Community

After that first realization that I might be on the spectrum, from time to time over the next ten years, the subject of autism would pop up in my life, nudging me closer and closer to accepting that it was something I needed to look into. I remembered driving to work one day with a friend and out of the blue he turned to me and said “Are you sure you are not autistic. It is like you are a genius at somethings but dumb as shit at others.” He said, “I watch how you socially interact with others, and you are absolutely clueless.” It wasn’t until I was fifty however, until I took the online autism quotient test, the empathizing quotient test and the systemizing quotient test. My results from these 3 tests all indicated I was on the spectrum however they recommended I get a clinical assessment.

I will never get a clinical assessment for the reasons I have been outlining in previous posts and will soon clarify. After taking the online tests I joined many autism and Aspergers Facebook groups. After spending all my life feeling like I was an alien from another planet, I instantly recognized my tribe. For the first time in my life, I was amongst people that spoke my language and looked at the world the same way I did. It is enough for me to know who my tribe is.

My Reasons not to get an Autism Diagnosis

I understand how many feel a sense of relief when they get an official diagnosis. I got that same sense of relief years previously when my workplace put us all through a personality test. At of a work crew of 80 my scores put me in a personality category separate from everyone else. The sense of relief that I got was from the realization that that difference I had always felt to those around me was not just in my own mind. It was something that was measurable and quantifiable. I suspect this same thing is at the core of the relief that those who get an official diagnosis feel.

My major problem with a clinical diagnosis is the label. Well, not actually the label itself, but rather all the garbage misconceptions that come with it, perpetuated by society and the mental health establishment itself. To accept a clinical diagnosis means to accept the label and therefore the baggage that comes with it. This I cannot accept for the following reasons:

1. Understanding of Autism is Incomplete

Despite advancements, the mental health establishment remains uncertain about what autism really is and its causes. The theories and interpretations remain largely unproven and subjective. In my early days, before I went to university to study a Bachelor of Psychology degree, I had the belief that psychology had all the answers. I became disillusioned very fast once I realized it was all just unproven theories. In fact, no theory is ever conclusively proven in psychology.

2. Mental Disorders as Constructs

Autism—and indeed most mental disorders—are constructs created by the mental health establishment. There are no consistent biomarkers for autism, making it a perception-based entity rather than a physically tangible condition.

3. Unproven Genetic and Biological Causes

The popular notion that autism has genetic or biological causes is flawed. The genetic and other biological factors identified are not present in all diagnosed cases, underscoring that they can only be contributing factors and are not required factors for autism to occur—This again, puts into question autism being a physical entity in any way.

4. Circular Reasoning in Diagnosis Criteria

The process of diagnosing autism itself is problematic. For an assessment team to determine if you are autistic, they must assess your behavior against the criteria set out in the DSM. The criteria in the DSM were worked out by studying autistic people. To work out who was autistic so they could study them and work out what to put in the DSM, they would have had to consult the DSM to determine if these people were autistic. Do you see the problem here? If we follow the path of logic, we end up becoming caught in a circular reasoning loop. If we keep following the loop back, we end up having to ask the question, how was the first person diagnosed with autism before any criteria for assessment existed. Sure, there is something different going on inside the subset of the population that has been labeled autistic, but the label itself and the box it comes with are illusionary constructs.

5. Subjectivity of Diagnosis Process

This is probably one of my main reasons not to get an autism diagnosis. The subjectivity in the whole diagnostic process is substantial. You might or might not be diagnosed with a disorder you may or may not actually have, that may or may not actually exist depending on who is assessing you, highlighting the inconsistency and unreliability of such assessments.

6. Influence of the Pharmaceutical Industry

The mental health field is profoundly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry. The creation and expansion of disorders often serve commercial interests rather than genuine medical needs. Accepting a clinical diagnosis involves accepting a framework driven by questionable motivations.

7. Retaining Personal Autonomy

Staying free of labels allows me to define who I am. I can construct my belief system and self-definition without conforming to external labels that may not serve my best interests.

8. Not Identifying as Autistic

While I connect deeply with the autistic community, I reject the mental health establishment’s definition of what it means to be autistic. I understand who I am and who my tribe is, but that understanding doesn't require the acceptance of a flawed label applied by a seriously flawed establishment.

9. Empowering Self-Definition

I define myself as someone who, due to certain environmental experiences, came to experience extreme neural divergence and developed a predominantly systemizing cognitive style, in place of the predominantly empathizing cognitive style, I would have developed had I not been blocked from the socialization process. This empowering definition I now have of myself, will not allow me to fit into the box that a clinical assessment team would try to place me in. My reasons not to get an autism diagnosis are far too many .

Conclusion

Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against the study of psychology itself. It is essential for us to further our understanding of ourselves and our place in the universe. It is how these findings are used by the Mental Health Establishment to determine its direction that I have the problem with.

For me, accepting a clinical autism diagnosis would mean endorsing a range of myths, misconceptions, biases, and commercial influences. Because of my reasons not to get an autism diagnosis, I choose to rely on my self-understanding and the sense of belonging I’ve found within my tribe. Until autism is no longer seen as a disorder, its nature is fully understood, and it is no longer something that is considered needs curing, I will continue to reject the label and instead continue to navigate this world through Ultimate Divergence.

For those who wish to explore this further I have also uploaded a video to my You Tube Channel: Ultimate Divergence, entitled "My reasons not to get an autism diagnosis will shock you!"

Download your FREE PDF, "The Top Three Myths about Autism and the Path to Spiritual Wellness for Autistic Adults". It's your roadmap to Ultimate Divergence.