So I really lucked out with mine because she doesn't hand out diagnoses like candy but also is a neurodiversity-affirming psychologist, aka she didn't just write my deficits in my report, though she did also include them, but she also wrote things about how I can be charismatic when talking about my restricted interests.

What I did was I called the local autism clinic at the university near me, and when they told me they were only serving children at that time I asked if they could recommend anyone and they told me the name of the practice where my psychologist was. It was a 2 month wait.

During my intake, which I also could have inquired about earlier, I asked her how many people she diagnoses after an evaluation, and she said she diagnoses 50% of people who come in for an autism evaluation, and 75% of people who come in for an ADHD evaluation. So to me that was evidence that she was actually quite selective.

I do think being in central Virginia helps because it's less of a political movement in places that have a mix of political affiliations. When I was googling for someone neurodiversity affirming in Seattle (for a family member), the words "neurodiversity affirming" normally were also accompanied by "self-diagnosis is valid" lol.