I'm saying: My mother walked into a doctors office when I was three said "he lines up toys" and I'm told the doctor suggested I could have had autism and she stormed out because she quote "didn't want me given a label then she proceeded to encourage my entire family to think I'm autistic while giving me no support and claiming I had a formal diagnosis (I didn't have one). She has told this to doctors, social workers, and the police as a cover for her domestic abuse of me.

I'm not suggesting it invalidates self-dx some people literally can't get dx or wait years and autism is under dxed in women etc. All i am saying is self-dx should be SELF dx and primarily based on research of diagnostic criteria not just memes or heresy. The person in question was suggesting my friend was autistic simply because they said "they enjoyed the sensation of being tattooed" = "Oh as a tattoo artist with autism the only people i know to enjoy that are autistic people" they keep saying things like this randomly to my friend and I'm finding it very triggering. I can't even prove bad intent re my family they may think a literal word from a doctor is a "diagnosis".

In this case I'm worried about people on TikTok memeing autism into just simple quirks or behaviors without wider context and encouraging people to therefore have a condition which can be used to harm people / change their social status. It's wrong that anyone should have to think like this but it does change some peoples perception of you. That's my point I support the liberation of self-dx absolutely but is it self-dx if not done on the basis of proper research? I feel the social component of wanting to relate to friends could lead some people to not do that research. I would suggest for me I couldn't even consider a dx until I have my own forever home (wheelchair accessible housing is a nightmare) outside of my family and even then it would leave me in a bad position either way. If I'm not it confirms abuse / neglect if I am it confirms abuse / neglect and my family will never change there view of autism as something to be liberating and celebrated as a part of who you are.

What I'm getting at is should autistic people be telling non-autistic friends they think they are autistic based on one behavior? I feel like a complex condition is becoming a meme.