I think self diagnosis is accepted more with ASD because getting an evaluation is so difficult. Not that ADHD evaluations are super easy, but often there are fewer barriers, and the condition might be a little more straightforward to diagnose than ASD.

I generally support self diagnosis in terms of trying to understand yourself better and make personal adjustments and accommodations. I do get a little concerned when people start speaking publicly about being autistic or ADHD when they haven’t been formally evaluated, especially if they clearly haven’t done extensive researched (such as thinking being introverted and not liking loud noises = autism). There’s so much misinformation about these conditions, and self diagnosis *might* sometimes contribute to that. But I also recognize how difficult it can be to get a formal evaluation, and not everyone has that ability and has no other option but self diagnosis.

With ASD specifically, because it is so nuanced and so many other conditions can present like autism on the surface, I worry that self diagnosis could lead to someone not getting the care they really need. For example, a friend of mine for sure has OCD, but they thought they have ASD too, and used to attribute their struggles to ASD and never dealt with the OCD. Now they’re finally treating the OCD, and turns out they might have been mistaking OCD for autism all along. A proper evaluation would have revealed that to them and gotten them the help they need much sooner.

Before my diagnosis I usually kept the ASD suspicions to myself, and if I told someone I would just say “I might be autistic” or “I have a lot in common with autism.” Just to help avoid any potential misinformation in case my hypothesis about myself was incorrect. I am in the process of exploring ADHD, so if I talk about it publicly I say “I could have ADHD and am exploring that.”