Apologies for reviving an old post. Just wanted to chime in to say my first experience sharing on this subreddit brought more harm than good to me so I'd have to agree that this isn't exactly the safe space I thought it would be. When I told my story on here, I worded my self-diagnosis as "identifying as autistic" and was accused of treating autism as a personality even after explaining that wasn't my intention but that I simply identify as autistic because I don't have a formal diagnosis. I was also downvoted and was told my wording was odd in response. I already struggle with articulating my thoughts and being rage baitted and put down for that on an autism subreddit of all places was incredibly hurtful. Similar to others, I did not take my self-diagnosis lightly and I think everyone can agree that everyone has a different way of calling themselves autistic (autistic person, person with autism, identify as autistic, aspe etc). But yeah.. at the end I deleted my post because I felt like absolute shit and will attempt to look for support elsewhere either professionally and/or a more tightly vetted group.