@alice@actuallyautistic To me, it's not even a question of validity. It's necessary! If I hadn't suspected mine, it would've never been diagnosed, I've gotten so good at masking that many psychiatrists and therapists missed the OBVIOUS autism in the room when talking to me.
It took me, wondering what the fuck was wrong with me and hours of digging around to come to the conclusion that it may be autism. I met with a therapist who knowns her shit, talked to her about why I questioned it and she was like: "Oh. Yeah, it's actually quite obvious with you, can't believed no one noticed." Yeah. Me too.
Official diagnostic in the works now. This could be life changing for me. Still though, I'm resentful at the failure of the medical system and all of the people who failed, or didn't even care to see the obvious signs...