than a professional who likely studied the subject Unless you find a doctor where that is their specialty, then the likelihood for most other doctors is that they have only spent a few hours on the matter and possibly quite a long time ago.

Finding an answer to your « uniqueness » is so convenient, that you will likely reject anything that does not fit the story, One can be scientific in their process. I also didn’t come to this completely solo… I’ve been married for a long time and my SO has a masters degree in education. There’s a decent chance that she’s had as much professional training on the subject as many doctors. We’ve been looking for answers and doing research for years, not hours. Even though I fully accept that I am autistic at this point, I still look for information that contradicts that conclusion. Usually what happens, though, is that I’ll stumble upon yet another thing that fits perfectly with the diagnosis. The same person who did the video in this post has another one about autists walking on the balls of their feet. I had no idea this was an autistic trait and I’ve done that my whole life.

It’s frustrating that so many professionals don’t have training on autism. I would have had a lot of life benefit if I could have been diagnosed decades ago instead of only recently. As I mentioned to someone else, I’m not averse to getting professionally diagnosed, but I can see absolutely no benefit in doing so. I’m in my 50’s. I’m not aware of any resources that will be opened up to me upon an official diagnosis that make it worth the time, effort, and cost. I remain open to learning otherwise and reconsidering…