yea a lot of doctors don't really keep up with the science- and tbh even the science is a bit behind. For what it's worth I can look people in the eye if I really want to, and I'm definitely autistic. Diagnosed and everything.

Read an interesting statistic for ADHD and depression. If you're diagnosed with depression first, there's only a 7% chance you'll be diagnosed with ADHD. But if you're diagnosed with ADHD, there's a something like a 44% chance you'll get diagnosed with depression.

I imagine there's a similar problem with any diagnosis that has overlapping symptoms--once you get an official diagnosis, all your symptoms are viewed as evidence of the diagnosis you got and not the diagnosis you didn't.

Me myself, I've gotten depression, bipolar, borderline, anxiety, but never autism and the occassional times I've gotten attention, it was never considered central to my issues (it is).

It would be one thing if they acknowledged how subjective diagnoses are, but they love to masquerade as a hard science that has definitively proven something. The field is a disgusting and cruel joke.

I can look people in the eye if I have to.

I've got no idea what most facial expressions mean though.

Obviously the big hitters like laughing and crying etc

Coming to think of it, I've usually got no idea about what people think of me either

I'm in my 40's, how's an official diagnosis going to help?

How old were you? One big problem adults have getting diagnosed is they've learned to mask, even from themselves.

And since most of the money is in diagnosing kids, it seems lots of psychologists never learn to properly diagnose adults.