The medical field has been moving away from autism as a pathology to a more nuanced understanding of neurodiversity as a multidimensional spectrum. While stigma very much functions as a societal cudgel, a diagnosis can actually be extremely positive and liberating because:

- it gives access to a community of people that share your life's experiences. Seeing how alienating society can be to people on the spectrum, finally finding a peer group is life-changing.

- it allows us to put names on certain things we experience, and communicate those things to the people we interact with. Being able to frame some of my experiences and behaviours has resolved pretty much all the conflicts we used to have in my relationship.

- it deconstructs shame. We are now not just "lazy" or "stupid" or "creepy" or "weird" or "emotionless" or "stunted" or "distracted".

- it frames the fact that autism is a disability mostly as a problem with society not being accomodating to our neurological fabric, not the other way round. It allows us to ask for accomodation in a professional setting, for example