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Comment by itronitron | Hacker News Reader

Everyone does this, except maybe narcissists, sociopaths, and people on drugs.

I think maybe you can affirm this point without losing sight of the particularity of how it manifests for this population. Or really, maybe its ok to not say anything at all here about something maybe you don't have epistemic access to?

I would stay out of it except that the studies are starting to claim that people are autistic because they are suppressing (or not displaying) behaviors that have been categorized as autistic.

What is the particular worry of false positives/over-diagnosis in this sense?

I consider it inappropriate to label a person's response to a social situation they find uncomfortable as being caused by a disability.

Hopefully there is more going on than the article says (hoping this article like any other isn't good at the scientific details). DSM criteria for autism - requires 3 specific social characteristics and then a bunch of repetitive/restrictive characteristics: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/hcp-dsm.html

Of course that doesn't stop people from misusing (whether "You're not autistic" to "You must be autistic").

It's a matter of degree. You can feel sad but that doesn't mean you understand depression. You can get nervous but that doesn't mean you understand anxiety. You can have back pain but that doesn't mean you understand what it's like to break your back.

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