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Self-Identification
Twelve free modules for anyone who has recognised themselves in autism or ADHD without a diagnosis. What the word is doing, what the diagnostic criteria actually say, how to read your own history against them, what arrives after the recognition, and how to decide whether you want an in-depth assessment at all.
Where to start
Twelve modules, and this one is a sequence.
The two screener courses next door are a shelf you visit with a question. This one is not. It runs from whether you are allowed to use the word at all through to the Monday afterwards, and each part assumes the one before it. Read it in order.
Step one — the two modules of Part One.
Module 1 — Am I Allowed to Call Myself This? — Where self-identification came from, what the research actually found about the people who do it, the strongest case against it, and how to hold a description nobody handed you.
Module 2 — What a Label Is, and What It Is Not — Four different jobs the same word is doing, and why most arguments about self-identification are two people using different ones.
Start at Module 1. It is the one that answers the question most people arrive with, and everything after it rests on the position it sets out.
Step two — the evidence, Modules 3 to 5. What the diagnostic criteria actually say, how to read your own history against them, and where a screening questionnaire fits. Module 5 is also the door to the two screener courses.
Step three — the rest, as it arrives. Parts Three to Five are what happens after the recognition: grief and anger, telling people, finding your people, finding a therapist, and deciding whether you want an in-depth assessment at all.
Part One — Am I allowed?
Module 1 — Am I Allowed to Call Myself This?
Where self-identification came from, what the research actually found about the people who do it, the strongest case against it, and how to hold a description nobody handed you.
Module 2 — What a Label Is, and What It Is Not
Four different jobs the same word is doing, and why most arguments about self-identification are two people using different ones.
Part Two — The evidence
Module 3 — The Criteria, in Plain Language
What the diagnostic criteria for autism and ADHD actually say, translated, with the parts a questionnaire cannot reach made concrete.
Module 4 — Reading Your Own History
A structured re-examination of a life you have already lived and the document an assessor will actually ask you for.
Module 5 — Where Screeners Fit
What a screening questionnaire is for, what it cannot be for, and which of the two courses to open next.
Part Three — What arrives
Module 6 — Grief
For the childhood that had no explanation, the years of trying harder, and the version of you that got blamed.
Module 7 — Anger, and Relief
The other two feelings, why they alternate, and why relief so often arrives with guilt attached.
Part Four — Other people
Module 8 — Telling People
Partner, parents, employer, friends: what disclosure buys and what it costs, audience by audience.
Module 9 — Finding Your People
What the community offers, how to walk into it, and what to expect once you are there.
Module 10 — A Therapist Who Gets It
How to find one, what neuro-affirming should mean in practice rather than on a profile page, and what a bad fit looks like early.
Part Five — What next
Module 11 — Do I Want an In-Depth Assessment?
A decision aid, not a recommendation. What an assessment buys, what it costs, when self-identification is enough on its own, and how to get one without anybody selling you anything.
Module 12 — Monday Morning
What actually changes after you recognise yourself, what does not, the first three changes worth making, and when to come back.
If what you are looking for is not here
This course is about the recognition itself, not about measuring traits. The screening questionnaires live in the two sister courses, each taught with its limits shown: the Autistic Self-Discovery course and the ADHD Self-Discovery course. Module 5 explains what a screener can and cannot settle before you open either of them.
Who made this
New Path Family, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public charity that publishes free, plain-language education for autistic and ADHD adults and the people who love them. Everything here is free to read: no account, no sign-up, no payment. The nonprofit does not provide therapy or assessment and is not paid for referrals. The Worksheet Library holds more than 350 free worksheets, and you can talk with the New Path team if you want to.