Maybe some good questions to ask for any person considering their position on the autism spectrum would go something like: How much does this affect me, how challenged do I feel, and how much help do I think I could get from exploring autism resources?

When I was first diagnosed, my instinct was to laugh it off. After some time, I began to think about my autism as an interesting phenomenon I’d like to know more about. It took quite a while before I began to admit to myself that I have a few serious problems because of my autism, and that understanding how it works can help me address those problems.

That’s not to say the whole picture is negative; I don’t want to oversimplify. I don’t hate being autistic, I like a lot of it. But for me the utility of my diagnosis was the ability to start working on some of the things that actually are negative.

Seen through that lens of utility, the question of am I autistic enough to count almost becomes moot.