This is the viewpoint most similar to mine. Sometimes I relate strongly to the complaints of people identifying with ASD, and sometimes not. I have some of the traits to an extreme, and am utterly lacking in other traits deemed central to diagnosis. I didn't have any developmental problems besides socializing - in fact I was precocious about everything. My father is textbook ASD, but nobody else in the family is. We're just all introverted, geeky, oversensitive, and both over-empathetic and a little misanthropic. What to do? I consider the traits by themselves instead of labeled clusters of traits.

At least over here, one of the requirements for diagnosis is that it impacts your life negatively enough to benefit from being labeled and receiving treatment. What makes you think this is not the case?

My point is that the individual symptoms -- such behavioral rigidity and slow processing of sensory inputs -- can be treated appropriately (accommodations and therapy) without regard for whether they are "autism". It's not like "arm pain" -> "x-ray shows broken bone" -> "put a cast on it"

There are disorders besides ASD, that share or overlap in some of the traits, and also cause distress.