Ha yeah I did this for about 15 years before getting my diagnosis.

When I first learned about autism at age 14 I was like "Oh, that definitely sounds like what I have. Good to know".

But didn't know much about autism at all, just the kind of "they're rude, they're smart" stereotype. I also thought I must be super high-functioning so didn't know any benefit of a diagnosis. I didn't even know about sensory issues, let alone accomodations.

People would make jokes about "you're so autistic" to me but if I ever took it seriously and said I think I actually might be, they'd always get defensive and say "You're just shy, everyone's a bit autistic, you're using it as an excuse" etc... so I had a lot of guilt and imposter syndrome.

Amazingly it was actually TikTok where I finally started to learn more about autism. It led to start trying accommodations and when I found them helpful I started taking a diagnosis seriously (mostly to resolve the imposter syndrome I had). Got it just a few months ago at age 29.