Oh, yes, O'Toole seems to have a lot of things she's working through -- I hadn't recognized the wish for community until you said it, but now that you have I do think you're right, that's part of it. And also a skewed sample set, and I think she has a lot of self-esteem issues that are soothed if she can view all of it from the unifying lens of being on the spectrum. (She actually says in the book that when she was diagnosed it was a huge relief because then she could think of herself as not a failure. Which makes me sad for her!)