Rant about people with "self-diagnosed" AS

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So you say.

You offer no coherent reason for this.

In your mind, maybe.

But you still haven't given us any reason to believe that there is anyone who fulfils you new criterion - which is rather unclear - someone who says they are AS to be trendy? - Which seems curiously self-contradictory.

?


You don't.
I could.
I won't.
The thread shows how strong the feeling is here against your subject:

Why you chose to put quotes around "self-diagnosed" is unclear.
You certainly seem to want to alienate the large number of members who list themselves as "Have Aspergers - Undiagnosed".
You also managed to alienate everyone else.

The board is very supportive of all its members, be they even (shock horror!) NT. I don't think any here are too bothered if someone might be struggling and may have inaccurately chosen to ascribe their difficulties to Asperger's syndrome. That would be irrelevant, plus I don't recall ever seeing that being the case.

The fact is that you started this thread, it got the response it deserved, but you seem insensitive to that response.

Yep, I probably have pretty easy access to a DX.
I go to a university and they offer a certain number of free visits to the on campus psychologists. I'm still not going. What would that do for me? He can confirm my suspician, and then what? Then i have a record that will do me absolutely no good. Or he can deny, and say its nothing. Does that change anything? I'm still me, and I'm just here because all of you have very similar thought processes and behaviors, feelings and attitudes.

So why go through the trouble? Who even are you talking about? Me? Just because I don't want a DX though i have easy access to one? Who is on here talking that sounds fake? I don't think someone is going to fake it and then repeatedly come back on here and maintain that facade. And even if they do...whatever.

And since when is lazyness and selfishness part of being an Aspie anyway? That's a human (maybe an American?) trait that can be universal to all.

I think what he meant by lazyness and sefishness is aspies appear to be selfish because we act like we don't care about other people because we think about ourselves and we forget to think about how they might feel which can be difficult for us. We are also inflexible so we might appear selfish to normal people, also the fact we don't pick up on nonverbal cues and social cues so it might look like to others we are ignoring them because we don't care but that is not true.

Also laziness because some don't have jobs or even try and get one because it's hard on them because of socialness, flexibility, non verbal cues, etc. and some might refuse to make friends because it's real difficult. So it might appear lazy to some people.

I would be pleasantly surprised if a campus psychologist has the experience necessary to diagnose ASCs in adulthood. We're a hard breed to diagnose.

Off topic?

What I dislike is the depression I have had as a result of AS. Yeah depression stinks but the meds to help with it mess up my memory so I don't know if the reason i cant remeber new social skills is because of AS or Anti Depressant side effects.

so, this is the real issue,you are prejudiced against your own diagnosis. You don't like 'those people' and you are one of them. It is like hating someone of another race or religion and one morning waking up to find you ARE one. Self hatred, and people that don't even have to live this way are calling themselves Asperger's (ooh, you hate the name!) and they don't even know how it is to have to live like this.
like you do.

Merle

_________________________
life's a b***h, then you die. . .

Damn! That's like the time when Cartman didn't like the gingers.

Piece of cake over here for the professionals (generic doctors/psychos too).

I've probably adapted as well as a person can with my level of ASD too (this is if intelligence equates to such).

I'm diagnosed with an ASD but I really don't think labels are important. The whole point of a website like this is to talk to people who are like you and who understand the kinds of things you're going through, right?

Just because one person has a diagnosis and another person doesn't that mean that it's impossible for them to struggle with some of the same things; It doesn't automatically mean that they can't understand or relate to one another, or help each other out. The whole point of a diagnosis is to understand what's happening, to explain it to yourself and other people, to solve problems, and sometimes to empower yourself and say "HEY! There is a place in the world for my struggle and my ways of doing/seeing things so there!" Not having a diagnosis doesn't change your issues, your needs, etc.

I dunno if I made sense there, but I just see it holistically. If a person has an ASD then they have an ASD, diagnosis or not. And ASDs are just labels for clusters of attributes, they aren't real things--your struggles or challenges or nontypical traits aren't more or less real because of how many you have, what combination of them you have, or whether or not somebody subjectively judges them to belong to a certain label. I'm not saying ASDs aren't real or anything, I guess I"m just emphasizing the "Spectrum" in Autism Spectrum Disorders--it's not a black and white issue like "you are or you aren't." And because of that (and because of how old you are, and how much money you have, and where you live and other practical reasons), diagnoses are hard to obtain. Even if you are diagnosed with an ASD it's not like testing positive for HIV three times in a row. I question my diagnosis all the time because I think about what use it is REALLY and who decides what and ASD is....

Zancaur: You've learned a valuable lesson here. Don't walk into a group and basically call them all a bunch of lying fakes. You may not have used those exact words, but it's the message you gave. As you found out, there are many reasons for being undiagnosed. You also have no right to say people are "hiding" behind it and are really antisocial geek NTs who are using the Aspergers name to be cool. If someone believes they are, and relate to it they probably ARE Aspergers - and if they are not they are not hurting YOU.

I doubt the thread will be deleted, and frankly I think you can't start up a bunch of controversy and then scream "Oops I didn't mean to - get me out of here!" and have it erased like it never happened. You'll find real life arguments can't just be deleted when you're sorry you started them. That's a good lesson to learn at 16 and perhaps you'll think a little more carefully before you start ranting about something you know little about.

Zancaur,

Sorry you took such a beating.

It still amazes me that there is such indignation about your thoughts about diagnosis, but barely a ripple about the assumption that aspies are comparatively disabled when viewed ability to ability in comparison with neurotypicals.

I will never figure that out!

bookwormde

Edit: Post removed.

Last edited by Zancaur on 08 May 2008, 8:49 am, edited 3 times in total.

That's a good point. In the rough and tumble of the company I work for, I'm a dummy. However, my IT skills are better than 90% of the profession. I guess for 96K/year, I will just play along and be their ADA "pet".

That counterintuitive trait of this discussion is probably because some of the strong abilities that come with ASDs (and are not typical of NTs) are often either overlooked or marginalized. There is usually more attention paid to the negative. Aspie strengths can balance the difficulties, but in academic testing, employment practices, etc. the strengths are too often ignored.

Z

Oh THANK YOU!! !! !

Amen.

I was planning to make a rant like that, now they're making us look bad.

We have a 16 yr old and an 18 yr old standing on their high horse. Talk to me in ten years after you're on your own. Not being able to follow the sequence of conversation is a disability, regardless what label you put on it. However, no one has to discriminate against you. Your attitude and disagreeable nature is sufficient legal reason to exclude or ban you from any premises with no accommodation whatsoever.