Self diagnosed people here don't have aspergers

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Not if you are middle aged. The resistance to getting an NHS referral for an "oldie" is massive. There are no funds or places for older adults with Asperger/Autism traits and the psychiatrists don;t know how to deal with us and don;t have any clear referral path. And the Autism researchers aren;t interested either.

You kids have it easy.

Of all the three year-old threads to reopen, why this one? I think to disparage those who may know themselves very well, but may not have medical insurance (and getting a DX can be expensive above all else), is almost cruel.

I have seen enough episodes of Mystery Diagnosis on Discovery Health to know that to get a correct diagnosis, sometimes we need to crack the books open, or get online, and do some research on our own. Many of us would be dead if we blindly followed what our doctors determined and did not get second opinions or just did not bother to do some digging on our own when we KNEW something was not right.

I spent many times over many years crying my eyes out and asking whatever powers that be, "What is wrong with me?" I asked some of those that were close to me, "Why am I even alive?" I certainly wanted to die many times. I could not make friends, felt like a complete outcast and I never believed I deserved it.

A Psych student friend of mine (my only friend) suggested that I had Apserger's. I did the research and I cried more than I ever had before, because that was IT! It explained everything that was every wrong in my life, physically, emotionally, and intellectually. I felt like a new person and I loved myself for the first time. And that was due to a self-diagnosis. The doctor appointment came a couple of months later.

A person who has diabetes doesn't suddenly have it because the doctor diagnosed it. The person was just as diabetic before. Please, don't belittle a self-diagnosis. For some people it is all they have.

Last edited by dyingofpoetry on 17 May 2010, 3:00 am, edited 1 time in total.

Really really well said.

I'd like to point out that WITH or WITHOUT an official diagnosis, what is the difference? There is no benefit to having an official diagnosis. No money to be made, no special anything to be gotten, no pills to take, no sign to hang up or anything at all. In fact you'd have to be totally crazy to SAY you have any syndrome or disorder if you don't! So what would be the benefit in making it up if you don't have it?

There is none.

Those of us who learned about AS ourselves or were pointed to it because of a child who has it - those of us know the RELIEF we felt. I was absolutely giddy. This suddenly explained my entire life. That is priceless. What it did for me was allowed me to be okay being me - to interact with all of you here who share this, to laugh out loud over and over as I read there are so many of us! And we have so much in common! And I'm not just the weirdo who was alone and totally off and no one knew why!

What this has done for ME, just for myself, is priceless. It has allowed me to be okay and to like myself and to understand. You can't put a label or price tag on that.

I don't fully agree. There is such a thing as DSM. Tests say nothing, doing an aspie test will never convince me, but ticking enough boxes in DSM IV worries me a lot more. Of course there is always the chance you draw the wrong conclusions that is why you should always seek professional help in my opinion.

in fact my partner who is a special education teacher diagnosed me (and as I don't fully believe I have something in the spectrum, I wear the most suiting diagnosis) I will have to wait at least 18 months to be properly diagnosed -_- which is hell because I like things to be clear.

I am not shy at all by the way. And apart from trolling Forums I don't have many hobbies.

I will not bore anyone with symptoms also I don't feel the need to prove my aspieness

To be honest, I don't want to be autistic at all. But it would explain a lot if I were.

And most people here seem to be ok, so I will be in good company if i am.

Not at all. The majority of Doctors or others in a position of authority in the health care system have a poor understanding of AS. AS is also a hidden condition and can be effectively covered over using a range of well documented techniques. Most professionals in this field would happily say that a number of patients fell into a grey area and could have been under or over diagnosed. The onus is on the person to gain as much information as possible about themselves and think carefully about their situation. True some people can be higher up the autistic spectrum, liken themselves to an AS person and either think they may have or convince themselves they may have AS but they are also likely to be able to tick or fail to tick all the right boxes in tests as well.

Personally I feel more at home listening to the AS community than the NT community. I have read large amounts of information on the subject and collated large amounts of data about my life including asking the opinions of others taking into account the likely validity of their opinion. The complete list of evidence would take months to put across to another human being. I have yet to see a professional who knows more about the subject than me but I am trying to get to one. Whether the label officially ends up as AS or a PDD-NOS I would probably just label myself AS for simplicities sake. I don't want to be labeled autistic though.

Complicated => Dr is poor logic.
Being convinced your opinion is correct because it is your opinion and rather than communicating your idea to others putting it across as a statement is very Aspie.

I could counter your argument with one equally poor and say that your opinion is so poor that you couldn't possibly be an Aspie. Your intelligence would not meet the average requirement.

Again no. People with Aspergers (group 1) have differing characteristics and people who have something similar to Aspergers (group 2) have differing characteristics. The majority of people in the second group could still be allot closer to the majority of the people in the first group than the minority of people in their own group.

Gaining a PHD has no correlation with a person gaining the ability to gather information from another person sufficiently to be more able to give a more correct diagnosis.

Is anything you say not complete sh1t?

Again you are sure of something completely incorrect.

Ignoring the fact that that would require I high and accurate sense of self awareness and self understanding. To understand your own mind you would require a larger mind so that the smaller mind would fit but then your mind is now bigger and would require a larger mind to fit but your mind is now bigger and would require a larger mind to fit.
People can have routine behaviour or lack of social ability and not notice. People can learn to copy others until the false way becomes second nature and the natural way becomes forgotten. No it isn't rocket science. It is allot less exact. With rocket science you have a clear set of rules and a clear set of measurements. With AS you have an inconsistent set of rules of which you are required to fit into (either through self understanding or by being able to communicate that trait to another) a debatable number. Rocket science is
simple.

i concur.

professional diagnosis isn't always accurate, either. i like the perspective of the last few posts and they were interesting to read, but i wish this thread would die.

this is a very good point too:


it might as well be in the diagnostic criteria.

if there's one thing most of us have in common it's the tendency to respond to a post with a statement something like "i agree with X, Y, and Z about your post, but not A, B, and C; traits A, B, and C have nothing to do with Asperger's/autism."

we have the tendency to dismiss or disagree with the experience of others. also the tendency to be very black and white about things (for example: professional DX is always correct; self-diagnosis is always wrong) is very aspie. we need rules to follow. that doesn't mean the original post holds any water, but to whomever originally posted it, it must be helping him/her make sense of the world on some level. i won't claim i've never clung to that sort of conclusion myself, because i certainly have. i don't agree with this one, but i understand it.

so it goes.

edit: i want to point out that the original poster has not logged in since a few days after creating this thread, in 2007. look what a mess he stirred up, lol.

On misdiagnoses; I have a bigger concern than those misdiagnoses by well-read patients by themselves. I personally fell victim to, is a misdiagnosis by an MD psychiatrist; and worse, by more than one. I was diagnosed by the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute with paranoid schizophrenia. I was put on Navane, Thorazine, and all kinds of support drugs while I was hospitalized for seven months. I can remember being coached by the psychiatrist, who told me "Kids say things about you behind your back, don't they?" Naturally I answered Yes, because they did say things behind my back. The glaring difference between my observation and that of a paranoid, was that these were live voices coming from punk kids; not coming from my imagination. Obviously none of that treatment worked, and I got even more afraid of social situations. It wasn't until 5 years later, and all kinds of wrong medications and courses of therapy, that it was discovered that I had no such condition. Then 15 years after that fiasco, it was ADHD + OCD. I was medicated for those with Adderall and Prozac. We still believe I have ADHD as well as Asperger's, but not OCD. I'm very careful even in considering the diagnosis of Asperger's, but this is the first time in which I have clearly exhibited all of the symptoms and markers, lifelong. As close as I can figure, the paranoia diagnosis stemmed from my fear of other kids at school, fear of school, and fear of walking home alone due to bullies. Well, let me be clear, I was afraid of all of the above. But for good reason. I had been bullied, beaten, chased, had milk poured all over me, been called a all kinds of derogatory words for members of various communities. I would walk into school with my head facing straight down; arms crossed.

I STRONGLY urge anyone; regardless of status of diagnosis, to seek many opinions before finalizing a life plan.

Charles

Most over diagnosed psychiatric disorder on the planet. Self diagnosis get out of here. You have more credentials than a qualified psychiatrist with 10 years + of medical school training + years of field training? How can the average person possibly self diagnose themselves after reading a few paragraphs on Wikipedia?

The internat age and the growing epidemic of self diagnosed psychiatric disorders. The leading one of them is Aspergers Syndrome.

Self Diagnoses must be avoided. Who wants a label which may not be true?

You clearly have not read a single post on this thread.

I'm going to guess at least 90% of the as*holes here are neurotypical.

Simple test. Have you ever had a meltdown because of a random innocuous light or sound?

No?

Then go f**k yourself.

Also, guess what? If it was diagnosed and the answer to the above question is "no," whoever provided the diagnosis is a quack, so tell him he's a f**kwit for me.

ah I wish I could follow your advice but I have sensory issues making that hard

cool to be Neurotypical though

You are posting with emotion rather than reason. I doubt Tony Attwood or Simon Baron-Cohen would find your simple test valid.

I suppose this thread is useful as a troll trap. Perhaps it should be stickied?

this remark is probably the most useful bit of the whole topic