"fake aspies" and self diagnosis. DISLIKE, sorry.

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I have a bit of a problem with self-diagnosis myself. I actually was one of them for a bit, but that was because I couldn't afford to go to the doctor to get myself checked out. I don't see Aspergers as some sort of elite society, but I think it's really dangerous to diagnose yourself with ANYTHING based on what you've read. You may the the complete wrong idea, or you might actually have something else that goes unnoticed.
I can definately see how people go undiagnosed, though. Aspergers is an extremely new discovery. Until recent years Aspies were just shy and awkward kids. I can think of a few people in my family that could easily be or have been Aspies. Sometimes I even notice it in older people I don't know. But they just see themselves as weird. There's also the factor I've just mentioned; not having the resources to be diagnosed properly. I haven't even gone through a proper series of tests because I simply don't have the money. I just got my diagnosis and left.

If you've met one person with AS....you've met one person with AS. There is no blood-test or special scan that can definitively diagnose it, and there is such a wide range of presenting characteristics, who is to say that an MD or therapist is going to get it right anyway?

Agreed, it's a little obnoxious that there are people that would say they have it, just to try it on as an identity. However, for those that feel they identify best with an Asperger's/AS diagnosis, even without a medical input...well, so be it.

I suspect that the "diagnosis costs too much" excuse, which is repeated so often in repetitions of this theme, comes almost exclusively from people who have not bothered to analyse the cost and benefits of diagnosis.

Not being diagnosed is a choice.

Sometimes it is. It is probably to my advantage not to be right now. But I have no insurance. I do have access to mental health care at a sliding scale facility. When my son was diagnosed in 2003 my therapist had never even heard of Asperger's. I think the point that Anbuend made are very valid and the sad reality.

I don't know where you live Stuart that the mental health fairy comes and pays for all of your medical care, but I don't live there. I guess that's my choice too.

Last edited by dyingofpoetry on 08 Jun 2010, 5:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I can't see where there'd be any benefit to claiming a label I don't have a diagnosis for. About the only thing such might get me is being a part of an online community for people with the disorders. But the good communities are accepting of people who say "I have traits of X" rather than requiring a self-diagnosis to participate (for those who don't have a formal one).

I'm me. The cool people accept me as I am. Although, I can see, the more strongly autistic/aspie one is, the more classically aspie one is, the more it might be helpful to explain one's differences with a label.

I don't think it is always a choice. I think some people truly don't have access to getting diagnosed.

But, even when it is a choice, unlike you, I believe that some people do do a cost-benefit analysis and still make the choice not to have a formal diagnosis.

From what I've seen, once you're past school, the only benefit to diagnosis is reasssurance within one's own mind... confirmation of what one thinks is true.

Insulting half the community then saying "no rude comments" is asking a bit much.

I can see how you're annoyed if half the people don't even have it, but many do, and possibly worse than you.

I don't see what the benefits of a diagnosis really are tbh.

I was diagnosed young so didn't know much about it, involved lots of tests etc. I think being bitter at self diagnosed people has less benefits than anything really.

I don't like the way people tell diagnosed people that they don't have it, and if you're self diagnosed and don't like it, get diagnosed.

Thats really it.

One of the reasons I spent so much time lurking and not participating was because of the many threads like this one.

So I was thinking of giving a big explanation, but then I saw this:

Sounds good to me.

When it comes down to it its not the self diagnosed people with the issue here. Its more diagnosed people need to sort themselves out in regards to attitude.

I agree with both of those points. My grades at school ranged from good in some subjects to above average in others. Sure I was a social outcast and often got in trouble from teachers for things that I didn't even know that I was doing, but they cared about my grades, not whether or not I was 'normal'. All the teachers knew I was a bit different but testing for anything wasn't recommended because academically, I was doing just fine.

& at the time when I was at school (primary school), we didn't have a school counselor/psychologist so even if teachers knew what Autism was, they probably didn't have a clue that AS even existed. They had no training in psychology, kids were either normal, odd &/or emotionally disturbed and if they had a disability, they were in a special ed class.
I wasn't diagnosed officially until I was 15, and that was because it was discovered that I have AS during my treatment for depression.

Not everyone has the luxury of being noticed and diagnosed in childhood. In fact, I suspect that's the minority.

QFT, Dyingofpoetry.

There's some of us that struggle to survive, and pay for the most basic of things, quite possibly due to having AS and the employment issues that can entail. It's not like making a choice about what stock to invest in when deciding to eat and pay rent rather than pay a doctor to assess your situation, and hope to God they know AS when they see it.

Well, if for some it's just a matter of being a cheapskate or not -- that's a different issue than someone flatly not having the money. You can cost-benefit all you like, but that won't make a few thousand extra dollars materialize out of nowhere. Not everyone is buying a new flatscreen every month and could afford it if they just went without. You can put hydrogen and oxygen in a bottle at STP, but they won't react unless you have a spark to get over the hump in the energy curve. It doesn't matter that you get more energy out at the end: no spark = no dice.

And I can see a dx helping a kid get accommodations in school & college, leading to better job opportunites, and then accommodations allowing for keeping a high paying job. But if you're over about 30 you're not going to suddenly be leapfrogged up the ladder to where you'd be if you'd been dx'ed at 6 years old. Your income isn't going to suddenly double. A dx is probably not going to change one's economic situation very much. (unless it's homelessness to SSI or something)



Well, so is being out of touch: "they have no bread", "so? let them eat cake."

When I was six years old and started school for the first time, they tagged me almost immediately as autistic. I "failed" the testing, however, because I was too intelligent. Back in the '70's, there was no Asperger's diagnosis. Even if you displayed all the impairments of classic autism, as long as you had an IQ above what was considered mental retardation, you were not autistic. Since they couldn't call me normal, my label was "gifted." I am sure I am not the only one this happened to.

I don't feel the need to get diagnosed now, because I don't need a piece of paper to validate me. I have an entire lifetime of experience that is a textbook illustration of Asperger's. What is it going to do for me? And why would I trust them anyway?

No, I haven't looked into the costs (but I do know that it would cost money that I don't have, and I'm not looking for a government or charitable handout--I would prefer if people in need receive that), but I have thought of the possible benefits. And in my case, I can't think of a single one.

And, honestly, if I were pretending to be an Aspie on a message board or in real life for whatever reason, I would lie and say I have an official diagnosis. Since you can't look inside people's heads, it is better to just take people at their word unless it could affect you.

I think that the millionth thread like this should get a free set of steak knives.



No. Sometimes people DO NOT HAVE THE MONEY that they would need to pay for a diagnosis.
Why would people want to struggle with the issues that an ASD causes, know what is wrong, and not get help?



Exactly! For some people, it's a choice between getting diagnosed, or eating.


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Addressing a couple of things in the OP:
Why wasn't it noticed as a child?

I was born in 1983; only 2 years after Lorna Wing wrote her paper, and a bit over 10 years before AS was added to the DSM. People noticed that something was going on- if they didn't, I wouldn't have had all the speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physiotherapy that I did, and I wouldn't have been held back a year in preschool (despite being extremely bright, and reading with excellent comprehension) because I "wasn't ready socially" for school.
However, at that time, noone would have suspected that a bright, verbal child who was a bit odd had any form of autism. I got all sorts of other labels: "smart but odd"; "just shy"; "that freak"; "a little absent-minded professor"; "deliberately being difficult"; "just needs to make more effort; if she used her brain she'd be fine"; "walking encyclopedia". Now, from what I've seen, these days all that would have people thinking "Asperger's" pretty quickly, but back then it didn't.
I had been reading about autism since I was about 12. Since the cases I read about were more severe than me, I never thought it could be something that I had. However, I did see the similarities between these people and what was different about me, and I thought that if a milder form of autism existed, it more than likely described me.
In my second year of university, the depression that I'd suffered through high school worsened severely, and I had a breakdown. At the same time, I had also read a book that convinced me that I had Asperger's. I was referred for help with depression, and also for an AS diagnosis- my doctor's suggestion, not mine.
My psychiatrist eventually diagnosed me, but only after a long time of dismissing all the ASD issues as being due to depression and anxiety (which were present, but so was AS, and it was causing a lot of it), and "avoidant behaviour" (only when things become too painful and difficult).
Cost was a factor- my sessions cost almost $200 each, and Medicare only kicked in after a certain point. I am lucky that my psychiatrist let me pay off what I owed over time (I'm still paying it off now, and I first saw him in 2006)- other people don't have that luxury.