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

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This is true. However, Stuart, the point I don't think you are getting here is that psychiatrists charge up front to receive a diagnosis - any diagnosis - and I DON'T HAVE THE MONEY. I don't have any way to get the money. Yo no tengo dinero, savvy? In what way, exactly, is this "self-contradictory"??

To analogize - say there is a place, some three hundred miles away, which if you could get there inside three hours would be able to provide for your every need. You even have a car! The problem - you don't have any gas for your car, nor any way to get gas for it. Surely, it would be worth burning the fuel to get to the destination in time - if you had any fuel to burn. Do you begin to comprehend?

i'll reiterate: it is possible that there were ample signs of a problem in childhood, but due to ineptness or misplaced priorities on the part of parents, appropriate measures weren't taken.

b9 you take your situation for granted.

when i was 5 i had some kind of freeze up (or partial seizure, i still am not sure what it was). my head snapped to the side and stuck there, i was unable to move a lot of my body or speak. i had a dislocated shoulder, and my parents (concerned about child abuse allegations) had argued before consenting to take me to the emergency room, so clearly it was a stress response.

why didn't anyone take me to a neurologist? (or show any concern at all?) it was interpreted as a deliberately manipulative act. my parents insisted i was angry and refusing to look at them or speak to them. we were in the emergency room when i became "unstuck" but even the EMTs paid the event no mind. (this was 1978)

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Last edited by MechAnime on 15 Jun 2010, 2:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I do not think it is sustainable for a person to claim to have a pervasive developmental disorder disabling their ability to work etc, and to argue that they can not afford the diagnosis that would provide the resources they need. I do not know what you are reading into my message, which is simply this: the value of a diagnosis far exceeds its cost. "Providing for your every need" would buy "the gas" over and over and over. There is no Catch-22.

In my experience it's not as simple as that. Workplaces don't often provide the needed resources and may hold it against you if you have a diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome (despite laws against discrimination, it still happens). In the UK there is barely any support for adults with Aspergers. So there is the very real question of 'Is a diagnosis worth it?'

For myself, for many years, it wouldn't have been worth it. There was nothing to gain other than self-knowledge, which I already had. However, as a student, there is support available, and so I got the diagnosis specifically for support as a student. In my future workplaces, I doubt I'll use it, because it is likely to create more problems than it solves.

I would like to be formally diagnosed, but like many, I have no insurance and no money to do so. I've read lots of articles on aspergers and have been learning about it for almost 3 years now. Let me tell you, now that I know, I feel so much better. I have had problems since I was a child and growing up was terrible. My own parents would call me "stupid" and thought I was a "ret*d" because I wouldn't always respond to them. My mom would leave me home alone all the time because she didn't want to be seen in public with me. I was misdiagnosed with depression and social anxiety. My mom made me take all these medications to try and "fix" me. I grew up hating my life and just wanting to be normal. I would try and act normal but it made me feel worse not being able to be myself.
When I learned about aspergers, my life started to make sense to me. I never understood why I thought a certain way or why I had the feelings that I had. I feel better knowing that I can be myself and that there are others like me!

ok i accept what you say.
i use my own experiences as a benchmark because i can do nothing else than use my own experiences because that is all i know.
i always see the world as it relates (or compares) to me.

i am shut in and rather backward due to the fact that i am not able to see things from anyone else's point of view.

the only point of view i have is the point of view that is focused sharply inside my subjective reality.

i must however clarify that i never said i disbelieve anyone who is self diagnosed.
i just can not be confident that they are correct as much as i can be confident they are correct if they were to describe a lifetime of dysfunction that led to an early and prompt clinical diagnosis of autism.
yes there maybe backwaters where most people are very odd, and the exceptional behavior of autism is not such a stark contrast against the general dysfunctions of the local society, and it may be not noticed.

i allow that someone can be affected by autism to quite a degree (that would stand out in a world of general normalcy) may be overlooked if they are living in a local society where most people are quite odd.

i do not say that people who have no formal diagnoses are all lying.
i just say that i place less credibility on the diagnostic ability of a lay person with no training, especially if they are diagnosing theirself because they are subjectively biased, and if they hope they have AS, then they are likely to rationalize exaggeratively to achieve that conclusion.
now.. i am not talking in my following sentences about you ok?

look around the forums at different threads. there are people who post threads that say "i got a formal diagnosis today! yay!! !!"
then there are a lot of posters who "congratulate" them in getting their diagnosis.
what does that indicate?

then there are threads where people post things like "are you only attracted to autistic girls?".
a large proportion of respondents aver that they are very attracted to autistic girls,and even girls reply that they are mainly attracted to autistic males.

they cite that it is the goofiness and cuteness and naievete (among other things like "brutal honesty" and unwitting exceptional intelligence etc) that they are attracted to.
if these people are so attracted to autistic types of people(given their perception of autism), then it stands to reason that they would like to be seen as autistic themselves because they think it is "cute", and they would be seen as "cute" as well if they were seen to be autistic.

there are people in this thread who say "why would anyone want to be seen as autistic considering it is viewed so negatively".
they must be blind if they never noticed the adulation that some posters bestow on their idea of autism.

anyway, i have blasted off into this reply without formulating a launch vector so i am now waffling and i am not aimed anywhere specific so i will probably fail to reach orbit and land in an ocean on the other side of the planet with a burnt backside if i do not abort.

whatever. i am tired of this thread. chortle on ye alle.

Okay, Stuart, one more try, and if you still can't grasp what I'm trying to tell you, at least I can say I did my best.

Yes, it is true that once the initial outlay for diagnosis has been made, subsequent services would more than repay the investment. But I have no money to invest in such a venture. Psychiatrists will not see you on the basis that you will pay them one day when you have services. They will only see you on the basis of being paid first, and I do not possess the capital to make such an investment. I can't pay the doctor, so I can't get the diagnosis, so I can't get the services that would cover any future such expenses.

Have I gotten through to you yet, Stuart? Unless you're willing to somehow front the cash for an assessment, it ain't a-gonna happen, because I am, as usual, flat broke. I'm living with my ex-wife and her husband, partly because we are such good friends that it makes sense, and partly because I can't afford a place of my own anyway. I can't apply for food stamps, because I don't buy my own food, because I can't. If it weren't for their generosity, I'd be living out of a box somewhere, and occasionally accessing the Net through a library (assuming they'd let me in). And no, they can't afford to buy me time with a psych either - she's unemployed, and he's a sergeant in the Army, which isn't exactly a high-paying position.

(Oddly, if I were living on the streets, there'd be programs to cover me. The state assumes that if I'm not living at the absolute nadir, I must be capable of taking care of myself...)

How do you purchase the gas to get there before you get there?

That's fair enough. I think a healthy bit of scepticism is important, especially on the internet. None of us have any proof that anyone here is autistic, whether they say they have a diagnosis or not.

I tend to operate on the assumption that most people here probably are on the spectrum, or at least are able to identify with people on the spectrum, because it seems to me a bit of a pointless thing for people to lie about. But obviously I have no proof one way or another, and would not be able to stand up in a court of law and testify that anyone here is definitely on the spectrum.




To me that would indicate that people see a diagnosis as a positive thing, because they assume it will provide people with the support they need. Personally, I wouldn't be so quick to congratulate, because I live in a country where there is very little support for adults with Aspergers, so a diagnosis isn't particularly helpful unless you're a student.

I must have missed all the threads about people being sexually attracted to people on the spectrum! In real life, most people I know on the spectrum have a lot of difficulty getting a partner, and if they get one, they have a lot of difficulty keeping them.

As for adulating autism, I've seen a lot more posts where people say how stressful and unpleasant it is to be on the spectrum. I tend to see the adulation more as 'This is who I am and I'm going to be proud of it.' Kind of like gay people celebrating being gay. It would seem to me to defeat the object for people to pretend to be autistic or to pretend to be gay when the point is to be proud of who you are, not to pretend to be who you're not. But I'm sure it must happen, particularly with people who are unsure of their identity and wanting a group to feel part of. So I see your point. Thanks for explaining.

When I was little my brother pushed me on my bed and I hit my head, went to hospital to have stitches and would not say a word. My Mum told me off when we got home because she felt like they thought it was her fault.

When I was slightly older I got run over and ended up going over someone's bonnet, I got up straight away and started crying. Some man came up to me and I stopped crying and tried to get away.

My school reports clearly demon-straight the verbal and written language progression etc in fact they have been looking through my doctors reports and have agreed on that basis alone. I was born in 1975, all the facts were there no one bothered to look.

You are kidding me ! I tried to go to college a few years(before I realized what was wrong) ago it was a nightmare I had a advocate at the time and he said a diagnosis would not make any difference at all to how I was treated !

I agree with you on the workplace though, the AS services round here dont even know how to talk to me so I dread to think what they would tell employers !

Well the AS websites are the first websites that I have been able to converse on.

When I get my formal diagnosis I will be very happy because I have been through alot and it will signify being able to make progress and improve my situation. But I would rather be "normal" but I am not I was shocked and upset to learn from the tests that I have big problems with emotions but it makes an awful lot of sense now. They are things that I need to know so that I can learn and become a member of society again, not because I want to or I think it is cool.

I realized early on that AS type people have always been the type that I have got on very well with all my life, while I dont wish to have anything to do with NTs at the moment (not that I ever have other than polite conversation and I briefly dated one) I would be open to having AS people in my life, in fact it was actually a relief to read the descriptions of people because its like being with my own kind

I havent seen any adulation bestowed to the idea of autism and I have seen this mentioned before. Dyslexia has Jamie Oliver and Richard Branson ? and so on but I dont think that there are any Autistic examples that make people want to emulate them ! While an AS person can look at Temple Grandin and admire her for what she has achieved I cant see an NT animal lover thinking I wish I was like that ! If Bill Gates said he is AS thats another matter, would be computer geeks from all over would want to be AS.

that could indicate:

- that someone can now receive the assistance they need (cause for celebration)

- that someone has "officially" and without question begun the path toward understanding where their problems are coming from (also cause for celebration)

- that someone retains some element of optimism despite their misgivings about the diagnosis (such optimism: also cause for celebration)

- that someone has earned legitimacy in the eyes of people who are suspicious of self-diagnosis, thus will from that point forward feel more comfortable posting on the board.

In the UK, you can apply for disabled student allowance, to pay for any extra things you need as a result of your disability, such as a support worker, or a laptop with various software. So a diagnosis is really worth it for students here. It's made a huge difference for me.

Asperger's Syndrome was first listed in the DSM in 1994. Many doctors weren't at all familiar with it until pretty recently, say, the last 5-10 years?

Most people here were well past toddler-hood in 1994, so it's fair to say many of us missed that early diagnostic "gee something's odd" boat.

Not everybody is you. Other people have other situations going on.
I, am a single mother of two kids, one with AS. I have state income only. No child support. No close family. No friends. And a nice long history of depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. I am in and out of social worker offices every week for my son. I do not need to add more question marks to my situation so they can use it against me, declare me "unstable", and come and take my kids away. I am all they have, and I am a damn good mother. People look at words on a paper and they make snap judgments, a judgment by the wrong person could ruin my sons' childhoods.

All for what? So you can feel better?
No thanks.