Why Do So Many Desire An Aspergers Diagnosis?

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For me, it's a combo of piece of mind and I hate to admit wanting to fit in somewhere. Now I'm bipolar and I can share stuff with other bipolar people I have found in this town, but none of them study obsessively anything.

I am already getting services for schizoaffective (schizophrenia and a mood disorder) but not much help adapting to regular society.

Plus I will admit I'm obsessed with Asperger's. The docs want me to stop that. I've had therapist tell me they feel I have AS, but it's not worth me getting a diagnosis because I'm already getting help. The psychiatrists say that my schizo spectrum disorder is causing some AS-like traits. Plus the schizo spectrum disorder when not under control is hurting my life more. Most people that see me on meds think I'm eccentric basically and serious all the time.

Aspie Quiz, AQ and everything else says I'm on the edge of mild AS and an NT with AS traits.

If I was a kid now, I think I would have gotten the diagnosis, I have my childhood psych records even, though back then it was counted as ADHD in the 90's.

I think in many cases, a psychiatric diagnosis of any type holds a lot of explanatory power for previously inexplicable life events and ongoing social difficulties. Or at least such was the case for me. However, unlike the archetypal person 'trying' to be diagnosed with aspergers, I'm trying to "rule out" the many different possible diagnoses through a process of deduction to finally converge on the "correct set of answers", however simplistic and incomprehensive my analysis may be. It also gives me something to do and is pretty fun.

People may desire a Dx for many reasons, personally I'd just like to know for my own needs, seem as I already doubt that I am a "normal" person, knowing for definite would at least give me a better knowledge of the steps i could take to better myself, or at least make life a bit easier.

And then there's the ability to talk with others on here, without hurting the aspergers community by giving incorrect information out, based on your own self diagnosis.

As for suggesting that it would be to get financial aid, I realise there are alot of shrewd people out there, but this would seem a bit extreme, given the amount of knowledge you would have to acquire to mimic the symptoms, and the amount of time you'd have to spend training yourself to do them naturally, it's very unlikely that somebody who is just lazy would succeed in this endeavour.

I can't speak for everyone here, only myself. I do not have an official AS diagnosis, and I am not seeking one. I privately identify as AS, because it's been frustrating for me spending my whole life struggling with a wide range of skills that seem to come easily to everyone else, never fitting in anywhere, never managing to earn anyone's respect ever, always regarded as an ineffectual lightweight in need of more assistance than other people. It has not been pleasant for me to live like that, wondering why I always seem to come off as strange, "different," awkward, and less effective in everything I do than other people. I've always wondered why I'm so strange, why I develop intense obsessions with various topic, why I have these strange sensitivities, why I'm so uncoordinated and physically awkward, etc, etc, etc.
When one spends one's whole whole life being the odd one out, struggling a great deal in every area of one's life, and none of the labels one was given from childhood onwards adequately explains all of these "quirks" and difficulties, I think it's natural to want to know why one is like this, natural to want answers. That has been my experience in any case.
I'm not seeking an official diagnosis, as I don't see what that would achieve for me at this stage of my life. I'm pretty much a "closet case," describing my aspie suspicians with very few people. For the most part, I do my utmost to "pass" for normal, though I frequently fail at this.
In other words, my self-identification aspie primarily serves as a frame of reference from which I can make some degree of sense of the varioius struggles I've been dealing with my entire life.
As I said earlier, I can't speak for anyone else here. However, I would speculate that if one has spent years living a life where he/ she has always been an outcast, if nothing comes easily, ever, and he/ she is living with various strange interests and deficits, no one else can relate to, it stands to reason that he/ she would want to know why.
I should stop now. Things have been crazy in my life recently, and I'm too exhausted to express my thoughts coherently right now. If anyone is able to make any sense out of this, you are truly a miracle worker.

I have never had a diagnosis, though the two psychologists I've seen were definitely in agreement that I have AS. I know I have AS. I knew very early on that I was different, I knew I had a lot of social difficulty, a lot of anxiety, I obsessed about my special interests, I collected things like wooden door stops and radiator vents. I hate change, I hate loud noise, among other things. It was the whole picture. I read a book called "The Asperger's Answer Book - Top 275 Questions Parents Ask", and after reading it I was floored at just how much it described me as a child, to a T! I could not believe that. Others on WP have expressed the same difficulties I go through, even watching the videos, I'm so amazed at how many people on this forum are just like me. I can relate to people on WP more than I could people in real life. I'm 100% convinced I have AS.

When I first realized I had AS, I was certain about it, but just wanted a "professional" to tell me, just to give me closure and the off chance I had been wrong. Now I'm so sure of it, I challenge anyone to say otherwise. I love myself, I love who I am, and I consider AS a gift, and I'm very blessed to be this way.

Anyone notice the troll can't tell the difference between wanting to be diagnosed and wanting to have the condition?

it's because you read one thread.

I never in a million years would have thought that I was autistic...until I started doing research on it to prove that is what my nephew had. What I ended up realizing is that that was me entirely (though I still think he has it too). Anyway, why did I want an official diagnosis?

As a child and onward I spent my entire life ostracized for being who I was. I was unable to communicate and socialize with others properly and I spent my life with no or few friends. Those friends I did have never lasted long because they didn't know how to deal with someone with autism and I didn't know how to act in a way that would keep them wanting to be my friend. It wasn't when I was really young that I thought this because then I thought I was perfectly normal. It was because all of the so-called "normal" kids kept pointing out my differences to me on a continuous basis, for more than a decade. School was sometimes hell for me. So a diagnosis gives me a true reason of why I was different. It is not just because I am some demon creation that repels everything in its path. Giving me the label gives me a place in the world.

It would validate my suspicions.

If you had severe, persistent pain in your abdomen would you get it checked out? or would you just ignore it? it might be nothing, or it might be stomach cancer. but you won't know unless you get it checked out, and once you do confirm what it is, you can start treating it.

Also, a official diagnosis opens up certain services depending on where you live, it also gives you protection under the 'Americans with disability's act' (if you are in the US) which helps prevent workplace discrimination. and if you can't work it makes you eligible for disability.