Self-diagnosis and self-identification

Post Reply New Topic

Good that they were reprimanded, but I would expect more from intelligent adults.

When I first suspected that I had Asperger's, I told several people (my wife, my sister and an uncle). My goal was to get feedback. It was helpful in that it allowed me to talk about my suspicions (and get some additional data points from my childhood). Generally, they were all supportive. They didn’t see me as being a “hypochondriac”. Primarily, because they all knew me so well. Ultimately, those discussions led me to seek a diagnosis.

With that being said, after those discussions, I didn’t go around telling others about my suspicions. Similarly, since being diagnosed, I haven’t gone around talking about my diagnosis (other than with my therapist, an autism researcher and people here on WP). Simply, no one really cares. To them, I am simply Rocket. The diagnosis doesn’t change anything.


I 100% agree.

Dear users,

Thank you all for weighing in on this discussion. I am sorry to hear that you were bullied, Fnord. I was teased a lot as a kid. As an adult, I think it's more covert and takes the form of social exclusion in most cases.

I have already made it quite clear to those closest to me that I strongly suspect I am on the spectrum, rather than calling myself an autistic person. Many of those close people have said things along the lines of "oh, we thought you knew already?". I suppose right now I am looking for a way to explain to people why I am the way I am without alienating others in the ASD community.

I was sick for a couple of weeks beginning on Christmas Day. The symptoms were quite compatible with the flu. I went to the doctor but he didn't do the tests for flu.

So when someone asks me what I had, instead of answering "I had the flu", I answer "It may have been the flu or it may have been something else."

Without the actual tests to verify that it was the flu, I don't feel at all qualified to diagnose myself as having had the flu no matter how well the symptoms matched.

On the other hand, I don't think anyone could legitimately accuse me of being a hypochondriac if I told them I had the flu with no actual diagnosis.

That's how I feel too. I'm self-diagnosed because the psychs & so-called experts I saw seemed to think autism was something like a higher form of mental retardation; I seemed too intelligent & communicated too well verbally to have anything on the spectrum. I don't say I'm diagnosed but I say I am autistic because I'm pretty sure I am; I've been on here for years learning about it & questioning & analyzing myself.