Can someone...

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....make a separate forum for all these "DO I HAVE ASPERGER'S?" "O HAY I THINK I HAVE ASPERGER'S" posts?

It seems like every other post around here is another one of these people.

Or better yet, maybe they can just take my advice and TALK TO A DOCTOR ABOUT IT -- they spend over 7 years getting a degree for a REASON.

Most doctors don't know s**t about Aspergers.

And we do?
I hardly know how it works for myself, let alone other people.

At least a doctor can refer you to someone who does know.

But still, the best thing to do is to go an AS specialist and say, "Hey, I think I have this, what do you think?" and proceed from there. Yes, most psychiatrists don't know a whole lot about AS but an autism specialist should be able to administer appropriate diagnostic instruments and ascertain if you really have AS and to what degree.

What other kind of discussion would you recommend in a general autism discussion?

While it can be odd having everyone make claims about AS which could just be accounted for general human experiences... I don't think there is anything wrong with the inherent discussion.

Especially some of the very subtle characteristics that not even a doctor would be able to pick up... I think it's interesting to find when someone else does some little thing exactly the same way I do. AS related or not.

Why don't you post new topics of the type you think is more ideal?

or not read the annoying ones

I don't think there is anything wrong with people wanting to know more before they pluck up courage to speak to a doctor but I do agree it can get a little silly sometimes.

If someone was to post "I pick my nose, doeas anyone else do this?" we would very soon have pages of stories about how picking your nose must be an aspie trait because we all do it and we are all aspies.

Then before you know it 'tendency to pick your nose' becomes a diagnostic criteria

This is a pet peeve o' mine, so I apologize in advance for my mini-rant:

Nobody knows you like you do. I know it's comforting to invest doctors with god-like knowledge, but the vast majority of it is mere book-learning, aided by a precious few minutes of observing you.

I know some doctors are threatened by folks who waltz into their practices, armed to the teeth with 'internet knowledge', but as I say, no-one knows what's going on inside you like you do. You are essentially your own primary health-care facility. It's important to be informed, help your doc with whatever perceptions you have, but also be your own advocate and remain skeptical and vocal when you think he's off on the wrong track.

(whew) Much better now.

I agree with Sedaka. Just skip those threads you are not interested in. Unfortunately, there is a problem when the topic given is completely meaningless, such as "Can someone..." .

[quote="misspuff"
Or better yet, maybe they can just take my advice and TALK TO A DOCTOR ABOUT IT -- they spend over 7 years getting a degree for a REASON.[/quote]

Yes -- their REASON is that they want to make A LOT OF MONEY. Besides, AS is rather new. Very few doctors (of whatever kind) know that much about AS. The official diagnostic criteria are way behind the times. There's no pharmaceuticals to be prescribed that can alleviate the situation, which understandably limits the interest of psychiatrists. My own shrink (for depression) is rather good -- he has 2 low or medium functioning autistic children -- so it is quite understandable that he is not all that excited about the problems of an AS person. As my shrink points out, the Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada, has shown significant AS symptoms. An exaggeration -- but not that much of one.

Personally I find the testimonies of people -- like me -- who read about AS, studied it, and found that the light bulb went on -- that learning what AS is, and that they have it, explained their whole previous lives -- to be much more compelling than official diagnoses. Someone wrote on another thread here that after reading a chapter about AS in a book in the library she left in tears. Well I was in tears after reading that. If only we knew, that pretending to be NT (except in specific situations for specific reasons) was a waste of time, how much discomfort we could have been spared.

My own doctor once misdiagnosed a stress fracture in my foot.He insisted I couldn't
have a broken foot as I wasn't an athlete.I ended up walking about until the pain
was too much and I had to be driven to hospital.
I learned about Asperger's from Wikipedia and then Tony Attwood's book and it
was as though I had been transported to another world.I doubt if I could have
found a professional in my area that could be guaranteed to diagnose me correctly,
especially as I'm in my 40s and childhood experiences can't really be verified now
except by myself.
I do agree that some of the 'traits' mentioned on the forum can seem a bit silly,but this is still the best place to discuss them

i agree, many doctors are clueless when it comes to Aspergers.
Anyway it's actually quite reassuring when you first find this site, to finally realise that there are other people who may have the same problems as you!! is it so bad to want to ask you guys about your experiences, and maybe finally feel that you 'belong' somewhere?

SAME HERE! I was once laughed out o a doctors office for even THINKING I might possibly have Lyme disease. After all, I lived in CA. Apparently I never had Lyme disease, but he lucked out. I WAS in areas that had a lot of lyme disease, and lyme disease is NOT spread by the area, but deer ticks. They obviously DON'T care if the animal is a deer. They like humans, and possibly dogs and cats. BTW after like a decade of trying to find out what caused those problems, and seeing perhaps 8 different doctors(that found NOTHING and most thought I was nuts), GUESS who found the problem? **I** did!

And yep. My mother is lucky if she remembers what happened yesterday. There are some things I haven't told others about since I was SIX, though they still exist. Luckily, I found out NOW, and can get her to tell me about many little things, etc...

As for the silly traits, some don't apply to me, head shape, ear shape, some silly deficiencies, etc... But ***THEY*** aren't even alluded to in the DSM or notes. I DO believe there are like 4+ different types of AS, but I have the one that is hard to spot. That IS in the DSM. They say "or may not", and that AS people don't have any different appearence.

This is a peer support site. I don't think an NT is capable of understanding what it's like to be an aspie unless they've been married to one for a decade or more. People here typically have a constellation of symptoms, and doctors, when they hoofbeats, typically think horses, not zebras.

Even when I had insurance, attemptng to find a doctor who would even pretend to addess my issues with Adult ADD was like pulling teeth. They all seem to assume that you're some kinda speed freak in it for the drugs.
I can't imagine it would be any easier attempting to find one receptive enough to address the possibility of AS...let alone know much about it. I know better than to post a "could I have...?" thread..i frequently list my symptoms..and I have enough that I seem fit in here even if I don't ACTUALLY have AS.
I don't know if or when I will ever be able to go to a trustable reliable doctor to talk to about it. Perhaps when I win the lottery...Until then..i just have to go on what I seem to know about myself...I have had executive dysfunctions, developmental delays, weird problems with socialising..etc..my whole life. I have stuff in common with other people who post threads here...that's enough to make me an WP addict. Maybe there is something to be said about other forums I have experienced where the ones with official diagnoses completely frown upon the ones who are self diagnosed...but I am really glad this forum is not like that..and also that it is ADD-friendly...

I understand how the "could I have AS?' threads may be annoying..and alot of them I just glimpse at or don't even read...but i don't really blame them too much. If they are newbies, they will either continue to have enough in common with the other people on the board to continue posting etcc...or they will lose interest and go off somewhere else...

I think it is an excellent idea to include a forum here especially for people who want some feedback regarding their emerging understanding that they may actually have the autistic model brain.

If the replies they receive, and the insights they gain, lead them to seek professional confirmation either from a psychiatrist, psychologist, or medical doctor - fine. If not, that's fine too.

There are a myriad of reasons for not seeking a professional diagnosis - maybe it would not be in the person's best interests, maybe they live somewhere where this is not available to them, maybe there is no one suitably experienced in their area, maybe they can't afford it, maybe they are frightened of being misdiagnosed, etc.

Personally, I would only seek a professional diagnosis from someone who I feel confident would truly understand autism. Remember, the diagnostic criteria are based purely on external behaviours, not the internal experiences of the autistic. For older people like me, who have often learnt how to camouflage ourselves in the NT world, our external behaviours can be largely irrelevant to who we really are.