How did you self diagnose?

Post Reply New Topic

So this is mainly for those who are self-diagnosed, but if you were professionally diagnosed feel free to answer hypothetically but mention that you are.

I am curious as to what data and information you gathered personally that caused you to say "Yep, this is a part of me"...

Any feedback is greatly appreciated

(by the way if this has been asked a million times, being redirected to the most recent, or most popular thread on the topic will be sufficient and I'll be very grateful!)

A wikiwalk of epic proportions.

Hello there infinitenull. I myself have actually been professionally diagnosed with aspergers but at a much younger age. 13 precisely.

Here are a few of my resources..... Ive watched some videos on youtube to observe behaviors of other aspie's/aspergian's.... I've done Wikipedia..... I've talked to friends of mine and been given opinion's/// two of my closest friends are actually in great belief that i do not have asperger's and if i do have it that it is on such a minor scale that it's something that i shouldn't worry myself with as much as i do. Hell also if you can find some friends or just some people you know that have aspergers or are somewhere on the autism scale... You can make comparisons take notes.....

One reference you should most definitely ignore though my friend is the documentary "Autism Speaks" A very reliable source i found is the "New York Times" Self Diagnosis is definitely a toughie there com-padre believe I've been up and down that path in my head a number of times... I think the most important tool you have to make use of though is personal integrity and honesty towards yourself.

ill post some links for some useful information and whatnot that give examples here at the bottom......

and this one here which really to me was just more interesting then anything else.... but also lead me to this website.... The article from the NY times.... I hope you have some use from these com-padre.... this last one here was more just a good read then anything else.... so give me a response tell me what you think hope this gives you some good insight!

go to youtube and look up aspergersgirl shes a very insightful individual on different things aspergers....

wiki it for sure which is apparent you already have.

ny times navigating love and autism is a good one too google it!

all these are great sources.... the dang webpage though wont let me give you urls at the moment and i apoligize for that tell me what you think of these things too.... i found them of great value and i hope you do too....

I had a long explanation somewhere that I'll try to dig up again, but these are the principle points:

* I read books about autism
* I read blogs by autistic people
* I read back about 100 pages of posts here
* Friends told me they thought I was autistic all along, and explained in detail why this was so
* I spoke to other autistic people and compared notes
* I discussed my childhood with my mother (and she said autism made sense. She also said that a friend of the family suggested I was autistic when I was 10 or 11)

Without explanations, the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria made very little sense to me, as did a lot of professional writing.

I'd been trying to figure out what the heck was "wrong" with me for 25 years and looked at and readily dismissed all sorts of possibilities. And then one day, a child who I knew had this thing called "Aspergers" came over to play with my little girl ... and I was like, wow, that kid reminds me of me as a little one. So I started to do some research and finally mentioned my suspicions to my wife. Her response: "I've thought that about you before." This, of course, only fueled my curiosity and eventually I bought Tony Attwood's book. All the pieces fell soon into place and my life-puzzle was solved. I discovered WP and love the interaction and insights. The whole self-diagnosis versus official diagnosis thing doesn't bother me much, 'cuz I know who I am and what I am (finally).

I am officially diagnosed, but my self-diagnosis is what led to me pursuing a diagnosis.

I did a lot of research online and got myself a couple books. I've been interested in psychology, so in the process of reading things for my own pleasure I came across Asperger's. I did much reading before self-diagnosing myself, then a lot of thinking before I contacted a doctor. Stuff I used were various websites like wikipedia and psychology-related sites, I looked at the DSM, and I read some psychology textbooks.

Trying to figure out how I could have had schizophrenia (my previous diagnosis) at age 2, the point at which I stopped speaking for two full years. (I'm more-or-less professionally diagnosed now.)

I find it sad that your family didn't follow through on the suggestion, it would have saved you years of wondering in the dark.

I was professionally diagnosed at seven or eight. However, because I associated my ASD with losing art classes, I vehemently insisted that none of my behaviors were any worse than other "normal" children. After I was freed from prison--by which I mean my middle school special ed department--I was switched over to a 504. At that point I started to pay more attention to how people treated me. I was not bullied at first, but as time went on and I lapsed into being myself, which is a polite-at-times and sarcastic-at-times, pessimistic, no-nonsense aspie, people started to treat me similarly to how they treated me before.

Minus the use of the word "ret*d" at first. Then a person from my previous school let slip that I was in the special ed room for one period a day, and it was almost exactly the same story. I couldn't figure out why everyone hated me so much when I couldn't recall having done anything to them. I started researching Asperger's on my own, looking to see how many traits I had that suited. I thought of my childhood, thought of now, and instead of saying, "technically no" to questions to water down my problems, I answered truthfully. Even when it hurt.

Coming to terms with it lead me to join this site, to be more open about it with teachers (when necessary; for example, it's a way to explain why peer-tutoring makes class a nightmare for me), to vent to friends when necessary (one of my friends has an autistic brother, so she's more aware than most), and to know that I'm not as isolated as I feel.

My mom usually rolls her eyes, because back in middle school I was so insistent that I was "normal," no matter how obvious it was that I wasn't. But affirming my diagnosis has made me feel a little bit better about myself.

my nephew was diagnosed, so i researched asperger's. at webmd.com and aarp.org, i found lists of traits that described me. i also fit according to the test at www.iautistic.com/test_AS.php

My sister is an elementary school teacher. She was required to learn about how to deal with special needs children, Aspergers came up in her studies. She had a child with Aspergers in her class and she said it reminded her of me when I was a kid, and I should look into it. Another girl I worked with during the summer had a boyfriend with Aspergers. She casually brought it up to me in conversation. And said I reminded her of Heather from Top Model (The girl with Aspergers, I think there's an interview with her on here somewhere.) I always had a suspicion I had some form of autism, I knew I was different from everyone else I had met in my life.
After 24 years of wondering what I was, why I was different, thinking maybe I had a brain tumor or schizophrenia or other crazy stuff, I began to do my research. (It's crazy that even though I have a B.A. in Psychology, I have never once learned of Aspergers in any of my courses.) For months on my spare time I watched documentaries. Read books. Read news articles. Took online tests. Everything pointed to me having Aspergers. After 24 years of being alive, I must say I am relieved. To know there are others like me and that I am not insane. I would get an official diagnoses if I had to. But I don't see how it can be of any benefit to me at this time in my life. I know what I am now. And I am a much happier person because if it.

Last edited by JesseCat on 05 Jan 2012, 10:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I've tried to discuss this with my mother, as she repeatedly resisted having me evaluated for anything like ADHD, autism, or learning disabilities because I was "too smart" to have these things. This despite the fact that she actually had me see a doctor about my hyperactivity early on.

She sees it as trying to "protect me" and I see it as having "failed me." It was obvious that there was a lot that was atypical about me, but I was simply punished for it and treated as if I were consciously being lazy and unwilling to apply myself. I remember asking for help with school work and at best I'd get a hint as to how to proceed that told me nothing that I needed to know. Because I was so smart.

The end result being that I dropped out of high school and then dropped out of college three out of four tries (the school closed on try #2).

Wow almost exactly my story.

My self-diagnosis process started when I took all of the online tests in one of the sticky posts in the General Autism Discussion forum here on WP. Normally I don't put much stock in online questionnaires, but every test gave me a score that suggested that I might be on the autism spectrum. After that, I started reading more WP posts, often experiencing a sense of relief that I was "not the only one". I also did a lot of wikipedia-ing, and youtubing - particularly watching autismhangout's channel. I really like the "Ask Dr. Tony" series; he is awesome! Also, as a female, I found Rudy Simone's list of female asperger traits (http://www.help4aspergers.com/) useful.

I had a roommate at math camp that told me about something called Savant Syndrome... looked like I had it. It looked like that I wasn't normal, so I looked up the disorders that usually came with it. And then somebody posted something about an AQ test... I took it and then saw that I got a really high score on it. It seemed natural for a lab rat like me, so I dismissed it. Then I got a crush on a girl... some friends decided to help me out. They noticed that I could not detect small nonverbal cues... This, and the fact that my brother had already gone to speech therapy for more than four years by now.

I was doing my fourth year thesis on autistic traits in the general population, because it interested me. Naturally I did a lot of reading, and I took the questionnaires that I was making my participants take. My scores put me in the "possibly AS" range, so I did more reading, tests, etc. etc. and suddenly everything about my life up to that point made so much more sense.

Having said that, I still wouldn't say I have self-diagnosed, I just don't trust myself that much. Plus because I have studied psychology and AS, it kind of puts me too close to the topic so I need an objective opinion. I'm currently pursuing a formal diagnosis.