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

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I was diagnosed with ADD and Dyslexia. Not to long ago my mom started to read up about aspergers. I did to I also looked back over the ADD/ADHD. Ever thing about aspergers fit me. Ever thing about ADD/ADHD did not.

It also explains why even now at the age of 29 I have near or full shutdowns when I go to places that have to much going on. Case in point a few days ago I was in Gatlinburg Tennessee. After eating I wanted to go back to the hotel. My mom and aunt want to go shopping. There was so many people and so many sits, sounds, and smells that it became to much for me to take.

I was starting to shutdown. In fact once we got to any area with fewer people I put my headphones on and turned my iPod on.

That just one of many times in my life where I had a a shutdown or a meltdown how ever you want to look at it. I have also went to see some who even said yeah you have it. Is it as bad now is it may have been in the past when I was younger? No maybe not. I bet anything I have learned tricks to work out different things. But aspergers fits me a heck of a lot better then the ADD/ADHD.

I'm quite fascinated by the apparent 'fad' of Aspergers. I've read about it online, but have never encountered it in real life. I don't tend to tell many real-life people, because most people have a lot of stereotypes and their view of someone with Aspergers is very limited - as in, if they know someone has Aspergers, their expectations of that person will instantly reduce. I don't like that. And a lot of people simply haven't heard of Aspergers. I need to discover the places where Aspergers is trendy - it would be quite interesting to experience being trendy for once in my life!

I've not encountered an Aspie fad in real life either. Most people don't seem to even know what it is. And if I really wanted to try to get some cred here, I would have just selected "diagnosed" on my profile - then maybe I could have been cool...finally. I don't like the idea of being self-diagnosed for myself, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't sure I have it. And regarding getting a diagnosis, as I've gone through the assessment process, I've had lots of sort of roller coaster feelings that I didn't expect. I'm frustrated and saddened by the fact that I feel there is something "wrong" with me - yes I have my strong points, but I have a very hard time, too, and really need help. It's not a throne I am trying to ascend.

For me to be honest it's just a word. Just like my Dysleixa. Yeah I have aspergers, Dysleixa, and some parts of me are a little ADD. But at this point in life other then understanding my life better it does not do much for me. Also I don't really feel like going around telling ever one in my family.

And like you said most people don't even understand or know what it is. I did tell a few people I trust at work about it namely my boss who has ADD and two co-works who I get a long with very well.

I will say this though. I have had five people in my life all tell my mom that I may very well have aspergers. Three of them work with kids. The other knows a next kid with it. Like you I don't get how it's a fad. Because really there are parts of it I don't like. The lack of good Social interaction is one of them. Having people think I mean to be rude is another one.

I don't mean to be rude or mean to any one. All I can say to those people is my Brain is wried different from yours. If they don't like that I'm not really really fast at writing. To bad if I was faster then I would go faster. I had both the VP of the company I work for and my Boss tell me if it took me all day to work on what I was working on so be it. They would like me to do the job right then wrong and seeing as how what I work on falls under FAA rules I can't speed up on it. So yeah most people at work don't get it and never will.



That's also why even though I did really get diagonsed I'm going to leave it in my profile as undiagnosed. Unlike some I don't wear as something to be happy about. Heck I hate having Dysleixa. But I have it oh well. I'm not going to let it get me down. I think for me it would be like a coup out.

That's about as far as I made it in this thread. I'm self diagnosed, and I don't frankly care if it annoys you. That's your problem.

I'm not saying it to be offensive. I'm simply stating blunt fact. If you don't want it to annoy you, in the words of Bob Newhart, "Stop it!"

Look, I understand there probably ARE a lot of folks out there who read an article or two and "decide" they have Autism. There are just as many who "decide" they are schizophrenic, have MPD, are Bipolar, and on and on. So what?

That's their problem not yours. What is your problem is that it bothers you enough to make a big deal of it. Why should you? Without a diagnosis, they aren't going to get he help and support they need anyway, so basically all it amounts to is an interesting obsession for them.

I self diagnosed after over ten years of research, not just a couple of articles. Also after two sons were diagnosed. I am planning to be fully tested in the near future. That is already in the works. I already know what they're going to find, unless they are either deaf and blind, or just plain totally ignorant.

Maybe what you should be focusing on isn't others self diagnosing. Maybe what you really ought to be focusing on is why you LET it bother you.

At least that's something you can actually do something about.

I think what a lot of people are saying here is many of us are at a point in are lives where we know we have it a long with what ever else it is we may or may not have. But we have learned to live with it. Some get by better then others.

Diagnosed not Diagnosed for most of us we are just going to keep on living just with a better understanding of who we are.

Yes, I find that people with ADHD or similar conditions, and of course other people on the spectrum, are much easier to tell, because they 'get it' straight away. And also people who have a lot of contact with people on the spectrum - they are the ones who can generally tell I have Aspergers before I tell them. I also had several people in my life who had already decided (without telling me!) that I had Aspergers before I mentioned it!

And I agree about the rudeness thing - that's when it can be useful to tell people I have Aspergers, so that they know I'm not intending to be rude. I really hate miscommunications, and when people assume I have subtle bitchy intentions in what I say. It's frustrating when people are reading things that aren't there in what I say, simply because if they'd said the same thing, they'd have meant all kinds of subtle digs between the lines. Although unfortunately there are people who still don't 'get it' when you tell them you have Aspergers, so I've had to learn to be very careful who I tell.

But yep, it's really never been a fad in my experience. Wherever I've lived, the 'in' people have always the sociable ones who are quick with the witty comments. I've always been a bit of an outsider. Maybe it depends what country you live in, or what career you go into. Maybe in computer science being Aspie is trendy.

Ok you guys do realize that there are people out there have KNOWN that they are different from the rest growing up. They know it so much that it has been painfully obvious how out of place they are. Their whole life has been a negative experience drenched with low self-esteem. And they cant explain why.

Why would anyone want to be aspergers or autistic? I dont, but I need to know why. I need to know why my life is the way it is, because I just have no idea. Nothing makes any sense.

social anxiety makes a lot of sense, but there has to be more to it. Alot of the AS symptoms fit, but I dont think I act at all like alot of aspies portrayed in videos or on youtube.

There are probably a few who are troubled sociopathic liars who are faking it, but besides that who fakes AS/Autism?

ON THE INTERNET? at least fake it in a live support group like Fight Club if your going to do it

It's an excuse used by some fanfiction writers who are too lazy to use spell check and/or grammar.

No, really. Someone will pick up on it, tell them that they should at least spellcheck their work before posting and they'll actually use the excuse "I have Asperger's! It's not my fault if I can't write properly. Leave me alone!" Usually using netspeak and/or very bad spelling and disregarding grammar entirely.

THOSE people piss me off. Because they don't have Asperger's. They are just using it as an excuse to do lazy writing, because they think that it will work for them and get them off the hook for bad writing.

I had to teach myself the grammar I do know, because it wasn't taught properly in my school. And while I do write fanfiction, and I don't have a beta reader, I would never use AS as an excuse for crappy spelling/grammar. Usually I read through what I am about to post first, make sure everything looks alright and then post. Yes, I sometimes get it wrong, but then people usually tell me and I change it. And yes, I don't think I'm very good at it, but it is something to do to occupy my time with and I find fun and relaxing.

I never associated bad spelling and grammar with AS, if anything I feel a compulsive need to make sure everything is correct before I hit submit. I'm not saying that compulsive need is necessarily a trait of AS either, except the desire for precision, perhaps.

It has nothing at all to having AS. It's just laziness and them coming up with the 'coolest' expalantion for it they could think of.

It is so very not right...

I was just wondering where they got that idea. I guess anything they are criticized for can be explained away by AS, huh?

Or so they think...

Either way, no one likes to hear it, and so it is best to not say anything at all about having it. People may start to think you're using it as an excuse for bad writing...

I say if my writing is bad, then it is because I'm a bad writer. It won't get me to stop, because I enjoy doing it, but hey, it'd be the truth.

That's an awfully blunt statement, and frankly not entirely true. It can and does sometimes have to do with AS.

Can we all try to remember AS and Autism are SPECTRUMS. Just because you've never heard of this, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It does.

You know, I've never blamed my self diagnosed AS for my spelling problems I usually blame the Dysgraphia that I actually am diagnosed with. My spelling errors have gotten a lot better since I started using Firefox but sometimes the spellcheck will break down and start sobbing on me and there's nothing I can do unless there's someone near by to ask.

I would expect though that spelling/grammar/punctuation issues would be down to something that's co-morbid with their AS such as my Dysgraphia rather than being a symptom of the AS itself.