Are the un-diagnosed welcome here.

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The only thing I have against a self-diagnosis is when a person self-diagnoses themself with AS but never needs to seek professional help, be it therapy or medication or whatever. All DSM diagnoses specifically say that the symptoms/diagnoses must cause "significant impairment in functioning." If someone thinks they have AS but doesn't need accommodations of any sort and can live their lives without seeking some kind of diagnosis, how is that really an AS diagnosis? (This excludes cases where a person cannot afford to seek an official diagnosis, of course.) It's not impeding on their life enough to cause significant problems. I'm all for self-diagnosis as a starting point. I correctly self-diagnosed myself with OCD about a year-and-a-half before I received an official diagnosis, but I needed to pursue an official diagnosis to get the help I need to live a somewhat "normal" life. AS is debilitating in many aspects, and I've heard many tales of self-diagnosis that only show Aspie traits or being part of the BAP rather than the full-blown condition.

This is exactly the point I was trying to make in a previous thread of mine (about self-diagnosis), but it was met with a lot of hostility and resistance.
Something I fail to understand is how so many people on WP can be in denial about the fact that AS is a disorder. In order for it to be diagnosed, it has to significantly impair your day-to-day life. But Lord help you if you ever dare call it a "disability" - it's not a view that's exactly welcomed, for reasons that continue to escape me.

Of course those who "Diagnose" themselves are welcome!

A person's beliefs should have no bearing on his or her eligibility for membership.

Just like so many have "belief" in their "Doctor". All welcome.

At least belief in medical science is firmly based in objective reality.

I hope we can all agree that the really important question is whether un-diagnosed, with hyphen is distinct from undiagnosed, without. I think of the former as implying someone who was diagnosed but now isn't, and the latter of implying someone who has never been diagnosed. (No offence intended to the OP, who is whole-heartedly welcome as far as this snarky pedant is concerned. )

It's one of those "road to hell" things. (Yeah, yeah, flagrant use of metaphoric language, sue me.) There's a general historic association between "disabled person" and "person to be discriminated against/marginalised/generally picked on and not treated seriously" and so to prevent or disown that association people don't acknowledge that a disability exists. Stupid but at least well-intentioned.

Well no actually. The psychiatrist says "you don't have aspergers because you've indicated you care about your family". How is that medical science based in objective reality?

Mind you, they tend to get funny looks if they ask to on try that skimpy dress they've found...

Anyway, as far as I'm aware, this place isn't some sort of exclusive club with limited access for those without a doctor-signed membership card, so it shouldn't matter who posts here as long as they're not here to cause trouble.

(edited before somebody collars me for ending a sentence on a preposition)

Whatever is wrong with me causes me a lot of impairment in functioning, so much that I feel too impaired to even get help on my own. However I'm one of the ones that have no money or insurance to even try to get any diagnosis.

There are occasional posters on here that make me feel like since I don't have an official diagnosis I just shouldn't be here.

You can have it impact your life without it destroying your life. I am able to hold a job and make a decent salary as long as I limit my mangerial responsibiities (I hate those, would rather stay technical). However, if I can't function socially on a date or have sufficient social skills to get laid using craigslist, it does impact my life.

I am self-diagnosed, and I know that I am not welcome here by a few people as if my self-diagnosing myself makes other people less of a aspie...

I would love to get a real diagnosis, but lack of money, and a family who thinks that I am delusional, prevents me from doing so. I do not think I am a aspie solely due to a few social issues..., granted I do have a lot of social issues and at the same time don't really seem to care about them. I fit the glove called Aspergers. I found people who I can relate to, and I feel happy about not being the only person who feels like they came from kepler 22b.

I really do not see what some peoples issue is... I mean, I am not going to use aspergers as a excuse for not doing something, or to get benefits, or as a excuse to be blunt and mean to people. The same reason I did not use gender Identity Disorder for them same things. I feel like I belong. so I would like to stay without provocation.

A self-diagnosis does not make someone any less an Aspie; not being an Aspie does, however...

But I think even if someone is not a aspie but believes they are, they should be able to stay here and talk about their issues without fear of provocation. I am not going to toss someone out or throw them under the bus in the LGBT community just because they were experimenting as a teenager and for some reason believes that makes them a pure homosexual, Or they are a guy who likes to wear female tennis shoes so they believe that makes them transgender...

Why should people relate to the issues of autism and Asperger's so much and write many posts, where the diagnosed also relate to and go into conversation with, if they are not on the spectrum at all? (exceptions for people with a family-member on the spectrum for information). Then they should be at least obsessed with it. I guess, that people who don't relate to ASD at all would not even write here, at least not for a long time. Like there are a million of forums I don't relate to and would never write in. There was this forum about depression I was reading in and though having been depressed, I could not relate to the people, because...well, they were not autistic and had different ways of writing and "bounding" with each other and perception and they had too complicated Emoticons, that I couldn't understand the coherence of the written text anymore and an excessive use of Emoticons and were excessively talking about "how they feel" and relations and stuff, I could not relate to. So I stopped reading there.

Last edited by Eloa on 01 Jan 2012, 8:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I find it kinda funny that Aspergers is a minority, yet a few of its members are trying to make it a member exclusive club and toss out people who they believe are not fit to hold the title "aspie"

It kinda reminds me of "Sparta" or the Eugenics movement of the 1920's...

One more time, for those who did not read it before...


Whether or not you have an objective, valid and official diagnosis of AS/ASD, you are welcome here.