what option do you have in your profile?

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"Other ASD" because I originally came here as a Parent of an autistic child (not AS). But my husband and I definetely have traits and test as AS.

I assumed it was visible when others look at my profile, but now I realise I can't see that option in anyone else's profile. What is the point of this option if nobody can see what you've chosen? Or am I missing something and it is viewable?

I selected Have Asperger's - Diagnosed.

How official does a diagnosis have to be? AS is the only thing that comes close to making sense of my life, and my counsellor agrees, but does not have a PhD.

^ an official diagnosis means official, as opposed to self diagnosed. While both may or may not be correct, only an official diagnosis has any weight to it when it comes to accommodations and other help (even if it can be hard to come by even with one).



When I signed up I had it set to "Have Asperger's-- undiagnosed" as I was certain I had it but lacked official diagnosis.

I changed it to "Have Asperger's-- diagnosed" after I was officially diagnosed in 2009, about 3 months later.

Once again, what makes a diagnosis official? Do entries in one's file count, or do we need a certificate suitable for framing?

If a healthcare professional has given you the exhaustive test, and concludes you have aspergers/autism then its official.

If you and your mom just deduce that you 'must have it' then you are "self diagnosed", and it is not official.

I admit that there is an in between status. I was self dxd. My mom and sis suggested to the shrink I was seeing that maybe I had aspergers. The lady shrink responded that she had "never heard of aspergers before" even though this was a decade after aspergers was recognized by the DSM. So she read up on it over night. And then signed some piece of paper saying that I had it. But a couple of years later I had the actual battery of tests done. So that lady shrink who just declared that I had it really was not "official", but you could argue that it was a cut above just being "self diagnosed". So it sounds like you're in a similar in between state that I was in at that point. Not really official, but not just self diagnosed.

How long should a typical assesment take or does it vary and does that affect accuracy

I don't think a battery of tests is conclusive, either. Before we were in the DSM, avoiding any diagnosis was the healthiest option. I remember getting out of one referral for care by noticing the shrink starting to make up his mind, and then switching to a different personality to confound him. If the piece of paper affects funding, there is almost sure to be motive for bias on both sides of the test.
Of course, having AS is no barrier to having other conditions of psychological interest at the same time, and the pros are almost totally useless for a mixed diagnosis. There are just too many possibilities to compute. Even my basic DX should have been a no-brainer to anyone with a decent checklist, but I found it by chance while researching my mom's symptoms due to my NT sister's distress over them. I'd been going to counselling and self-help groups weekly for 15 years, and never heard a hint about AS there.

It doesnt say an option for autism, just aspergers but I wasnt diagnosed with aspergers and hadnt heard of aspergers until later on, as I was diagnosed with autism and I have autism. Or does autism count as other autism spectrum disorder?

Neurotypical. And it seems that I'm the only one who voted for this option in the poll.

Surely there must be some other neurotypicals on this forum. They just didn't vote.

There certainly is, trust me. I put Asperger's - Diagnosed. I was diagnosed about two years ago if I remember correctly.

AS-Diagnosed.

Not sure if I have it or not because I'm just a weird case. The labels aspie or NT just don't apply to me. I just come here to talk about social anxiety or use this forum as a general discussion forum.