Self diagnosis

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One: Autism is not a mental illness.

Two: Self diagnosis can lead people to believing they have something they don't and can lead to doing stupid things.

Yes, I can see that if someone decides they have autism instead of something else and goes off their meds, that could be a bad situation.

OTOH, if someone were to realize that they have multiple conditions, and not just what they were diagnosed with, they could improve their situation by treating both conditions and not just the one they were diagnosed with. One might really be in a fix if you have autism and bipolar, but your rigid thinking won't allow you to do anything for your autism issues until you get an official diagnosis, because your bipolar won't let you get a job to pay for a private diagnosis.

Last edited by BTDT on 05 Apr 2016, 6:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

i sincerely suspected autism since my early 20s. I could see I didn't (and never had) formed friendships/relationships the way others do, and not to the same depth.

Years later, a therapist brought it up and shocked me. I hadn't said a word about it. Since then I've learned a lot more about high functioning Autistics and it's surprised me how many other things about me also point towards autism.

in the meantime, when my doctor heard what the therapist said, the doctor slowly said "Good catch", later explaining 'I knew something else was wrong besides depression, but couldn't figure out what it was. This makes perfect sense.'

The doctor then entered into my medical record the words "Probable Asperger's Syndrome".

The therapist says this constitutes a "preliminary diagnosis", and has commented "When a patient believes they fit into a certain catagory, in my experience it usually turns out the patient is right".

All this time I suspected, and it seems I was right all along.

There can be value in what you suspect about yourself.

Congratulations, Sethno! Isn't it fun when clinicians agree with you (even if only a little sometimes)? The good ones seem to welcome patient involvement.

A very well researched self diagnosis is a good workaround if the cost is too much, or as often is the case a clinician that understands adult and especially adult female autism is not near where the person lives or if the person fears thier diagnosis will get disclosed.

A person who self diagnosis based just on reading a Wikipedia page or taking one online test only be hurts themselves and those that know him or her.. However due to the perception that most self diagnose that way or most do it to be trendy, excuse makers, or attention seekers a self disgnoser if they disclose may expect sustained withering critisism from those that know them and some autistics. As noted in many threads here a proffessional disgnoses far far from guarentess that you will be not be labeled an attention seeker or not believed etc but self disgnosis increased the chances of this substantially.

Personally, I think that it's a form of poseurism, wherein people try to pass off their anti-social or asocial lifestyles as being caused by the latest "fashionable" condition.

Now, while while having meltdowns triggered by social anxiety is one thing, they may also be caused by psychotic episodes, extreme mania, schizophrenia, or adverse reactions to medications. You cannot take just one symptom and diagnose just one condition out many possibilities.

Got a fever? Is it a common cold, the Adirondack Flu, or Beryllium Oxide poisoning?

A rash? Is it eczema, psoriasis, poison ivy, or Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever?

A cough? Asthma, Whooping Cough, formaldehyde in your laundry soap, or phage all cancer?

Symptoms are only that - symptoms - and they must be examined collectively and objectively by the appropriately-trained and licensed medical professionals before the correct diagnosis and treatments can be had.

Of course, if everyone around you has the same symptoms of the latest virus that's going around, and you develop those same symptoms, then it's a relatively safe bet that you may have caught the same virus.

But Asperger's Syndrome is not a virus - it is not contagious, nor has it been proven to be hereditary by any specific gene. So just because your best friend's cousin is autistic, and both of you enjoy rocking in time with your favorite music, that is not irrefutable proof that you are autistic too.

Get a real diagnosis.

Which can be a problem if they only professionals available to you are those in "mental health"...

Which is why a lot of people have to rely on self diagnosis only. I don;t know what I'd be doing right now if I wasn't in NYC. I really hate NYC (Noise, crowds, nothing else...it's a city not an angry person) but at least here there is something for me to rely on.

It is true that getting "a real diagnosis" is quite valuable to most autists. To some of them, however, they can't afford it, live too far from a qualified diagnostician, the diagnostician has little or no experience diagnosing adults (or level 1 individuals), they don't need a costly diagnosis because they don't need support services, or only and simply "want to know."

Just one botched diagnosis can blow $1,000 to $2,500 (wealth which is gone forever (or at least a long time) for most people). Even among "professional" autism clinicians, gross mistakes happen (I went from one diagnostician who wrote bluntly that I "showed no evidence" of being autistic to a other diagnosticians who not only determined my autism, but that my social-skills severity is "extreme." Now, how could that be if both professionals were trained, licensed and served their clientele ably and equally? Answer: Not all professionals are able diagnosticians of autism despite their career choices.

No, there needs to be a third way for some autists and their families to come closer to a diagnosis ... even if it means gaining a self identification of autism. Those "poseurs" who live the life for a week or a month will soon move on to other fads or trends, and, as Douglas Adams wrote, they are "mostly harmless" to us and future autists.

Last edited by AspieUtah on 06 Apr 2016, 8:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

I really don't believe that people really "want" to be autistic. Contrary to some sort of belief, it's not really "trendy" to be autistic in most circles.

It's something that's not exactly a stigma (though it could potentially be one)--but it is something which could negatively affect a person's friendship/career prospects.

I believe people who self-diagnose themselves with autism really are seeking answers as to why they have problems socially, and have problems keeping jobs. And to why they experience such things as sensory overload.

I find it rare for someone to self-diagnose based upon a Wikipedia article or the results of some online test. I find most people conduct thorough research before they self-diagnose.

Indeed. Current WrongPlanet.net members have stated that their self identifications were confirmed by subsequent professional diagnoses.

I agree with this in basic terms. But I would add one thing to this:

There are many things that defy common sense. But, there will always be someone who is going to jump on things for whatever reason. Maybe a form of hypochondria.

I don't think it's a huge number though, but there is some evidence, based on bad information in popular media, that there is a growing number of people who are jumping on the conclusions without foundation. There was another thread that dealt with this and I found a couple of articles examining this issue and the growing trend.

Yes, that's true.

I think, for the most part, these people are searching for answers, and might erroneously self-diagnose themselves with autism when they actually might have something else.

There will always be a certain amount of hypochondria, within the human population, which manifests itself in people self-diagnosing themselves with many conditions, including (not really commonly) autism.

Haven't you people read "THE 'CUTE' SYNDROME" yet? It's on the front page of the WrongPlanet website, and it details what's been going on with the public perception of autism and ASDs.

Yes, there really are people who want to be 'trendy' by claiming to have an ASD of some sort. Before this, it was being an adult survivor of child abuse, or being an adult child of alcoholics. Before that, it was having Dyslexia. Before that, it was ADD/ADHD. Before that, it was some form of bipolar disorder. Before that, it was some form of anxiety disorder.

Now non-military people who are only related to military combat veterans are starting to claim to have some form of combat-related PTSD.

I'm telling you, there really are people who think it makes them more popular to claim the latest 'trendy' disorder; when in reality, it only attracts enablers to their "pity party". Then co-dependent relationships develop, and are maintained only as long as the 'victim' can keep his or her enablers convinced that he or she needs their support and sympathy.

It seems to be human nature that if you can't earn people's respect, and you're not strong enough to inspire fear in others, then you can pretend to have an 'invisible' disorder that prevents you from being 'normal', and voilà: instant acknowledgement of your intrinsic value as a human being!

... effing poseurs ...

I've never met a person who believes autism is the latest trend.

And I've met all sorts of people, some of whom would glory in being involved in an intoxicating pity party.

I wouldn't say, though, that I am in much contact with people who were born two generations after mine.

Oh! Well then, obviously they don't exist! ... solipcism ...