Have You Ever Changed Your Stance on Self-Diagnosis?

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No. I've always thought that it's not valid and that is because if you really have difficulties with things you'd want to be able to recieve the many different help and support a person with an official diagnosis can be offered. There's too many people nowadays who sport different diagnoses like they're a cool trend and because they believe it makes them special, fragile, soft little beans for suffering in any type of way when in reality they're not suffering at all and are at most lazy. There is a difference between actual struggle and being lazy and therefore choosing to pretend to have difficulties so you can just blame those. Even with a diagnose you can live a great life, many people do because they've chosen to be happy and fight hard and in my opinion getting a diagnosis and therefore being able to understand yourself better paired with the support you can get even helps with living a better life.

Of course I was pretty certain I had aspergers years before I sent a referral to see a psychiatrist but I did not call myself an aspie nor did I claim to have aspergers but I knew the difficulties that I had and that they matched with autism but I would've felt it was disrespectful to those who actually have it to call myself autistic without a diagnosis. After all you can suspect you have a certain diagnose but in the end you don't or you have an entirely different diagnose than you thought although that is not what happened in my particular case. Of course though there are people who feel they have autistic traits but they don't care so they don't try to get a diagnosis and I respect that, some people don't feel they need to know and they don't have any major difficulties. The only problem I have really is when someone says that they are autistic but they've never had it confirmed. It feels like they're just pretending in order to be and feel special - lots of people do when it comes to mental health, unfortunately. Just look at those trendy "cute but psycho"-shirts and everything, like what is cool about being psycho?

The idea that you can't really have a disability or problems if you've not sought an official diagnosis is of course total bunkum.
There are many reasons why people don't pursue a diagnosis ie financial, anxiety about the assessment process, doubts whether you're as disabled as you really are etc.

Indeed it is possible to be as much or more disabled without a diagnosis as with.

At the end of the day whether officially or self diagnosed it comes down to a subjective assessment as to whether you present with the required symptoms . You hear of people getting a no with one psychologist, and getting a yes with another.

Some years after I self-diagnosed, studied the available information, and concluded there were no effective remedies available for autistics aged fifty plus, an acquaintance working on a PhD thesis on adult autism told me he could only use my story if I completed a formal diagnosis. So, I completed a formal diagnosis. That was a decade ago. There are still no effective remedies for people in my situation, though a psychiatrist I consulted has given me some nice little pills that ameliorate social anxiety, and the world is still largely ignorant of adult autism. Worth the effort? Who knows...

My dad often refers to himself as dyslexic, even though he has never been officially diagnosed. When he was growing up it wasn't as well-known, so there weren't really any services available.

He doesn't see much point in getting a diagnosis at his age. My mum proof-reads his emails, and sometimes I make sure he spells certain words on forms or documents correctly. I also read out things for him if he asks. Personally, if I didn't know that he was self-diagnosed I would assume that he had a professional diagnosis. He spells things phonetically, tends to find it difficult to read things in his head, noticeably misreads words sometimes, has trouble remembering written instructions...and so on.

Generally I find that it's just easier to say "his dyslexia" or "he's dyslexic" whenever it comes up in conversation. If you take a look at my dad's side of the family you'll notice that quite a few relatives seem to struggle with spelling, which suggests that there is indeed a genetic element at play. So dyslexia certainly seems to be the most logical explanation.

Personally, I struggle more with numbers than with letters. My parents have suspected that I may have dyscalculia from the age of eight years old and still suspect as much. A few friends of mine also suspect this. In fact, the people around me have a tendency to talk as if I've been diagnosed, leaving me to add "Oh, no, I don't have a diagnosis I just suspect it and so do the people around me but we don't know for sure" if they're talking about it with someone else. I sometimes use the term "visual processing issues" when talking about it, because I have had generalised (yet official) tests done which do in fact confirm that my ability to process visual information such as abstract symbols including numbers is drastically underdeveloped. The fact that 99% of test takers scored better than me was truly eye-opening, and I've had this test administered to me twice (once at 14, and another time around 17) both times I scored the same. It's possible that it's visual processing disorder or something else, but I don't think that fully encompasses all of my difficulties. Since I don't just struggle to take in visual information (numbers switch around, so do music notes and I can't remember rapid-fire number sequences) but also with short term memory at times (particularity when it comes to numerical information such as arithmetic facts).

I've looked into official testing before, but it's not cheap nor is it guaranteed. One website I found stated "We offer dyslexia screenings starting at £350, and if we think it's necessary we will do follow up tests for dyscalculia for an additional £150". The key part being "if we think it's necessary" not the person paying for the tests, which concerns me because what if they suddenly decide "because of your circumstances we don't think it's worth it"? Should someone with the same concerns as me ask at the start of the process about this? Is it even worth it? After all, most people don't even know about dyscalculia, and at this stage does an official diagnosis even benefit me? If I were doing a more maths-orientated course then my University would be required to offer testing and support, but since I'm not it's entirely on me if I want to go private or just leave it as something myself and others strongly suspect.

Now, self-diagnosis isn't always good because sometimes people identify as a completely incorrect label and miss the actual problem. Often this is due to common misconceptions about a condition. However, it can be beneficial (mainly in casual conversation in an informal setting) to do so.