Confused about why it matters...

Post Reply New Topic

Thank you for this I get a bit uncomfortable whenever this topic comes up, as someone with a professional dx and who is on the "milder" end of a lot of the social symptoms. I sometimes wonder whether I'm just "pretending" to be on the spectrum. But I logically realize that there are logical problems with the "it's trendy/overdiagnosed" claim:

1. People making these claims probably haven't met a substantial proportion of the "diagnosed with AS" population in real life, nor are they qualified to diagnose the condition. Therefore all such claims are based on someone's poorly informed opinion. There is nothing logical or scientific about it.
2. Deciding what proportion of the population is AS is a bit like deciding how many people are short. All cutoff points are inherently arbitrary and based in personal opinion. People talk about wanting a scientific test for it, but how exactly? It's not like AS is a virus which can be detected under a microscope. It's an arbitrary term to describe natural variation in the human population.

So those are the personal and logical reasons why this talk tends to irritate me. I think people should try to avoid making sweeping and ill-informed generalizations.

I like the post about neurodiversity.

I'm thinking two things. One is that so many of us are conditioned to inclusion vs. exclusion because of how we were treated that we just automatically react in the same fashion where the autistic spectrum is concerned. In truth, 1 in 166 is pretty substantial and it's highly likely many people without actual diagnoses do fall somewhere on the spectrum and do belong here. As for the handful of what people desire to label as wannabes, does it matter? Does it really affect anything? People wannabe depressed (emo). People wannabe anorexic (seen the pro-anorexia sites?). People wannabe a lot of things, but it doesn't make it so. At worst, it "cheapens" our experience. At best, it brings some awareness to it.

The other is that finally finding an answer is something very big for some of us (like myself) and some may feel protective of what is theirs, so to speak. There's nothing wrong with feeling that way, as long as it doesn't cause us to lash out at others who, while they may not be an aspie, may have issues that WP helps them cope with somehow.

I agree that if you are here to find people you can relate to, it doesn't matter so much whether you have an offical diagnosis or not. This topic makes me a little nervous b/c I only recently began to suspect I have AS, but I don't have an official diagnosis. But the point is that here, you can find people who have the same TRAITS as you. That's what you look for in people, in friends: something to relate to. AS is a group of symptoms which are basically traits. It's not so much AS that you have in common, or even a personality, but some sort of understanding.

As for wannabe Aspies...In my opinion anyway, if the desire comes from an internal place, trying to understand yourself and help yourself (and yes, that includes finding help from yourself by getting benefits if you need them), then I think it's great. You just have to ask yourself WHY you're seeking a diagnosis, and why it has to be official (if it does, which is something I'm still figuring out for myself).

Those are just my thoughts...