Self diagnosed people here don't have aspergers

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snake321
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30 Apr 2007, 6:02 pm

Wolfpup wrote:

snake321 wrote:

However I still stick to my guns, it's obvious whenever a disorder or "disorder" arises, tons of people jump on the cowboys-and-indians bandwagon. They pretend to be part of a "disabled" group to sooth whatever identity crisis they might be encountering. And they often proceed to use it to gain sympathy from people.

Does this actually happen on any widespread scale? I have no idea, but it seems like something th at would need to be backed up with evidence. Regardless, is it happening HERE? I don't see it.

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Now I am not insensitive to people going through identity crises, however, stealing a seat in someone else's community or culture is unnacceptable. They usually always choose disabled people because it's like a sub-conscious bullying game, they know disabled people usually aren't strong enough to stand up to it.
Point is though, if your not Aspergian, and your claiming to be Aspergian, claiming to speak from a 1st hand perspective, then your opinions on our issues are just plain invalid.

I agree, but is it happening here?

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However, I would say in general, the majority of people who aren't diagnosed are the most likely ones to be fisher price Aspergians.

And I think the people admitting they haven't been officially diagnosed, or aren't sure, are the LEAST likely to be pretending, if in fact anyone at all is.

I think I understand and agree with your concern, but I don't know that anything like that happens on a widespread basis, and doubt anything like that is happening here on an widespread basis.

Besides which, how many people even know about AS? I had never even heard of it until someone trained in this stuff (with an AS relative) said he thought I had it. I had never heard the word until then, so probably most other people have never heard of it either.

Proof? Look around, go hang out at the mall, or at schools. Hell some grown adults do this stuff. And theyr blatantly obvious. "Oh I have (name random disorder), please pity me". It's a trend now to pretend to be mentally disabled.
And believe me, I know autism still needs to be more acknowledged, but don't underestimate how many people DO already know of it's existance, even if they don't TRUELY understand it.

snake321
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30 Apr 2007, 6:06 pm

bizmack wrote:

We all seem to have an innate sense about ourselves and our surroundings no matter how high or low functioning we may be. I am a currently self diagnosed aspie soon to be DX'd, yet I am not looking to say either way that self diagnosis is always acurate. Maybe some of us are depressed and loners and feel these are tell tale signs of Aspergers who knows...The point is those of us here are looking to commune and relate to people whom we feel are like us.

We are far more intelligent and empathetic than to turn away someone as I am sure we have all been turned away due to illogical thinking such that someone does not seem aspie or autisitc enough for this site. When you think about it wouldnt you say thoughts like those seem more Neurotypical than anything

NT loners are fine here, I have no problem with them. In fact I have something in common with them, I am a loner. Still it doesn't give people the right to pretend to be something theyr not. If someone is having a serious identity crisis, they can talk to me about it, or someone else on here who is willing to help. I have no problem helping someone in need, as long as they can be respectful to my boundaries.

nobodyzdream
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30 Apr 2007, 6:21 pm

I'd say it could be a safe bet that someone who just suffers from being a loner or just not knowing what is going on with them probably isn't going to hang around here long. Most people are really leery of trying to identify with all of it as a whole. My bf kept on saying there's no way in hell I had it Asperger's just because of the "autism" part (I mean, come on, who wants that-most people flock more towards bipolar/depression in general)... until he read the criteria today. He sees a lot of it in me as well, as I was very leery of even suggesting I may very well have it because I wasn't 100% positive that it really did suit me (btw, I fit the criteria to a T from both of our points of view). It's easy to get confused and all, but since nobody here really knows much about daily life for each person who does a self-diagnosis here, we can't really say anything against them can we? I mean, whoever can think whatever about me, but it's not a diagnosis I went out searching for just to belong, and it's not even a "real" diagnosis until my psych says so according to a few people here I knew nothing about it until this week when a friend mentioned it to me... I've put in a LOT of thought into this, and tried to compare myself to other diagnoses and such, and it really is kind of crappy to think someone would write off my personal effort just because I'm not doc diagnosed. Sure, some people find groups just to have somewhere to fit in, but who's gonna pick something like autism? Most people find it a very complex thing and would feel uncomfortable trying to fit into something they can't relate to, or people react like my bf initially did-knowing very little about it and immediately thinking there is something horribly wrong about it, so they'd avoid the topic altogether and never even make it into the point of trying to relate.

Edit: not saying there is anything wrong with autism, by the way-I just think that most people are ONLY exposed to extreme examples of it and have no clue that there are other forms... at least, most people I know don't/didn't know, so was going from their point of view.

Last edited by nobodyzdream on 30 Apr 2007, 6:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Wolfpup
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30 Apr 2007, 6:29 pm

snake321 wrote:

Maybe that's why I don't know about it. I don't hang out at the mall or anywhere else. I hardly leave the house except for work

Still, I've never heard anything like that at work.

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30 Apr 2007, 8:16 pm

SteveK wrote:

ZanneMarie wrote:

All I can say is I find it funny that someone needs everyone to come to the same conclusion in the same way in order to feel valid about themselves. Especially when it comes to something as haphazard as Psychology and Psychiatry. Anyone who spends a week on this board and sees all the misdiagnosis that went on and still does would be hard put to accept these subjective observers as experts in the field. That's like saying a doctor feeling your broken leg can determine whether it needs just a cast or a pin and a cast simply by talking to you and looking at it without taking an xray. Neurologists are the only experts on neurological disorders and even they haven't looked at this enough to know for certain. That's why they say they are sure this is what you have, but if pressed (as in if pressed in a court case) they could not say it with 100% certainty. At this point, no one can, but someone who cannot even read a fMRI certainly can't and is making an "educated" guess at best.

You're also not recognizing all those on here who went for a diagnosis and were told they had it but not given an official DX because the Psych felt there was no need and no services, interventions or anything else to be gained by it. Most are told that when they are given the diagnosis. How do you think they feel after they pay money only to hear that? Yes, you have it and we can't do anything to help you. Have a nice day. I can't say there's any reason to go running out and spending your money to hear that unless you just want to have someone tell you that you aren't crazy and it really is your brain. If that's why they did it, glad it helped them out.

When I called the local Autism center here, I was told the last expert Psych, who by the way was a few years out of college herself, had gone into private practice and might decide to give me an official DX if I called and begged hard enough, but that she wouldn't accept any insurance and it would cost $1000 or more (she isn't on my list of approved Psychs either) and they told me that at my age there was nothing they could do for me in the way of interventions, services or anything else. Then, she told me I could drive an hour and a half to pay the same price and get the same thing, a DX and nothing else. Great. Not very encouraging. The answer would be different for someone worried about homework because there are interventions and services for that. In my case, unless I have co-morbids or need SSI, they will do it, but I will pay and to be honest, these so-called "experts" aren't too interested. It didn't exactly give me a warm fuzzy feeling.

MAN are you ever RIGHT! One person here spoke of how her neurologist showed her where her "Sylvian fissure" SHOULD have been! It WASN'T there! I was almost JEALOUS! She had ABSOLUTE empirical proof her brain was PHYSICALLY different! I'm sure she was happy about that, but I'm sure it didn't really matter. With all her failings, she had a lot of good strengths, and appears every bit aspie. And she seems happy and successfull even with the stress and problems.

GRANTED, I don't have such proof, and my strengths aren't as prominent, but my weaknesses aren't either. It IS a spectrum, afterall. If I take the time off, and pay the money, it will be for my benefit and comfort. Right now it just doesn't make sense. 8-( BTW somewhere around, there IS a cat scan of my brain. I wish I could have seen it. If I ever happen to go back to the area, or get too bored and remember, I STILL may. Wouldn't it be interesting if I ALSO had some malformation of a similar region? I wonder what snake would have to say. 8-( And would I STILL need an arbitrary decision?

It WOULD be funny if all the people fearing "infiltration" were found not to have it, and most self diagnosed were found to have it. Somehow, I don't think that is very unlikely.

Steve

My GP did an EEG on me when I was about nine. I would love to see it because I read about a study where they looked at EEGs for different things with Asperger's and I would love to see how mine lined up just from an intellectual perspective and because it's black and white. I just don't know how to get it now. My GP is long since dead, his secretary is in a nursing home with Alzheimer's and that hospital where I had it done is now closed. I have no idea who has those records if anyone does. It's too bad. That is something I could handle. Or an fMRI. You are right about the fissure or seeing cracked mirror neurons. I can only deal with black and white, that's why these subjective observations just don't get it for me. I wouldn't believe in their "expertise" anyway because it's subjective observation. I don't even consider Psychs of any sort to be true doctors. That's just me. It's my need. Thirty so called experts could agree and I'd still want the CAT scan, fMRI or EEG. I'm even like this with my pets and actually had an MRI done on a cat and went to a veterinary Neurologist. So to think I wouldn't do the same for me is kind of pushing it. I'm just black and white and that's all there is to it.

Otherwise, me seeing it, my husband instantly seeing it and all my old employees looking at the criteria with no explanation and then saying, Oh so that's why you are like you are is enough. We're all intelligent, educated people perfectly capable of looking at it and coming to the same conclusion as a shrink. It's all over my school records, my work records and everything else. What else would a shrink look at? Nothing. So, there we have it. For me it does not work. But, for those who it does, I'm no one to judge them or their suffering. If they need that to feel fine, I will support it. I just want them to get through this life as best they can. It's too difficult as it is without all of us fighting like kids on a playground.

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Last edited by ZanneMarie on 30 Apr 2007, 8:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

ZanneMarie
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30 Apr 2007, 8:26 pm

snake321 wrote:

SteveK wrote:

snake321 wrote:

Um.... Ok, well I'm gonna be Mexican because I have decided I would like to be mexican, despite my white skin and no knowledge of the Spanish language. Mexicans should be happy that I am willing to believe i am mexican. So now my opinions and thoughts can impact the way mexicans live, positively or negatively (most likely negatively since I don't REALLY understand what it's like to live as a mexican). What do I care, I only BELIEVE I am a mexican. I can make myself BELIEVE I risked my life crossing the border. And then I can imply the best way to make immigration easier for mexicans is to send them back to mexico for 10 yrs.

Do you see how this sounds? I don't mind if NTs or people with mental disorders post here, that's totally fine, not a problem. But they shouldn't claim to be something their not. If they think they might be Aspergian but aren't sure, they should make damn sure before they infiltrate an entire community or culture of people.

YEAH, I know how it sounds! STUPID! Why are you trying to sound stupid?

Frankly, if I DID speak with a mexican accent, look mexican, speak mexican spanish, have memories of mexico, etc... I might think I am mexican.

WOW, INFILTRATE! That's a really odd way of putting it.

BTW sending mexicans over to mexico DOES make it "easier"! Otherwise, they come here as undocumented ALIENS, and many will never even TRY to imigrate!

Is THAT your problem? You're an undocumented alien?

As for overstating "loner status", I guess you don't have too much trouble then. You have an AWFULLY big chip on your shoulder! You should do something about that before you poke a friends eye out.

Steve

No my words weren't stupid. Most people will get angry if you fake being part of their culture or community. Now I'm not neccessarily saying that YOU are doing this, but I do suspect some on here are. And when people who don't belong to a community fake like they do, theyr robbing that native community's people of their voice in their own community, not to mention their cultural identity.
It's not "strange" to point out that teens sometimes forsake the clique labels at highschool for psychiatric labels like ADHD, or Bi Polar? I'm not saying those disorders don't exist, but lotsa people who claim to have it are fake, and theyr mainly interested in bleeding pity off of society. It's no different with Aspergians, the only real difference is that we're only **precieved** to be a legit disorder rather than a healthy nuerological variation similar to how others have different genders, nationalities, skin colors, sexual orientations, etc.
Point is, most of NT society, if one of their organizations or something wanna learn about us, they come here to this board or one like it. When there are a bunch of people who aren't Aspergian but only pretend to be, they might say something on here that goes against the best benefit of our group simply because they don't know what it's like to really be an aspie. So there they are hijacking our community and steering it away from our best interests as a group.
Do you get what I am saying? I'm not trying to turn this into a major flame war, I am trying to discuss this with you in a civil manner. So don't get all defensive, if anyone has that right it's those of us who are definately Aspergian. And I for one am not getting that heated, I am just trying to discuss why it's not right to fake status in a community of people. Community, culture, whatever you wanna call it, it's not up for grabs for anyone who just happens to feel like being a part of it. Birth alone decides if your Aspergian or not.

I agree that NTs do come on here especially for research which always has an agenda and bias. I would hope they would just watch (which is originally what I did), but you never know. I'm not good at reading people's intentions or motivations. But, from a purely logical standpoint, it makes sense that NTs would come here for this purpose and would end up misrepresenting us if they did. You can't observe a few days worth of posts and glean too much. You really have to research. I don't know how many of them really do that.

Odds are that we have some of these.

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Esperanza
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30 Apr 2007, 8:36 pm

I didn't bother reading all the posts here, so forgive me if this has already been said, but I think the original poster has WAY too much respect for doctors. They're not magic, and they don't know everything. They're just people too.

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30 Apr 2007, 8:49 pm

Lately I don't think much of doctors at all.

Shelby
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01 May 2007, 6:05 am

Was the person who started this an angry aspie/autie who didn't want "intruders", or just a troll trying to be provocative? In any case, Aspergers is only diagnosed based on a series of behaviors so a doctors diagnosis is not worth much.

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01 May 2007, 6:53 am

Anyone who remembers some of my older rants on this topic knows where I stand. Although there are a large number of people out there who have no professional diagnosis but definately have aspergers, there are also a number of people who think they have it but actually suffer from something else, and a wretched number who claim to but actually suffer from nothing at all (save for a misguided sense of what is 'cool'). It's very easy to let the people in the latter group bias your opinion, which I'd guess is what led to this thread being started.
I don't think it was an attempt to be provocative, and I think the term "angry aspie" is somewhat unfair - it's easy to feel demeaned by the kind of people who claim (with no reason or authority) to have AS. Insisting on diagnosis gives you a sense of certainty - makes it easier to know you can trust people, and know they aren't just a misguided/manipulative NTA.
So, I'm not going to join a purge of the undiagnosed any time soon... but I can't say I don't prefer knowing people have been diagnosed properly.

nobodyzdream
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01 May 2007, 7:31 am

I definitely can see your point in that it could feel a bit threatening-I was bothered a LOT by people throwing around the BPD diagnosis on my other forum, and I have been diagnosed with that. But now that I understand it more, and know more about what I am going through (I was in an extremely abusive relationship and was diagnosed over the course of a whole 3 days, sent home telling me that I was just seeking attention), I don't think I have it.

I have traits, but I don't have full blown BPD. Yet, since I have not been diagnosed with AS, my therapist cannot do anything with it, and I cannot get a diagnosis until I undergo an assessment. Now, the assessment costs $350 (and that's on a sliding scale, landing at that rate), and my son needs one as well, which is another $325. I have 2 children to take care of and am very very fortunate that my bf's family covers my bills. I have not been able to hold a job in over 5 years for many reasons-mainly all boiling down to not being able to cope with it or having a major change in direction of my thinking, along with social anxiety that is progressively getting worse. Therefore, for me to be able to shell out $675 for a real assessment is a huge hurdle right there-his family helps me with a lot and I'm not about to go asking them for another $700 that they can't afford right now either. The other hurdle is finding someone to watch my 2 children for me while I undergo an assessment, which is 8 hours of the day. Since I am not working, I cannot get assistance with daycare or anything like that, and his family all works/goes to classes and such, they just don't have 8 hours they could just up and decide not to go in one day, especially while covering all of my bills and such.

I am going through a place that is sending forms for my son to get help with his assessment, but that could take up to another 3 months I have been told, and so far I've put off asking for one for myself as I absolutely hate asking for help with things because I want to figure them out myself. But I am going to be calling them within the next week to ask if they would be able to send one for me as well.

Blah, I guess by saying all of this garbled junk that nobody wanted to know about me in the first place, lol, I'm just trying to say that sometimes it is situational as to whether or not you can get a diagnosis right away just to ease others.

Not saying that other people might not just be trolling, and that everyone claiming to be AS is or isn't, so please don't take it out of context if anyone bothers reading this, lol. ...and definitely not saying that anyone who would feel more comfy with someone if it was an official diagnosis is wrong.

I know I probably haven't been here that long and quite frankly anything I say probably doesn't amount to a whole lot because of that, lol, but I've been obsessing over why I think the way I do for 3 months solid (thinking non-stop for years, but just obsessing over this particular thing for 3 months solid now) from wake to sleep (when I actually do get any sleep), and until I get a diagnosis, it sure as hell is nice to see people who think the way I do about things, because everyone I know in RL just looks at me like I'm absolutely insane for the things I do, the things I say (especially when I'm trying to figure out something-trying to explain something that should only take me 5 minutes winds up taking me 5 hours), and the way I act in general.

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01 May 2007, 9:48 am

people seem to be equating self-DX as "unsure"

i keep reading... if you're unsure, go get a DX blah blah... before getting in this blah blah culture...

if you're honest with yourself and have done lots of research on the topic... i don't see how a doctor could be anymore "sure" on the topic...

this topic is old, /yawn

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violentcloud
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01 May 2007, 10:20 am

nobodyzdream wrote:

Now, the assessment costs $350 (and that's on a sliding scale, landing at that rate), and my son needs one as well, which is another $325.

Ouch! Didn't cost me a penny... must be a UK thing.

nobodyzdream
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01 May 2007, 10:35 am

yeah so for now self-diagnosis until I get something from the doc. I need to move to the UK

Wolfpup
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01 May 2007, 10:56 am

violentcloud wrote:

nobodyzdream wrote:

Now, the assessment costs $350 (and that's on a sliding scale, landing at that rate), and my son needs one as well, which is another $325.

Ouch! Didn't cost me a penny... must be a UK thing.

Probably. The person who's trying to see if I can get diagnosed was thinking $300 would be the super-cheap discounted rate, and now I can't even do it that way. It's supposed to be really expensive.

nobodyzdream
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01 May 2007, 11:04 am

lol, I haven't been brave enough to ask how much it runs when it's not on the sliding scale o.O

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