Is self-diagnosis okay/valid/a good thing?

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Yep. And I've seen this same pattern emerge on almost every forum I've come across.

I doubt people really have any thought process about doing it on purpose though. It just happens.

Self diagnosis isn't really diagnosis - quite frankly you can convince yourself you have a broken leg if you read about the symptoms long enough.

In my case it was a necessity. My doctors were too incompetent to do their job correctly and I was misdiagnosed for 17 years. It became quite clear to me that something else was wrong and it wasn't just depression and anxiety. It was a few years before I could get the testing done to prove it since it's quite costly and my doctors didn't want to refer me to a specialist which would have made it easy to do. If you aren't going to be aggressive about advocating for yourself they'll just run you in circles for years.

I couldn't agree more. One has to advocate for one's self.

Clinicians frequently have too much of a caseload to take the individual nature of the person into account when diagnosing. This, at least fairly frequently, leads to misdiagnosis.

A broken leg? You might as well have said a broken neck because that's a terrible analogy - unless you are trying to imply that those who believe they are somewhere on the spectrum before being officially diagnosed are delusional to the extreme.

I don't think the majority of adults who come to the conclusion that they are somewhere on the spectrum before being officially diagnosed are trying to "convince" themselves. I certainly wasn't. To do so honestly requires much introspection, which frankly a lot of people aren't comfortable doing to begin with.

Yes.

I don't understand why there is this notion of 'against self-diagnosis' = automatically evil.

I also don't perceive this 'bloc' and associated threads that B19 referred to.

The majority of criticisms haven't amounted to harassment IMO, however there have been a few that strongly imply or directly say those who identify as autistic without an official diagnosis are frauds, idiots, delusional, attention seekers, have some ulterior motive, etc.

If it's not ok to speculate about motives of self-diagnosed people, then it is also not ok to speculate about motives of people against self-diagnosis. If it's ok to speculate about some, then it's also ok to speculate about some other. The only thing that is not good in my opinion is it being ok to speculate about some, but at the same time not ok to speculate about some other.

Someone posted earlier that I was being manipulative and had psychology disorder syndrome for posting how autism is defined. Though bizarre and wrong about me, I think that is ok for them to post, since that is their opinion, and it would also be ok for me to post my opinion. But I have not attributed bizarre motives to anyone, as that is not my way, and I mostly lack the social cognition required to do so. But if others are allowed to do so, then I am allowed to do so, if I could and wanted to do so.

The same standards should apply to each poster, regardless of their stance on an issue.

(excuse the interjection)

I personally commented that individuals who 'self-diagnose' could have a number of other conditions - including some of the conditions you mentioned. I also mentioned Munchausen's, hypochondria etc - I'm perfectly comfortable with having said what I said, as it was completely objective and is a possibility.

This is different from saying certain undiagnosed individuals are delusional etc.


I'm having difficulty understanding why it would cause offence.

In much the same sense, everyone who posts here who claims to be medically diagnosed could be lying.

Again, I'm not saying they are lying, but they could be. Someone on this forum could say to me 'we have no way of knowing if you are medically diagnosed' - with the only reasonable response on my behalf being 'yes, that's correct, you have no way of knowing'.

In much the same sense, 'I could be' would be perfectly acceptable as a response to the statement 'you could be delusional' - which is very different from saying 'you are delusional'.



For me there's no attack here on any individual - but rather, an attempt to introduce all possibilities to the equation. Two of those possibilities could be:

1) Certain individuals who believe they are autistic could in fact be delusional - or autistic - or anywhere between
2) Certain individuals who claim to be medically diagnosed could be lying.

This is an objective reality and not a criticism of one side over the other.


One major problem of the internet - lack of verification.

Maybe no-one on this site is autistic? Maybe everyone is?!?!

I think that those posts are in the extreme minority and that the whole argument has been blown way out of proportion. From what I can see there are none of these posts anymore, but there is still no attempt to reconcile. All that I am trying to gain from this is a mutual understanding, so that self-diagnosis is free to be criticized (as any process should), provided forum rules and general etiquette are adhered to.

From my point of view there have been efforts to prevent critical discussion of self-diagnosis that were unrelated to these posts. That's sort of what I meant by those against self-diagnosis being lumped into one evil group. For example, btbnnyr has not strayed from any rules or gone out of her way to harm others, but I remember viewing posts that dismissed her freedom of posting that used reasons such as 'a support site' etc. Strong, negatively charged emotional posts have been the typical reactions to criticism of self-diagnosis, which I can understand when it involves offensive material, but not otherwise.

Personally I think the situation would improve if this thread were locked, but then I would also feel obligated not to express any negative opinion I may have concerning self-diagnosis, as I am almost certain I would be ripped apart. >.>

I agree. I haven't seen anyone breaking forum rules (unless the post got deleted), although there have been some ignorant and hurtful statements made.

I don't think anyone should be censored from expressing an opinion on any given topic, however ignorant or hurtful it might be to read. As long as it doesn't violate the rules which seem fair to me. Personally I haven't reported anything I've read in the various threads on this particular subject.

I personally choose not to be critical of those on this site who identify as autistic without an official diagnosis but I think it has been good for people to talk about. It shouldn't be a taboo subject or banned from discussion IMO.

I 100% agree. From my perspective, this is precisely the type of “support” I was looking for when I first visited WP (information and perspective). And, these types of threads provide both.


I also agree that the tone of this thread could have been less confrontational, from all parties involved.

Just for clarification, I didn't mean to imply that anyone who is critical of self diagnosing an ASD is automatically ignorant/hurtful.

Last edited by blueblahbleh on 10 Dec 2014, 11:01 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I don't understand it either. I haven't seen anyone else here equate it that way. That notion seems to have originated with you and your interpretation of things.

Isn't that how all notions begin? Otherwise there is no such thing as discussion, it's just talking at each other like you're selling an instrument. I have seen phrases like that used a lot lately and it makes me wonder if people really just want a stagnant conversation where nothing is to be interpreted and only spun according to a preconceived notion held by a group, rather than an individual.

I pick-up this notion because those that have been critical of self-diagnosis are generally lumped into one group. Those that have not broken the rules have been limited in their discussion by ideas such as 'support site', 'restating of ideas' etc. There are also what are obviously negative responses (in an emotional sense) to posts that criticize self-diagnosis, however objectively.

Though I'm not inclined (and I doubt you are either) to dig through posts in 2-3 massive threads to support my view, if you disagree with me, in that you have not seen this, then I want your perspective, so that a mutual agreement can be made, which would benefit everybody who posts here. If that doesn't happen then it's vague, cliche statements that get us no-where.