My issue with "self diagnosis".

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LOL @ these types of threads.
The 'professional medical officers' who diagnosed me were not very thorough and in my three years of studying autism I know more about it than they do. I know people that self-diagnose before they do they do hours and hours upon days and months of in depth research even after they come to the conclusion. That alone puts them somewhere on the spectrum.

I'm self diagnosed with epilepsy because, well it's obvious and no one will diagnose me. Well excuse me for not losing consciousness and actually being able to experience every waking moment of a grand mal seizure.

I ain't got no beef with self diagnosers. Honestly, OP, quit taking the meaning so literally. Maybe you are on the autism spectrum. I take meanings of things so literally too and people get so damn annoyed with me.

I do not have insurance and can't afford to get a professional diagnosis. So self-diagnosis is my only viable option right now.

I diagnosed my own ADHD before I was formally diagnosed by a psychologist. And I feel certain that no one else would have ever recognized it in me had I not self-diagnosed.

With respect to ASDs the term "medical professional" is an oxymoron. These are the same people who took 50 years to get from Freud to the refrigerator mother theory. It is coming to light that possibly 10% of patients in mental health facilities are undiagnosed ASDs. I'd like to see a class action lawsuit to bankrupt the heartless, money hungry, arrogant, unprofessional pigs.

I wish I'd followed through on making a list of the reasons WP members reported for not being diagnosed with an ASD.

One that still stands out for me is "You don't act like Rainman."

Those who believe their own diagnoses without benefit of confirmation by an appropriately trained mental-health professional have a fool for a patient. An amateur diagnosis is merely a faith-based claim, much the same as any religious delusion based on faith alone.

You have a lot of faith in medical professionals, Fnord.

I wonder what the ratio of misdiagnoses are, from doctors and 'self' respectively. With popularity of a condition I would expect self-diagnoses to be less accurate - but only on average, not in any particular case.

This is not a logical claim. I can guarantee you that when I said I was autistic before I had an official diagnosis, I had not made a faith-based claim. I did not simply believe I was autistic without evidence. On the contrary, I'd had three people I knew (two also on the spectrum, one who is a therapist) tell me they'd suspected I was on the spectrum all along - and all three gave detailed explanations as to why they thought this. I compared notes with multiple other autistic people I know to find points of similarity. I discussed the matter with my mother who gave me a list of observations that she felt supported the probability that I was autistic. I read through approximately 100 pages of WP posts (I mean the forum pages that list threads), to find points of similarity. I took multiple tests that have scientific validity as screening tools, I read books about autism and looked for points of similarity. I compared my own mannerisms to those of autistic people shown in videos on youtube. I learned a lot about autism and reached the inescapable conclusion that I was autistic.

And when I saw someone for a diagnosis, the diagnosis was very easy because, as the diagnostic report said, I was fairly obvious.

You're making a generalization that is appropriate to your perspective that self-diagnosis is wrong, but in doing so you are excluding the fact that people do not typically diagnose themselves from faith alone. They usually have a reason to investigate in the first place, and many investigate in-depth, perhaps in more depth than many diagnostic sessions ever need to explore. Many other conditions that can mimic ASDs are not themselves lifelong, for example, and include features that autism does not. It is sort of like claiming that hypothyroidism can be mistaken for ADHD when hypothyroidism also has distinctive symptoms that should not be confused with ADHD and ADHD lacks those same symptoms.

After reading around 15 books and dozens of web articles/blogs on Asperger's I self-diagnosed.

After spending around $2000 over about 10 sessions with a psychologist who specialized in ASDs I received a "The tests indicate a diagnosis of ASD and you probably have Asperger's but it might also be Social Anxiety Disorder and besides you have a decent job so an official diagnosis is probably ill-advised" diagnosis. I also read several books on SAD and I relate much more to Asperger's.

So I call myself: "Semi-officially diagnosed Asperger's"

I wonder how many people believe that vaccines cause Autism, merely because they have no faith in Big Pharma or the Medical-Industrial Complex ... conspiracy theory, anyone?

I would rather trust any doctor chosen at random to provide me with an accurate diagnosis, than rely on any untrained, narcissistic, egocentric, bipolar, pharmaphobic solipsist to even suggest what might be "wrong" with me.

To the majority of mental health professionals, if you don't fart in a telephone booth and mumble "yeah" when asked, "did you f***ing fart?!" you miss the criteria for being autistic. Worst of all, you miss the criteria for being Rainman. What a bummer!

That would be the illogical leap of a crazy person. I see no reason to suppose a typical autistic is less rational than a doctor.

This is a very peculiar dichotomy. To what or whom are you referring?

Also, your "people who believe vaccines cause autism" analogy is wrong, as by definition the people who believe that appear to restrict their information or simply disagree with evidence that disagrees with their beliefs. You appear to be saying that anyone who self-diagnoses must necessarily also restrict their information to data that confirms their bias.

Anyway, I don't have perfect faith in the medical profession. I was misdiagnosed with a personality disorder last winter, and for years I went to the emergency room because of random fibromyalgia symptoms that I couldn't explain, and every doctor I saw wrote my symptoms off to being caused by anxiety instead of causing the anxiety. I only got a diagnosis this year because the possibility was suggested to me and I specifically sought out an evaluation. The ability to identify problems that I likely have enables me to be more proactive and educated regarding my own medical care, whereas simply trusting that doctors will come to the right answer means I don't get diagnosed with anything but panic disorder and anxiety.

This is not to say I distrust doctors automatically, but I do not assume that having a doctorate will automatically lead one to the correct, or at least most helpful, answer.

A person who unquestioningly accepts the opinion of a professional without doing their own research and analysis is making a leap of faith.

I agree on the benefits of seeking an "appropriately trained mental-health professional", even though it is difficult to find one (as many have said before, diploma does not equal competence) On the other hand, your comparison of amateur diagnosis and religious faith is a very stupid generalization. Not everyone simply takes an internet test and is suddenly autistic.

With enough obsession, any individual can gather data on Asperger syndrome, compare to data available from, say, every freaking family member and close friend available, not to mention the individual himself (and I suspect these sources are much more reliable than a random stranger with a degree), analyze his behavior from his early childhood up to the present, and have a reliable way of discovering if they fit or not the criteria for diagnosis. A diploma is not needed for introspection and asking your parents about your childhood, no matter how difficult you think it is. It is not really "rocket science", even though it may take a few months or even years.

Regardless, as I said before, I still intend to get an official diagnosis, but I am not stupid enough to trust a single doctor. I will seek at least three (not without verifying if they are reliable first) and see if their opinions vary too much. I am absolutely certain I have Asperger syndrome, but I would like to hear an expert just to see if there is anything interesting to learn from them.

Your blind trust on "appropriately trained mental-health professionals" is like religious faith: in this case, the diploma is like the Bible: the proof that proves itself. Unless you spend some time trying to get info on how capable the professional really is and, after getting your diagnosis, confirm with your closest relatives and friends if the diagnosis is reliable, since they will know more about your behavior than the doctor.

To sum it up, kids: be skeptical. Always make sure your facts are backed up. Be very careful with your sources. None of you are safe.

I'd say that while I don't agree with "self diagnosis" being an oxymoron, I do prefer those words. They provide more information, which is a good thing. I've mentioned on other threads wanting even more specific separations than those allow even (and its not about thinking someone with a diagnosis is 'better' in some way than those without it, its because of being overly pedantic.)

Both my boyfriend and I use undiagnosed or 'probably an aspie' about him. The phrase 'self diagnosis' never comes up at all, and I think it'd really bother him to use.

The state I was in for years was provisional diagnosis, and I wanted to have that distinctive from 'I read a bit myself didn't have any outside opinion and decided it', but even more so to be distinctive from someone who was formally assessed. I considered myself self-diagnosed because of not having better language.