Any other groups that are more accepting of self-diagnosis?

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People turn to these things PRECISELY because they get in a rush to get that formal diagnosis, and something bad happens to them.

Many laymen actually do end up knowing autism better than some cut-rate quack who doesn't even use an empirical test. The guy who screwed me up was greeted, as I left with a prescription for a strong drug after one visit, by a colleague who said, "I heard you were the John Wayne of psychiatry," and that should have been a hint to me. I didn't take the hint, I took the pills, and I got very sick. The paramedics had to pump me so full of Benadryl that I was hallucinating as I lay there feeling like I was dying in the emergency ward.

So yes, I DID know better than he did, and I should have listened to my instincts and behaved like an empowered and informed patient.

Being an empowered and informed patient to start with keeps you out of those situations. Self-diagnosis gives people a "slack period" in which to learn about ASD and what their most realistic options are. I think it's a much safer route.

Western medicine is the way to go, but being an empowered and informed patient is an important part of successfully navigating the system. You really cannot even begin to deal with something like autism without becoming an expert on how to navigate the system, to begin with.

I do on this site... :/

It's probably that the most vocal people catch my attention the most, and so I don't see the legions of quietly self-diagnosed people going about their posting business without making a song and dance about it. In fact I'm sure there's some of that going on.



Or it could be that most of the time the experts do listen and their patients don't like what they have to say. They want a "yes" diagnosis and they won't be satisfied with anything else; it could be argued that those patients are not listening to the expert's opinions.



I've addressed this in detail already in a previous post and don't really feel like rehashing it. It is bad that money gets in the way, but that's the reality of the world - you either save up or you learn to live without a diagnosis. I was lucky enough to get a free assessment, but that pretty much is where my luck runs out.

During my psych evaluation, we never discussed, "the viewpoint of the diagnosee" and never discussed the DSM criteria. Instead, the clinical psychologist administered a series of tests (lasting a total of 6 hours, over 3 separate sessions) while carefully observing me.

In the final report, the clinical psychologist described certain behaviors that I would have never noticed myself.

I haven't received any reports of posts that are not supportive.

With all due respects, I have seen criticism/mockery/ridicule from both sides. From my perspective, it's silly to not expect debate on this matter, especially in a thread about self-diagnosis.

On the other hand, if there was a topic about something else, and someone provided feedback/advice and expressed that they were self-diagnosed, I would be quite disappointed if a debate commenced about the validity of self-diagnosis.

One final thing. If someone is uncomfortable participating in a thread, they should avoid it. There are unpleasant things everywhere, even in an online forum.

Yep, and that's how it works at a real clinic. A lot of people, though, have these positive experiences, and they assume that you can walk into any practice and expect to get such an empirical evaluation. Nope.

Some of us come from not-particularly-affluent rural areas, and the presence of actual clinics is actually nonexistent. Psychiatry is not even considered locally to be a real science, and the few practices out there that won't just ask you straight-out what kind of drug you want a prescription for still rely on ideas that haven't been taken seriously, in the science, for half a century. I had to permanently relocate to 100 miles away in order to have ongoing access to a clinic where I could get the sort of empirical testing that you described.

Generally you do a better job pushing your offensive (to many) points. But I believe this is your worst effort.

You say:
"A self-diagnosis is nothing more than one person's opinion of one's self -- an opinion that is not backed up by an appropriate degree or license, and which ranks alongside other self-referential opinions like "I am psychic", "I am an otherkind", and "I am a space-alien/human hybrid"."

If I didn't have a suspicion you were on the scale I'd take greater offence, but really:

FNORD: Please give us a comprehensive list of the scientifically accepted testing for "...other self-referential opinions like "I am psychic", "I am an otherkind", and "I am a space-alien/human hybrid".

YOU know what I mean right????? Testing developed by doctors (quibble all you want) and accredited scientists to test for the things which YOU (can only) state as your guesses and suppositions and unsupported generalizations.

I'm afraid this probably shows us more of what you think of others in general; too bad. I believe this may also show what you think of yourself (deep inside). If so you suffer, like us. But that doesn't give you the right to try to make others unhappy (just because you are). Especially since you have NO demonstrable proof of your assertions it sounds like you're blowing stinky ideas out your rear brain.

I know you can do lots better; why don't you?

Would you like such reports? Alex, the various self-diagnosis topics that have proliferated in the last few weeks have caused me to avoid them altogether because of the uncomfortable hostility I see from those who denigrate those of us who support such diagnoses. As someone who is self-diagnosed and supports self diagnosis, I have avoiding even commenting in other topics which have asked "as an Aspie, do you...?" In other words, being told, however kindly I am sure, that my own self awareness, research and testing is less valid than others has indeed chilled my enthusiam to be very involved with Wrong Planet. But, sure, I will gladly report the most egregious to you. Stand back.

That would be helpful

I agree with this.

At times it seems like every thread about self-diagnosis and even the mere mention of it here in any context triggers a debate. So how can people feel comfortable bringing it up in the context you describe? or in any other personal context?

This thread is a good example. There's no need for any debate in this thread, especially considering there are already debates going on currently in other threads. Any opinion on the merits of self-diagnosis, for or against, is irrelevant to the question I asked.

I know there is at least one other thread, which I believe is the one wozeree started, where a question was asked and the debate has no relevance there either, but it commenced anyway.

I live in exactly such a place, plus I am in the middle of the Bible Belt and there is so much religious influence here that I would not be surprised one bit if a psychologist or psychiatrist told me to go pray over my problems and ask Jesus for help.

Well, I guess I don't have much longer left on this site.

Nice knowing you, folks. I'm not posting on a site where I'm being grassed up because people would rather go in for hysterical knee-jerkery instead of actually reading posts and genuinely considering their content. Sorry but I'm just not. I can be banned now or later, I don't really care. The tone of this site is already changing in the short time that I've been here.

What are you all gonna do when I'm gone? Have loads of group hugs and go "there there, I feel your pain" to one another? Nah, I shouldn't be even interested. You people don't represent me, not in the least little bit.

AspieUtah, I looked through the 5 most recent reports you submitted, and while I disagree with them, I don't see that they actually specifically (or even generally) attack people who self-diagnose (some posts only attack the idea of self-diagnosing). Some of the stubbornness bothers me but it seems to be contained in that thread and not spilling into other threads where the debate was not the specific purpose of the thread. If it were all over the site, it would be something I think we should prevent, but it only appears to be in that single thread.

I think most people on Wrong Planet are supportive of self-diagnosis. I am the creator of the site and I see no problem with it. If you seek help to deal with your self-diagnosed autism, I don't see how it could be a problem. Even if you didn't fit the criteria for autism, what harm is there to learning social skills or learning how to deal with sensory overload? It's not like you're going to be taking some unnecessary medicine with side effects and it's not like you're not going to be failing to treat whatever you actually have. For instance, if it turns out you only have OCD and don't have autism, it doesn't really matter because dealing with OCD is something a lot of people on the spectrum face so the treatment would be similar.

I also don't understand why someone would leave the site merely due to the fact that people self-diagnose. I go to plenty of sites where I don't agree with some of the widely held beliefs.

Just to make it plain, I would never leave this site due to that reason :/

My main reason for getting upset was because I don't want to have feel like I'm walking on eggshells and in danger of being reported all the time.

Up until these recent spate of threads, I had no issues with anyone who was self-diagnosed. I still don't, provided they have no issues with me. In other threads which aren't about self-diagnosis, I don't even consider the person's diagnostic status. I don't know. I'm still upset and not expressing myself very well.

I agree.

Very well said - if you're agreeable there may be some value in "stickying" the above in the General Autism Discussion Forum.