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

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I agree this would be a good idea.

Thank you, Alex, for the time you spent looking into my concerns. As others have written, I was concerned primarily with the chilling effect some posts have on the willingness of some (including myself) to engage or continue to engage certain topics. By the way, call me David.

Don't think I quite follow you here.

I haven't reported anybody and don't intend to. If people want to make threads, e.g. criticising the official diagnostic process, then they can :-/

Maybe there should even be a self-diagnosis subforum for exactly that kind of thing: I dunno.

I don't want you to leave, not that my opinion matters one way or the other. You have as much right to be here as anyone else.

The last thing I want is for anyone to feel uncomfortable posting here or to feel like they have to walk on eggshells. I also do not want to see anyone here be mistreated, and I don't want to be mistreated either. I don't want to see anyone leave for these kinds of reasons. That is what I want to change here because I know other people have left because they were feeling uncomfortable or hurt. I don't want that to happen to anyone.

I have felt very uncomfortable around you since seeing you attack other people here. I get the impression, from the way you reply to my posts, that you take a lot of things personally that are not personally directed at you. That also makes me very uncomfortable. I feel like anything I might say, you may misinterpret and then attack me for. I understand very well what it feels like to walk on eggshells.

For the record I have not reported you for anything. I know you are going through a rough time.

@dianthus - Thanks. Well, the same applies to anyone really. Anyone who has an interest in autism has a right to be here.

I do have a tendency to overreact; no matter how much I try to contain it, it always pops back out. You don't want to know how bad I used to be on forums without any moderators (or when I was admin of my own small forum >_>). With regards to Joe90, she just touched an ultra-sore nerve with me - not her fault. I'm like that about certain topics - j-pouches (don't ask!), Aspies in happy relationships, etc. etc. A better person than me would be happy that somebody was in a happy relationship. And, objectively, I am happy for them (I'd rather see a happy couple than a miserable, fighting one). But sometimes the frustrated, envious side takes over.

On a different note, I guess I am used to opinions being expressed bluntly: I come from the least subtle family ever. If they think you're talking nonsense, they'll tell you so, very loudly and with another swig of wine. I'm also a daily visitor and occasional poster on another forum where there is tons of banter going on. (Not the Crohn's one, obviously.) Sometimes I think it goes too far, but at its best it does give me a good chuckle.

What's 'normal' for me obviously isn't normal for everyone else :/ I am trying not to make any personal comments on WP, but I must admit, I found some of your comments to be on the distinctly personal side :/ I know they weren't aimed at me specifically: but I feel like I was lumped in with the group of posters they were aimed at.

Well, when my partner was in recovery from his heart surgery, the psychologist the heart clinic put him with turned out to be an ordained minister...and tried to argue with him about his skepticism of religion, of all things, and my partner NEVER picks fights with people over this. My partner is so polite over this topic that he keeps up a social pretense that he's a good, ol' Episcopalian boy and is on good terms with several reverends and pastors, but the psychologist that they put him with, as part of the "recovery" from his heart surgery, actually got him legitimately combative in a way that is not like him.

I know that some people from more affluent areas, and areas where legitimate care is more readily come by, is likely to be highly confused by my views because many of these people are accustomed to the idea that, if you go into a psychiatrist's or clinical psychologist's office, you can reasonably expect to be put through heavily empirical tests under careful observation. They might have developed this assumption that this is how it's going to be anywhere.

No such luck. In some parts of the Bible Belt, you could be the only person for hundreds of miles who even knows HFA from Aspergers, and assuming, without doing serious research, that you are going to get a high quality of care, going into a practice, can actually be authentically dangerous. People with autistic spectrum disorders need to be prepared to exercise a high degree of autonomy and self-help because anything better is miles and miles away from them.

I'm sorry for that.

Wow. Doesn't surprise me really, as it sounds all too familiar, but wow.

I had to go to a Christian psychologist when I was a teenager (required by the private Christian school I was attending) and that is an experience I would NEVER want to repeat.

Meaningful conversation rarely repeats itself nor does it seek or demand validation for its views.

Most intelligent people are articulate and don't require paragraphs full of 'ten dollar words' to make their point.

People who derive pleasure from continuing behavior, that they have been made aware of has negatively affected another, should be given compassion for they are stuck in their own toxicity.

Allowing others to dictate your worth by falling victim to their doctrines will only leave you valueless.

Rules I try to live by. Maybe they will help give some clarity to things.

Worst-case scenario, you could find a lawsuit on your hands for having no disclaimer on your site mentioning self-diagnosis is no substitute for an official diagnosis.

Someone with another condition could join your site and relate to the symptoms of autism yet not be autistic. They could eventually seek a diagnosis - which may not be autism - and state your site as the cause of exacerbated conditions due to late diagnosis, with the case being no disclaimer on your site specifying the potential dangers of self-diagnosis with respect to any condition, and the benefits of seeking an early diagnosis with respect to this.

The individual could claim that if there were such a disclaimer, they would have contacted a medical professional earlier.

That would potentially be the greatest harm that could come of the failure to mention the potential dangers of self-diagnosis.

If I were a dev, I'd have such a disclaimer purely for the sake of saving my own skin. The litigation for such a lawsuit could be horrible.

The likelihood of this happening is close to zero, but it could happen.


For that reason alone - never mind morals/ethics - I'd have a sticky stating the associated risks of self-diagnosis.

No one here is claiming to be able to diagnose others, prescribe treatment, or practice medicine, psychology or psychiatry via the forum. Those would be the only situations where a lawsuit might stick.

What are "the potential dangers (and associated risks) of self-diagnosis"?

Instances of self-diagnosis being misdiagnosis, leading to exacerbated conditions of actual condition whereby individual sues a site designed as support of medical diagnostic labels such as autism failing to state that self-diagnosis is medically inadequate.

Getting completely ridiculous, someone could have a brain tumor which presents itself symptomatically in a very similar manner as autism. Individual visits this site, seeks no further medical advice, and dies shortly thereafter. Individual's family sue site owner(s) for site's failure to mention issues associated with self-diagnosis.

Again, highly highly unlikely, but I'd cover my own tracks for the 1:1,000,000 possibility that could exist.

Having a disclaimer should be standard fare in this day and age.

If medical experts are the only trustworthy measure of the right to wear this label, well my psychiatrist told me when I informed him how highly I scored on Asperger tests that "there is a little bit of Aspergers in every one".
So there you have it, from the expert horses mouth, everyone is entitled to be able to boast about having an official diagnosis.
As for me, they weren't around when I was younger, I wouldn't want one now as I would lose my job just like that.
When grown people tell me I am from another planet and go out of their way to buy me green alien toys so they can say, "this reminded us of you", I don't feel the need for somebody who doesn't know me to tell me Iam not normal when everyone through my whole life has already told me this.

I think it is just a handful of people who would rather the forum was just for them, perhaps they should get their own sub-forum that only they can post on, with a little gold star on the top.

It's okay. I haven't been an angel either. No hard feelings... >.>



Superb sentence.

Just waiting for the Hail Mary next.



There's a little bit of every personality trait under the sun in everyone too. Does that mean everyone is slightly psychopathic as well?

LOL

That reminds me of one time when I threw my back out, and was desperate enough to need pain medication so had to go to a doctor. I mentioned that my chiropractor said I have scoliosis, which was more than obvious on my x-rays, not just a slight curvature but enough to result in a really bad misalignment of my neck. The doctor said dismissively, "Everyone has a little scoliosis." So there you go, I guess we are all entitled to claim that diagnosis too.