Self diagnosed people here don't have aspergers

Post Reply New Topic

No clinically significant speech delay (although I did stop speaking briefly), and no major problems in self-help/self-care skills- occasionally missing a meal due to getting absorbed in something/being too overwhelmed to make food doesn't seem to count as it's not often and a nuisance more than anything else, and I'm pretty sure that less-than-great hygiene during adolescence wouldn't count either, and it seems to be pretty common in AS. My personal space looks like a bomb hit it, but I'd also imagine that that type of thing would be common in AS.
I function pretty well. Not as well as would be expected for the typical person of my age/intelligence/level of education, and it takes a lot of effort to function as I do, but I think if I had HFA rather than AS I'd be doing a lot worse than I am.

I'm not sure exactly how to put this, I've wanted to reply to this topic for a long time but never actually have the courage to and when I do my words get stuck and nobody will understand them how I mean them but here goes.

I'm in the process of being diagnosed, I've been asessed and prodded and poked and so far the conclusion is I have mild to moderate aspergers, apparently it's just a formality, paperwork and looking at my sensory needs etc but I can't actually call myself diagnosed until it's all finalised, this period has gone on for a long time and has been very traumatic for me.

I didn't know what autism was until my little boy was diagosed with it and by chance was discussing his traits with my mum when she said alot of the stuff sounded like me when I was a kid, I looked into it very skeptically but heard from a psychologist many people don't realise they have it and just go through life feeling alien which I could definitely identify with. It had been suggested as a possibility in primary school because I would flap and tap on things so much and didn't socially thrive like the other kids, it was never really looked into though as not much was known about it when I was smaller, in the end they decided to take me out of class and put me in another part time class for naughty kids that needed extra tuition, I remember being so annoyed because I knew the answers to all the questions, I just couldn't seem to get them out, yet according to them I could reel off a hundred facts about a specialist subject then remain silent when asked a question. I did speak but only when I saw a reason to.

I was always told by my parents I was just quirky and just a bit different from the other kids but that it was ok and that's what made me special etc, but it was only as I got older I realised the degree of difference had been played down and I just couldn't relate to anybody, eventually I decided to at least act like other people even if it meant not feeling the same, I thought if I did I'd start to feel like them eventually, it was hard but I forced myself, that left it's own mark but that's another subject altogether.

I find it hard to summarise things without rambling but basically when I found out what autism and aspergers was I knew that's why I was different and indentified with it, I guess that's self diagnosis; but what hurts sometimes is when people say because I recognised it before it was professionally recognised I'm somehow not entitled to be classed as on the spectrum, for me learning about autism was like finding closure, I still don't like being the way I am but it helped me feel ok about being me to be able to put a name to it - but when people generalise and say that every self diagnosed person is a fake it feels like being ganged up on, just because I don't have a bit of paper yet. I know some people won't admit it but I believe there is a hierarchy in autism that fails to properly acknowledge not only those with aspergers but in particular those for whichever reason haven't wanted to or been able to get a diagnosis; yes people can really think they have something and turn out to be wrong, just as I acknowledge there will always be people that fake for whatever reason, but it's wrong to assume that goes for everyone, in generalising some people are wrongly being scrutinised and not recognised and it just isn't right.

Exactly. This has been true for me in the medical area too - I have a standing joke with my physical doctor (who is a good guy) - when I come in he asks me for my diagnosis. I give it and the facts to back it up, sometimes with charts of measurable items like temperature, blood pressure, peak flow (for asthma) and every time I can remember he has agreed. There have been times that I've asked him to write a prescription for this - or for that - once I asked him to write it for half dose because I'm very sensitive to medication and years ago that whole dose had made me more ill. He didn't think it came in the half dose but I had already looked it up and it did. He had to leave the room to consult his book and he came back and wrote the prescription for the half dose.

He has told me many times he wished all of his patients were more like me - aware of their health - bring in the data that makes the diagnosis much more easy for him. I like him because he listens and his medical training does guide me and help me to consider things I'm not aware of. So we make a good team and I think it just helps me to get better treatment. It makes no sense when people have no idea what symptoms mean, don't even look them up, have no idea what's going on with their body, and just throw themselves on the responsiblity of the doctor to fix them.

About the AS diagnosis - a big part of it as I've been told is questions. The therapist first has to learn everything they can about you - so they ask YOU and possibly your family all the things about you - when you first walked, when you first talked, what kind of routines do you have, how to do handle social events, etc. That person first has to become fully knowledgeable about YOU, then they can compare the symptoms of AS and decide if you have it.

I'm already an expert in the subject of ME. So I saved some time there. And I learned the symptoms of AS and myself and my family immediately saw the match. So what else does the doctor have that's magical that can make a diagnosis? And if he did, how will that change my life? (it won't)

I do want to get a formal DX for my son because he's more AS than I am, less able to function anyway and has more things that are actual problems, but he refuses to even consider that he's Asperger. Getting that DX from a doc may help him.

Polkadot - thank you for sharing your story. I understand it and I'm glad that you decided to share it here.

(I tend to ramble on when I get going too - don't worry. It's not such a bad thing.)

For all intents and purposes....I was self-diagnosed with NVLD when I was 14 years old. I just didn't have a technical name for it until I received some psychological testing.

I think many adults with AS start off as self-diagnosed, if only briefly. There was no diagnosis for AS when I was a kid, so there was no way I could be diagnosed back then. I was in my 30s before I learned something about AS. I thought it sounded like me, so I did a lot of reasearch, all of which served to convince me further. I self-diagnosed AS. I decided to get a professional diagnosis, but all I really wanted out of it was confirmation of what I already knew. I disagree that "self-diagnosed is undiagnosed." Not everyone who self-diagnoses with AS has it, but I won't write off every self-diagnosed person as deluded, either.

I've avoided responding to this thread because I thought doing so would just bump it and add to it not going away. Today I realized that this thread will NEVER go away. The anti/pro self diagnosis arguments have been said over, and over, and over again!

If you find yourself repeatedly involved in this argument; I have a question for you...Will the other side ever convince you they are correct?

If yes: Really?

If no: Why do you think you will change how people on the other side think? Are you smarter? Is your logical verbal kung foo too strong to resist? Is this even about what they think (opposed to convincing yourself)?

I don't understand why the self understanding/knowledge/identification/label/whatever of a stranger on the internet bothers people so much. The only conclusion I can come to is that it's not about the stranger on the internet at all. It's that the stranger's whatever threatens a flimsy personal foundation in some manner. If a stranger on the internet can threaten your own personal understanding/ foundation just by how they identify or label themselves, maybe your foundation is the problem. Maybe working on that would be more productive than arguing your infinitely correct point of view with said strangers on the internet.

Just my 2c

Outside of university research centers, I am not aware of any doctors who make a living diagnosing adults with Asperger's. At best, doctors have some experience in it. At worst, they think they do. Most likely, they will try to fix your problem with a prescription.

Regardless of what the doctor knows about ASDs, the one subject doctors are not experts on is their patients and their histories. A doctor's diagnosis is only as good as the information he pulls out of the patient. An Aspie is "much, much, much (much) more qualified to make assessments" about his own history than a doctor who asks questions for 20 minutes.

My mother was in therapy for many many many years - different docs, lots of prescriptions - no results, only getting worse and worse. She was diagnosed as clinically depressed with OCD.

When I recognized my son as autistic and started researching and found myself clearly in the AS information, I saw my mother as well. She is more than textbook AS - to an extreme. At that time she was still seeing a psychologist every week and I eagerly told her to tell her psychologist about Aspergers and that I believe that's what she has. She did, the woman said "No, I don't see that at all" and it turns out she had very limited understanding of what AS is, she mentioned that it's MOSTLY IN CHILDREN

>>>>>>ARGH<<<<<<<
(insert GuyTypingonComputer's headbanging avatar here)

and that was that.

My mother is now firmly convinced that she doesn't have it, since she has the "expert opinion" of her doctor to back her up.

My therapist after 3 weeks of therapy suggested i might have after all i had described to her. After that i took as many legitimate quizzes as i could and nearly all of them told me i was an asperger and i look upped all this info and so much of it fits the experiances i have had.

The thing is that doctors are no better, they also hand out diagnosis to people who are shy and have a hobby.

My opinion has for a while been that asperger/autism is an unfixable mess and should be discarded. I want to take my people apart and give their condition a new name.

My doctor failed to diagnose a stress fracture in my foot. It was me who suggested the possibility to him but he dismissed it out of hand,with his customary arrogance,after asking me the searching question "Are you an athlete ?" . When I answered "No,I'm not an athlete" he concluded that I couldn't possibly have a stress fracture and gave me antibiotics for the swelling.
When the pain failed to subside,I decided to go to hospital for an x-ray of my own accord.Without the doctor's recommendtation,it meant I had a long 3 hour wait,but the x ray finally confirmed my self diagnosis.

If some doctors can't even diagnose a fracture,then I'm not entirely confident they can always diagnose Aperger's !

OMG pluto! I had a similar thing just this past year! My foot was broken - and he did a little looking and pressing and such and told me it "most likely was NOT broken or it would hurt me more and I wouldn't be able to walk at all on it" Well I walked into the office with it. I drove myself there with it (right foot). Couldn't put it in a shoe for the swelling and it did hurt but I managed to hobble in. I reminded him that I have pain issues - my pain threshold is too high and I often hurt myself without realizing it. He was doubtful, sent me home to 'watch it' and that was that.

A week later I went and paid out of my own pocket and without his recommendation for an xray at an outpatient clinic. It was broken!

Doctors are just human beings. They are not magical. They make judgments for a whole lot of reasons. I've been told most people with a broken foot would have been in tears or brought in with someone carrying them or something dramatic, but since I walked in he discerned it could not be broken. Doctors have to go by what they see and hear and if they see something really different (me walking on it) they conclude it must not be that bad.

I hope your foot healed up just fine! Mine took 3 months to really be fixed but now it's like new.

Some of us even have training and education in a relevant field.

~Kate

If i am diagnosed as not having aspies then i will be very sad and disappointed. For if i do not have aspies then i am just a short,little weirdo who loves games.

And what on earth is wrong with that?

Only 1 person in 200 have the condition. 97% of diagnosed Aspies are male.
You find out you are not a real aspie. "Oh no, I do not have aspie super powers."

All aspies have super powers.