Self-Diagnosis

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Yep, I agree, our system in the US is quite broken. However, since there's no medication to deal with AS available at this time, I would bet that all self-DXd Aspies use some form of self-medication, maybe even some who are formally DXd too. For me, it's spending time with my special interests. I don't like drugs, alcohol, or even prescription meds unless I absolutely MUST take them....even then I really don't like popping pills or anything else medicinal.

I'm curious, Fnord... exactly what is the correct medication for Asperger's syndrome?

Good question. Whatever the doctor orders, I guess. She never prescribed anything for me, and I haven't asked. My GP has offered anti-depressants, but I turned them down.

Some folks would self-medicate with cannabis, but that's not my thing (aside from being illegal). There's some talk about self-medicating with illegally-obtained oxytocin, but the side-effect may be lethal. Others try to drown their AS in alcohol, which is a slow form of suicide, if you ask me.

Honestly, I really don't know the answer to your question. Does anyone else?

I do have an answer about what medication to take Fnord. And I am not trying to be humorous on this---I am serious. My medications are my special intense interests. I absorb and focus in on my interests as a way to carry me through the stressful times. It works a lot of the times.

I take 50 mg of Zoloft. It's for my fibromyalgia, but it's having an impact on my anxiety, depression, appetite, stimming, and probably other things I haven't caught. It's pretty helpful.

All of my self-medication was in the past, when I didn't know why everything was so hard.

I believe people self medicate anyway without knowing they could have AS. They can drink or do drugs or do whatever they can to cope or whatever helps them. Plus some of them are diagnosed with other conditions and get medicated for those problems. It could be for depression or ADD or other things.

I was in a sense 'self-diagnosed' to begin with. My parents kind of knew I has AS but decided that since we lived in a country area it would be best to not have a label. Later on I checked out AS after I realized that there was something different about me. Following that, I checked with my GP and he said, and agree with him, that I should see for certain if I did. So I was referred to a psychologist who specialized in autism and was officially diagnosed a while later.

I have met many people who claim to be 'self-diagnosed' and I usually just take them at their word. Some use it as an outlet for social frustration. I personally think that one should, if they can afford it, check with a proper diagnostic authority. Confirmation bias is a real risk and an outside authority helps.

This suggestion that those that self-diagnosed may medicate themselves is very poorly considered. I have seen many people here at WP who are self-diagnosed who were born in the 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's. One or two individuals I'm aware of were born even earlier. Now why would someone who had reached such an age suddenly decide to hit the bottle or get stoned into oblivion, just because they had had a revelation that explained the struggle the had encompassed their whole lives? It is an absurd suggestion.

There are certainly some posts around here asking if alcohol or cannabis or whatever will help and I think this is where Fnord gets his misguided notion.
I think this just reflects the immaturity and inexperience of the poster. It is well known that the young are more likely to be risk takers and to experiment more readily with both legal and illegal substances. That is an ever present danger and you can't do much about the foolishness of youth to act regardless of consequences.

I am also in agreement with trappedinhell about this perception of self-medication being influenced by how healthcare works in the US and attempting to apply this knowledge elsewhere in ignorance of the systems employed abroad. I too have never heard of anybody self-medicating for anything in the UK, besides such quackery as homoeopathy and herbal medicine.

I wouldn't knock herbal medicine. Before we had doctors, people relied on herbs for all sorts of ailments. I have experience of using a herb (for a physical illness) which gave me my life back . I researched it thoroughly and was satisfied that there were no serious side effects. My doctor had given me 2 drugs which had major side effects and didn't even work and offered radical surgery as my last hope. Herbalism gets bad press as the major drug companies don't profit from it.

However, I'm dubious about homeopathy, as it doesn't appear to have a scientific basis.

I went for a professional diagnosis after several years of investigative self-diagnosis. To me, the evidence was increasingly compelling, but there was always a question mark over it. I was constantly re-examining the issue, searching for more information. I needed to get a professional opinion just to settle it and move forward.

I'm in my late forties, and felt that I owed it to the memory of my younger self. A validation to lift the sense of failure and worthlessness that blighted what should have been the best years.

A professional DX helps close family to realise what's going on. It's not just another of my nutty ideas, it's the root cause of them.

Also, I'm lucky to live in an area where getting a DX by a psychologist specialising in the field has been an easy process.

I'm just showing my own personal bias

Some herbs are good, some not so good. I'm not really doubting their efficacy so much but more the attitude of the clueless, hippy, dippy, new-age mug who'll take the "remedy" on only the say so of some other equally clueless person. It's just not for me; I'd rather only take my medicines that are well researched and regulated thanks. Even then they can really screw you up.

I am on the highest recommended doses for Zoloft and Strattera. They help noticeably, but they don't fix me by any means.

Yeah, it helps - mostly my anxiety and to some extent my fibro, but it's not a "fix."

I suppose I'm just too much of a cynic to put too much trust in the big drug companies. But, I would never take anything unless I was sure it had been thoroughly researched and documented. Herbal medicine is regulated these days. The herb I was taking was at no risk of being banned, under the new rules. It has been used for thousands of years, without any reports of serious side effects and there have been recent studies into its effects too. That gets my vote over a drug trial.

I may be repeating, but given that you are young and seem to have had the benefit of a world where AS is often caught and diagnosed in childhood, I don't think you have any clue what is like for people who are older. Diagnosis is much, much more difficult in an adult than in a child, and the number of professionals willing to attempt it is limited. When these people were kids, ASD wasn't on the radar, and that opportunity didn't exist. But not having gotten a label at the right age by the right person doesn't mean their condition cannot be real. They have every right to search for an answer to the questions that have plagued their lives, and if AS seems to fit, and fill in gaps in their minds, how does that hurt anyone?

As we see on the parenting board, it is very common for parents to realize their own ASD status when their kids are diagnosed. And some of us continue to simply have no real clue. With all our resources going towards our kids, it is often a question that must be left without formal resolution. The kids come first.

I don't think most self-diagnosed people went looking for a disorder. More often, I think it found them. I would never in a million years thought there was autism in my family, but now I know there always was. The label found us.

I think I might have aspergers (or something else) but at this point self diagnosis is all I can get since I don't have any insurance, am too screwed up to go through the process of getting medicaid, and I have a fear of talking to psychologists because I was in a mental hospital for a 30 day evaluation when I was a teenager. I was never medicated or diagnosed with anything as far as I know. The comments I remember best from their description of me was "passive-aggressive" and "flat affect".