Self diagnosed people here don't have aspergers

Post Reply New Topic

I think that the biggest thing that we have in common is intellect that tends to value being right, and a history of being attacked for it. Historically many times societies have expelled people for being intellectuals. This is a way of saying that people who are smarter are wrong, by saying that they have something wrong with them and must be done away with.

I agree about not taking the advice of doctors at face value. That is part of the reason I read up on medical issues. I think people have to read about it to be able to discuss things with their doctors. Too many people are passive about their health, with harmful results.

In lots of places you have to be self diagnosed first to get official diagnosis. It's bacause there aren't many educated doctors that knows enough about autism and aspergers to diagnose you properly, so you must know about it to seek proffesional help...

I have 'undiagnosed' in my profile, but i'm getting an official diagnosis (it takes some time) and i'll probably get it - did you think about people like that?


And official diagnosis isn't so good you know, doctors are people too and they can be wrong... They aren't some gods who know everything about you and your helth, sometimes they're just idiots.

GOOD POINTS!

BESIDES, if it had less stigma, took less time, and cost less, I would have done it the moment I suspected.

I expressed some anger HERE about how when I WAS checked(Because the school realized I met the FIRST requirement) that they didn't even know about AUTISM, let alone Aspergers! It was 1969! INTEL didn't even make their first CPU chip until 1971. I WAS diagnosed ADHD even though I had no apparent attention deficit or hyperactivity. TODAY, the "experts" say that that gives me a 30% chance of being autistic. My development throws me out of the kanner(classical) autism camp, and into asperger. Of course, other things back that assessment up.

Steve

op = picador

If theyr actually loners I can accept them calling themselves Aspies alittle bit more, although if theyr clearly not they should just call themselves loners, and they'd still be welcome here. But many of the people I suspect might be pretending aren't even real loners, it's just something they seem to fantacize about and exagerate their lonership.

I wouldn't agree with that.

My original diagnosis as a teenager came before I really knew what autism was. But as a young adult, after re-diagnosis, and even after finding that I had a lot in common with other autistic people, I did not fully believe I could be autistic, and I would not have, if I heard an outward description of autism, applied it to myself in the slightest.

I know this differs from a lot of autistic people I've known, but it worked as follows:

I did not know how other people viewed my actions.

I read descriptions of autistic people that were all either descriptions of our actions as viewed from the outside, descriptions of guesswork about why we did the outwardly-observable things that we did, and descriptions of abstractions formed from other people's guesswork about why we did the outwardly-observable things that we did.

I had had theory of mind since childhood.

I had empathy, sometimes overwhelming empathy, for other people.

I believed myself to be socially competent because I noticed other people and sometimes deliberately spent time around them.

While I often had trouble speaking and was even having more and more of it, I had not been told the full story of my early language development and was unaware I had stopped speaking in very early childhood.

I had poor body awareness and was unaware of the extent to which I moved in an unusual manner. The small parts I did know (monotone voice, lack of eye contact, flat affect, rocking, flapping, strange gait) had been described to me as "psychotic behavior", and even those I was not aware the full extent to which they existed, I felt that I could and did pass for normal in those respects even though I didn't.

I definitely had interest in people, even though I'd sometimes (unbeknownst to me) been described as totally disinterested in or unaware of people even when I was taking a strong interest in them (because my body language did not show interest).

So... it took getting used to the idea of being autistic. I could identify totally with internal descriptions of autism, but the external ones took a long time for me to realize they even applied. I would not have been able to self-diagnose as a young adult.

And not just in the UK either. Its sad but finding someone who is willing to put up with you without expecting you to pay a load of money that you don't have is extremely difficult.

According to the criteria, they are only delayed in social development. The rest they developed normally. But yet there are aspies who lack in some self help areas such as good hygiene because they don’t care how they look. If you look at the criteria and take it literal, then lot of aspies don’t really have AS then so the person who started this thread is technically right. They probably have PDD-NOS.

However a lot of the time HFA and AS are grouped together, this is becomming even more so of a trend now. Such is why I also refer to myself as HFA as I am very bright but not only do I have AS traits I also have Autistic traits. This may also be the case for a lot of others here.

Asperger's Syndrome isn't the only form of "High Functioning" Autism.
There is Pervasive Developmental Disorder: Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS)
My speech was delayed and I have intense, almost obsessive interests.
I have excellent low speed dexterity(working with small parts, small precision tools)
Poor high speed dexterity (Typing, playing musical instruments, video games)
Excellent long term memory for facts.
Poor short term memory for names, dates, faces, and tasks.
Some self help skills I learned without difficulty(Like driving, finding employment)
I don't speak in a monotone voice, and I don't have much trouble with idiom.
Some times I do become aphasic, where I cannot connect a 'word' to 'object'.
Am I self diagnosed? Yes. AS and HFA are the only things I know that fit the
descriptions given above. There are many others who have reached the same
conclusions about themselves for the same reasons.

My first impression of this is "this gal really drank the kool-aid!"


Merle


* drink the kool-aid: actually it was Flavor Aid and it was mixed with cyanide and used as 'communion' in an American Religious Cult based in Guyana, South America. There were those that drank the kool-aid joyfully, and then some had to be pursuaded with automatic weapons. To 'drink the kool-aid' means you swallowed it hook line and sinker. (which is a fishing term meaning you took the bait and were hooked by it.) which is another term meaning a 'true believer" which is another term meaning you believe in a certain way of thinking and think everyone else should as well. . .usually for their own good, of course.

That's not circular reasoning - and Kanner and Asperger WERE both doctors. Which fits well into the statement "Aspergers is such a complicated disorder that only a doctor can tell you if you have it or not."

(Not that I completely agree with that because there are many INCOMPETENT doctors who know a lot less about autism than say someone who has spent several years reading up on it for example)

i understand idioms too... i've been an avid reader since i was small...

but the thing is, i still have to take a second to grasp it often. like it doesn't occur to me... almost like my hearing... when i don't hear someone and ask, "huh"... then right as they answer i recall what they just said...

that's about the speed at which i get some idioms at... and once you learn em, then you remember

i actually enjoy the funny things i think of when i come across idioms... make em unique

YEAH, but they did *****NOT***** learn it in college! And things they DID learn in college were introduced to the college by people that DIDN'T learn them in college. SO, since you HAVE to admit that you can learn something outside of college, the statement is WRONG! If you DON'T admit that you can learn anything outside of college, the statement is STILL wrong because nobody in college would be able to teach it. I call it circular reasoning to presume you have to be taught by someone else knowing the subject, because they had to learn it SOMEWHERE ELSE!!

Steve

Trolls and /or pedantic aspies who have their panties is a wad.