formal and informal

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What is the differnce between an informal and formal diagnoses?

I'd like to know this too.. I very clearly meet the diagnostic criteria, but don't really know what to do about diagnosis... There's really no such thing as a professional with expertise in recognizing Asperger's in an adult female.

I don't honestly know what my official disability diagnosis is, though. I haven't had much of a steady psychiatrist or therapist, so it was a social security person that evaluated me. For all I know, they did diagnose me with AS and never tell me. My description of getting like a "deer in the headlights" when overwhelmed and being bad at dealing with people certainly would have indicated it. Seems more likely that they diagnosed me as agoraphobic, though. But I don't really know.

I've gotten lots of BS diagnoses in the past.. none of them ever really made any sense or explained much of anything at all. I don't know how official any of that is. A laundry list of diagnoses just can't be a solid thing... it indicates that something is going unrecognized. Sure, I guess I fit the criteria for those other things.. although most of them specify that those symptoms aren't being caused by something else, so a diagnosis of AS would nullify most of those.

I think it isk, take it from me who has had many diagnoses lol

informal is when it is theorising a root to a problem for example like going to a counscillor before asperger diagnosis

Formal is when doctors mark it off and then state it on your medical record, I know the formal one is right and I am quite sure what the informal was as a kid I was constantly in eye hospitals figuring out my visual impairment so there have been a few

I am informally diagnosed. It means that I was assessed by an AS specialist who told me she was quite certain that I was an aspie...But I didn't have to take any tests..it was just an interview..and not a very long interview. She told me I could treat it as a diagnosis and said that if she had any doubts, she would reccomend that I take the tests.
It is nerve-wracking...at first I was happy with it..but It leaves a shadow of a doubt that constantly nags at me. I just don't have the money for a thorough diagnosis...that costs about 2 grand...or something...at LEAST...
My ADD diagnosis was also somewhat informal..simply based on the opinions of 2 general practitioners...That was enough to get me a script, and having been given the script counts as my diagnosis. I know I am combined-type ADD because of thorough online testing. When I went to the ADD clinic to try to get a formal diagnosis, it was a nightmare...I had to fill out a battery of questions..and the doctor was mean and frosty and suspicious and used tricky wordplay and made me mis-speak something unintentionally, but I was unable to go back and fix it...and he wanted 100's of dollars for testing...

Formal is when it's in your records.

I got assessed by the school. They said I should still go to an autism specialist and get assessed AGAIN for it to mean anything to anyone other than the school. It's all silly.