My new theory on self diagnosed autistics

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So I have a new theory on self diagnosed autistics after reading this news story.

http://www.fox32chicago.com/news/dont-m ... 8080-story

Known in many places as posers, poor people who just can't get diagnosed there seems to be a huge difference in opinion in terms of the self diagnosed autistics. Pretty much in the Autism Community we are one of few communities that does not see something overly wrong with people coming in and self diagnosing themselves and don't kick them out. If go around saying you have cancer and ask for money, you can go to jail here in the United States.

I've always had a strong opinion on them as I see them akin to Marla Singer from Fight Club the woman who would go from therapy group to therapy group even going as far as excusing her behavior going to a Testicular Cancer survivor group because, 'she has no balls'.

They also reminds me heavily about a small story Arc in Mass Effect 1 with a mentally unstable character known as Major Kyle who is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who was not a Biotic himself but latched on to a group he identifies with as most Biotics feel marginalized or ostracized by society and the Biotics see him as someone who will fight for them. If you notice most Self diagnosed Autistics dont self diagnosis everything about their lives they often have an ACTUAL diagnosis of PTSD. With their unstable mental condition could they be latching on to a group marginalized and ostracized people?

Than of course there are those people who I can understand. People who come from countries like Canada and the UK where you have great free healthcare! Which often means, months or years of waiting for an actual diagnosis unless your are willing to pay huge amounts of money which often diacourages people and the run around given would make anyone who is Autistic give up.

So back to the news story http://www.fox32chicago.com/news/dont-m ... 8080-story a woman who suffers from body integrity identity disorder was so uncomfortable with her eyes because even though she is not blind she felt she should of have been born blind so her psychologist poured draining cleaner into eyes so she could be blind.

I am not going to even go into how this takes away money and resources from actual blind people (Well now she is actually blind) but could this be apart of the self diagnosed autistics true problem? Listen to them speak passionately they know in their hearts of hearts that they are autistic! That Xanga Quiz you used to see teenage use to see what Lord of the Rings character you are most like also reinforced that opinion!

Could Body integrity identity disorder which is a psychiatric disorder make you believe you have another disorder? Its hard to tell sometimes I once saw a female blogger that used aspie as part of her blog. One day she actually got diagnosed she did not have autism or anything of the sort but something similar but she still refuses to drop the aspie label.

Its hard to tell what the cause is.... some people say why would someone or anyone want to make up they are autistic as it is a hard life? Well, ask that to the lady who poured draining solution in her eyes so she could become blind. Are we dealing with posers? Or rather a bunch of people with serious mental issues from PTSD who just found an marginalized/ostracized group of people they can latch to and find commonality?

It makes you think. The sad part though is it seems they are a growing number of people with obvious psychiatric issues invading communities sometimes they inflect self harm to be like those in those communities.

In the Autism Community we have self diagnosed autistics who bully or try to push away actual autistics who dare question the self diagnosed process. In fact one autistic forum I frequent bullied an actual autistic person into submission and forced an apology and than kept bullying him till he left the community all together with a Moderator posting an edit to the OP post that the OP was wrong and now he is falling in line. (As I am posting this in many places, I have not mentioned the web site in other places but what happened in this paragraph happened here at WRONGPLANET years ago.)

This is a subject that seems in my world I cannot talk about or when someone who is autistic does talk about it he or she is bullied into accepting the "truths" of the self diagnosed autistics.

I don't understand art but yet I understand the therory of art and yet like most things I want to learn why something works like this and I am fully interested in the psychiatric issues the self diagnosised autistic has.

it can't be body identification but might be neurology identification disorder. Be it body identification disorder, neurological identification disorder, fictitious disorder all involve people claiming something because they are profoundly psychologically disturbed. While I am pretty positive there are people claiming to be autistic for some disturbed reasons, or to be trendy, or to make excuses most of self diagnosers probably do it for the reasons they claim they did it, affordability (this is still true even if insurence for adult assesment is as easily available as claimed recently), not worth the money because of lack of services, fear of what thier employers might do if they found out, or just because they feel just the explination of autism is enough to make needed changes.

To accuse a most self diagnosers of doing it out some deep psychological disturbance is similar to hate speech.

Well OP I have a theory about insecure threatened people with no appropriate experience nor qualifications puffing up their own egos by slurring the huge and diverse group of self-diagnosed on WP as psychologically ill. Please don't bring your bullying here; it won't be tolerated, and don't try to whitewash it as 'new theorising'.. some of the older self-diagnosed members have been on the planet (both WP and the other one) for quite a long time and we've seen it all come and go, so don't even try to put one over us. Anyone who globally slurs another group to elevate themselves generally loses the respect of others (if they have any to lose).

I feel like the OP merely is trying to pull our chains, have fun at our expense. Not an amiable dude.

Have I read the same post as everyone else? I didn't see anything of what the replies are saying.

Professionally diagnosed as a child by a team of professionals- my attentiuon to detail is so high that i consider the possibility of not being properly diagnosed. i'm what many have told me out of touch with reality. many have said theyve never met someone like me. also, i do believe some self-diagnosed people do not have it as well as a number that does. you can speculate all you want but without a cognitive test its hard to tell.

OP, comparing the self-diagnosed here to a woman reported of Fox (where else?) who intentionally blinded herself by pouring draincleaner into her eyes is not really a smart thing to do.. even if some posters support you for their own reasons.

Also, have you read the rules yet? Suggest you do ASAP, and take note that the rule on personal attacks applies to groups as well as individuals.

Really? Again?

So here is the thing. From what I see, most autistics don't get much pity from anyone, if they did, most wouldn't be on this board to begin with. Most don't get special treatment, money, etc. once they are over 18 EVEN WITH a formal diagnosis. There's really not much benefit to self-diagnose yourself as autistic in today's world. Believe me, odds are that anyone who believes they are autistic and thus, has self-diagnosed, gets a lot more criticism from neurotypicals than it's worth, not sympathy...not one bit of sympathy.

We have to understand that for many years kids were not diagnosed as children. It is not until maybe the last 15 years or so that more kids have been properly diagnosed through the school system. There are many of us, myself included, who can actually read book after book, situation after situation, etc. and go "oh my, that's what it is?" You know, your kid is diagnosed, the doctor tells you every single reason for which they are diagnosing them with autism and you think "Huh? Well, I've always done that? Well, I did that at his age too? Huh? You mean to tell me not everyone thinks this way? " No, it's not some "Wow, I am so fortunate, look everyone, I'm autistic" and everyone, especially friends and family, just say "Oh, so happy for you, what can I do to help you?"...In fact, it's usually "Sure, whatever, you can't possibly be autistic because you've had a job, you're just a pain in the a$$ or weird, that's it, that doesn't make you autistic".

So while I understand the concern to a certain extent, I really doubt that at least in the autism world, that occurs as much as you may think it does, much less for the reasons that you think.

By the way, it was my husband who told the psychiatrist "Huh? My wife does that, my wife used to do that, my wife still does that"...not even me. Even then, I didn't really believe it. It has been at least 8 years of reading and every single book I read to help my son and some to help understand his friends, I think "Oh, really? That's what that is?"

PS In fact, the majority of the parents of autistics that I know HATE ME because I have told them that without a doubt I must be on the spectrum. I don't have a diagnosis because financially I spent all of my 401k, savings, etc. to help my son. I had to quit my job in order to homeschool him and I was the breadwinner in our home. Even though the diagnosis would help me to prove it to OTHER people, I have yet to find ANY doctor where I live that can diagnose me. Heck, it's so hard to get a doctors appointment here that I DIAGNOSED MY HUSBAND with AD/HD, sent him on his way to a psychologist who is an expert on AD/HD and the most help he can get is 30 minute therapy ONCE A MONTH. That's it. Where I live the department of education claims that 1/3 of kids in the school system have some type of disability...a majority AD/HD or autism, so it's even more difficult to get a diagnosis here.

Anyway, I am not offended by your words, but believe me, that those who are self-diagnosed are treated MUCH WORSE than those with a diagnosis by family and friends, therefore, we really have no reason to do so unless we see it clear as day.

Has anyone here explored the subject of the
"Transabled"?
I couldn't seem to locate any WP threads on the topic, but that self-blinding woman would seem to fall under this category instead of a "poser". IMO a "poser" would consist of a sighted person going around with dark glasses and a white cane. An example could be an animal lover who pretends to be visually impaired in order to get their pet into stores, hotels, etc.
A little about Transabling...
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canad ... ing-bodies
I could arguably fit into the TA category having damaged my own hearing with loud music as a teen to make myself militarily "undraftable" (4F status). More about that later on another thread, but I'm fortunate not ending up with tinnitus.

I live in Canada and I didn't have to wait months/years to get my diagnosis. I mentioned it to my psychiatrist when I read about Asperger's, he referred me to a specialist who i made an appointment with and was able to see within a month, and the specialist diagnosed me. Our health care is not as bad as you make it out to be.