Poll 13: Is diagnosis the correct word for you?

Post Reply New Topic

Do you think that the word "diagnosis" is correct to describe how someone on the autistic spectrum can be officially told that they are on the autistic spectrum by certain healthcare professionals?

Option A
I am autistic and I think that the term "diagnosis" is incorrect to use; autism isn't something that's wrong with me, an illness that I've been carrying around and which can be diagnosed just like any other illness such as a tumour; autism is a difference of thought and an innate part of my mind to be discovered and worked with rather than diagnosed


Option B
I am autistic, I relate to the term "diagnosis" and think it's appropriate since autism is an illness to be diagnosed.


Option C
I have another opinion which I have written about below as I don't like these options.

Option C.

I don't see the term "diagnosis" as necessarily tied to "illness".

I went to a psychologist to be diagnosed with AS, so that he could take that into account when providing me treatment for particular problems. AS isn't my problem, but it affects my treatment.

Call AS a difference. You still have to decide whether a person has this difference or not. That decision is diagnosis.

Yes diagnoses is the correct word for me. I am diagnosed with it. How else would I describe it? But it's not an illness. It's a disorder. I don't really see myself as autistic because I feel I am too normal for it and not impaired enough. I sometimes use "autism" on myself because it's a spectrum. I'd rather say I have a form of it or say I'm on the autism spectrum or say I have an ASD.

I very rarely tell People about it or that I have it, so I'm pretty indifferent about it. Does it really matter in the long Run?

I have to go with C, because its not an illness, but its not nessisarly a completely positive thing either. It is a disorder so it can be diagnosed. Though I realise some think it is not a disorder at all but it does fit the criteria as it can interfere with ones ability to function, in life, education, jobs ect.

Yes, I see diagnosis as a correct word. You can diagnose someone with depression or bi-polar disorder and they aren't ill, correct? I am diagnosed with both Aspergers and depression, but I'm not ill. Neither of these are illnesses, they are just differences!

C. I don't see diagnosed as implying something negative.

I am perfectly fine with the term "diagnosis" in relation to autism. I do not, however, believe that autism is an "illness". It is just a different wiring in the brain that should be identified and diagnosed in those that need it.

I have no idea how you've decided that 'diagnosis' means that its necessarily an 'illness'.

Option C. Not an illness, neurological disorder.

I am fine with the word "diagnosis", but I don't like it when people refer to my natural behaviors as "symptoms".

Option C:

It's not an illness. You can't cure something that's not an illness. It's a disorder. I also hate it when people refer to my traits as symptoms. They're not symptoms to me, they're my natural sets of behaviours. I don't have negative symptoms, I have traits that are positive.

Why do you keep on asking us these questions?

I'd like to know which option you agree with.

The word "diagnosis" is associated most strongly with illness. If you say to someone "I've been diagnosed with....." Leaving it as a cliff hanger, they are going to be thinking "what bad thing have they been diagnosed with?" You can discuss the other meanings of "diagnosis" but that is what almost everyone would think, and in doing so they would naturally attach the notion of negativity to whatever you say you have been diagnosed with. "I've been diagnosed with bananas"; they will think that it is some kind of disease which sounds like bananas but is a bit different and they haven't heard you pronounce it properly. First they will get you to repeat it; "what?", then after you repeat it they will ask "what's that?" with a concerned look on their face. Try it out.

They know that diagnosis is negative; they are using it because they are calling autism something negative.

I am autistic and I do not think that autism is negative, some autistics do but there are many who don't. Therefore I do not think that diagnosis is appropriate. I think that an autistic person could be diagnosed with many negative things which commonly go hand in hand with autism, such as social anxiety, but I do not think that an autistic person should be "diagnosed" with what they are, aka to be diagnosed with autism. To be autistic is such an influential factor in so many areas of your personality, of how you think, how your mind works and who you are that to be diagnosed with autism feels like being diagnosed as yourself, which due to the displayed negative implication is not a correct thing for people to do to others. There is also such a range of relatively (to how one tries to function) positive and negative effects and/or associated neurological capabilities and deviations that autism cannot be strictly defined as negative, which the term "diagnosis" is implying, again as displayed above. Just my personal opinion.