is a diagnosis REALLY that important?

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I've observed that several people on here act like they've received a grand prize when they are officially diagnosed. And there's some that suspect they have it, but want to get that diagnosis really badly.

My question: does it matter? Does some magical light switch flick on as soon as you get it? It's just a label (made by a soft science that is still very early in development).

A diagnosis is required to have access to certain services for school-aged members. A diagnosis also tends to provide closure, no matter how flawed the soft science of today is, a piece of paper confirming our suspicions makes the suspicion go from being a gray area to a black-and-white "yes, you have _________."

An official diagnosis can come as a relief to a lot of people who have been wondering why they behave like they do. I know that was true in my case.

Getting services was never on my mind. What getting a diagnosis did for me was answer so many questions and gave me closure. Self acceptance of the mud I am in. My depression eased up and my family no longer pushes me so hard.

To me, that makes diagnosis very important.

Receiving a diagnosis can get those who need it the support they need, and it can also provide closure. For these reasons, diagnoses can be pretty important.

However, your description of people viewing their diagnosis as a grand prize is interesting ... There are many officially-diagnosed Autistics, particularly on Wrong Planet, who believe that being officially-diagnosed makes them a "true" Autistic person, and that the self-diagnosed are merely posers or "attention whores". This attitude REALLY pisses me off, because I believe that a person can better decide for themselves whether or not they are on the Autism spectrum, and that people who don't experience enough debilitating symptoms to warrant a professional diagnosis could easily just be very mildly Autistic.

To me, it's important because I just want to understand why I act the way I do. None of the special services mean that much to me. Besides, I didn't know there were special services in the first place. As someone else stated, it gives one closure. So basically, I know I just summed up everyone else's answers pretty much but those are my reasons.

^
What Kuribo said.

I've only been here about a week and I feel fairly out-casted from certain threads and avoid those where people ask for responses from officially diagnosed only. I understand that of course, for people seeking more validity, but on a regular basis it is just exclusion, which is something most of us have dealt with much/all of our lives. For a Harry Potter reference, I feel like a mud-blood till I have an official diagnosis.

to join the special exclusive Aspie club?

I think 1. closure. 2. gain some people's understanding (less pressure). 3. practical assistance such as disability employment agency's help in finding an accommodating workplace and on-going support.

I've hit a brick wall in getting into the "Aspie club" officially but I want it for two reasons: 1) To validate what I already know (sounds crazy I know) and 2) To leave the door open for future activism/helping others. Unless I get that piece of paper, nobody will take what I say seriously. Fundamentally though nothing will change. I already know I'm Aspie and know more about ASDs than any so-called expert I've met.

A lot of older people who have had issues for many years have been misdiagnosed and wrongly treated for mental health conditions that they did not have. I have been fortunate and just missed out on this but the diagnosis brought relief, closure and an understanding of what has been going on all these years. I could not trust my self diagnosis until it was confirmed by a professional.

To some it can mean nothing. To others, it can mean everything.

I am the latter. Throughout my entire life growing up, seeing how different I was from everyone else, I felt like a bad person. Why am I not reacting in the same way as this other person? Why am I being so rude without realizing it till after the fact? Why do I have such a problem interacting with other people? Oh there must be something wrong with me.

Learning that I have Asperger's gave me an explanation for all these things about me. It helped me realize that I'm not bad, I'm just different.

And I like official diagnosis rather than self-diagnosis because people can false diagnose themselves all the time. You know the joke of "I tried to look up a cure for my cold and now I think I have cancer"? Yeah. It's dumb. I will trust the opinion of a professional. That doesn't mean I take their word blindly, though. I was diagnosed by both my psychiatrist and my psychologist who I have been seeing for about eight years, and we discussed it. That's a diagnosis I can trust.

Beyond all that, I like labels. It keeps things concretely organized, and I like that.

So yeah. The diagnosis means a lot to me.

This for me.

I need to know and I need more certainty. If my analysis is wrong and other issues are creating a similar profile, then the best approaches to living with those characteristics may be different.

My therapist and psychiatrist both think I am right, but neither has the experience to diagnose it. So, on the Seaver Center.

Well I'm in Limbo, waiting for the diagnoses process to start. My Doctor is referring me, and I didn't give any serious though that my problems were ASD related until HE suggested it.

Does that make me in a minority? That thinking I may be Aspie came from someone with a medical background rather than simply finding out and fitting the pieces on my own? Does it make my situation any more valid than someone that has never spoken to a professional about it? Personally I think not.

Even if some here have misdiagnosed themselves, at least they are doing something proactive in dealing with their problems. Which is more than I did for 40+ years

Anyway I'm totally stressed out now, especially today for some reason, not knowing if I am or if I am not. I just want this whole thing to be over with and have a resolution and then what ever the outcome take the next step in dealing with it.

I expect I'm also not being very rational about things either, so cut me a bit of slack

I needed to know for sure, for myself, and having it said officially not only brought a kind of relief , it was good to know what direction to take.

Granted there are the odd ones that say 'oh? Aspergers? So you can hack my computer? " ... that really gets me cross, particularly seeing that im working in IT to , but I guess we are going to meet the odd 'caveman' from time to time

In my case, it allowed me to definitively explain to family, relatives and friends, why I do what I do. No one cares about what you think you have, but yourself...I couldn't even get a former, long-term girlfriend, to accept my suspicions, despite spending years at the mercy of my random obsessions/quirkiness/etc., until I was officially diagnosed. It's not a free pass to explain away all of my life's failures, but it makes it substantially easier to justify decisions that might have looked like laziness to other people. I mean, shoot, I'm guilty of these knee-jerk reactions, too. In my perception, the difference between being scared and being diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, or being sad and being diagnosed as clinically depressed, is huge.

I never sought a diagnosis, I got sent to a private psychiatrist via occupational health at the job I was in. This lead to a diagnosis, leaving the job, never getting a job as good as that one again and now being unemployed with no chance of going back into the workplace as I am so anti-society generally now. So diagnosis did me no big favours. It probably made me more likely to lose it completely and go on a killing spree if anything.