To diagnose or not to diagnose that is the question

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Hi all

Well what a roller coaster the last few days have been, but to finally find something that could explain me and my life.

This could end up been a long post sorry if it is, but thanks in advance to anyone who reads it and especially to anyone who replies.

I was diagnosed dyslexic at around age 9/10 ( FYI - I am now 25 oh and i live in england for anyone who wonders)
Over the last few years i have been convinced i have something else especially with the depression i go through i've researched all sorts (e.g.  bipolar) but never found i matched them enough to convince myself its really a possibility.

The other day i was talking to someone with aspergers and was saying how i had had a few thoughts about me having it when hearing things about them and how similar to me they are, but i had never researched it and dident really know much about it. They replied that they think they can see aspergers in others with it and they had thought i may have it.

This got me thinking alot which lead to reasearching alot that lead to the aspie quiz i'm sure most of you know of as i've seen it posted on here alot.
My score :
Your Aspie score: 148 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autisic) score: 50 of 200
You are very likely an Aspie.

After taking the test i did feel that the result was good and i may have finally found something to help explain me and my life, but i was worried what a non aspie's results would be especially after talking to a friend about all my answers in the pdf and him relating to some of them for himself. Now after reading many posts on here about the quiz i feel alot happier as there are many aspie and non aspie results posted here if you look for them and now i have seen more non aspie results it kind of validates my result more.  From this it makes me think even more that i have got aspergers.

Researching more just seems to tick more and more boxes for me especially when I think back to my childhood an teenage years. 

The problem comes that i hate my doctor he is useless and for some reason does not believe me most of the time, to this end i wish we were more americanised with a change of doctor from child to adult.  Last time i went to him for the first time about stress and depression and he dident believe me and ended up moving the whole conversation to a totally different problem. This actually ended up in me leaving my job as i felt that was the main cause of my stress/depression.

So I dont want to / cant go to my doc for an aspergers diagnosis (at least till i change doc and i do worry that will be an utter hassle, and/or will i end up having jumped from frying pan into fire as the phrase goes).

Researching it more here and around the internet this made me wonder if getting a diagnosis is really a good thing for me. At the moment I am self employed but I would like a more traditional job in the future but as mentioned in my research having the aspie *tag* ( which i cant seem to find if i have to legally disclose once diagnosed or not) may affect this and unfortunatly especially in the field that i worked in and would like to go back to....

But hey thats enough i've wrote wayyyy too much, but that may even be todo with me been an aspie of which i am rather convinced but would like to have a diagnois to confirm / agree with me.

Any comments would be much appreciated,

Thanks All.

CHANGE DOCTORS. And it is best to get a diagnosis in my opinion. People can't say that you are faking then.

You don't have to disclose aspergers, BUT if you don't disclose you don't have any legal rights..

It's a tough call, my gut feeling is that unless you are asking for accommodations in the interview stage, you should think twice before putting it on your application form. You can always inform your employer when you need to.

Jason

so grateful to find this site. It seems that a common problem is finding a diagnosis. Then, of course, the other question is does it help to have a diagnosis?

In the United States (and some other nations), having a diagnosis of autism benefits the autist by providing educational, governmental and professional supports. The simple ability for an individual to know that the diagnosis is real and legitimate is probably the best benefit.

So how do you go about informing your employer?

Technically, my manager already knows I have ASD - he is the one that first suggested to me that I might have it, but I don't think there is anything official on the record. I'm quite sure, for instance, that nobody in HR knows.

In my opinion, disclosing to your business' HR office is enough to give you the protection that comes from protective laws regarding the workplace. For the most part, they would be obligated to avoid sharing your information with others.

And how does one do that? Just march in and say "Hi there! I've got ASD!"? In fact, the HR department is behind a locked door, so I can't even do that.

If there were specific accommodations I were requesting, I might have some idea, but although I do think my ASD is related to much of the stress I deal with at work, I can't think of anything accommodation that could be given to improve the situation; the stress seems too tightly related to the core function of the job.

I do think it would be a good thing to have my ASD on the record, but there isn't really anything I can see being done beyond that.