Confused about why it matters...

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I was debating posting this, but it has been a nagging question for a while.

What is with references to "wannabe" Aspies lately? ...and why is it so important as to how many people are being diagnosed and whether or not it has gone overboard?

I ask because it seems to be kind of a common topic being brought up over and over throughout the time I have been on this forum, and it doesn't make much sense to me. Through one person's eyes, another could very well have AS, through another's, they may not.

But ultimately, aren't we all here for the same reasons? To get support and understanding of sorts, to be able to talk about things that bother us without having to worry about being judged about it, and to just be ourselves. It seems awfully silly for anyone to worry so much about whether or not it is being diagnosed properly, especially when diagnosis mainly relies on one person's opinion as to whether or not someone has it. Ultimately, regardless of what one person thinks about another, as long as they understand, or can relate on some level, etc., isn't that why we are ultimately on the forum to begin with? If somebody understands me, I certainly don't care what their diagnosis is, if any... because I rarely feel understood as it is. I am not going to dismiss what somebody says just because I conclude otherwise in their diagnosis, and would certainly hope others are not doing that to me... it wouldn't bother me if they did, I just feel it is defeating the purpose of this forum as a whole.

Sorry, I just had to get some thoughts out there because this question has been creeping back up on me a lot over the past two or three days. Any opinions?

There are precise ways to tell. Some of us actually have it, and others are using it as an excuse for their pathetic lives.

Admittedly, there is no doubt about that. But people use excuses for all kinds of things in their lives. There is no way to tell what is going on in someone's day to day life over the internet.

Maybe I'm naive, but I tend to just like the idea that everyone here is truthful. I know it is not always so, and that bothers me a lot, and I know that I tend to wonder about others from time to time as well. I cannot say I am innocent to it either, but I brush it off quickly and tend to be too trusting maybe.

Edit: I suppose I do understand it to an extent. I'd prefer to be talking to people who really do "get" me in the sense that they have it as well. But I am still unsure as to why there is SO MUCH emphasis on it, I suppose is what I am looking for... an exact reason of sorts, lol, if that is possible as I'm sure there are many many reasons one would be leery.

Thats why I'm going in for psychoanalysis soon. I've almost confirmed that I have it (in my own mind), but I need to see a doctor to make certain my suspicions are correct.

We'll see how things go. And I never make excuses for my life; how can I blame something that if its true, then its part of me? It's pretty much blaming myself for all my errors, my follies. And thats what I've done my entire life; take responsibility and try to correct the problem. If its true I have AS, then how could I ever imagine myself without it? I don't even know what it is to be normal, not normal, what is normal?

Well thats my little philosophy.

It's interesting that for as long as humans have been around, we still cannot rid ourselves of all this need for labelling each other.

It was mentioned that there are "precise ways to tell".
Actually, there are not. At least what I call precision (which could be found in a dictionary).

What scientists do and what physicians do is to collect as many bits of information as they can and try to assemble them into a theory or diagnosis.

The precision some see is only an authoratative force until other 'better' methods are discovered or the old methods are found to be false.

When discussing Autism, AS or ADHD, the litmus tests for each are actually more general in nature than specific.

As nobodyzdream mentioned, there can be some disagreement even among the pro's as to where along the 'spectrum' any one person is.
Cross-diagnosis complicate the matter further and bring into question this so-called precision.

But, this is the best thing we have for now because the system stays the course as to how we evaluate how human, how normal, each other are.
We still have the DSM which is the 'Bible' to many.
We still evaluate people based upon a system that checks off 'negatives' as the rule-of-thumb.

Anyway I'm starting to lose my train of thought here.

If you take a look around this site you'll see a lot of us that went through how many different DX's? I was called an epileptic, I'm currently Bipolar and going to a shrink that doesn't give a damn. It's called being in the Vets Admin system, it's all I have and grateful. Now.... given the number of those that have been misDXed before getting the "correct" one, many multiple times, how many would you care to guess have an official DX of AS that is wrong? And don't even tell me shrinks are in capable of going the other way. I also happen to get a better deal with a BP DX so why should I change it. I know what fits and what doesn't. By the way I told them I was BP to begin with, I just didn't know about AS or I would have nailed it the first time. My Vets councilor has no doubt I'm aspie, but he doesn't make the call, my once in a great while doctor signs the papers, when they have one at all.

Care to take this further? I cut out the rant part.

It always makes me uncomfortable when I hear lot of people don't have AS or they are being misdiagnosed with it because it makes me wonder what about me? Are they talking about me too?

I was diagnosed with Aspergers when I was 12 and I was 15 when I found out I didn't truely have it because I didn't meet enough for the criteria but it was the closest diagnoses for me I could get. So I was in denial about having AS and I was angry for a while I was lied to by my family that I have it and it kept being shoved in my face by my parents and my school counselor and my shrink that I have it and he made it sound like I truely do have it because to him, 90 percent of the things I did was AS because lot of things I said to him about me he said was part of AS so again I believed I had it.

I also keep wondering if my parents paid my psychiatrist extra money just to diagnose me with AS just so they can control my school. But ever since my mother told me he said to her "Use the diagnoses to get your daughter through school and get her the education she needs," and also "This is the closest I can get to for a diagnoses." "This is the closest match for her," "Sometimes she will meet the criteria but most times she will only have five."
So I have been wondering if my parents kept pushing my psychiatrist for a diagnoses for me so he picked AS because I met no other mental disorders criterias. That's why I hated myself for a while because I felt I was nothing. Then when I heard of borderline AS, I felt a lot better about myself because I thought that was what I had because I figured borderline AS meant someone who meets part of the criteria but didn't have enough for the diagnoses but got diagnosed with it anyway.

Unfortunitly I can't ask my mother these things because she always gets defensive when I talk about my past, especially when I talk about the diagnoses. Now I am afraid to even bring it up so at age 22 I am trying to figure this out myself and I am seeing a shrink finally. I also would like to get my old records from the OHSU is that is possible and see for myself and see what mypsychiatrist said about me in my records. I'm sure the hospital still has them because when I got put on Care Oregon, I went to my first doctor appointment regarding my pills, and after putting in my name and social security number, the information popped up that was went to the children's hospital up on the hill and also when I saw my shrink for the first time there was the information on the computer about me what diagnoses I have from the place. It had the criteria codes so it's obvious they still have my records.


I also think I may have something else, maybe a condition that shares the same symptoms as AS, that would explain why I act like an aspie and I can stop punishing myself for having the traits. Maybe I have a condition that hasn't yet been discovered or the psychiatrist didn't diagnose me with it in the first palce because he didn't know about it and he was specializing in autism to see if I had AS or not because my shrink was thinking I may have it.

Also hearing about AS being overdiagnosed makes me wonder how many of them truely have it but I never doubt anyone's diagnoses because it's their diagnoses not mine and their business, not mine. I wonder how many aspies there are who don't really have it. Now every aspie I talk to online or every aspie I see on the forums I wonder about every single of them "I wonder if he/she is truely AS?" "I wonder if he/she is in the same boat as me, that lable being slapped on them just to help them out in their life?"

I have not been officially diagnosed. When I first heard about AS around 6 weeks ago and identified very much with what I heard it then became very important that I find out.
Since I was told about WP a couple of weeks ago it has become less important to me to get an official diagnosis because I no longer feel I need one. I no longer need somebody else to tell me. I have read a lot of the posts in here and know I have AS.
I don't understand why anybody would "want" to be an aspie. If I could take a pill tonight and wake up tomorrow without AS I would take it.
However, whether I have it or not, I identify with the majority of people in this place so what does it matter? I am finding it very helpful to read the feelings and experiences of others and I hope in turn that somebody may find some of my posts helpful. If they don't it doesn't matter because it helps me just to get my feelings out of my system.

As first steps I suggest that anyone who thinks that they might have AS do the following:

1) Take one of the many online tests. If the test says that you have AS or you might have AS then go to step 2

2) Part with a few bucks for a professional opinion, this may or may not confirm the results of step 1.

After that head for Wrong Planet and we'll try to help.

Ed Almos

Whether or not one has a diagnosis or even an actual ASD of any kind is totally irrelevant.

My cousin and I are very much alike. He prefers to think of himself (and his children) as a very high IQ NT. I find AS to be a very fitting explaination for the unusual events in my life. It doesn't explain everything, but it's the best fit I've found so far for my language and social skills.

The bottom line is this: If you find being here and participating on this site helpful, you are more than welcome to be here. We are a neurologically diverse group promoting neuro-diversity.

Ideally, people should talk about themselves, and try to refrain from talking about others. We each need to discover for ourselves the story or explaination that best fits our life.

I would like to know because my life has not been entirely average (though I'm in a better situation then some people here it seems) and I have many little quirks, and the profile fits so well it would be nice to have an answer, such as finding out my eyes were green the other day when I could never decide what colour they were. That being said I of course have my doubts, I think I can read faces though I still avoid eye contact. I won't be getting a false diagnosis just to have a label, I honestly want the truth, and need to spend more time thinking about it. I surely fall on the spectrum but maybe not so much as to be classified as Aspergers. Finding out would also let me find the source of some of my shortcomings and work on them, such as why at 21 years old with reasonably good looks and a few female friends I have absoloutly no idea what the process is for getting a girlfriend.

You said part of the reason you moved to another country was because it was CHEAPER! I had an immunity problem and went to over 6 doctors. I eventually found the problem MYSELF! I ended up having a problem once that a simple diagnostic check(that they pretend to do every time you go into a doctor) could have detected. Interesting, I had my problem only 2 MONTHS after I had a "complete physical". So, the fact is that "ShadesOfMe" is wrong about there being a PRECISE way. MAYBE an MRI/CT scan might detect it if you are one of the ones with an anatomical brain difference.

Heck, I went to a psychiatrist over 37 years ago, and HE didn't have any ideas. GRANTED AS wasn't a valid diagnosis back then, but NO ideas. I don't imagine it was cheap either.

nobodyzdream,

I really can see both sides.

People come here and denigrate AS, and those that have it, while claiming to have it, and others use it, or want to, merely to get special services. Frankly, I don't like that either. I am certainly not in that group.

The decent people in the other group don't see a point because it could complicate things legally and socially, and is not definitive. The cost in effort, money, and time isn't cheap either.

It's a continuum. Which means that it describes a syndrome with lots of grey. If someone puts up a hard line and says that 79% grey is not AS, but 80% or more is, then people with 79% or 67% are going to say that they are AS, or have AS traits. And maybe they do.

A little article I found through the wikipedia references (seems it's been updated yet again) that discusses reasons people might be a "wannabe" aspie: http://www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?a=8018

Well, I fit into the first group(I WOULD like to get an honest professional assesment simply to validate that I have it, because it explains everything, and my parents MIGHT then believe and realize I have been saying the truth for like 38+ years!)

For my job, there was only one case where it might have helped. Frankly, though, I know how my employers think, and know this would hurt more than help. ALSO, generally, the AS symptoms I maintain and show are cherished, and I don't need to know where they come from, and my employer doesn't either. They just think I am smart, and have a lot of experience.

BTW it is ironic. Would someone with AS REALLY go simply to be able to not do anything, or get monetary benefits? You would think that itself would basically prevent you from getting such a diagnosis. YEAH, I KNOW! That is too much to hope for. Keep in mind I am not talking about people like lab pet that basically just get their employer to do relatively simple things, and make allowances, to allow her to do her job better and with more comfort.