Advantages & Disadvantages of getting formally diagnosed

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What are they? Especially if you are already an adult and out of school.

Benefits? Risks? Is it worth it? Why or why not?

I'm wondering about this too. I'm sort of apprehensive about getting diagnosed and I'm not sure there's any advantage.

I actually had my step-son's therapist say to me, "I thought only boy's got that."

Scary.

-Eva

It depends what you are looking to get out of the experience I would say. For me it was worth getting an official diagnosis, as I have problems holding down a job, handling sensory overload/stress and organising myself. This has led to many problems which are easier to explain and get help/accommodation of my needs with, or disability benefits/ not having to register as unemployed with a diagnosis, as the reason I struggle has been verified by a professional so is unlikely to be questioned by sceptical people. It also helped me to stop doubting myself and thinking I was just a crap person, and value the things I can do well.

On the downside, if you feel being 'labelled' is negative or may stigmatise you, it may be as well to trust your own judgement. Also the diagnosis procedure is quite negative as it focuses on problems in functioning, and forces you to look back over your life which can be distressing as it drags up things you'd rather forget and draws your attention to the things you find hard.

Thats my 2c anyway...

Dunc

Those reasons are exactly why I am currently trying to find out if I do have Asperger's - if I do, then I can tell the benefit folks that I'm not "swinging the lead" by being signed off sick, and I can tell college so they have something a littel more concrete to go on.

If I am examined and found not to have AS, well, I don't know what I'll do. Carry on as before I suppose!

mmm.. despite me not being able to talk until i was 6yrs old,, being kept down in preschool because ofthat... going to the endeavour foundation... giong to the child and youth mental health centre to learn how to speak by phoenitics or flashcards.. and attending speech therapy.. they didnt seem to diagnose me with anything until i was 20yrs old...! the only reason i got diagnosed was cause i saw a psychologist in the psych ward.. then they diagnosed me... i like b eing diagnosed becaus it explains some.. well all of my childhood thought patterns and behaviours... i lovee having my atypical autism.. and i have schizophreniform disorder too.

I have been pondering about this too. However, since I began my research on AS about six months ago, I have read and studied so much about the subject, and how does it astonishingly fit most of my life past and present, that I am a bit resistant to go pay a psycologhist to tell me what I already know about. Not to mention their outrageous fees (The rate of one of them was something like $100 / hour, or something like that)

However, there are times when some bits of proven, professional advice would certainly come in handy. I dunno.

I too struggle to see the point of an official diagnosis - all the hassle just to be told what I already know..... Plus, I'd probably have to get my mother involved (most psychologists will only diagnose with parents present I believe), so its defnitely out of the question. I'm nicely settled into the grim day-to-day slog of my tedious existence for as long as there is left of it anyway, so......

I would not want to.

People out there want to cure the world of folks like me. Getting a dx sounds almost as bad to me as having to wear a star (like the Nazis did to the jews), and having one stamped on my ID.

Besides, do you need a dx to know you are left-handed, gay, or jewish or black?

I don't have an illness, and I am not about to have people treat me as though I am flawed and incompetent if I can help it.

Peace

I have a diagnosis (atleast that's what I assume the psychologist meant when she said, "You have Asperger's." There was no paper work or anything, though). And it's not on any of my medical or school forms or anything, which I would personally hate. I don't think parents have to be around for the diagnosis. In the US, atleast, what you say in therapy is legally protected unless you threaten to hurt someone or yourself or you end up in court and your therapist is asked to testify. Money is an issue, though, since most insurance companies will only cover a certain number of sessions (although, I've gotten around that before).

As for why I got the diagnosis, I was tired of berating myself for continually failing in social situations and for repeating the same mistakes over and over again. It's nice to know it's not my fault, there are other people out there like me, and that I will slowly improve with effort.

schizophreniform disorder is basically where you have psychosis... well where you have schizophrenia for less than six months... if you have psychosis/or schizophrenia for 6 months or more, then they diagnose you with the proper schizophrenia..

however if i go off my seroquel nad get sick again, then i will be diagnosed with schizophrenia.. my psychosis article. www.psychopanic.com/psychosis.htm

truthfully, i have not had any problems after i was formaly diagnosed. Does anybody know if aspergers is officialy in the autistic spectrum?

A

Yes it is, axelkat.

thanks for the info
A

I am so upset. I think if I were a child, I would want an answer, I would want to know what I was facing. Now that I'm too old for a dx to make a difference, I don't care, but when I was a child, I would have wanted to know. I did want to know what was wrong with me and everyone else.

I just talked to a friend who has an AS son and my son told him that, "hey, I'm an Aspie also." and the kid didn't know. The child is 9 years old, almost 10, and very typically symptomatic. I feel so awful for that poor kid... finding out like that. I feel bad for my son, because now he has guilt. I feel awful because I openned by big, fat stupid mouth yet again (everything is better if we're all plain spoken, etcl.).

I just think it's terrible that they haven't told him. I feel bad thinking that. We all have to do what we think is right, but I longed to know why I didn't do anything like anyone else when I was a kid.

The poor guy.

Jesus!

-Eva

being an aspie is a large part of who iam, i do not understand why we should be ashamed of it. Without the diagnosis i would feel like i was not entirely myself. As far as jews with stars and what not, there is somebody you should study up on: Martin Luther King Jr.
A