This is getting annoying, really annoying.

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Alright can people PLEASE quit saying they have aspergers if they are self diagnosed/undiagnosed?

It's a suspicion. Yes, even if you took the online aspie quiz, it's not a diagnosis.

People who want to learn what aspergers really is are seeing people who think they have it and going oh...okay so aspergers is just not being the best at social skills. Yet it is more than that.

Aspergers is apart of the autism spectrum because there are alot of similarities but when people claim they have aspergers and become a mouthpiece basically stating otherwise that they don't have alot of autism tendencies or issues but claim aspergers it's misrepresentation.

It's misleading also when you say that you have aspergers even though you suspect that you do.

It comes across as though people want to erase the criteria of diagnosis and scribble in their own views of what aspergers is.

So yes not everyone fits the common stereotypes such as the same form of stimming, the same special interests and activities but do people who only think they have aspergers really have the right to "educate" others? Isn't it the same "educating" already tossed out in the media which is also misleading?

Then there are also people who are avoiding other diagnosis period because they've already set it in their heads that it's aspergers because of the internet. What if something else is going on and the person goes postal as a result, murders someone, is actually suffering from something else but then claims they have aspergers and try to make that their reason?

Please visit Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome

Pretty much sums up what AS is and if anyone can say "yes, I have that" to most of the symptoms then they can claim they have AS.

They can claim they suspect.

Why does it matter? I mean it might help them try and find a place to fit in :/

Meowpurr why would you post a comment on a forum full of individuals who are not comfortable with the things you're complaining about in the first place, and then you want everyone to provide a "doctor's certification" that says they OFFICIALLY HAVE AS??? o_o

hale_bopp, i agree.

"The online resource and community for Autism and Asperger's"

You do belong here and I don't see why you are getting so defensive for unless you are making a fool of yourself on youtube as an undiagnosed aspie trying to say what aspergers really is.

What about people who know for sure? Is there a community for them? Do people who know for sure even belong here anymore?

Yes, of course.. I mean I don't check on a regular basis what someones profile says, so I have NO idea who is diagnosed and who isn't. I just treat it as If someone says they have it, i'll take their word for it.

Self-diagnosis is extremely valid. There's an entire generation of us who grew up without the diagnosis. Nobody knows our childhoods better than we do. I know that I have it. It's undeniable.

On the other hand, I'm very concerned about young people who have the official diagnosis but are not actually autistic. These people are not getting therapy appropriate to whatever conditions they actually have. Autism is being diagnosed in record numbers. We all doubt how much doctors really know, except when they diagnose autism.

Should we disregard all of us who are over 40 and will never have the official diagnosis? Do we think we have nothing to contribute to the autism awareness movement? Do we think that we have nothing to offer younger autistics?

It seems like you're putting some diagnosed young people into question Mr Mark, and that is just as bad as what the OP said. We know our childhoods too.

I'm saying that I feel that we don't need to be as concerned about people who are mistakenly self-diagnosed as we need to be about people who are mistakenly diagnosed by a doctor.

I don't see a lot of people on WP who I feel are mistaken about their self-diagnosis. I see a lot of self diagnosed that I feel are probably correct. I see a lot of people who aren't sure. I see a lot of people with the official diagnosis who I have doubts about.

I'm sure that the vast majority of officially and self-diagnosed people are actually autistic. I'm not as concerned about the self-diagnosed who are mistaken as I am about mistakenly diagnosed who have received society's official seal of approval from a doctor who may or may not know what he's talking about.

I think that those of us who are self-diagnosed, have done so after extensive research, extensive self-reflection and self-analysis of both past and present, and extensive exploration of forums such as this. Many of us also have family members who have been officially diagnosed. Personally, I am 100% certain that I am an Aspie. It explains EVERYTHING

If I could afford to go and see Tony Attwood I would. But I'm not going to waste my money or my time going to see some psychiatrist/psychologist who won't understand how I have been able to successfully camouflage myself for so long.

Indeed.

In reply to the OP;

I understand what you're saying but be carefull to say that it is impossible someone is able to selfdiagnose. For instance, I've searched (all the stuff I read and surely not only the hundreds and hundreds of sites I visited) for almost twenty years now why I keep on having the same problems over and over again and why I am who I am. And why my family is this way? I know now for 100% sure that I'm autistic and that my father was (he died 7 1/2 years ago) and my uncle is.

Okay, I can't say that I'm absolutely sure that I'm an Asperger but I'm absolutely sure, like I said, that I'm a High Functioning Autist. Maybe it is more Pdd-Nos, but for me, I gave up the need to have an off. diagnosis and do not have the urge to prove it/ myself to you. Don't belief me if you wish so.

On the other hand do you have absolute faith in what psychologists say? I don't. Some good, some bad. But it's no exact science and shrinks can be arbitrary or even wrong. Some of them have not really the best intentions but that's my experience. Maybe one day I'll tell you something more about this.

I think it's really arrogant to say that someone who selfdiagnosed him/herself is in any case wrong. But hey....

Best of luck,
C.

The problem I see is that how the disorder and its symptoms are listed don't accurately explain what it actually manifests in appearance. "A lack of nonverbal cues" doesn't explain much in what a lack of exhibiting and appreciating of nonverbal cues manifests as. Professionals are usually better at recognizing what it looks like than someone who just reads this, as they've seen it. To be sure, one will need to see someone who knows what it looks like, and ask what they think.

It only bothers me if self-diagnosed people say that they are diagnosed (a lie) or that their "Autism" is somehow more an accurate picture than someone who is diagnosed. It also bothers me when people who're diagnosed do the same thing in relation to saying their "Autism" is more accurate than anyone else's too, of course.

Quite simply, no. What does it matter to you what people say? Most of us older people never had the opportunity to be diagnosed. Most of us keep our self-diagnosis to ourselves & anonymously on these boards, so why would you even have an issue with that? Why on Earth would we want to pretend to have a condition which, for many of us, has totally screwed up our lives without the benefit of being able to get any answers or support? Some of us are even old enough that if we had had some form of diagnosis of a "mental illness", we would probably have been thrown into a secure mental hospital.

Besides, with the ability of many GPs not to be able to diagnose psychological conditions correctly, combined with a set of diagnostic criteria which are purely subjective, how can you be sure that everyone with an official diagnosis really has AS? Doctors have been known to be wrong (I had 5 years of being diagnosed with "none specific back pain" until finally a doctor discovered I had a joint eroding disease).



What he said.

So that's all you can claim if you get an official diagnosis to. What one psychologist says is asperger's, another says is just NT behavior with a few quirks

I was initially selfdiagnosed for a year before I brought it up to a psychologist. One of the main reasons I was sure I was an aspie, was because I was researching it indepthly to prove why I couldn't be on, but wasn't finding much of anything to support that. When i brought up the possibility to the psychologist, all the reasons she named for why I didn't initially appear to be an aspie were things I had just learned I needed to do in the past year - ie making eye contact during conversation when the other person doesn't want to chew you out for something. And when she gave me the diagnostic criteria for aspergers, it showed that I was an aspie