If I get diagnosed with autism...

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...it basically tells me what I knew all along: I'm socially ret*d. What else is a diagnosis going to do for me?

gives you access to services mainly

Like what kind? I seem to be in severe need of "social skills training", mainly.

I just recently learned the proper way to interrupt someone to ask a question is "excuse me" and not "Hey you!". For a 24 year old, that seems pretty dang ret*d.

Well, I'm also on the path to getting myself diagnosed, yet I seem to be a bit more optimistic about the possible outcome then you seem to be.
Knowing what's wrong with you, is the way to improving yourself. While our main problems seem to be very different, social for you, carreer related for me.
I feel that after getting a diagnosis, people will be more accepting to your shortcomings, aslong as you keep trying to improve yourself.

Socially, I have 1 friend wich sees me 1 day out of the month and I talk to via skype a few times a week, I don't need more then that, I'm perfectly happy sitting in my house for the rest of my life, focusing on my special intrest. Because that's what makes me happy.

Basicly, what I'm trying to say here is, a diagnosis will tell you why you are different socially, and might even open different paths for you to travel to improve on the shortcomings you feel need work, to eventually make you lead a more stable life, however much it might differ from the standard norms. Life is something complex that should be measured on a personal basis, not in a comparison.

Well, it's all encompassing for me. The "social" part directly affects the "career" part of life as well as the "love" part as well as the whatever-you-want part of life. To be truthful, I'm more concerned about their affect on my longterm career prospects, as I realize "the workplace" is basically a social hierarchy masked with a financial/professional facade.

Peace of mind, if being comfortable with uncertainty is something that you find difficult (or is flat out driving you nuts). I think some people really need the external confirmation. (Not meant as a dig or a put-down.)

My reply seems very short sighted, I'd like to appologise. Since I could never focus in school, I don't really have any major career plans, and would be happy being able to keep a crappy job with minimum wage. I'm just looking for a job where I work and get paid, don't really care about anything else about it. Just being able to atleast for 4 hours a day, do something I dislike and not feeling like I'm losing a part of myself in the process, leading up to depression.

But yes, I don't want to turn this into a rant about me, I just felt the need to explain my previous short sighted post.
I guess the question you need to ask yourself is, do you feel like your life would improve if you get acces to different channels of help through an official diagnosis? If not, there is nothing wrong with being undiagnosed.

I am officially diagnosed and I see no benefit other than to explain my weird behaviour to my long suffering family. Beyond that, I still don't know. I don't need any services and I certainly don't want to join any groups, so I say don't bother.

i don't bother to get an official diagnosis, because i would get nothing out of it except potential stigma. i'm 55. i survived this long without a label except maybe "quiet and odd". ive read quite a lot of self-help books (on assertiveness, self-esteem, and relationships) and applied them.

yes, there's a lot of politics in work. that's how i lost my medical career. perhaps if i'd known then about AS, i could have asked for accomodations.

on a side note, not knowing to say, "excuse me," when you interrupt isn't AS. It's bad parenting. i knew how to be polite long before i started school and had to worry about social interaction. too bad being polite isn't all there is to social interaction.

Cathylynn. Seriously. Do you really think you have autism?

If you have autism, you're rude. As simple as that.

i have autism and i'm not rude, i'm awkward. awkward things i've done in the past include:

disclosing too much

not knowing how to make small talk

not laughing at a joke

being over-honest

etc.

these things make folks uncomfortable, but are beyond the scope of manners. i've been accused of being unpredictable in what i'll say, of being aloof (i'm generally down-to-earth if you take the time to find out), of putting on a "good" act, of being unprofessional, never of being rude.

I actually go to the other extreme. I'm so scared of being rude because of breaking an unknown rule I'm unlikely to do anything at all. I'm someone who people say is absolutely not rude, they just don't understand that it's because if I see there being a possibility of being rude I'll not do the action (and if not acting is being rude and acting might be rude i end up physically shaking rather than doing anything).

Social awkwardness is not the same thing as "Autism". Autism is more about saying something that you didn't mean to hurt someone, but you did, or saying something that you didn't think was rude, but apparently it was. Social awkwardness is more of a thing associated with meek, shy people.

OKAY, we'll make exceptions for quiet people. If you don't say anything at all, it's pretty easy to not say anything rude.

i fit the DSM criteria for AS. i was a doc. i know how to apply the DSM. i stim. i have special interests. i've been affected socially (not marrying 'til age 52, though i would have loved to have a child, losing friends for reasons never discovered) and professionally (lost a medical career). good thing you are not a doc. you have a stereotypical view of autism.

No, I actually have a pretty good idea of autism and I think I now understand your situation and, yes, you are actually rude but you just don't know about it. If you are rude, you can end relationships and the 'unknown reason' is because you were unintentionally rude. Of course, the individual reasons are more detailed than that, but that's essentially it.

Anyway, it appears you do have autism but you have it so bad that you unaware of when you unintentionally offend other people.