Why put a label on yourself?

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Someone asked me this earlier today. I was talking about obsessing about figuring myself out; as in figuring out what is "wrong" with me.

I'm not currently Dxed with anything, but ADD was brought up when I was young. About a month after basic training in the military, I had a psych eval because I was not adjusting well to military life. After long tests, the psych said that from our interviews and the tests I did, there were several things that she thought it could be. She mentioned: AS, Avoidant PD, Schizoid PD and social anxiety disorder. Since the eval was just to see if I should stay in the military, she didn't go any farther into what it could be. She agreed that I should be discharged. At the time, I didn't care about looking into what it all meant. I wasn't in a good state of mind to do any introspection.

It wasn't until several years later that someone asked me something that sparked a long and intense period of introspection and self discovery. A coworker asked me if I had aspergers. I had totally forgotten that it was one of the things that had been mentioned to me by the psych, and I didn't really know what it was. She described what AS was and what the characteristics of people with AS. I was surprised because she was describing a lot of the traits that I have. I texted my best friend about it about an hour later and she agreed by saying she had suspected for years that I may be aspie. (she used to do behavioral therapy for kids with autism)

After that I started reading about AS obsessively. I was staying up to 3am reading for a couple weeks. Every day I read things that I completely related to. It was as if I was reading a biography of my life.
That was around 2 years ago.

I understand that I could be wrong about having aspergers. It could be something else, or a combination of things that resemble AS. But having so much in common with everyone here, and obsessing over it for 2 years, I've kinda written it in as part of my identity (as my friend put it).
The fact that I seem to have done that when I don't have a Dx and knowing that I could be wrong is causing somewhat of an identity crisis.

I know that I shouldn't need to have someone "tell me who I am" by giving me a diagnosis. I also understand that a diagnosis doesn't define the person. But to me, it feels like I need to figure out what is "wrong" with me to move forward. My response to the question in the title was "I hate not having well defined explanations for things." That includes myself. I hate not objectively knowing something, and unfortunately for me, the field of psychology, and what goes on in the mind is quite subjective.

Well, there was no real point to this thread. My brain just farted it out after a stressful day at work.

I want a label so I can check the "best used by" date stamp.

The thing is a diagnosis is nothing but a medical term utilized by medical professionals. This is why self diagnosing is bad and should not be done, as a diagnosis is nothing more than a doctor's tool in his toolbox, something a normal person has no business using. Obtaining a diagnosis is nothing more than allowing a doctor to identify you under a medical category so treatment can begin to help alleviate troubles. So really, a doctor giving you a diagnosis has nothing to do with telling you who you are, nor does a diagnose define you as a person. It really boils down to identifying a category of symptoms that can causes distress in our daily lives which can be then approached by professionals.

Being "diagnosed" with a cavity has no impact on me as a person or my personality, sure it may suggest I eat unhealthily or don't brush my teeth enough, but I would never identify myself as a cavity sufferer, it's just something for the doctor to work on. It may explain why it hurts when I eat a chocolate bar, but again that doesn't define me as a person, just like a diagnoses doesn't.

I'm not sure if any of that made sense, but I think what I'm trying to say is people get caught up in diagnostics because they think it validates or confirms them as a categorized type of person, but really all a diagnosis should be for is for a direction to begin treatment to ease struggles.

Last edited by jcq126 on 07 Jan 2014, 9:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Heck, this don't feel like it is labeling yourself when someone else gives you that label as is happens in your describtion. Yeah, I did do a lot of fretting over it myself when a college psych give me that label the first time. Obcessive reading resulted in getting the real diagnosis eventually.

It's really hard to get over and forget about labels given to you from someone else until it's comfirmed or dispelled by a professional.

I thought getting a diagnosis for whatever I had would be a great help in linking others to myself. Unfortunately, my diagnosis was ASD and I got a little paper which when I hold it in front of people nothing magical happens like I was hoping for.

    This is awesome! Sometimes the only thing we (humans) can hope for is some majikal happenings.

I don't mind labels, as long as they're not mean. We all have labels, for example, your given a first name so people know what to call you, your other labels can be dad, mom, sister, brother, professor, male, female, athlete, doctor, captain, student, the list goes on. Imagine if stores didn't have the ladies and men's labels on the bathroom doors, it would be super awkward. This is my short version of my feelings about "labels". They're valuable in my opinion. They're usually helping someone identify or relate to a person or an object.

It's much easier to say "I'm autistic", than to say "I'm sensitive to lights and noises, I'm not interested in forming social bonds, I have trouble recognizing faces, I obsess over special interests, I have trouble focusing on anything else, I pace neurotically, I freak out if my routine changes, [insert laundry list of other symptoms here...]

Maybe the best thing about the autism label is that instead of having 20 different problems, you just have one

I agree with this.

For me the label also gives me strength. I have a lot of social anxiety and sometimes I just need to remember why I am this different, it's because of autism/ADHD/bipolar and knowing that makes me feel better.

I also don't trust doctors because they've always just rushed my appointments and will give me the most mildest type of diagnosis. Doctors can get it wrong too.

The way i look at is, if you have something about you that most everyone notices
like "what's his/her problem?" And i dont even mean in a bad way, but just honestly
wondering, you might as well have a label to hand them.
I like that better than them guessing.
People have guessed things like I am mentally ret*d or even blind.
so they might as well know, nope he is autistic.
Not that many ppl seem to know what that means.

That is why you need a diagnosis.

YES! Thank you for having a sense of humor about it all. If we don't laugh at ourselves, we will just be stuck listening to everyone else laughing at us.

OP: If you are interesting in pursuing an official diagnosis, I say go for it. Not for the label but just for better self understanding. Also, as I found out, AS is not usually a single diagnosis. We often get co-morbid diagnoses (multiple diagnoses), especially when you are an adult. So, don't try to narrow it down too much....you may have the grand pleasure of having multiple labels.

Still, in the end, no matter your diagnosis, don't let it define you. You are you. Your diagnosis is simply the filter through which you see the world.

labels are only useful for getting somewhere-as in,getting needed understanding/accomodations,support or benefits,otherwise people use them to place limitations or expectations on people and that can make people limit themselves if they are told theyre useless or worthless to often.

Labels-

occupation/experience

gender

MEDICAL NEEDS

physical description, if someone's looking for you

I could go on.

Labels serve a purpose. They describe.

Things are called by names, situations are described...

If someone (especially someone who's diagnosed) doesn't want to self-identify as autistic, that's up to them. Without that, tho', there can be many misunderstandings with other people who won't be expecting the sometimes...different...behaviour of an autistic person.

Things have names, terms do apply to people and things they do apply to.

We have this thing called "language", you know?

Labels that other people use negatively towered you can be used in a positive manor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reappropriation

This is part of why I'd want the label. I did horrably in school. With the exception of a couple teachers in elementary school, who thought I had ADD, no one tried to help or figure out what was going on with me.

If I do decide to go back to school, I'd ddefinitely need some kind of help.