Is it REALLY that important to be "diagnosed?"

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I took the online quiz...

Your Aspie score: 146 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 82 of 200
You are very likely an Aspie

...and then I read a lot about it, and as I read, I realized that I was reading about me. My life. I was remembering childhood events that never made sense to me, and now I finally understand.

So, why do I need to be diagnosed if I am cool with everything? I wouldn't take any pharmaceuticals anyway, if they were perscribed to me. And the only reason to see a doctor would be for drugs!

^Yes understanding yourself is very important and for me it's the only way I can get help.

IMO, a diagnoses is important if you want to make sure you are correct you do have it or you need it to apply for disability or get the education you need in school, or to get the help you need in life or you need to prove to other people you really do have it like to your family. But unfortunately families don't always believe it, not even friends or other people.

No Insurance translates to no formal DX for me. I also have an autistic daughter and I've heard horror stories that have scared me off even wanting a formal DX.
All my daughters therapists are who clued me in to the fact that I'm an"Aspie"I didnt even know what the term was.
I won't be taking any meds as I happen to like my brain just the way it is at present, and don't feel the need to take any. I've managed to get this far w/out them, I'll make it the rest of the way I figure.
I love my job and won't be filing for disability as I "don't feel that I'm disabled" To be honest I feel more enabled than I ever have before in my life. Just finally knowing what the heck was going on w/ me. For the first time in my life I have the answer to my questions of "Why?"
I have no family to tell, my 21 year old daughter read a bunch here at WP and researched AS elsewhere and said "Oh Yeah, those are definitely your "peeps." My Mom died a few years ago and the rest of my family abandoned me to Fate long ago.

I think it would be nice to have definite confirmation, but from some of what I've read here its hard to DX adults anyhow because we've developed such good coping mechanisms, and refined our emulation of NTs because no help was available to us when we grew up so it became a "sink or swim" situation for us. The swimmers are still here.
And the psych community hasn't caught up w/ the research in some instances also. I read all over WP how the psych community treats those seeking a formal DX. Not implying that they are always wrong, but these tales seem credible to me.

I got a Dx last November because I want social skills training.

Wow. Thanks Tohlagos, I don't feel that I'm very articulate, so Wow, thanks.

I do not seek diagnosis because, like you, I do not intend to do anything about it. I also just think it is nice to understand myself better. I like this place because I never knew there were other people like me. I'm fine here on wrongplanet. I do not need doctors or pills...they happen to be two of my least favorite things.

I want an official diagnosis, (term DX reminds me of differentiation lol), my reasons:

I am obviously not a swimmer, some things I do not cope with at all. I hate having to say yes on forms that I have suffered from mental health issues e.g depression. It makes me sound like a nutter which I most certainly am not. I now believe the depression was inadvertantly caused by being AS, my social skills or lack of them. AS is not a mental illness just different.

It will also help with general awareness of the syndrome and the more who get the official diagnosis the better, which will equal more people qualified in the field. I live in England and I would have to go to the next county to find an NHS consultant with expertise in the field.
Another reason is that self diagnosis is being used as a weapon against AS atm.

Personally I dislike psychologists and can have much fun giving them obscure and unrelated answers just so they can't find a box to plop me in, but am prepared to go along this route...(and try not to torture the poor counsellor too much), to get it made official.

These are just my views

Self-diagnosis as a weapon? Then, perhaps people who are fine with the self-diagnosis for themselves should say that they have traits of AS, but should not say that they actually have it without an official diagnosis?

Another factor regarding the "Self Diagnosis" / AS Traits / AS Dx ... there is published research (see the New Scientist article linked below ...) which shows that it is very common for the parents of children diagnosed with an ASD to show some of the ASD traits, even if the traits shown are insufficient for a full Dx.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1 ... ldren.html

As such, it is very likely that the various ASD Dxs are really descriptive of an aggregation of different developmental traits that in-and-of-themselves may not be sufficiently "bad" to cause a Disorder.

Instead of saying that someone should or should not look for a Dx (which will depend on an enlightened Neurologist/developmental psychologist/Psychiatrist), we should try to get the world to acknowledge that the ASD spectrum is precisely that - a spectrum that encompasses people who may not be entirely NT, but who are capable of COMPENSATING sufficiently to appear normally (or at least sufficiently normally to get through the day).

A diagnosis is needed if there's a need for help or therapy or financial stuff due to the ASD. Some countries think over wise - so they're bad countries in that particular aspect, obviously.

Mine's okay with it. Lacking in the adult department. But people with AS get the same help as those with classical too. That is excellent and needed.

I checked if I could get help. And then I went to get the diagnosis which is required to get ASD help.

I couldn't have anything to do with normal therapy. Seriously, that would be no use to me. I don't have any issues besides the PDD.

I don't at all think I'm mf or lf, professionals consider me utmost hf. That's the one thing I dislike about the diagnosis. People questioning it! Autistic people walk up to and tell me I'm not like them, can't be AS and must be MR or lf AS or just brain damaged.

No matter if I have brain abnormalities, I bet many people do by the way, but that's just horribly ignorant to say. I'm just differently affected, right.

So... it's kinda going on from all sides. Self-diagnosed vs. diagnosed, but also AS vs. AS, AS vs. classical, ASD vs non-autistic... Which is all pretty ridiculous.

We should just be okay with how other people do things for themselves.

So I guess... no, the diagnosis didn't get me any recognised as an autistic person by autistic people. Either they believed I was autistic without knowing or they pretend the professionals who diagnosed me were nut-cases and idiots.

But thankfully, that is not why I got the diagnosis. But it sure is annoying. And very hypocrytic, if another person is somehow ridiculous for having no formal diagnosis from a professional.

Well god knows whats going to happen with my diagnosis. Went to the doctor had been planning what to say, explain clearly and precisely etc, had my notes from the NASC (national autistic society)...


Decided to walk to calm myself as I was really anxious, sweaty and shaky. Stopped at the local shop and bought the biggest bar of chocolate in the store to eat on the way to make me feel better.

Yay I arrived at doctors on a massive sugar rush blurted it all out rapidly, and badly, then I said I know I need to make eye contact more and stared str8 at her...then I burst out laughing...nerves, sugar who knows. All I know is I made a great case for a hypocondriac idiot. Nothing I said was what my plans had been to say, I blurted out crap about I used to bounce when I walked as a kid but stopped because other kids made fun. What I meant was...I used to walk on my toes. Then I babbled on about the anxiety with people ...she said maybe I just haven't been trying hard enough. I just feel like a complete prat now.

A good psychologist should be told any suspect diagnosis if you are seeing one, but a DX seems extreme for that. Younger individuals would benefit more from a DX due to IEPs etc.