Poll: Self Diagnosed Aspie's - Opinion?

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Hey everyone,

I know I post far too much so I'll try to cut down. I was just wondering what peoples general opinion of self dignosed asperger's are.

I mean, do people think say that the likes of myself that believe I have AS but yet to be tested for it are attention seeks, hypocondriacts etc etc etc

Thanks for your time.

Bollacks, I fooked that up. Ah, nevermind >.<

One of the big traits of AS is being unable or having great difficulty in social interaction. It would be assumed if you are very introverted there would be a lot of things you know and cannot express, this is often why AS is closely linked to BPD and Bipolar. What does a child do if they cannot express themselves? They act out. With this in mind even if you find a good specialist in the topic they will not know how you act and how you think better than you think/know how you act and how you think.

Aspergarians are by far quite capable of diagnosing themselves.

It's been my experience with doctors that you almost have to point them in the right direction, anyway. I haven't, actually, been to a psychologist, but I have family members who are frequent visitors. Each time they get a new doctor, there's a new diagnoses. It's not an exact science, so the fact that a person has a diagnoses, only means that they found a doctor willing to give it. I don't mean to take anything away from anyone who does have a diagnoses. It's just that I don't see an unequal footing. If they think they have it, after knowing the criteria, then their doctor is probably right. If we, the undiagnosed, think we have it, then we probably do too.

People should be taken at face value, but they should be open to other opinions without getting defensive... even if they ARE diagnosed! I know I might not be AS; even if I were diagnosed I would know the label is not infallible. So I don't pretend to be omnipotent... I just think I am AS.

I voted undiagnosed CAN be aspie, although the majority of un-diagnosed aren't aspie.

I had to present my psychiatrist with a truckload of academic research which I had done before he understood AS enough to concur with my self-diagnosis. And it wasn't as if I was lobbying him for it, rather I was truly trying to understand why I seemed to see and think differently than the "average" person. I had persuaded myself that it wasn't simply a high IQ, that there was something else.

It appears to me, from my limited time studying it and reading posts from people who have it, that the real experts on AS are the Aspies themselves. We're introspective, curious and logical by nature, and tend to analyze (and even over analyze) things to death. So it's perfectly logical that in our quest to understand things we will at times turn our attentions inward. So, I'd say that an official diagnosis may provide validation and even a sense of relief, it isn't strictly necessary.

Bottom line, if you see enough of yourself in the posts you read here, whether or not you fit some textbook definition (probably written by someone who doesn't really understand AS anyway), it's likely that you will find value here, and a better understanding of yourself. It's certainly been true for me.

Hell, even some diagnosed aspies may not be aspie, counselors can be greedy and often will just throw a label on someone so they can make money on it through the selling of psychiatric medications.

But percentage-wise I'm willing to bet more dx'ed aspies are aspie than un-dx'ed.

Psychologists and therapists by their very nature require a person to be above average in social intelligence in order to effectively do their job. Meaning they are as far from the ASD mind as humanly possible and therefore some of the least qualified people in the world to actually diagnose or treat the condition.

As far as "They are an expert so they must be right" or "You are not an expert so you cant be right" goes those are ad verecundiam logical fallacies.

Truth and accuracy cannot be explicitly proven by only credentials or lack thereof.

While I cant argue with that in general doctors do love to make their cut off prescription medication sales in the case of ASD's since there is no medication to treat the condition they have nothing to gain from a hasty or outright fraudulent diagnosis (perhaps one of the reasons getting it diagnosed feels like an arm wrestling match).

If they can slap you with an alphabet soup including schizophrenia and other exotic things requiring expensive anti-psychotics they have much more to gain (as many of us have witnessed they are more than willing to do just that).

Once again, Fraya, an extremely well-stated and penetrating analysis.

not really, i mean they can still give you an SSRI and pop you off to a shrink.
keeps ppl employed

How can one diagnose oneself as an aspie if one doesn't really understand
what it is? Asperger Syndrome has only been officially documented by the American Psychiatric Association in 1994.
I have suffered so much agony and abuse at the hands of too many unscrupulous
psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health professionals since I was a
child before mental health services existed for children. There was no such thing as Asperger Syndrome and I have only been correctly diagnosed now at the age of fifty!
In the 1970s, with the creation of the Special Education Law of 1975, we had ADHD, ADD, and the creation of too many other mental disorders and parents were eager to diagnose their kids so they could gain benefits for their children. But, there was no governmental assistance for us children "left behind." We had to carve a niche in the world as best as we can and many times, it wasn't easy. Yet, we became stronger for it. Apie, Half-aspie, whatever. Until I get an official designation by an excellent
psychiatrist, I don't want any half-assed labels defining me. Labels can do more harm
than good, especially when it comes to Asperger Syndrome which only provides mental health treatment for preschoolers and children under age 21. After age 21, an aspie is left to one's own resources.
I thank God I have a great psychiatrist now who knows how to treat me!

Oh? Whats the treatment?