Can You Trick Yourself Into Believing You Have ASD

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I was put on the waiting list when I joined this forum so it's not 15 months now ( although it feels like it )
Thanks for the kind words , unfortunately as I'm suffering from depression doing something fun/nice is a pretty alien concept for me at the moment ( although this forum seems like fun to me )- it should pass though.

I'm glad that you're trying to be positive, and that the forum helps a bit hang in there!

I take it that was more aimed at SaveFerris considering they are the OP of this thread, and they are the one who mentioned doubting it. However, personally I don't think I have autism because my social problems only significantly affected me in my childhood.

My obsessions would probably fitter better into the OCD category, but I can't say for sure. They are mostly of checking and hoarding, but yes- sometimes they can be topics of interest. I'm trying to cut down on my checking though, and for some things that is working so far.

The disturbing thoughts- like having to check the microwave is shut three times because of the thoughts about people killing things in them- are becoming less frequent for me. I still get them, but not as much as I used to. I'm sorry if I just caused people to feel uneasy about microwaves now.

However, I still have issues with people using particularly gory comparisons for exaggeration purposes, I know they're only exaggerating and all but I still hate it because my mind imagines it when I don't want to. It's the same with fantasy horrors/ gory sci-fis, if someone tells me about them then it can be hard to move on and I have to make quite an effort to distract myself from thinking about scenes described to me, and I know for some people they seem to just move on seemingly unaffected, like the people who can watch horror films and not be terrified everywhere they go afterwards.

But yeah, that's just me and my over-active imagination. Got a bit off-topic there, whoops. But yeah, I know what it's like to obsess over a negative thought for several weeks, but perhaps not the kind you meant.

I agree with the OP though, confirmation bias and denial can be a strong thing, I know when I was trying to convince myself that I wasn't gay I came up with all sorts of ways to try and rationalise the feelings I was having in a "totally hetero" way. But yet again, kind of off-topic and I'm starting to hi-jack a thread here so I will stop now. Please don't ban me.

It would be great if you could develop a savant skill into a useful job. Who cares how you did it?

Sign me up Although doesn't being Savant come at a cost.

Only certain kinds of people can trick themselves into believing things. If you are the kind of person who cares more about how things make you feel than whether they are true/false or valid/invalid, you may be one of those people.

Can you give me an example.

Like if you want the feeling of belonging so badly you decide you are a part of the autistic community without really paying attention to whether you have the symptoms.

Or someone wants to feel special so she decides that she has a disorder she doesn't have. She's focused more on the feeling of being special than the facts of having the symptoms.

Or you want the relief of having your symptoms make sense so you want to describe them by a disorder even if the disorder doesn't really fit.

I think if you are at a point of considering ASD and mistakenly convincing yourself you are ,based on the info you have, then there is a good chance something non neurotypical is going on anyway even if it isn't ASD .

Thanks. The first 2 examples are not me but the 3rd example sounds feasible although a lot fits ( or should I say I believe they fit if I'm not tricking myself or my GF )

I reiterate - even professionals have been known to be wrong. Just because one assessor tells you you aren't such-and-such doesn't mean it's so. Assessment is exactly that - an interpretation, not an exact science. Some interpretations are obvious, some are judgement calls.

You could be right although I don't think any other neurotypical thing is going on ( unless OCD is neurotypical ?) - I either have ASD or I'm nuts , either way is fine , I'd just like confirmation - having said that, just being on this forum has helped me learn things about myself I'd never even realized.



yeah , I realise this and it is something that my GF talks about. She's already said that she wants to get a private consultation if my NHS assessment states I don't have ASD without explaining adequate reasons why I don't.
I think I know the bare essentials now to accept a non-diagnosis because of 'x' , 'y' or 'z' and even if I don't you will definitely hear about it in a thread
I also think I know the bare essentials to be able to disagree with a Dx as well

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when i got a diagnosis, it was just the neuropsychiatrist and me involved. no family members or other third parties.

the other thing is though. as usual my precious lil "parents" were briefly in denial when i disclosed the ASD diagnosis to them. when i was 21. b/c of course they not only wanted, but self-righteously expected me to be the Perfect Chinese Daughter. and they just wrongly made the unconscious assumption that i had to be neurotypical and cisgendered.

however, if my precious lil "parents" were to have been at the testing, then maybe they would've denied, downplayed or otherwise minimized my autism symptoms. or maybe not even purposely deny my autism symptoms. but really not know or remember them. maybe they were so biased, that they truly believed that i was just "naughty" instead of ASD.

sometimes psychologists diagnose conditions the client does not have.

sometimes psychologists fail to diagnose conditions that the client does have.

a client might have a couple symptoms of autism. but not enough to fulfill diagnostic criteria of ASD. and the psychologist might exaggerate the symptoms and give the diagnosis.

on the Rote Memory portion of the IQ test, the neuropsychiatrist read out 10 digit numbers and told me to recite them backward. he told me i did that perfectly and he gave me a full score. a high Rote Memory score is a function of autism.

however, the first 3 digits of each of the numbers was a San Diego area code. thus making it easier for me (or anyone else) to obtain a high score on the Rote Memory portion.

likewise one of the symptoms of ASD is insufficient eye contact. but the DSM does not specify that the psychologist must take a videotape and measure with a protractor and stopwatch, above 34 percent eye contact. how much eye contact is too little, is up to each psychologist to decide.

the neuropsychiatrist charged me $$ for the written diagnostic report. if he were not to have given me a diagnosis, b/c i was one symptom short of fulfilling the ASD criteria, then he could not have earned $$ for the report.

so, yes, seriously, i think that someone can trick himself/herself into believing he/she has ASD when he/she is neurotypical.

likewise someone ASD might be in denial b/c of misconceptions, stigma, and discrimination. and someone with ASD might be in denial and think he/she is neurotypical.

Here's a short version on my dx at the age of 58, until I was 55 I had no idea at all that I might be an aspie, but always thought that one day I would go mad and never return to sanity.

I walked into the assessment room to see the 2 high grade NHS assessors (consultant psychiatrist and an occupational therapist) convinced that I had Hypochondria. Hypochondria is no small superficial thing, student doctors often get it.

One thing that may have helped the diagnosis was my avoidance of having found out too much about Autism Spectrum Disorders. There was a long wait for the verdict, months, during which my mind went into self lacerating gyrations with cascades of Hypochoncria, Cybercondria, this condria, that condria and the other condria.

Then the asperger's confirmation eventually arrived and I cried, not through a bad feeling at being dx'd with asperger's, but with a sense of relief.

Perhaps limited insight is a factor in ASD's, so not knowing whether you've got it or not could be a symptom?

People on here OFTEN mention side issue little OCD like habits, quirks and foibles that are not core symptoms, but they ring bells with what happens in my life.

Thanks for posting shortfatbalduglyman & Alexanderplatz.

Maybe things would be better for me if I hadn't researched autism at all.

I know for a fact when I'm at the assessment autism traits are going to be flying through my mind e.g. I know poor eye contact can be viewed as a trait which I do have ( or feel I have ) so I will be overthinking things every time I look at the assessor which might look like I faking it or make it appear worse than it actually is.