Heya, just wrote a freaking novel of a post, was about to send it when my browser decided it was a good time to take a dump on the longest collection of words I've written in about a year of doing almost no writing whatsoever.
I was diagnosed as having Asperger's some six years ago, by one who was considered to be an expert on the syndrome. When I looked the condition up, of course I saw many traits that I thought I could call my own. I entered into the online community, being a webhead, and started learning about it.
A couple years onward, I had a nervous meltdown. I was hospitalized briefly. While there, I related my diagnosis to the psychiatrist. He disagreed with it, telling me that I seemed very relatable and engaging, whereas people suffering from autistic spectrum disorders, even those mildly affected, tend to act almost alien to what a 'neurotypical' would. Soon I was discharged from this hospital, and met with another psychiatrist who said the same thing, and went on to explain that the doctor delivering the diagnosis was an expert, and hence went into my treatment with a diagnostic bias of sorts. So the plaque of Asperger's SYndrome on my wall was loosened, in a manner of speaking.
I went through many different diagnoses and such and so forth, before I realized that this isn't much better than owning up to an astrological sign. I know better now. A good online acquaintance of mine once told me that labels, while fun to throw around, adhere to individuals as well as a sticker would to the ocean. People are infinitely complex and variable, and perhaps I think this applies even to those whose personal growth is stunted by autism. It's one thing to attach a label to someone else, this is done for our own benefit, in order to more easily reference what we know about this person, and how this relationship benefits or what it means to us. Diagnostic labels are for the benefit of psychiatrists only, so they can use a few words to sum up a collection of common behavioral traits or symptoms for ease of information. To anyone they're attached to, I can see them as being of little value, beyond whatever temporary ego trip it might give us. Personality tests are a fun way to amuse oneself, so long as one remembers they know more about themselves than any pre-written, demographical analysis ever could.
10 Nov 2011, 6:20 pm
