why are self-diagnosed aspies considered "posers?"

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This is the reason why I dislike some psychiatrists. But what else can you do? If you want to be taken seriously, and you want to receive help and/or therapy, you must trust them.

I do not believe there has been a study specifically with aspergers although I know there are some professionals that claim there is much success in self diagnosis. There have been a few on self diagnosis in general.

This review list a few and talks about some of the conclusions.
http://www.jopm.org/evidence/research/2 ... iterature/

It lists some times when it is "Reliable and Desirable" and times when it is not.

Everyone's path is different. Your path may be with a psychiatrist and there is nothing wrong with that. Mine is not and it hurts when people are so judgmental about it. It makes no sense to me. I've always claimed that I "suspect" I am on the spectrum and I've never tried to get any sort of special treatment. All I want to do is discuss it and see if I can make myself a better person by understanding who I am.

This is ok to me. If you say you suspect it, there's nothing wrong with it; the wrong thing is assuming it for sure, expecially if you're doing it for getting special treatments or for looking "special", like some wannabe kids do.

To be honest the only people I've told are my wife and you guys here (obviously). I'm always open to the idea that I could be wrong. That's why I'm not worried about it. If at some point I realize it doesn't fit then I'll keep looking for the truth. But I do consider myself self diagnosed.

I think everyone should keep an open mind about who they are. Just because a professional tells you something doesn't mean that it's the ultimate truth either.

And as for people that are just pretending for special treatment, don't hate them, understand that they are probably just looking for attention and are dealing with it in the wrong way. Is that hurting the opinion of the general public towards people on the spectrum? Probably. Is it healthy for them? Probably not. But ostracizing everyone that self diagnosis because of that isn't helping anyone.

For both psychological and medical problems some people may want to do research themself first and have a good idea of what they have before seeing anyone. Maybe they don't like going to the doctor or are poor and have no insurance and don't want to put themself through a doctor visit or run up a bunch of medical bills for nothing.

Not all psychiatrists are trustworthy. I remember a person here posting about a psychiatrist saying they couldn't have aspergers because they didn't wet the bed, play with fire, or torture animals. Those aren't even aspergers symptoms. Those are signs of being a psychopath.

I'm thinking of trying to get a diagnosis if I can find someone to go to after my medical things are taken care of because I have Medicaid now.

I self diagnosed ten years ago after seeing a TV program on the subject.

I'm about as AS as AS could be; apart from the fact that I don't have meltdowns.
My brain is wired different to "normal" people and I could not act differently if I was offered a million dollars.

Why seek help?
There is no known cure.

To all of those here who are seeing an overpaid shrink;; you're wasting your money.

A lot of shrinks are like this, more than some can imagine.
Even wikipedia and every stupid self-diagnosing test knows more than some shrinks...!
And many of them just give you tests anyway...!

Just view psychiatrists actually are really good, with a lot of experience.

Last edited by Raziel on 30 Sep 2012, 8:30 am, edited 1 time in total.

I think that's a bit extreme. Some people are helped a lot by professionals. And there may be no "cure" but there are things that can be understood and analyzed to make better life strategies. Some people can do this on their own and others can't.

Brains are like cars. Some people need to hire a mechanic and some people can work on their own. Professionals and do it your selfers all have varying capabilities and some are outright frauds. You can't assume how capable someone is just by their title.

I don't want to be cured.

I do want to have a certain level of independence. I do want to have a certain level of self regulation. I do want to make certain changes. And I am getting help and seeing changes.

I cannot do things on my own that I can do with my therapist. I do not have the ability to do this; not because I don't have the intelligence or interest, but because I can't formulate what needs to be done properly. I can't sort things out. I can't do it. I'm too alexithymic. I am not dependent on routines in a stereotypical manner, but I have a difficult time thinking of new ways of trying things - I've caused problems because I couldn't realize that it'd be possible to use someone else's dog leash on my dog.

Along with my psychotherapist, I'm seeing an Occupational Therapist. I need her a lot.

And I'm working with a vocational rehab case manager directly because the workers from their agencies aren't working with me as they've deemed me currently unemployable and she didn't want to close my case.

And I'm going to be starting working with a life coach as well soon. She's going to be doing things like teaching me how to cook in ways that work with all my disability, and helping with how do I organize things, and helping with how do I be less isolated (because while that's not hard on me it is very hard on the people who I am around because I end up depending on them too much in inappropriate ways), and lots of things like that. General independent living skills, as well as things that let me pursue general adult life.

Why seek help? Because its not just thinking differently. For me its not being able to take care of myself. Because not being able to feed myself; being prone to being abused; not being employable; not being able to interact with people age-appropriately (I can do older or younger, but not my age - eventually this catches up to me); not being able to organize a house, clean, or pack boxes; not being able to drive; not being able to take all public transportation (because of my SPD); having severe hypersensitivities and major problems and major ways this interferes with my life (which I consider a co-morbid SPD so I'm not elaborating further); and not being able to simply ask for help because of not knowing how to organize the words to ask for help so instead ending up sobbing in a meltdown is reason to seek help. And these aren't nearly all of my challenges, they are just some of them.

Because there's a lot of reason to get help for someone with an ASD. Because not having a speech delay and being intelligent and articulate doesn't make us [necessarily] mild. Because not having a cure doesn't mean that there's not help available. Because not wanting to be cured doesn't mean we don't want help. Because someone offering help doesn't mean they're a scam.

And because help can do a lot.

Getting help for that isn't wasting my money. It's letting me be an independent adult. It's giving me the possibility of doing things I can't otherwise do.


(I was officially diagnosed specifically so that I could work with a counselor who is actually a good one for someone with an ASD; It was a necessity for me that was worth going through and paying for a diagnosis out of pocket because I needed to start seeing professionals that badly. I was able to see someone in high school without an official diagnosis, we needed an official diagnosis after I'd graduated college.)

Last edited by Tuttle on 30 Sep 2012, 10:55 am, edited 1 time in total.

There may be no cure but some of us need help in managing the symptoms.

Well, that's sure. In fact, my parents brought me various times to a psychiatrist for a trustworthy diagnosis.




Well, I don't know about this. Here in Italy you can have a free-cost diagnosis.




This, also, it's true.

In the USA it can be very expensive and as an adult it is probably not going to be covered by insurance.

In the UK, you can get a free diagnosis only if your doctor agrees. Not every doctor will.

In Germany it is also free to get diagnosed by a normal doctor, but not everyone wants a diagnosis.

My parents thought since I was very little, that I have autistic traits but back then autism wasn't recognized at all and when my symptoms got better and so on they didn't wanted to get me diagnose anymore, because of the stigma and they wanted that I can go to a regular school, what maybe otherwise wouldn't have been possible.
So I first got diagnosed as a young adult.

But here autism is still a very rare diagnosis and it can be difficult to tell a doctor that you have it and back then it must have been even more extrem, so I'm kind of glad that my parents didn't get me diagnosed back then.

Well, here in Italy special classes exist no more. In fact, I've always been in a normal class, and I still am. Well, I was helped from the support teacher but the school started in September and, according to my mother, I was diagnosed when the school was alredy started. During middle school I didn't have a support teacher because at those times there were too few, and there was a kid with Down Syndrome in my class that needed a lot more help than me. Now I'm in high school and there aren't support teachers in high school.