Self-diagnosis

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But you thought your toe was broken so you went and got a diagnosis. Saying, "I think I have Asperger's" is not saying, "I definitely 100% have it." And if you had not been suffering you would not have gone to get your toe diagnosed. You were suffering so you got a diagnosis. Adult people who are suffering with symptoms of Autism also have the right to go for a diagnosis.

People who self diagnose don't say, "I definitely 100% have it." I have never known a self diagnosed person to say that. They say, "I think I have it," or "I have done years of research and I am pretty confident that I might have it but I don't have a diagnosis." If you had said, "I think my toe is broken," or, "I am pretty sure I broke my toe, but I have not been to the doctor to get it diagnosed yet," no one would be upset with you. No one would be claiming that you were a faker or claiming that you were trying to seek monetary support that you did not deserve. No one would say, you don't have the right to think what you think. You have made a disclaimer in your sentence. The words, "I think I have," and the words, "I don't have a diagnosis yet" are that disclaimer.

I have definitely seen "I definitely have aspergers, I don't need a diagnoses"

In that case, that is not a correct thing for that person to say. But it is not the norm for people to say that. Just like with anything, there will be a few people who will say something like that but we can't treat every self diagnosed person as if they are saying that because most of them are not. And if someone says that, you know the truth about it. You are intelligent enough to know that he could be right or that there could be another explanation for his symptoms. But to make some rule that people should not be allowed to self diagnose because a handful of people might make a statement like that is really not fair.

Me too. My husband being one of them after being told he shows signs of autism. He already has labels so he doesn't want another thing wrong with him. To him another diagnoses means he has a new problem. He prefers to not know and also what if they say he doesn't have it, then he had wasted money on getting tested. Plus a DX wouldn't change a thing because he is already disabled and gets Social Security.

What harm does 'assuming' do, in this case, though? If 'assuming' (which to be honest sounds like not doing much research at all, so I do agree that's a bit silly, but let's pretend for a second that by 'assuming' you mean 'coming up with a probable situation, based on a lot of research') helps the person that's making the assumption and doesn't harm anyone else, what's wrong with it? If self-diagnosis is enough to greatly improve someone's life, where's the harm in it?

The clue is in the name. You're not diagnosing for anyone else. It's for yourSELF. It has absolutely no impact on anyone else.

But even in these two examples they still say, I don't have a diagnosis. So you know, automatically when they say they don't want one or they don't feel they need one that they don't have a diagnosis. So you can use your own intelligence to say, if they don't have a diagnosis, than it is not 100% known even if they believe that they are 100% accurate. They have just said that they don't have a diagnosis. You can fill in the blank yourself.

Anyone who says, 'I am Autistic or Aspergian," you can ask them if they have a diagnosis. They will say yes or no. Then you have your answer. And if you decide to take their word as an authority on what it is like to be Autistic than that is on you. It's not hard to find out if someone has a diagnosis or not.

Imagine if I were to get a pair of crutches and wrap my foot for 6 weeks and tell everyone "my toe is broken" instead of just keeping off it for a week and waiting for the pain to go away and take some Tylenol. My treatment wouldn't be appropriate for the injury I had which is the purpose of a diagnoses. What purpose does a self diagnoses fill if your not seeking a full diagnoses?

And by the way I am NOT against self speculating, which is different. it's fine to say "I think I might have autism." but i am against people saying "the only explanation is autism" without seeing a doctor or at least looking into other disorders first.

ZombieBrideXD quote:

Imagine if I were to get a pair of crutches and wrap my foot for 6 weeks and tell everyone "my toe is broken" instead of just keeping off it for a week and waiting for the pain to go away and take some Tylenol. My treatment wouldn't be appropriate for the injury I had which is the purpose of a diagnoses. What purpose does a self diagnoses fill if your not seeking a full diagnoses?

And by the way I am NOT against self speculating, which is different. it's fine to say "I think I might have autism." but i am against people saying "the only explanation is autism" without seeing a doctor or at least looking into other disorders first.

Well, for a start I suspect you wouldn't go around telling everyone "my toe is broken". As is common with those self-diagnosing, what you'd actually say (and only after looking into detailed symptoms of a broken toe, and presumably also an x-ray image that you've taken on your own and studied - because, let's make it fair, people with a self-diagnosis of autism have looked into it in detail and have also studied the diagnosis criteria in depth), "I'm pretty sure my toe's broken". Then, you'd wrap it up and a week later you'd feel better. Again, no harm done to anyone. You might have made life a little bit more difficult for yourself than if you'd just gone and been diagnosed (assuming it's that easy), but ultimately nobody's harmed by what you've done.

Nobody would care if you hobbled around on crutches even if your toe wasn't broken. The only person who would have a problem with that would be your mom or dad or someone if you asked them to take care of you. If you went to social services to get services you would not get them because you don't have a diagnosis. If I let you get on a bus in front of me because I thought your toe was broken when it wasn't, that is not going to be a big deal in my life. It is not going to affect my life one way or the other. I am not your employer, I am not your care taker. You are not keeping me from getting any services I need nor are you keeping me from doing anything I need to do in my life. If I were your employer or your caretaker, than I would ask you to show me your diagnosis before I gave you services or compensation. If you want to hobble around on crutches just for the heck of it, or even if you have erroneously convinced yourself that your toe is broken and you really believe it is, why should I care? I might care in the sense of saying, "Oh, I.m sorry you broke your toe, I hope you get better." But anything beyond that, it is not my responsibility to take care of you so I am not going to stress over it.

And saying that Autism is the only explanation is still ok because they have not said that they have a diagnosis. It is the only explanation for many people. That is not a lie. And even if someone says that, all you have to say is, "Do you have a diagnosis?" and you will get your answer. And you have absolutely no idea what other things they may have looked at unless you did the research with them. You can't assume they have not done any research. And you can ask them, "Have you looked at other disorders?" "Have you spent time researching?"

But to say, nobody has the right to self diagnose because someone else might do this or that is ridiculous.

Last edited by skibum on 06 Jun 2016, 5:02 am, edited 1 time in total.

@AirelsSong

A self diagnoses is more like this.

I hurt my toe, I look at the symptoms of a broken toe

-pain
-swelling
-stiffness
-deformity
-difficulty walking
-bruising

Seems broken, why even get an X-ray at this point?

Let's say I were to take my own X-ray and look at it, I would have to know what is a fracture and what isn't because even X-ray technicians are not allowed to make a diagnoses, only doctors can make a diagnoses.

Doctors are not allowed to make a diagnosis if they are not qualified for legal reasons because they are diagnosing other people. And in most cases, they are charging them money to do that. That is their profession. It's a business. A self diagnosis is not a legally binding official document. It is just a word used for people who figure things out for personal reasons for themselves.

Last edited by skibum on 06 Jun 2016, 5:17 am, edited 2 times in total.

Exactly. So we agree.

And if you can find an effective treatment for a broken toe that helps you and doesn't harm others, and you don't actually need to go and get diagnosed for it, where's the problem?

Except my toe wasn't actually broken at all. It turned out my ligaments were crushed and the broken toe treatment which would be binding it to another toe and staying off it for 6 weeks would be the incorrect response. All I needed was to stay off it for a week and take some Tylenol.

ZombieBrideXD quote:

Except my toe wasn't actually broken at all. It turned out my ligaments were crushed and the broken toe treatment which would be binding it to another toe and staying off it for 6 weeks would be the incorrect response. All I needed was to stay off it for a week and take some Tylenol.

But, again, if binding it doesn't harm you and you find that it helps, what's the big deal?

If an autism self-diagnosis helps someone to deal with the issues that they're having, why do you take issue with that?

Sure, there's a chance they may not be autistic (and I believe that any properly self-diagnosed person will tell you the same), but if self-diagnosis helps them then that's ultimately not important.

People aren't self-diagnosing for anyone's sake but their own.

I agree with Skibum's point.

One thing I do think is harmful is all these threads attacking the self-diagnosed. They were a big thing last year, and probably one of the reasons I took a break from WP. It's hard enough dealing with the problems of autism or something similar - and then when you finally find some people who seem to be like you, they won't let you into their club 'cause you don't have the papers that are hard to get if you are

1) older
2) female
3) lower class
4) a minority
5) living in a country that is uninformed about autism
6) any combination of the above

I'm almost 40, so I'm not so easily scared off. However, my 20 year old self would have been hurt and scared, and would probably not even have tried to get a diagnosis after running into these attitudes. It would just have been too painful, on top of all the other troubles I had. I would have thought that autistics are really mean people, and that I couldn't possibly be like that. A bit immature, but I was immature at 20.

I'm not saying this thread is among the worst, not at all. I think some of the posters are trying to complain about a small minority of people that most of us don't know much about. I've never met an autism activist in my life, so I wouldn't know what they are like. I suspect most of the people who feel targeted by this kind of post are people who are unsure, but strongly suspect autism in themselves because there are no other reasonable explanations.

I keep hearing about these self-diagnosed autism advocates, but since I don't know who they are and what they say, it's hard to have an opinion. Most of the people I deal with are allistic people who have no idea about autism, and I'm not talking about it. That's why I'm on WP - because I need to talk to someone to avoid going bananas while I spend the next year waiting to get in smelling distance of someone who can diagnose autism.

Nobody cares. You could wrap yourself in a DIY body cast for a year if you want to.