"fake aspies" and self diagnosis. DISLIKE, sorry.

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I have no problem, with self diagnosed members.

I wasn't sure why I had to disclose my neurological status (whether real or perceived), even before discussing ASD's, online.

I had to think (and think) about what kind of attention it would get me, if any.

I would dearly love to be diagnosed. However, I am 48 years old. I have somehow developed skills to get by in life. I still have my oddities, & I have grown tired of having to apologize for being different. As a child/teen, my mother took me from doctor to shrink over & over again trying to figure out why I was such an oddball. First shrink I saw, I was in 2nd or 3rd grade. He didn't know about Aspergers because back then, it wasn't known. AS is fairly new in the psychological world. Kids are easily Dxd because they haven't developed ways of getting by in life yet. Females' symptoms tend to be overlooked even now, as girls/women don't exhibit the typical behaviors boys do. I am still working on getting a DX. But if it doesn't happen, I still know what it is that makes me tick, even if the shrinks refuse to listen.

Just heard of a quick urine test, FWIW.

It seems that abnormal gut bacteria in autistic people generate a unique, chemical profile.

People may believe you, in no time flat, but what does it get you, to make it official?

I self-diagnosed back in 2003, when it was still practically unheard of in popular culture.

Even living in the UK with free health care, it's not always easy to get an Asperger diagnosis.

I was self-diagnosed for years, because I didn't feel the necessity to get a diagnosis, and thought it might hinder me in getting jobs. (Despite laws about not discriminating on the grounds of disability, employers can and do find other reasons not to employ you, when the real reason is disability).

Simon Baron Cohen says that most people who self-diagnose with Aspergers are correct. Obviously that isn't going to include people who are purposely lying, but means people who genuinely think they have Aspergers. Certainly for myself, I read a lot of books and analysed it very carefully and realised it was obvious. I also consider myself to be a far better judge of my condition than some psychologist who's known me for an hour or two.

I did eventually decide a diagnosis would be helpful, because I needed support at college. I approached my GP, who told me that he didn't believe in Aspergers - that he considered it to be simply a personality type, and that it's been turned into a 'disorder' because that's the only way for teachers to get support dealing with disruptive kids. I phoned the NAS to find out about where I could get diagnosed, and there wasn't anywhere in my area, and to get an NHS diagnosis, it has to be in your area. So I sought a private diagnosis, which cost £250. So I have a diagnosis now. It's useful for getting support in college - but in terms of self-knowledge, it's quite irrelevant to me, because I'd known for years that I had Aspergers.

Interesting how we've had both the claim that a diagnosis can help one get a job, and that it can get in the way of getting a job.

I suspect there's truth in both. It's not a simple world, and everyone's situation is not the same.

I am diagnosed by professionals. When I was diagnosed, I hadn't even heard of Asperger's. They called it high functioning Autism then, and it wasn't until my personal psychologist I was reffered to told me that it was Asperger's that I got the diagnosis with a name. There was no chance I would be using it as a fake excuse for anything. Thankfully, I got a psychologist who both worked specifically with people on the Autism spectrum, but also had a boyfriend who also had Asperger's.

I still wouldn't even know I had it if it wasn't for having a series of panic attacks in a hospital because my doctor was late to sign me out after he promised to in the morning. He only got to me in the afternoon. That was probably the worst day of my life to date...

As for a job...after I got my diagnosis I was taken off the role for people looking for work and they put me under unfit for work. Because I had been trying for years, unsuccessfully, to get a job, they completely wrote me off. I do voluntary work in a school library every now and then though, which is good and gives me something to do. And books, yay.

Im different....I must have aspergers then...yea rite!

there are many contenders to the "throne".

it is a niche fad nowadays to be "aspie" it seems, and there are so many weeds that have "evolved deliberately" to camouflage themselves in the field of autism.

i see so many posters describing themselves in a way that is crafted to appear "naive but genius" and "honest but brutal" or completely "unaware" of their "superior logical ability".
somewhat like the anime japanese characters they are fascinated with.

they want to pretend they are similar to the "sheldon" character in the "big bang theory" who they idolise.

it seems that a large proportion of people think einstein and newton and shakespeare and tessla and kelvin and galileo and jesus and anyone else who was remarkable was "aspie".

they want to jump on the wagon and take their seat and be seen as a passenger on the train of the syndrome.

"aspies" are stereotyped to be "cute" and "baby faced" and "unassuming" and in a mental class above the rest of the world with out them even knowing it.

so there are many gatecrashers to the small world of real autistic people.
there are many people who do not have a solid identity, and they have a raft of alternatives to choose from, so they choose "aspie" because it suits them, and then they lie about themselves and it is rather easy to do if they are reasonably smart and have familiarized themselves with the symptomatology.

i do not believe the vast majority of people who claim they are "aspie" on forums because even though they craft their posts in a way that is well considered with respect to what an asperger person would say, it does not ring fully true to me.

there is a subtle signature that is absent in their posts and it seems like a script writers assimilation of ideas to include in a movie about asperger people.

there are people here i do believe are truly AS, like.......well i better not say names, but i see that many people, even though they craft well informed posts, leave out that breath of reality that makes me identify on a deeper level with them.

if i was to spend 6 months with a script writer who was making a movie about AS, and he was to interrogate me about everything he can think of so as to make his script believable, then when the movie came out and i watched it, i would smile and say "yes. that is similar, but i can see that it is not from personal experience. it is from research".

that is how i think about most posts here.

like the wristwatch thread.
the op said they wore it on their right wrist, and then almost every poster said they too wore their watch on their right
wrist. i expected that to be the case before i read the posts.

i also predicted that some people would say that watches are old hat, and they use their cell phones.
it is like everyone is busily thinking of how to be unique or at least different from mainstream. also they are thinking how to put across an image of a similar flavor to the sheldon character.

it is a fad to be seen as a nerd or a geek. many ads on the radio and TV have capitalized on that style of character recently.
i australia, there is a computer repair place called "geeks to you" and the ad says "in this situation you really need a geek!! !".

yeah whatever.

i feel trodden on by a stampede of people who all want to cram into the new celebration of geeks or nerds or whatever.

they are even portrayed on tv with their glasses and buck teeth, but they are muscular and sexually attractive to the general population.

it is like that show "ugly betty" who is only "ugly" because she dresses wrong and has braces and wears nerdy glasses.
i never watched the show but i have seen the ads.

none of this new promotional fervor about nerds and geeks describes me at all and i will always remain in an isolated position (not by choice), but the label that once described me is now is used by mainstream people who have crafted their image to fit a newly developed desirability that has nothing to do with me.

i am nameless if my identity that NT's used to be able to use to classify me is stolen and used for popular demand.

I self diagnosed but only because my mom noticed before I did and explained that many of my problems were likely ASD traits.

So you can't call me a spoiled brat who wants to be seen as Aspie because it's associated with being smart. I never would have thought to self diagnose without anyone else's input.