Terrified that an assessment will reveal that I'm "normal".

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Where does "Abbie Normal" fit on the spectrum? Hehe.

I have the same fear. I have my final assessment day in less than a month, and I keep thinking the psychologist is going to tell me that the only thing wrong with me is that I'm a lazy, selfish liar. I keep going back and forth between thinking, I must have it, and, What if I'm just lying? I know that it's highly unlikely that I'm lying, and even if my problem isn't AS it is probably some other mental disorder, but I still keep obsessing about it. And I've still got to wait a month and a half before I really know

You know what would be interesting to see... a breakdown of how many people are diagnosed with ANY mental illness of any kind. Then see if mental illness still doesn't outnumber the people who are totally "clean".

Of course, it's an impossible thing to look into, since A. you'd have to forcefully assess and diagnose everyone. B. You have to find a way to take out comorbid situations. And I would like to see these people diagnosed objectively, not with the idea to sell them pills.

I for one think that over half of the global population (I'm quite sure even 75% isn't weird to expect here) has at least something going on that is mentioned in the DSM V. And that makes the notion of "normal" moot in any possible way.

That's exactly what I think too.

Of course, as you seem to allude to, it doesn't necessarily apply to the individual, but it is a general idea.

Having a neurological disorder in particular tends to remove the notion of responsibility for improvement in areas that may not be a result of the difference in wiring, as they are the individual, while mental illnesses and various other diagnoses or lifestyle choices are perceived as the individual's choice/fault. For example, ADHD is over-diagnosed because those with it can claim that they aren't lazy, and have difficulty working with what does not interest them etc.

It's the same reason the seriousness of mental disability is dismissed readily relative to physical disability, because the physical disability is perceived to be out of the individual's control whilst mental is presumed to be an inability to cope with the world, until it becomes neurological (which is essentially physical).

OCD is thrown around as a joke, until those that do this actually explore the disorder. It's horrible to have, and much more than a few obsessions or compulsions here and there. Most cases of self-diagnosed OCD I come across trivialize the disorder - an analogy would be an introvert diagnosing themselves autistic.

Well there is no Autism bacteria that can be identified in the lab. There is no x-ray test or CT-Scan that can show autism. So, there will always be room for ambiguity and differences of opinions, interpretations and definitions.

I remember when my psychiatrist wrote down a preliminary diagnoses of Autism Spectrum Disorder - Level 1 - His words were, "We'll do a more thorough investigation later. But in the mean time, Try it on and see if it fits." I guess that is the issue to me. Does the diagnoses make sense? Of course for me there is a lot of psychological benefit to having a full professional diagnoses - but unless one is either profoundly classic autistic or a living Asperger's stereotype like the character in the movie "Adam" - even with a full professional diagnoses - there is still room to doubt it. But objectively speaking, does one fit the diagnostic criteria? It's nice to have it from a pro. - But even then one has to still deal with that question, "When you tried it on did it fit?"