Self diagnosed people here don't have aspergers

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If my son had not been diagnosed, I may never have known about myself. Yes I self Diagnosed. After reading about it I felt as if some one was telling my life story. Now I have the doctors blessing ain't i special

i'm sure this goes on a lot too lol i may not in fact be catching on the first time confusion arises in conversation... or it could be that i am ineffective at demonstrating the validity of a connection that i make on a topic and want to express to others...

whichever it is, i can see this kind of dancing round and round to get points across...


this is one more thing to keep tabs on ^_^

I love when people assume that, since they are diagnosed with something, they somehow gain the same expertise as someone that has had years of training and is capable of providing a diagnosis.

This also falls into the absolutely asinine notion that every person with AS will have a set of symptoms that every other person has. If anything, this kind of stupidity shows just how little the person leading the witch hunt actually knows. Sure, there will be similarities, but this "I'm like this, you aren't, I'm diagnosed, you are self-diagnosed, so you don't have it" BS reeks of children trying to have a private club, rather than what it should be, people coming together that have similar difficulties / life experiences to both help and get help.

More than that, there's this silly assumption that all doctors / psychiatrists / psychologists are equal in terms of their abilities. If you believe that, well, there's really no hope for you.

Sophist implied it costs money in the UK, but she ****DID**** speak of a place in (ahem) CAMBRIDGE where it is FREE! You LUCKED OUT!

I don't know about the UK, but psychiatrists in the US do NOT come cheap!

It really is a shame about how some people are NT or simply wierd, and latch onto AS. With me, I really do wish I could have been diagnosed earlier when it was cheaper and my symptoms were more obvious. Just today, I spoke with a colleague today. MAN does he remind me of how I used to be. TODAY, I err on a more subtle side. I guess from an AS standpoint, you could say I am mild. I have the social ineptness certainly, and sensory skewing, but only mild stims and my strengths are more subtle than some. Every now and then, I WILL go into the stereotypical tangential talk. That DOES look very AS!

I guess, in a court of law, I might have a little trouble proving I have it. That is just like angela bennett in "the net". My mother could talk about my obsessive interests, lack of willingness to do PE, lack of friends, early development, and complaints of sensory skewing though. I guess I could get someone from an old school, say 2 words and it would be like "OH YEAH, YOU'RE the one!"! But HEY, all you guys have to know is that I'm not here to claim anything like that. And I'm not a teenager anyway.

Steve

Here's what I was sent from our local univeristy's Autism center.

"An evaluation costs between $750 and $1,500 and a lot of insurance companies won't pay for an evaluation for a disorder that is a developmental disorder such as Asperger's."

That's straight from her email.

It's not so much that we "get better", as that we have to learn coping strageties. I mean, I'm 43 years old - if I hadn't learned to cope with NTs by now, I'd be dead, one way or another.

As for a formal diagnosis, why? It's not like there are any services for adult Aspies (at least in the US), or legal protections or anything. At this point, it would be little more than a psychological "vanity plate", a piece of paper to point at when people complain about my symptoms.

It does. And one reason that this is a problem in this community in particular is that a lot of us lack the social experience that most people get as children. And some of that social experience is a learning experience in how not to do that sort of stuff. So a lot of us are making the same social mistakes as adults that most people get out of their system much earlier just from much more social exposure in general.

anbuend,

Social exposure and experience only helps the autistic individual so much though. The amount of experience gained depends on the severity of their disorder and the "severity" of the social environment obviously. I had plenty of social experience as a child/teenager…it didn’t do anything for me other than harden my mental state. This hardened state is completely counter productive to my already limited ability to reciprocate and overtly show empathy when I automatically assume everyone is a jerk wearing a cloak of lies due to how I was treated…. It made me withdraw even further into my shell.

Why are some people so anxious to diagnose their children? All you're doing is limiting their future career choices..

Danielismyname: I mean the sort of social experiences that come from having, among other things, the possibility of being in an in-group, for instance. Most autistic people have not much experienced that side of social dynamics at all, whereas most non-autistic people do experience it from an early age and get the chance to learn from it. There are a number of very specific experiences that most people have that go beyond exposure to being around people (and go into various roles the person might be in with respect to those other people, that in childhood autistic people are usually not part of), that autistic people in general don't have, or at least don't have young. Many of the difficulties I've seen in autistic communities have stemmed from people who've never been in a particular position before, suddenly being in that position, not noticing what it is, and making all the mistakes that most people make as young kids and then stop making.

And I don't mean things like "missing social cues", I'm talking about roles that autistic people can play out just as well as non-autistic people can, but have much less experience with.

This includes things like:

* Being part of a group that can exclude others (and being someone who can try to make or influence those decisions).
* Having a position of (relative) power in a social group
* Having a leadership role or being looked up to
* Being part of a group where you're not the lone outsider, freak, person who doesn't belong there, etc.

Often what I see is autistic people not noticing those things are happening to them, and thus not noticing when they are, say, excluding people unfairly or cliqueishly, exercising power in unwise ways, participating in assorted forms of absolutely bog-standard group dynamics, etc. And then sometimes even denying that they are doing these things (because they don't know what it feels like to do them, and assume it must feel different than it feels, like that it must feel like "being a mean person" instead of like "a natural thing to do that feels right right now"). These are not things most of us have a lot of practice at no matter how much other kinds of social exposure we've had, and the lack of practice shows up a great deal when we finally get a chance to be put in these positions.

anbuend,

Thanks for the reply, and reading the reply really confirms to me how certain individuals would have been -- would be better off if they were to school and socialize in an environment that won't harm them mentally (and physically), with individuals like themselves and with teaching that will accentuate the positives of their disorder; rather than exacerbate the symptoms. The symptoms that mainstream society and schooling will never fully understand – not by any fault of their own.

I think most of us get by by using our intellect as a crutch in situations that we've never experienced before, for good or bad...it's all we really have...and it might be all we'll ever have.

That's very true, it does seem like many - especially self-diagnosed I have noticed - are going around AS forums declaring nigh-on anyone who's a bit of a loner or has a slightly alternative outlook on life as an Aspie. Not just that, everyone they see in the street who acts a bit out of the ordinary is of course declared Aspie too, plus lots and lots of famous people who are a little quirky.

So it's no wonder people for are new to such forums never really grasp what AS actually is, because they are fed this watered down "if you've got a mind of your own and feel a bit like you don't fit in, then you are one of us" rubbish fed to them on these forums.

i don't trust any doctors, psychiatrists or other,
now studying literature myself and realize you can have half of it wrong and still pass,
can you imagine that a psychiatrists can say a lot of rubbish and still be 'qualified'.

i don't say any doctor is not to trust but you have to look really hard before finding someone who is accurate enough to give you good advice.
don't know why i should put all my time in that, what is a diagnosis worth?
What are the advantages of having a diagnosis?
i know pretty well i have asperger's, it's too clear!

Asperger's syndrom is not some kind of label, there are 'issues' that go with it.
i'v been looking my whole life what was so strange about me, not able to have a job until i learned to understand at least a few very basic rules of society. (which i just didn't grasp for so long apparently) Having unexpanable relation-issues, etc
So even if I wouldn't be 'labeled' as an Aspie, I'd still come here and only have clues from people who are here at WrongPlanet cause here I tend to find the only people I can relate to, whether they have CucumberForEver's syndrom, WeirdTomato's syndrom, or AlwaysEatingSoup's syndrom, I couldn't care less
And all the things that apply to Asperger do apply to me, it's the only way I could possibly understand myself and my life,

(a friend of mine who i appreciate a lot, is a doctor(a regular one but not practising, she writes articles), although i can talk with her about a lot of things, she is very interesting and intelligent but considers 'asperger's syndrom' like some kind of fashion-hype.

An interesting point has been raised in the first post here. (I do not believe it is an entirely correct one...)

I wouldn't go so far as to cut out all self-dx aspies.

Ok
I was recently diagnosed by my psychiatrist and I can honestly say I never for one minute considered myself to be aspie. Aspies are geeks , superclever and well read and educated. I'm none of those things so despite the fact I can't deal with people , am hypersensitive to light and noise and movement , despite the fact that I cant stop doing repetative movements , have no balance or depth perception , poor short term memory , no coping skills a stupid adiction to tables and charts and lists and can be single minded on one small thing . It really wouldn't have occured to me one bit if the psych hadn't mentioned it first. I'm still haveing a hard time comeing to grips with the idea , however it has had it's benifits because since I've been on this forum and read so many posts about the little things that people do I can see that I do have features in common with aspies . I also understand better now why my life is such a mess , I hate going out because of the noise and the lights and the people , it all makes me dizzy , gives me migraines and makes me panic . This could be an aspie thing . I am phobic about traffic , I loathe crossing roads or being near to them because i cant judge speed and distance another thing that appears to be aspie . I feel insecure at work because I am never quite sure what I'm being asked to do , I usually need clarification and I feel self conscious that they think I am stupid because I need to check things , just to make sure because I hate to make mistakes , again highly possible this is an aspie thing.
So you see being officially diagnosed has had its benifits I think because maybe after 34 years of being confused and wondering why I can't get along with people, or follow seemingly simple instructions , maybe I can now understand WHy these things are difficult for me , also I can now understand why I can't tell what people mean it seems I don't understand facial signals well , this is apparantly an aspie thing along with the inability to easily recognise people I know or have met before , which is truly annoying as I apparantly come across as rude . Again now I know why.
So those people here who are undiagnosed and are having problems in life , may well benifit from knowing whats wrong with them , simply because it can help you understand why you are the way you are.

bb natty

Hear Hear! Lemon.