why are self-diagnosed aspies considered "posers?"

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In the US. We don't have free health care here. You either pay for insurance or pay for it yourself or go without treatment.

My only access to health care is if I go to the emergency room and then don't pay the bill.

Last edited by hanyo on 10 Jul 2012, 7:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

Well when I was a child I did not know what autism or aspergers was......and ended up depressed because as much as I tried to live up to what was expected I was always doing it wrong, too slow, too akward ect. I typically got ostracized and picked on for the most part at school so yeah I basically grew up thinking I just generally failed at life and was only a burden to my family that could never do anything right.

Oh and my shortcomings were usually blamed on me intentionally being lazy or a number of other things when I was trying my hardest just to make it through life in general so that didn't help because than I felt guilty for things I didn't have control over.

Point being it is also dangerous to push yourself too hard or be pushed too hard.

Last edited by Sweetleaf on 10 Jul 2012, 7:59 am, edited 1 time in total.

So someone who cannot get a professional diagnosis, what should they do? Not venture into a path of understanding? Ignore who they are? What part is upsetting, that people are trying to make sense of their lives or that they are calling themselves aspies?

If you've got no mechanic and your car starts acting up you've got no choice but to jump in and see if you can fix it yourself. There is a risk you might break something but you might learn something about cars as well. My mind is like my car in that I've busted a few things in the past but I learned from my mistakes and now I have a better understanding of how things work.

I may have misunderstood but it wasn't really my intention. I mean I already knew it was a life long condition and thought my post indicated that so I was confused why you were telling me its a lifelong condition and not something one just suddenly develops. A lot of times when people point out the obvious like that they aren't doing it to be helpful so I guess I assumed you were trying to be sarcastic or something.

Look at this....it's a non-profit organisation,but your Dr will need to refer you first.

I don't know what you are referring to but I don't have a doctor to refer me.

Diagnostic Criteria for Asperger's Disorder - 299.80
The following criterion are from the 2000 Revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fourth Edition-Text (DSM IV-TR). Note: Asperger's Disorder is one of five specific Pervasive Developmental Disorders listed in the DSM IV-TR under the general heading of Pervasive Developmental Disorders.

Qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:
marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction
failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest to other people)
lack of social or emotional reciprocity
Restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities, as manifested by at least one of the following:
encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity of focus
apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals
stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g., hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements)
persistent preoccupation with parts of objects
The disturbance causes clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
There is no clinically significant general delay in language (e.g., single words used by age 2 years, communicative phrases used by age 3 years).
There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or in the development of age-appropriate self-help skills, adaptive behavior (other than in social interaction), and curiosity about the environment in childhood.
Criteria are not met for another specific Pervasive Developmental Disorder or Schizophrenia


As you see you need someone to tell a Clinician what you were like as a child, therefore self-diagnosis is crazy.

Are you saying that people cannot remember what they were like as children?
What about professionally diagnosed people whose parents were unavailable to give an account of what they were like as children, are their diagnoses invalid?

I have read the diagnostic criteria for both AS and Autism and I have always had a lot of symptoms of both. But even so I never said I was 100% sure. I said it seemed to fit based on what I have read and how I was as a child and still am in a lot of ways and that a therapist I was going to agreed. If I go and get an official diagnoses and they find something else fits better great, its not like I am sentimental about having autism or aspergers specifically so I don't really care what they diagnose me with unless it really seems way off then I may try and get a second opinion from other professionals for instance.

I can remember a lot of my childhood and I have talked to family members about how I was as a kid, I am not totally oblivious to myself. And I am still confused why you keep telling me things I've already explained I know.

Last edited by Sweetleaf on 10 Jul 2012, 8:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

Yes !

You did not observe yourself and therefore that's no use to the assessor. My mum was interviewed and I found out what she had told them, I was shocked when I read what I was like, and unless you can provide the assessor with someone like your mother/father, sister/brother then the diagnosis isn't watertight.
A close family friend that knew you as a child would also be ok.

I asked my mother what I was like and it pretty much fit exactly what I remember.

You really think that people's memory of their childhood gets wiped out once they reach adulthood? That they can't remember whether or not they had friends, whether they were intensely focused on a single area of interest, and so forth?
Not everyone is totally lacking in self-awareness.

So if your not shocked as to how people describe you as a child you can't possibly have autism? come on now some people can remember quite a lot of their childhood and observations other people made about them. Of course having a family member who can explain some of that to a mental health professional is helpful but it shouldn't be a requirement.

Ones personal experiances should also be taken into account.

I don't really have anyone like that except my mother and when I ask her a lot of things about my childhood she says she doesn't remember.

All I have are my memories and a couple of report cards from first and second grade that have comments that make it sound like I could be autistic.

When I was in school they knew there was something wrong with me but they never figured out what, not even when I had to do a 30 day evaluation.

The pre-requisties of the diagnosis involves interviewing family members..it's not my opinion. This can't be too difficult surely?

My parents didn't have friends. Some peoples parents aren't around any more or they don't get along with them or like me they just don't talk about that kind of stuff.