Question for the self-diagnosed.

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You know, as I read the thread (skim the thread), I can't help but ask myself,

What's up with the weird ideas about medical insurance and discrimination?

Ok, so I understand that some jobs require the boss to look at the medical record before hiring, and some jobs carry their own insurance policies, yes. But my psychologist who diagnosed me didn't report the results to insurance. Insurance paid for it, but they don't necessarily have to know every detail. She said I was free to share it if I wanted.

So far, I've shared it with a doctor, and with my school. However, it's kept confidential. It's the law. Even if insurance knows, they can't release my records to just anyone, and I don't have to report every single illness I have on a record to anyone.

Isn't this standard privacy policy for insurance procedures? Also, if you're very concerned, many lawyers offer a free first-time consultation, where one could check how wise it would be to get diagnosed and disclose.

But, my understanding, is no one is forced to disclose. And, no one is forced to get therapy. If it offers you peace of mind, clarity, and potential solutions, then go for it and don't let catastrophizing hold you back.

Just my two cents. Correct me if I'm wrong - I'm young with no real experience.

What country do you reside in? It may vary from place to place.

"'merica."

No, really. I am from the U.S.

I knew I was different growing up in the 60s and 70s England. I saw the rain man in 1988 and understood it was Autism. I have some mind feats to do with objects and time.

To tell the truth I don’t trust the so called experts when it comes to autism. I had a terrible time with the Doctors putting my behaviour down to being deaf in my left ear as a child. According to them that’s why I couldn’t talk. All the rocking backwards and forward and biting myself was down to nerves.
Nobody can give a clear cut answer to what autism really is even our days.
The real experts are the people who actually live with the condition, all an outsider can do is observe your behaviour and put a label on it...

All that ^

When you have something to lose, it's not quite so simple as if you're still at home and living off mom and dad as a 20 year old. No offense to anyone intended.

nevermind wrong thread....

Last edited by Sweetleaf on 23 Jul 2012, 10:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

Anyone?

Now I have an officiall diagnoses but all of my diagnoses who turned out correct in the end where first self diagnoses.
I wasn't allways right in the end, but I allways had a pritty good feeling about myself and what I have.

Funny, my first diagnoses I suspected about myself wasn't autism, but bipolar II. But this was just for a short time.
But then I read about autism and I was shure: I have autism.
My problem with this was that I read about LFA and Aspergers and I thought: where am I? Because I felt like being right in between the two.
First I got an Asperger-Diagnoses, but later on it was changed to HFA and since then my diagnoses is HFA.
But nowadays I believe that you could have also diagnosed me with semantic-pragmatic language disorder with sensory integration disorder and routines instead, because my social problems are minor and I don't have NVLD. On the AQ I have 32 points, so I'm considered as lightly autistic, but because of the speech delay and development as a child as HFA and not Asperger's.

One psychiatrist diagnosed me ADHD. I recogniced that I might have some traits, but that there are more part of autism.
I didn't agree with that diagnoses. Later on I was tested again and I was toled that I don't have ADHD.

I also have some Tourette traits or even light Tourette. I asked my psychiatrist about it, she noticed some tics too, but want's me to go to an expert because of that, but we both agreed that it's not that importand.

Years after that I was thinking about bipolar II again. But that's really hard to tell. Because I first was in puberty and now I have since two years a traumatic anxiety disorder thing. It is more an anxiety disorder with OCD behaviour and traumatic symptoms and not classic PTSD. The first disorder I got help with and couldn't figure it out complitly by myself, but that's not part of my personality. But it's a lot better now and I hope most symptoms will hopefully be gone in a fiew months.
I still have maybe 30% of the anxiety disorder with OCD behaviour and traumatic symptoms. (It is hard to find a diagnostic term for that, but that's not that important.)

Once I was also suspected to have Borderline and at nearly the same time to have schizophrenia, but that was just after the traumatic insidence and I didn't talked about it. I didn't believe in that. I knew they were complitly wrong and I was right, but I think about having some schizotypal traits, McDD like. But that's mainly because of the autism. My half brother had schizophrenia. I definitly don't have schizophrenia, but after the trauma I also had paranoid like thoughts, but I still knew that it's just my fear being too strong. That's why they thought in this time something different, but afterwards I was toled it's because of the autism and I wasn't diagnosed with the other diagnoses they thought at that time.

Very strange is also that since I'm taking lithium orotate it reduced my mood swings, but I've just started last week. Maybe the mood swings are just part of the autism, we'll see.
Since a view days my mood is mixed. It is very good and a bit bad at the same time.
I look very happy and I'm active, but I still need much sleep and I've symptoms of stress and fatigue. Mixed episodes are very strange and I don't know what to think about it!? It is bipolar II or something else?

But I also have to addmit that my father was psychotherapist.

Last edited by Raziel on 23 Jul 2012, 11:34 am, edited 8 times in total.

I know the OP means this post to be non-inflammatory and is acting out of curiosity and I respect that.

But I find I'm getting sick of the other people on this forum who have an air of arrogance about them and a bit of disdain for people who are self-diagnosed. As proven in this thread there are a whole number of reasons why a person would want to not be self diagnosed (and yes! Even in England where a diagnosis is free. There's reasons other than money you know!).

My personal reasons for remaining self-diagnosed are vast. I'm embarking into a degree and profession that means an AS diagnosis might hamper what some people would consider "fitness to practice". Although I know I'm fit to practice - other people might use the diagnosis as an excuse to prevent me from joining the profession.

I also don't see a diagnosis as having any benefit to me. Theres essentially no support for me if I get diagnosed. The only support I'd get would be in education and I feel I don't need it as I've done really well without any kind of support.

I also don't want the diagnosis to limit me. I think if I got officially diagnosed (which I nearly did) I would start to limit myself and constrain myself to the diagnosis. I'd begin to not try at being more social and I'd just keep resigning to the fact I've got AS and never really improving.

so yeah I think this thread has been really useful and I hope it shows other self-diagnosis haters that people who are self-diagnosed are not lesser beings.

Exactly the same with me, after having to work hard to relate to people I came onto this site and read some of the articles especially the coping in life forums I could associate with so many of them so easily. I always suffered from the symptoms but finding out that I'm not alone in that (always thought it was just my own flaws/advantages) has changed things. Not sure if for the good/bad in the long run but I've learned a lot of coping strategies I hadn't thought of and am a lot happier in myself.

Part of me would like a diagnosis saying I'm normal (define normal) but I'm not and I never have been, I've always been me. More labels won't help (well handsome, sexy, intelligent, sex god might but otherwise not so sure)

Speech delay or superficially precocious speech may occur - you will not be diagnosed with autism if you had speech by 3yrs but there is no criteria for the moment with AS, especially for late diagnosis. There will, however, almost always be delay in emotionally and socially salient verbal communication, and a delay in the development of pragmatics - largely responsible for the ASC literalism.

1.5 years for walking is average, it does not indicate anything, if you were late walking you may have motor control issues as a comorbid but otherwise it isn't hugely significant.
With swimming there are no controls and many kids don't learn to swim early. However, it could indicate some motor control problems which may be comorbid. Lots of people aren't athletic though.

Obsessive terrors are common in ASCs and an indicator of possible sensory issues

Not every AS kid throws tantrums - meltdowns do not have to be externalised, some kids go mute, or hyperventilate, or hide away; most adults who had tantrum type meltdowns as children continue to have them in the form of outbursts or panic attacks or they go to ground, they generally have learned strategies to control the external expression to some extent,

Many people bottle up feelings but usually people with ASCs find it extremely difficult to express emotions, partly because they don't feel or recognise or understand their own more complex emotions at times but also because they may not have the expressive language to work with.

By playing outside with other kids do you mean you actively engaged in their play with them on the same level or did you feel anxious and lost or get frustrated with them?

the preferences you express are common for AS boys but also for high ability academic boys, the inability to share is definitely an AS trait though, although it can be a spoiled brat trait too.

Eye contact is not always lacking, the criteria state that it should be atypical, not non-existent, it can also be over-intense

Did you not talk in school at all or were you just very quiet? - some AS people develop selective mutism, especially in their teens.

The rest sounds pretty straight forward ASC - social awkwardness, bullying, rigid adherence to rules and rocking are classic ASC traits. The hugging thing, obsessive collecting and lining up/placing things rigidly are also common.

Yes, I agree. That's not the right thing.
Once a autism-psychiatrist sayed in an interview (I don't remember who it was) that around 80% of the people who come to him and allready think that they are on the autism-specrum, are right.
I think if it's not an expert most psychiatrist are also just 80% right or even less.

Sounds like a good place to start. Maybe more than anything, try to observe yourself now from a 3rd person perspective and reach some conclusion about yourself. Do it over a period of time though, in case researching AS is something you're obsessing over currently.

Just to clarify, I don't have anything agains people who self-diagnose and I don't doubt your abilities to diagnose yourselves. In fact, I wish I was as sure as you seem to be. But I'm not, and I'm having a really hard time, that's why I started this thread. I'm sorry if you, JoeRose, or anyone else has taken offence.

I didn't want to play with them. I don't think I was feeling anxious or anything, I just didn't want to interact with them.



I'm female. Never really been acting like a girl though. I've always had interests that girls my age thought were boring or completely uninteresting. For example, when the girls in my class started being interested in makeup and boys etc I was interested in mathematics and WWII Nazi propaganda.



I was very quiet. I seem to remember I just didn't feel like talking. I wasn't scared of people (except for when I had to give presentations etc). Sometimes I wanted to talk though, but it was as if my brain wouldn't let me open my mouth and say whatever I wanted to say. In school most people seem to think I was shy or scared of people and in high school I think people thought I didn't care about learning things. Do you know what I mean?



If the traits I just mentioned aren't "typical NT child traits" I think it's weird how my parents could be oblivious to them.

Last edited by rebbieh on 23 Jul 2012, 11:03 am, edited 2 times in total.

If AS fits then it fits - some people know regardless of diagnosis, some people need the reassurance of diagnosis, some people know they would get diagnosis and would like it but have good reasons for not getting it, and some people (not most of the people here) need a bit of a shove to accept their often obvious AS and wouldn't take anything less than formal diagnosis as proof.


People are all different, people with ASCs even more so!

This isn't a thread about whether or not to get diagnosis but about someone exploring themselves and deciding what is best for them.