"Self diagnosis" trends...source of ridicule

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Many reasons. When this all started (the 'project' I'm involved in) there was a massive call out for Autistcs of all levels of the spectrum of all genders and ages to participate. The number of people who came forward who were self-diagnosed as Aspergers far outweighed the people who turned up who did have a diagnosis for AS. And there were NO people who came forward claiming self-diagnosis for any other ASDs, this is a phenomenon specific to Aspergers. Some research was done on this. It was found that not only do people massively self-diagnose this condition, but they seek medical attention and benefits as if they HAVE sought professional advice. They join AS support groups, or HFA support groups (one of which I run) and tell their stories (often to parents of children with AS who are looking for hope). I have actually seen someone come to an AS support group with an 'idea' of what AS should look like, when they came to the group and saw that nobody was like that, she came back the next week with the 'appropriate' behaviors that the diagnosed AS people exhibited, just like magic. I have seen over and over people that have self-diagnosed and then try to get the real thing by faking their way psychiatric evaluation, sometimes it works and false information is entered into the system which doesn't help anyone or anything. It has become obvious that people desire to be labeled as having Asperger's knowing this now, it is hard to tell how much of the data that has been accumulated (more specifically when it comes to Adult patients) what is factual and what is the product of someones desires. People with AS are a minority that have special needs, but all this self-diagnosis is detracting from that, and AS is becoming more of a 'popular' 'majority' thing, which requires no special circumstances. People who are self-diagnosed can shout just as loudly about their condition, if not louder than people that are actually affected, but when people look at them they do not see any of the crippling symptoms that actuall AS sufferers have to endure, therefore AS is seen to be a lot less tolerable to live with than it actually is. Alot of these people, the 'fakers' have taken part in AS studies in the past, information has come about from that which is now considered to be unreliable because of the realisation that many participants were self-diagnosed and many most likely didn't have the condition. People who are self-diagnosed often forget that they might be wrong about their conclusions and offer people advice that works for them (and whatever condition they actually DO have) and then when the actual AS sufferer takes this advice, it can be detrimental, though, in all honestly, this can happen between to diagnosed people as well, but it seems worse that self-diagnoses people would put this upon others when they do not know that what is working for them is working for AS or something else they have. And I could go on and on and on, but I think that's enough for now, happy to elaborate if you need.

OK thanks-I have some things to say but I've got to mull over it a bit.

A big fat "HUH?" My agenda? I don't have an agenda! Someone asked my how self-diagnosis hinders advancements in AS, and I answered the question. These answers only partly come from my personal experience, most of it is information I have learned from work. My answer to this question had NOTHING to do with you or anyone on this forum, if you chose to take it personally, that is your error, not mine. You can not challenge my information because it is not mine, it is the facts that have been gathered. But it has nothing to do with you, I do not care about what you do or how you pay for anything.

Your first post lest we forget:

I suppose I should confess, I did not write that post. (Edit: To clarify, it was written by a 16 year old, one of the people who bought this forum to my attention, this is actually his account that he made).

ShogunSalute wrote

Nothing relating to what I am involved in has been published yet, we are just in the early stages and haven't even finshed primary interviews yet. But I'm sure you could find information on something similar somewhere online, there's this thing called 'google', you should check it out, it's good for finding things. I will also ask one of my bosses if there's anything on the net or print relating to this for you if you are interested and let you know. But if you are not interested and just trying to make me look the fool by asking me to provide links to something, then when I can not, you jump up and call me a liar, let me know because I will not bother asking for this information for you.

Well I did say something similar at first (I more explained about the AS diagnosis being quite new and alot of people here would be quite old and have missed the boat for a proper diagnosis), and I think he tried a few more times to post, then I was told to see for myself, and I did, and, well, all this happened.