Self-diagnosis

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It isn't silly. It's quite the opposite:

Did you have visual impairments prior to diagnosis? Of course.

But could you as an individual declare those impairments to be (for example) 'neovascular AMD'?

Of course you couldn't.

As you didn't undergo the diagnostic process.



Could someone prior to an autism diagnosis have (for example) sensory difficulties? Of course.

But it isn't specifically autism until is it specifically diagnosed as such.



Just as you couldn't specifically declare you had (for example) neovascular AMD until you were diagnosed as having it.

That's what I was wondering. How?

Though I guess, you may already be seeing a professional for 'issues' and then be given the diagnosis.

But for many that aren't already seeing a professional, I don't see an alternative to self-diagnosis. Without believing that I had autism I wouldn't be going to the doctor saying "I think I have autism, how do I go through the diagnosis process?".

It's frivolous to waste the time of the professionals without first doing your research, and nobody should be going to the professionals and just saying "Diagnose me with something! I have no reason to believe that anything's wrong, I've not looked into what might be wrong, I just want to be diagnosed with whatever you can give me as a label."

Perhaps I'm missing something, but I would find it very unusual for someone to go and seek diagnosis for a condition that they don't believe they have or don't understand at all.

You have a point ZB and I respect it. But also take into consideration that you were diagnosed as a child. When I was a child I did not know own psychology. I could not understand or self analyze or self evaluate my symptoms. But after nearly 50 years, I understand my traits symptoms very well and I can very accurately self analyze and recognize myself when I do research. I can understand what applies to me and what does not. Like I mentioned in a post before, I did miss some things but the things that I got were 100% accurate. And they were more than enough for me to understand that this condition explained my life to a T. I could also look at the symptoms and traits of many other conditions and see that they were not a match. And the things that I did miss only confirmed it further instead of being things that would cast doubt. So it makes sense that young child might not be able to be that self aware but when you have been living with these huge impairments for almost 50 years, you know what they are.

Last edited by skibum on 05 Jun 2016, 5:36 pm, edited 2 times in total.

After three infuriating Captchas, I present to you a post:

I don't think you realise it, but you're continually saying two different things. You agree that I had visual impairments before I was diagnosed with them. You accurately state that I couldn't objectively claim that I had those impairments before diagnosis (not like I could anyway, since I was a baby, but that's beside the point). However, below that you then say that someone's sensory issues literally aren't related to autism until diagnosed as such. That's simply not true. If they were related to autism, then they were always related to autism. Likewise, if they're not related to autism, then they never were. The diagnosis doesn't actually change that.

No I didn't. You're misquoting me.

I said you couldn't specifically declare them as a specific type of visual impairment.

Can you state you have a visual impairment? Of course.

Can you diagnose specifically what that impairment is? Of course not.


I'm not addressing the rest of your post as it is based on a claim I didn't make.


I don't think you realise it, but I'm saying one thing. You're simply confusing the logic.

I think that the whole premise of what you are saying is that people can't actively declare and claim with certainty that they have something if they have not been diagnosed. That is true, people should not do that. But what I don't understand is why you think that so many people do that. Yeah, I am sure that there are some but you seem to think that every single person who is self diagnosed is doing that. That is just not true. Every single person who is self diagnosed is not out there actively advocating and "representing" the Autistic community. I don't know any self diagnosed person who is doing that. And you can't claim that there are tons of people doing that here on WP because you don't know if they are diagnosed or not unless they tell you.

I have never met a person who is not officially diagnosed who is actively out there advocating and representing the community who does not say that they are not diagnosed. If they are advocating at all, they are honest about the fact that they do not have an official diagnosis. There may be some people who say it and claim it without a diagnosis but they are not the majority. You are saying it like every single person out there who is self diagnosed is touting and claiming it and advocating without being honest about their diagnostic status. If someone says to me, "I believe I am Autistic but I have not been diagnosed but I am pretty sure I am," I can completely respect that.

Last edited by skibum on 05 Jun 2016, 5:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Advocacy for autism could be performed by non-autistic people, anyway.

Some of what autistic people go through is endured by non-autistic people, too.

I should have pointed out that I do understand what you're saying and I agree, but it's not always coming across the way you intend, due to your wording.

Last edited by Grahzmann on 05 Jun 2016, 5:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

You have said more than one thing. You have spoken about a couple of different concepts.

Wondering if you have autism or not is not a self diagnoses. I don't think anyone would be seeing a doctor if they don't think they have a problem. Also I think people who do go to a doctor because they have having issues with anxiety or because their problems seem to follow them everywhere no matter what job they go to is a sign of self awareness because I wonder how many people would go to a doctor and think they have a problem just because they are always stressed out or because everyone around them is an "a**hole." Some people are not even aware of their own issues so they don't even go see someone so therefore they never get diagnosed with anything.


I guess where I come from is my mother has always taken me to doctors but she was never looking for a label. She was trying to figure out how to help me and figure out how my brain works. If any doctor suspected anything in me, I was sent to get tested for it. If my school tried to say I had this problem, my mom would take me to a professional to get a professional opinion. When she didn't know what to do with me, she took me to another psychologist but she wasn't looking for any labels. So to come online and see people think they have a condition and then go to a doctor and bring it up, it's foreign to me. I get that people who grew up different, they always want to understand why and want an explanation so they come across a condition they feel that fits them, then they will do deep research about it to understand more about it and then they have ah ha moments when they read posts online by other aspies and relate to them. I think it's pretty normal to want an explanation for why you're different and why kids always found you weird and why you were always rejected and why you had other negative labels from your peers. But it's now always autism because there are many labels out there that share the same symptoms.

Yes.

I'm saying declaring oneself as autistic ('self-diagnosed' or otherwise) without a diagnosis is simply wrong.


Agreed.


I agree it is just not true.

Quote me where I said 'every single person who is self-diagnosed is doing that'.


I'll give you one specific example, and they have posted in this very thread: AspieUtah.

Who, according to his status, is now officially diagnosed.



This is missing the point.

The point is: someone visiting this site may think they are reading the opinions/views of autistics when they actually aren't reading the opinions/views of autistics.

Someone visiting this site likely wouldn't visit each individual's profile to see whether they are diagnosed or not.




Unlike you, I'd completely dismiss it.

But only if they said 'pretty sure'.

If they said 'I suspect', I'd be OK with it.

I'm self-diagnosed and there's nothing any of you haters can do about it.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

League Girl, I grew up the exact opposite of you and, in fact, my father is a doctor and my mother was a nurse. Whenever I had a complaint that was an Autistic or Misophonic trait or symptom, I was told that there was nothing wrong with me and was even called a hypochondriac. I was just punished for what was just thought of as "bad behavior." And at school, no teacher ever looked for a reason for my issues. They just said I was under achieving or misbehaving or whatever. But eventually I started to really become impaired as my life started to change as I matured, but I had no idea why because no one ever acknowledged any of it. Fortunately for me, someone recognized the traits and symptoms in me and told me that I was Autistic. At the time, I knew nothing about Autism. I then did intensive research for 18 months, recognized that this was what I was going through, Autism and Misophonia, and eventually got a diagnosis.

I'm not a hater.

But I do think your opinion on your 'autism' is baseless, worthless, and has no authority or objectivity whatsoever.


You are not officially diagnosed. Therefore your opinion is not that of an autistic.


The above sentence is objective. But you likely won't read it as such.

A whole lot of people who are now diagnosed where at one time self-diagnosed. In their case, the self-diagnosis was accurate and helpful.

Conversely, there are people who were evaluated and not diagnosed who were also previously self-diagnosed. In their case, the self-diagnosis was leading them away from real solutions to whatever their challenges were.

That's the danger of self-diagnosis. It's like convicting the wrong person for a crime; it might feel good to have someone in jail, but the true culprit is still out there causing problems.

Ok, fair enough. You did not say every single person but that is the impression I got. Sorry for misquoting you.


You should give people more credit. Hundreds of people visit this site and are not damaged or grossly misinformed because self diagnosed people post here. I was one of those people. Aspie Utah never posted anything as a pre officially diagnosed person that ever steered me wrong or damaged me in any way. There are many people that post here and many people say all kinds of things. This is an internet forum. That is how it works. This is not a medical journal where everything everyone says will be 100% accurate. People have to be intelligent enough to be able to read posts and make good decisions about them. This is a support forum, not one where you can be guaranteed that everything people post will be medically sound. As a person who first came here not knowing much of anything about Autism and not having been diagnosed, I was never damaged by information that people posted here about Autism even if they were not 100% correct. But I can say this for sure, if I were in that position now and I had read your posts, they would have affected me in a very negative way.