the self diagnosed

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Add me to the list of self-diagnosed. My doctor thinks it is likely but I'm not going to seek a formal diagnosis. At the age of 52 it would be of zero benefit. I'm struggling to find work at the moment due to ageism. It's bad enough that employers discriminate against people with diabetes without adding a neurological order to the list of reasons why they shouldn't employ me... because once its official and an employer asks; failure to declare it could be a reason for subsequent dismissal anyway. Lose lose situation. Besides, given France's appalling record regarding autism / Asperger's, the so called professionals are still in the dark ages regarding this anyway.

I agree that you have dementia for posting such trolling type inflammatory things.

Whilst I do understand what you are saying, and it may be true in a minority of cases, that doesn't mean that the majority of people who are "self-diagnosed" fit your description.

I will be ready to bet (as I've said before on similar threads) that most people with a diagnosis were previously self-diagnosed. IOW it has to start somewhere!

Not only that, there is a bit of a difference between someone "self-diagnosing" and simply realising that they fit the traits and criteria. I think there are actually very few who boldly state that they have Asperger's without being diagnosed. Most will say they believe they have, suspect they have, might have, fit the traits etc.

There are certainly a lot of people in the world with a splash of hypochondria who read about things and decide they have it, but jumping up and down and shouting about it isn't going to do any good. They don't ruin things for real ASD people any more than the people who disproportionately represent their symptoms in any other kind of mental or physical health disorder do. People who are just looking for attention are everywhere and the best thing to do is ignore them and not give them the attention they seek. Then their "disorder" might mysteriously disappear.

I do think it's normal to be wary of people who claim they definitely have an ASD without an experienced second opinion (eg someone who has experience working with autistic adults, and not their mate/auntie/the guy in the pub). If nothing else, people who display autistic-like symptoms often aren't very self-aware and socially aware and need help from an outside observer to work through these things properly. However, in my experience this behaviour is rare, certainly enough so that it's not worth getting excited about. Perhaps there are certain areas where it's more common? However, what you are suggesting is a very different thing to what I observe most self-diagnosed ASD people doing, which is be upfront in saying they believe they probably have an ASD and have made a decision one way or the other whether to pursue professional help based on their circumstances. A lot of people here who are "self-diagnosed" are clear about being in the latter category and that they don't know for sure if they have AS, but that they feel they fit into this community and want to know more and explore the issue. Surely you can't suggest that this is a problem?

Most adults who haven't had good access to mental healthcare self-diagnose first and how long that period lasts very much depends on whether they are able to access it now. If I hadn't been lucky enough to find someone in my area who was a specialist in adult ASDs and affordable (and I was astonished to find such a person nearby - I live in an area where if you have something a bit unusual the health service doesn't have the slightest idea what to do with you) I would be stuck in the self-diagnosed camp for the forseeable future too, but that wouldn't make me a hypochondriac attention seeker.

Yeah I got that a lot as a child to.

My diagnosis actually says the following (paraphrased).

[Patient] scores somewhat high for Hypocondriasis. My conclusion after assessment is that [patient] is either a hypochondriac, or actually does suffer from various ailments.

Ooookaaaay. Way to go doc!

And even their diagnoses is not always accurate, some psychiatrists have favorite disorders they like to diagnose...also not to split hairs but if ones self diagnoses got confirmed by such a professional then wouldn't that mean their self diagnoses was as accurate as the one made by the psychiatrist?

I will however agree with a high score on an aspie quiz cannot determine if one has aspergers or not, those quizzes might help point one in the right direction sometimes but that is about it.

So... Say someone has autism (truly), but not a diagnosis, they are not actually suffering? Is it the piece of paper that causes the suffering? Or the disorder? Cause if the piece paper is what actually causes the problems, then it would seem strange that you're so proud to have it.

I mean, being that it doesn't make any sense to complain about people being self diagnosed, I'm guessing you're just having a bad day. Otherwise you're just trying to tell everyone that you're problems are more real or something? That doesn't really make sense either.

Also, you are considering the facts like, psychologists are just people who learn the symptoms of disorders and then look for them. Everyone is capable of performing this, it's not a magic trick. They get their information from the same research papers and textbooks. They don't have any secret doctor-only aspie goggles.

Also, the fact that misdiagnosis happens too...

And the whole issue of the complications to health insurance....

But you've considered all that stuff already, because if you hadn't, then this entire thread would feel a bit like a mockery. Especially when people are having real problems.

Quite often when threads like this are initiated, the OP's of such threads can tend to come across sounding as if Asperger's, Autism, or whatever you actually have, is some kind of exclusive club no one is allowed into without a pass.

That "pass" is an official diagnosis.

What I'd like to know is:

What good comes of dismissing those who haven't yet received a diagnosis?

Why did anyone get one in the first place? Didn't they have to know something wasn't quite right to begin with?

Isn't a diagnosis either a confirmation of what one already suspected, or the answer to "what's wrong with me?" And if so, wouldn't a lot of people who do suspect or ask "Why am I different?" perhaps eventually become diagnosed? And, if that is so, who are we to dismiss those who may one day actually become part of this supposedly exclusive "club?"

If you look back as some of my earliest postings here on WP, I replied to some threads very similar to this one. Some of my replies were at least a bit angry. Angry because some responders actually said, in so many words, "You aren't one of us without the DX." Period.

Say what? Really? How does that add up to the knowledge, the truth, that if one is autistic, one always HAS been?

It doesn't add up.

At the time I responded to those threads, I had no official diagnosis, and had self diagnosed. I KNEW I was on the spectrum. There was no doubt in my mind.

Well, I HAVE been diagnosed. Two years ago. It's official.

So I have this report here, and I want to know one thing:

Where's the club it'll get me into?

Never mind actually. I don't want to know. Why would I want to hang out with people who were so dismissive of me before I got this badge?

No reason at all.

I'm self diagnosed and I'm comfortable with that. When my younger son was diagnosed with Aspergers and I started reading about it, I was struck by how I fit the criteria, and also how my behaviors are maybe more pronounced than his. When my younger daughter was diagnosed with PDD-NOS, I realized that there really most likely is a genetic component here, and since my husband is definitely NT, and I really do not seem to be at ALL, that if there is that genetic component, it most likely is from me. Two of our four kids are on the spectrum and that in itself is hard to discount.

As a child, I was ostracized, I had meltdowns, I still have real issues with making eye contact, and I just seem not understand many things that most people seem to understand unconsciously. I have to have jokes explained to me. I stim. I am extremely sensitive to sound and there are plenty of times I cannot stand to have anything touch my skin. I still have almost no friends, and I'm comfortable with that as trying to socialize is overwhelming as I cannot read body language or facial expressions.

I think it may be easier for girls/women on the autism spectrum to slip through the cracks, though when I was a kid, there wasn't any real awareness about the disorder so I was just considered a very weird kid. My aspie son has a much more difficult time with things than my PDD-NOS daughter, though her symptoms are far more severe. She is social, but she is clueless and since she's very pretty and fit, this leads to many issues, but that's a different topic altogether.

Anyway, I don't see a need for a professional diagnosis. If something were to happen to my husband, I'd probably pursue one, but right now it would just be something that would be an overwhelming process with no real benefit at the end. Why anyone would actually care about this is pretty confusing to me, though. It's not like it's a wonderful thing being on the spectrum; for me, it was a relief just realizing that my weirdness had a name and a reason. Before that, I just felt defective.

..and I think we're done here.

We've all experienced various forms of nay-saying, dismissal or discrimination - even from these magical "professionals" - and there should be no place for it here.
These types of thread are argumentative and discriminatory for no useful purpose whatever, so I'm putting and end to it now.