"Self diagnosis" trends...source of ridicule

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That's strange, I came to this site self diagnosed and found some iconoclasts that worshipped the gods of psychology and rejected those of us that were bright enough to figure it out, but I found a welcoming group of older self diagnosed that understood exactly what I knew because through their children that were DXed or through their own research also realized their condition. Later, when I was actually diagnosed by modern medical science, it was actually a anti-climax, because it only confirmed what I already knew.

sorry you have found toxicity, outlier.

I have not experienced this here because I am not self-diagnosed. However, I know those who have and there are threads such as this.

this is such an excellent point I had to quote it.

Aspies need a professional to dx them about as much as a GLBT person needs one to tell them what they are.

I also came to this site on the suspicion I might have AS after finding out I have an AS brother. I became quite convinced that I had AS before I was dx'd, but I haven't encountered much of what I'd call hostility or toxicity toward the self-diagnosed. in fact, I'd say there is far less of that here than I encounter most days in the physical world.

to abandon logic and forget to listen is a common human failing. I see people here apologize more quickly and more sincerely than I do in the real world.

of course there are loudmouth bastards who have to be right all the time, but they don't tend to bother me now that my self-awareness has developed enough that I realize I'm not responsible for their bad attitude. I saw much, much worse in a cult recovery forum and used the opportunity to develop critical thinking skills that had languished during my time in the cult.

ShogunSalute, you actually were kind of offensive. you weren't completely logical at all times. you made generalizations that people questioned. frankly I find your solution to the debate somewhat passive-aggressive in appearance: you're running away and blocking the site because you will not risk any of the spectrum kids you know accessing this page and being bullied because they do not understand how to conform to our high standards. seriously? there will always be several camps on the dx issue because people tend to have different opinions. those who have easy access to dx and services will think everyone should be required to have a dx to say they have AS and they'll erroneously assume that it should be easy for everyone because it was for them, and those who don't have access to dx and services will resent being told they're illegitimate and shouldn't be around.

personally I think it would be better to use it as a learning experience for your kids to teach them that we're not all the same. you can't protect them from other people's opinions if they're going to cling to the unrealistic ideal that no one is legit until a properly credentialed professional diagnoses them.

a side not, since this is bothering me: I also take issue to the comparisons of alcoholism/pregnancy/AS, for the following reasons:

there are life-threatening conditions that can fake pregnancy, including brain tumors. during the first trimester, self-diagnosing pregnancy can cause serious conditions to be overlooked. I wouldn't say people are safer to self-diagnose pregnancy than AS.

there are probably more erroneously self-diagnosed alcoholics than any other condition, and to me this seems dangerous to a degree that far exceeds any possible danger to or from the likely very low number of erroneously self-diagnosed AS. the AA crede is to take any and all without taking any heed to diagnostic criteria. you're an alcoholic if you feel like you are. I believe this leads to many people not getting mental health assessments that they need, being led astray into self-defeating performance expectations, a sense of failure if they resort to self-medication through alcohol, and a real risk of suicide. it's probably all well and good for the real alcoholics, but unlike WP I think AA and similar programs have far too high a percentage of people who are not actually actually alcoholic and are being harmed by inappropriate treatment.

bhetti wrote:

My sister in law, who is a nurse practitioner and the child of an alcoholic said to me once she didn't think I was truly an alcoholic and my problem was more OCD related. This was after I got sober, and I figured either way I knew I couldn't drink anymore. But you are probably right. AA is a wonderful organization but did not give me what I personally needed which was rehab and behavior mod.

I completely disagree with this. AS is a nuerological condition which is in the DSM, whereas different sexualities are not. Beyond that, being a GLBT person is a personal thing; there's no set of "symptoms" because it's not a disorder.

I have no problem with self-dxing to begin with. I did the same thing; self dxed for a few years before my physcologist officially diagnosed me. Not all professionals understand it, some won't point it out, and some hold on to standards that aren't widely accepted anymore. That being said, there are professionals who do understand it.

What I don't understand is why someone who can pursue a diagnosis would not. As human beings, we're completely subjective in our views of ourselves, and quite often miss the mark. Contrary to popular belief, we're not the best judges of ourselves, and we can miss and/or overexaggerate things to fit what we want. If you have no plans of ever telling anyone, ok, that's your choice, but if you plan to identify as having AS, why not actually check? I kind of look at it like if you were blind and you thought your eyes were blue, wouldn't you ask someone else first to make sure your eyes aren't actually green?

Please note, I had only said this:



... and I was not meaning to imply self-diagnosis is always accurate and/or safe.

I got that, and your point is valid IMO. I think it was what you were replying to that gave me the negative feelings toward the generalization and comparison of the three conditions:

... because AS does have noticeable physical attributes, which people with AS can learn to mask much as good alcoholics learn to mask theirs, and things that aren't pregnancy can cause the symptoms of pregnancy. so yes, any of these things can be self-diagnosed if one has all the facts, and the ability to rule out other conditions that may cause the same set of "attributes". alcoholism is going to have a lot of false self-diagnosis positives as well as a lot of false negatives, to a much greater degree than AS or pregnancy.

the larger problem is the false negatives in diagnosing AS that come from unqualified medical professionals, not from individuals who don't have access to qualified professionals.

I'm self-diagnosed, but only after years of trying to convince myself that I didn't have it. Now that I'm certain I don't tell anyone.

I am self diagnosed, but I did not jump to any conclusion about myself until I had done quite a bit
of research and made some very difficult inquiries among my family about my past behavior and other issues.
I was evaluated at least a dozen times in my childhood years because of many developmental issues
I was having, delayed speech, motor coordination problems, social problems and meltdowns.
Autism back in the 60s and 70s had a very narrow diagnostic criteria, as opposed to today where it
is now called a "spectrum disorder" that includes ADHD, OCD, Asperger's, Sensory Integration Disorder,
Rett's Syndrome(among girls), Fragile X, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder (Not otherwise specified).

For more of my personal story click my blog button.

I believe I am "twice exceptional".

Outside of this site, I've only mentioned AS as a possibility to my mom, but other people have mentioned the idea to me and I overheard one person (a teacher, although not a teacher of mine) who I know has experience with AS mention to another person that she thought I was "autistic" and when she realized that I did hear her she added "but very high-functioning".

I think I was a very odd child. I taught myself to read before entering school and by the time I finished elementary school I could read college-level books. I was tested for the gifted program in elementary school in 1993. During my evaluation(which I still have a copy of) they made notes that I was exceptionally smart but that I needed to be encouraged to talk to the other students, that I would rather write than talk.

I remember being in the gifted class and finding out that the people there didn't like me, when I had no idea that they didn't like me. Throughout the time that I was in school, many other students would say that I was crazy.

I do have obsessions, and in particular one obsession. Last year I talked to someone I hadn't talked to for nine years, and immediately after greeting me she asked me if I still liked this one very specific obsession(I do). And at a job fair I saw another person I hadn't seen in over ten years, and he said his name, introduced himself to me, and then said that particular obsession to me, as a question.

I also take things very literally in ways that are sometimes very funny. I've posted about that before.

When I found this site I wasn't looking for information about AS. In fact I hadn't heard about AS. I had been searching for other people who would describe similar sensory issues to my own(I had never heard about sensory processing disorder). I had developed severe social phobia and hadn't been very social outside of the internet. I had known that I was different but since I could avoid people and didn't really try to focus on being social I hadn't ever searched Google for any information about it.

While searching with Google I remember seeing a result from this site that said "our obsessions", and that immediately got my attention because of my own obsessions.

The combination of obsessions, lack of social understanding, and sensory issues made me think AS is very likely. I don't know of any relatives diagnosed with AS, but I do have paternal relatives diagnosed with ADHD, ADD, and schizophrenia, and one maternal relative who I strongly suspect AS(57 years old) and one who I strongly suspect was LFA(who is now dead but who has been described in ways that are consistent with LFA). Certain things like all-encompassing obsessions are very noticeable in other family members.

I read this site for almost two years and listed my diagnosis status as "Not sure if I have it or not". Although I was absolutely sure I have sensory processing disorder and strongly suspect inattentive ADHD I wasn't sure enough to change it to reflect that supposition. I didn't want to say something incorrect.

I have written so many replies here and then not submitted them because I wasn't 100% sure, but a few months ago I realized that I was sure enough to post, and decided that I need to get either confirmation or denial by a psychologist(or even better a neuropsychologist who can perform an fMRI). I don't have enough money available to get evaluated now, but I hope to have the money next year.

I think the whole issue is one of arrogance.

I've grown up on the internet, and I've seen a crapload of 'witch hunts' against people thought to be 'fakers', either 'faking/self diagnosing' autism or some other disorder. This usually happens when the accused person is going through a life crisis of some sort. The person rants about their troubles, mentions autism as something that may be a part of it, and BOOM! The whole forum explodes.

They'll say stuff like, 'but you can type and talk on a forum, you can't be autistic' or 'A
REAL autistic person wouldn't mention it so casually!! !'.

Really, the only reason why that stuff happens is because of attention. The accused person has a legitimate reason or factor for their troubles, the flamers don't. From what I've observed, said flamer tends to be an 'internet tough guy' who needs to fill an emotional void by blasting uncertainty about their own problems to everyone else.

It's the internet, I wouldn't worry about it. As for idiots copying that attitude into real time, it'll fade when autism isn't on the hot topic list anymore.

Things'll get better everyone, don't worry.

How much does AS evaluation diagnosis cost?

I frankly stopped caring about whether I truly "have it" or not. You could probably argue either way. So while my status says "Don't Know If I Have It or Not," perhaps it should say "Don't Care If I Have It or Not."

Personally, I think those who feel strongly enough about it should seek diagnosis, and those who do not should more or less keep it to themselves. It is clearly not the act of a totally sane and rational person to try to claim benefits or join studies for conditions with which one has not actually been formally diagnosed. People who would do that definitely have problems, and yes, it seems likely that those problems are quite different from AS.

That said, it is a leap of logic to go from "Some people self-diagnosis incorrectly and then cause problems" to "All people who self-diagnosis do so incorrectly and then cause problems". It's roughly equivalent to me saying, "Hello, I'm from the US" and you responding, "You most certainly are not, and you give all people from the US a bad name!". Unless you had some kind of evidence particularly about me to justify that kind of a response, it seems fully reasonable that I would object and try to argue. You do have that kind of evidence about those who self-diagnosed and then tried to sign up for your study and were found not to qualify; You do not about anyone on WP. This is exactly why people object and try to argue with you and others who make similar statements. It's only natural. If someone came onto a board that was strictly for the diagnosed and declared that all people with ASDs did x y and z negative things you would most likely object as well (and no doubt you do, as people actually do that kind of thing).

I do not have a diagnosis, and do not claim to have AS or any other ASD. I undeniably have the traits, but no label would change that, and I don't see it as likely that others would treat me differently were I to have the label. I once tried to get help (and I would note at this point I'd not even heard of AS) and ended up being put on drugs that made me feel like I might as well be dead. I tried to tell someone that this was making things worse, and they did not believe me. I nearly ended up killing myself because I was not capable of forcing the point that this drug was doing bad things to me and I should not be on it. I finally took myself off it and have not been to see a health professional about my mental state since. I am not interested in repeating that experience. I would not, however, begrudge others the right to take their own path toward finding answers for themselves, and for many people that does involve self-diagnosis followed by the long and painful path down the real diagnosis process. If that's for them, then that is not my concern.