Does it count if my parents diagnosed me?

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My parents have a paper of my old diagnosis from professionals. It said that when I was a child I was first diagnosed ADHD, but then I get PDD-NOS. Fast forward about less then 10 years, I was reading Luke Jackson's book on Asperger Syndrome that my parents bought for me. Comparing the paper with the book, I wondered why I get different names for my type of Autism. My parents believed that AS is my diagnosis. They say a re diagnosis is possible, but that will cost money and not solve anything. I'm still on the Autistic Spectrum nonetheless.

You were diagnosed as autistic when you were a kid, so it doesn't really matter if it's AS or PDD-NOS or whatever.

Exactly as jminixon95 said, plus unless your parents are therapists or doctors, their diagnosis is not technical. But that really doesn't matter since you did receive another accurate professional diagnosis. I'd probably count as aspergers as well if I was re-diagnosed now.

Red Alert

If it is ONLY the name then it does not make the slightest bit of difference.

If, on the other hand, you feel that there are school accommodations, special needs support, welfare or therapy that you are not getting because you don't have the correct diagnosis (or inappropriate therapy that you ARE getting), then it makes a lot of sense to have a new assessment. Having your needs correctly identified is worth a great deal in quality of life terms.

Unless you get an actual diagnosis from a professional then no, it does not count.
You know you are on the autistic spectrum so unless you feel that a diagnosis of AS would open new doors for you in regards to support services or various accommodations or you feel that not having a proper diagnosis is psychologically damaging to you then there is likely no point in pursuing a diagnosis. And if you decide to pursue a diagnosis, be prepared to maybe hear that despite your thoughts, you may NOT have AS. I know a girl who has a PDD-NOS and following my diagnosis of AS she became convinced that she had it too. She was very upset when three or four opinions later all she got was a further confirmed diagnosis of PDD-NOS. Many of the same symptoms are present, only PDD-NOS is considered milder.

RawSugar, the OP was talking about having a PDD-NOS diagnosis and parents with the opinion that AS fits better.

And I agree with the people who are saying "PDD-NOS and AS are on the Spectrum; it doesn't matter which one you're diagnosed with." I have the opposite opinion about my own diagnosis; I was diagnosed AS and believe PDD-NOS fits better; but I don't see why I need a re-diagnosis. They're both on the spectrum, they both give me access to the same services, and they're both a signal to the shrinks that "hey, this girl's autistic." I don't need much more.

I have, however, changed my profile to "other autism spectrum disorder", because I trust my own opinion on ASDs more than that of a doctor who doesn't specialize in them.

does it count in regards to what?

my son was diagnosed this past spring with aspergers. since the diagnosis, his father and i have become much more familiar with the diagnositc criteria and feel he fits the criteria for autism disorder better. in actuality, he fits the criteria for autism disorder and fits all but ONE of the criteria for aspergers disorder, the one about not meeting the criteria for another autism spectrum disorder. so he should actually be diagnosed autism disorder instead of aspergers disorder.

when it comes down to what it means, its all autism. you MAY come across some issues with services or programs being limited by your official diagnosis however. in that case, if you want or need something that you cant get with your official diagnosis, but can with the diagnosis your parents believe, it may be worth getting rediagnosed IF you would end up with the diagnosis your parents believe. if they believe wrong and your official diagnosis is correct, then it wouldnt help and would only end up costing.

something else you may see is preconceptions about a given diagnosis, and those may color what people think about you or what you are capable of. for instance, aspergers disorder is often seen as "mild" and therefore higher functioning and with less stigma than autistic disorder. so people may treat you differently or offer you different opportunities based on their preconceptions of your diagnosis.

an accurate diagnosis is good, but if changing it isnt going to gain you anything, its probably not really worth the trouble.

this may all be a moot point depending on how current diagnoses are going to roll into the new DSM coming out in 2013. ive never looked much into PDD-NOS and the diagnostic criteria and how that will merge or not merge with the proposed autism spectrum diagnosis. maybe someone familiar with the new criteria can weigh in on whether PDD-NOS vs aspergers will matter.