Diagnosis and career

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I have been diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome since 1995. But I recently read some members saying that having Asperger diagnosis can get you discriminated. First, I read that aspies are not allowed to serve in army. Now, I don't intend to serve in army anyway, but I still want to be ''allowed'' to, just for psychological reasons. After all, in order ''not to allow'' me to do X because of my diagnosis they have to release the info about me without my consent. And this is something I don't like. I mean, its not that I hide my diagnosis -- on the contrary, given that I am rather bitter, my Asperger tends to be one of the first thing I mention to everyone. But the point is that I was assuming it was all in my control and I was simply CHOOSING to tell people about my Asperger. But now it turns out that it is out of my control -- even if i choose not to tell, people will know anyway in order to keep me out of army. And that is rather shocking.

Now, again going to the army is something i wasn't planning on doing anyway. But here is something else, which I DO plan to do -- I want to be a theoretical physicist. Now, I read a post by someone who was going to be a pharmacist and she was told that it would be better for her not to be diagnosed because diagnosis would make it difficult for her to be pharmacist. This brings to a rather practical question; does it also imply that in my case the diagnosis would make it difficult for me to be a physicist?

Now, if I look back at my experience, it was usually my behavior rather than my formal diagnosis that was holding me back. Once I had to justify myself for why i messed up, I would bring up Asperger and this might either help me or not make any difference at all; and there was a couple of instances when it hurt me -- but that was MYSELF bringing it up rather than the government. HOWEVER, now that I read sonmething new I am wondering; could it be that the government tells everyone about my asperger FOR ME, without my knowledge and consent, and could it be that this holds me back, and people are just too polite to tell me that?

Now, if the answer to these questions is ''yes'', do you think I should go get undiagnosed? I mean I don't require any services or assistance. The only thing I require is that AFTER I get myself into some sort of mess I have to tell people about my Asperger so that they can be more forgiving; but that is only about the PAST messes I got myself into. I don't need any assistance to prevent my FUTURE messes. In light of this, it woud be better for me not to have Asperger diagnosis that way at least i would have control over telling or not teling. If i need an excuse i can always still say i have asperger on informal level, but if i ''choose'' not to use that info, the government wouldn't release it for me since the diagnosis won't be there.

Now given that i believe i DO have asperger, do you think it is possible to find a psychiatrist who will agree to un-diagnose me simply because they are nice? Given that the psychiatrist who originally diagnosed me is now retired, would it help to get someone else to un-diagnose me, or will original diagnosis still stand? Another thought: given that they are removing Asperger from DSM 5, does it mean that all of my problems are solved as long as I don't go get re-diagnosed, or will they simply re-diagnose all aspies with autism ''by default'', without them having to show up at all?

First:
The government does not automatically know you have Asperger's and even if they did know, they are not telling people. The only ones how might know is your insurance company (medical) and your doctor. As for the Army, it depends on whether you have had treatment or accommodations within a certain time period. You can be in the Army if you want if you have Asperger's if you have not been in treatment (especially medication) and not had school or work accommodations, if that were so and you did not report your AS the army would never know you had AS.

Second:
I am sure that you will make a great theoretically physicist and that your AS can be an assist in that area. The difficulties are the same for any area of academia: the internal politics, and because of this I would advise keeping the option to disclose that you have AS if you have difficulties with the politics or other interpersonal problems. If you are discriminated for your AS apart from your ability to do your job, then that is illegal.

Best of luck with they physics.