Self-diagnosis?

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This poll is missing "Originally self-dxed but now professionally dxed".

I was first self-dxed, then I got an AS assessment at a local autism center, and soon I'll be having my mom's colleague give me the uber uber official paper.

I'm officially diagnosed, but I correctly self-diagnosed myself with OCD two years before I officially got a diagnosis. I suspected Asperger's when I was pouring over all of the other possibilities besides OCD, but the little I read on it focused too much on the social deficits. I'm not horribly socially deficit, so I couldn't see myself.
-OddDuckNash99-

I felt I was clever self diagnosing myself with autism but it has turned out I was already diagnosed with it in 1961 when autism was hardly ever heard of let alone Aspergers. I did suspect autism back in 1974 after reading some stuff from Bernard Rimland who was of the opinion that even some highly gifted people and intelligent are autistic. He son, Mark grew up to become a successful artist.
I heard of the condition earlier but I did not think I had it because I thought it only applied to MR cases.
Because of a serious speech delay as a child (my little sister was talking before me and she is two and a half years younger) I am HFA and not Aspergers.

Self-diagnosed. Years of research, and AS is the only thing I've ever found that fits.

Yes I am self diagnosed. My first "official" diagnosis was when I was three or four years old.
My foster parents thought I was mentally ret*d. I was either mute or hardly spoke at all,
and it took them almost four years to toilet train me. The doctors thought I was brain damaged
because of poor motor coordination and I was slow in learning new things. I always wanted
(and still do) to be off by myself. Later I went through two other foster homes. Social Services
were trying to have me placed in Willowbrook State School on Staten Island, NY. This was in the
1960s. That institution was eventually shut down because of the terrible abuses going on in there.
For more info on Willowbrook go to wikipedia.org/wiki/Willowbrook_State_School. Fortunately
I was never sent there. My diagnosis was "upgraded" to "Minimal Brain Damage" then later my
I.Q. tested to be 120 or greater depending on the test given or the test conditions. My guardians
kept sending me to one Freudian von Shrinkendork after another trying to find why I "tick but don't
tock, or tock but don't tick". I kept forgetting what I was told to do, had a hard time understanding
people, I did very poorly in school, but I did manage to graduate high school on time. Not many
foster kids got their H.S. diplomas back in the 1970s. And yes I was bullied, and picked on a lot.
I survived. I learned electronics and worked in that field for more than 20 years.
Today I am not working in electronics, I work on a loading dock at a factory that makes windows
for schools, and residential complexes, and other institutional buildings.
As for my condition; I can't stand loud percussive noises, being touched, and sudden or abrupt
changes in my routine. I seem to be here, but my mind or parts thereof are in a different universe.
My left brain could be thinking about the Quadratic Prime Series, at the same time my right brain is thinking about Pentominoes.
Autism is called a spectrum condition because we have different "mental colors, notes, or wavelengths."
I call myself an Autie, I may have some, but not all, characteristics in common with Aspies.

I am self-diagnosed but I think am going to check if I am right

FYI: this is a 3+ year old zombie thread that has been resurrected.


M.

i was completly oblivious or completly sure of my normaliness when i got diagonised which related from a phsycial mental diagnosis of anorexia, i find self diagnosis a bit strange, its a bit like projecting which i don;t think is very helpful

Is that bad? I found the link to it here: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt116811.html and just used it

I was self-diagnosed and then paid to see a psychologist who specialised in Asperger's Syndrome for a diagnostic assessment, and was then diagnosed. In my opinion, this shows self-diagnosis should not be dismissed, as it shows I diagnosed myself with a condition I do indeed have. I have known others do the same with other mental and physical conditions.

It isn't bad, but I do feel it is necessary to mention as notice to all; in the past, issues arose when new members posted questions to the original participants (who were no longer active here) and got upset when they didn't get answers. Old conversations can be illuminating, but I wouldn't make a habit of bringing them back unless they are relevant.


M.

I wish people look at the dates of the posts and check and see in their profiles if they still come here before replying to their post.

Thanks

I agree if it is a personal question like somebody was looking for help 2 years ago and replying it after such a long time might not have a sense because they might solved their problem already. If I search through threads here and find something interesting that was discussed sometime ago, why should I double the threads only to bring the conversation back? The next person searching the WP would get one more similar thread on the topic they were searching for. I've seen zombie threads attracting some newer members who didn't have a chance to answer them before. Some things never get too old to read

It would be helpful if when you revive such a thread that you make a note of it in your post to inform others. Thanks.


M.

I generally don't trust any mental disorder Dx from a PSYCHIATRIST. Psychiatrist are, of course, medical doctors who prescribe meds and their knowledge of actual mental disorders ( especially when it comes to things like AS and other ASDs) is, often enough, relatively limited.


For example, one psychiatrist told me I had an actual psychotic disorder when it was clear to me (and the psychologist I was seeing at the time) that my behaviors were nothing more than the common diagnostic features of Schizotypal PD and/or AS-NVLD. I was not exhibiting an overt break from reality and just had IDEAS of reference (albeit some pretty bizarre ones) and not actual delusions of reference. I had already been Dx-ed with schizotypal PD and informally, NVLD. I made this abundantly clear to the psychiatrist but she didn't seem to realize that the behaviors I was exhibiting are quite common among people with AS/Schizotypal/NVLD.

If she did...then she was just itching to get me on an anti-psychotic medication, which I refused to take.

Anyway....in a sense...I self-diagnosed myself with NVLD when I was 14. I recognized in myself all the characteristics associated with an unofficial personality disorder a few psychologists were speculating about at the time. It was known as "Immature-Inadequate PD" and it has never been accepted by the APA and no psychologist I know of takes it seriously anymore. But Dr. Byron Rourke, (a neuropsychologist who played a leading role in isolating the NVLD syndrome and the white matter model) claims that there are striking similarities between many common NVLD characteristics and those once associated with "Immature-Inadequate PD".

So this alledged personality disorder, in alot of cases at least, was likely just the social and behavioral manifestations of NVLD/AS before the mental health professionals knew much about either.