I'm not identifying as an Aspie anymore

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I don't identify as an Aspie or an NT right now. I just don't feel like any label on the DSM adequately explains what my struggles are. If I had to pick a diagnosis I would probably pick ADHD. I do have some Aspie traits, but I know a lot of NTs with them as well.

I originally got diagnosed because my mom needed help raising me. I had some behavioral issues and my family had a low income. She decided to get an autism diagnosis because I vaguely fit the criteria and that would give her the most funding. She had to spin the truth to actually get a diagnosis. A lot of people refused to diagnose me.

A lot of my "Aspie traits" are caused by mental fatigue, anxiety and depression. If Chronic Mental Fatigue was a diagnosis in the DSM I would probably be diagnosed with it. Unfortunately it isn't. I'm just stuck with an autism diagnosis. Autism treatments just aren't effective for me. The only support I get is people being more sympathetic.

Well, somewhat fortunately, there isn't exactly a such thing as accredited autism treatments. I've known autistics with medication regimens, but I'm not one of them, and I'm also in a reasonably high-functioning bracket. I too have a melange of symptoms that fall outside my Asperger's diagnosis, but through trial & error, and a LOT of study into holistic health practices I've brought most of them under control. A friend of mine with a psych degree discredits the DSM entirely - as it's not really about precise explanations for patients, rather the continued refinement of diagnostic criteria. Furthermore, all common descriptions of autism spectrum allot for its' near-total defiance of categorization.

Hence, I often find myself getting better advice on my HFA from Star Trek or my own meditation. I consult my psychologist about the net effects.

_________________
"Standing on a well-chilled cinder, we see the fading of the suns, and try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds."
-Georges Lemaitre
"I fly through hyperspace, in my green computer interface"
-Gem Tos

I think I can say beyond any doubt that one can't miss symptoms they don't have... Perhaps you're missing them in the sense that they might help you determine your path towards a more accurate diagnosis? This is the root of why I prefer handling my symptoms from the P.O.V. of how they intermix and negate one another. On my best days, nobody can tell without real-time brain scans what's actually gone wrong with my synapses, and otherwise, even some claimants of psych degrees miss the mark for me so absolutely I feel obliged to warn them about basing decisions on their training.

_________________
"Standing on a well-chilled cinder, we see the fading of the suns, and try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds."
-Georges Lemaitre
"I fly through hyperspace, in my green computer interface"
-Gem Tos

Same, I think I drew the short straw with brain genetics but I don't see myself as an autistic person anymore. I feel miles apart from many aspies. Yet miles apart from most NTs.
I'm just eccentric.

It occurs to me that what we're discussing might be a secondary category of the usual Autism Spectrum diagnostic criteria that hasn't been split off yet. I've been in groups of aspies who could hold up roundtable discussions or Socratic seminars for hours, but in every sense of the term, I still noticed outliers, either within people's personalities or whole characters. Some went as far as avoiding everyone else around them. Your descriptions seem to be largely unrelated to the idea of the spectrum, along the lines of cognitive ability, so I think you could simply represent an undefined portion of the spectrum or a new way of measuring it.

_________________
"Standing on a well-chilled cinder, we see the fading of the suns, and try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds."
-Georges Lemaitre
"I fly through hyperspace, in my green computer interface"
-Gem Tos

It's awesome hearing someone at least be honest with themselves. A large majority of the people here aren't on the spectrum and won't admit it, because they somehow desire to be on it for unknown reasons. Props to you for being able to admit that you believe you aren't.

If you have mental issues that aren't labelled then you also don't have any proper means of treatment, and if you see that you possess or are almost something, it's hard not to latch onto it. Like devilkisses' mom, she found out that she'd get the most help for her kid by fitting devilkisses into a diagnosis. Would you choose support or no support, especially if you need support?

Devilkisses, you sound much like me, although obviously with some difference. While I can be socially awkward, and while being in social situations too much often drains me, I am very good at reading people's expressions and understanding them in person. I also cannot for the life of me stick to schedules these days (these past years), but that is more that if I'm doing something that needs to be scheduled, it will be too much for me, cause me to feel dread, ultimately make me not want to do it, make me shut down. If I'm feeling relatively happy and am not feeling drained, I'm a fun-loving, spontaneous person.

I watched a very interesting lecture (below) about ADHD and motivation the other day, mainly about ADHD drug treatments, but it was fascinating to see that motivation, attention and executive function are all a part of the same dopaminergic pathway in the brain. Have you ever tried ADHD meds?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uygtiArfTHw