Are you self diagnosed or diagnosed by a mental health profe

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professional? I am just curious. I happen to be self diagnosed.

well sort of both I guess. I dont have official diagnosis, but my aunts worked for years at a mental health ward and they recognized my Aspergers and pointed it out to me. So I suppose I would call it technically diagnosed. Im still going to get a diagnosis when money/time permits and my Aunts think its a good idea and will help fund it. Anything to help me deal with life easier I suppose.

For right now I'm self diagnosed but I'm getting the testing set up tomorrow for the official diagnosis.

I'm diagnosed by a psychiatrist. I found out this month at the aspie group here he was a professional in autism and specialized in it. I was never self diagnosed. I didn't know about AS then so how could I diagnose myself with something I never heard of?

I'm not self-diagnosed because I don't think I have it, but I'm going for an assessment on the 31st.

Anyone is gives themselves a self-diagnosis has no grounds for actually being autistic. It's like if Alfred Nobel gave the Nobel Prize to himself; it seems questionable, even selfish.

I was diagnosed by a therapist who specializes in AS. I self-diagnosed myself with OCD, though, two years before I was diagnosed by a professional.
-OddDuckNash99-

I must admit, every kid and his uncle (is that how that saying goes?) can read the symptoms of something and assume they have it.

Hence hypochondria, which is perpetuated greatly by the easy availability of medical information on the internet. Someone can see bloody noses as a sign of endometriosis and start telling everyone they have it. Likewise, every socially awkward teenager who stumbles into information about AS can easily start thinking that they have it because of a set of diagnostic tools, without seeking professional opinions. It is very easy to be wrong about this sort of thing, and confuse it with avoidance or anxiety. Then, when they start using it as an excuse, it sticks into their mind and they act more and more as though they have AS, and then it becomes extremely difficult to tell whether they actually have AS, or whether they just developed AS-like traits. At that point, most professionals will say that there is no diagnosis of AS, and whether or not the person had it becomes irrelevant.

I don't know, it just seems to me like self-diagnosing is too easy...

But since you have never been anyone else, you have no way of knowing whether the inner-workings of your own mind are the same as others, or different. You have no basis of comparison!

Self diagnosed but seeing a psychologist tomorrow at 12:45 for a possible professional diagnosis. I'm not sure she will be able to determine in 45 mins whether I is or I ain't. Time will tell.

I self diagnosed before my official diagnosis, but I was never sure until after my official dx. According to the APS she was an ASD specialist.

diagnosed by AS specialist.
it was a Looooooong time coming. at 46

I fit the description and syptoms of AS so scarily well that even if my aunts had not pointed it out, I could have self diagnosed myself with absolute certainty. It really is amazing how I fit every single descriptive smptom of it, from bodyl language, to speech quirks, comprehension difficulty, clumsiness or poor motor skill, overemphasis on narrow subjects, increased sensitivity to noises/distraction...the whole damned shebang. It makes me wonder if I should even waste money to confirm what I already know.