Diagnosis

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Hello,

This is my first posting. I'm attempting to find out the best way to go about confirming or refuting the possibility that I have AS. The more I read about it, the more I recognize myself in the symptoms. Things I've read on this forum are also spot on in numerous aspects. I feel there may elements of NLD present as well - though these are not very evident and I feel I can probably resolve those with liesurly reading - as opposed to simply work related lecture.

Anyways, I'm not ashamed of it. I'm more indifferent, but if I do have AS - I refuse to use the word suffer as I am not suffering - then at least I can take necessary steps in social situations to not come across as a complete oddball. Should I go see a shrink? How did some of you get diagnosed?

Cheers,

Intrepid

You best bet is to go to a psychologist for an offical diagnosis. Then if you need to, you can use him/her as emotional support. It he pushes drugs on you, I would stay away from him unless you seriously do need them. However, if you are perfectly fine, id stay away from the drugs and just occasionally see a councelor. We all need counceling, even NT's.

only go to someone specialized in autism.

So do I.

I've only suffered from others being frightened of the label or my being in the wrong social environment.

I can never suffer for being myself or doing the things that I enjoy.

Only others who don't like the way I do things can technically make me suffer for being who I am.

If people are tolerant and understanding, let me get on with my own thing and I'm not forced to socialise in a gigantic crowd, I don't suffer.

Actually, I suffer more for people saying that I suffer.
If people didn't claim that I "suffered" perhaps I'd be better able to cope and would feel much better about myself. But maybe I shouldn't take a word too seriously, after all it is only a word.

I find this whole concept of suffering for being oneself and not reaching an arbitrary social benchmark incredibly...well...strange.

I have character traits which can either be viewed as good or bad depending on the situation. I don't see them as symptoms as such. I'm just me. It's how things are.

It would be nice if people could understand this and stop "accusing" me of having a "disease". Perhaps some people are just naturally less social.

Why can't there be a more balanced views on this?

Last edited by AmberEyes on 28 Apr 2009, 7:43 am, edited 1 time in total.

hi- welcome.
you dont say where you are- i assume the US? what care you get in the US will obviously depend on your age, and medical insurance, as well as your state, but the most important thing to do is to see a shrnk who specialzes in autistic spectrum disorders.
other shrinks fall in with believing sterotypes about a.s as much as the man in the street does, and the longer you have been undiagnosed, the more likely you are to have developed coping mechanism which mask symptoms; normal shrinks are depressingly poor at understanding this. aim to bypass them....

here is a simple a.s test, and if you search through the boards here you will find others. this is a proper one, despite the link being on wired. (i get 40-44 ish).
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html

i dont tihnk its toooo great, but will give you an idea.
questions about preferring to go to a party v go to library are a little simplistic- id always rather get drunk and dance, as im more n.t when drunk, and i care less about being weird when im drunk. but the question is- prefer people or things (or books)???- and the answer to that is- well- duh- books EVERY TIME!! !! it took me a whle to get that... (because i am really bad at reading between the lines, because i have a.s!).
good luck.

I scored a 31 on that test. Pretty darn close. Im kind of disapointed, actually. I have a lot of autistic/asperger traits, but I know I can blend in with NT's decently well. So maybe if I took the test a few years ago, I would have scored higher.