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What I find most tragic about this debate is a kind of hierarchical supremacy between diagnosed and undiagnosed people. Somehow if you are diagnosed, you are a person with Asperger's or autism, otherwise you are a pretender, or somehow not really on the spectrum, which I find insulting and offensive.
People on the spectrum already deal daily in the allistic world with discrimination. And yet here people readily discriminate in this thread against other Aspies who are self-diagnosed.
There are countries in the world that discriminate against people on the spectrum, where it's better not to be diagnosed. My own province classes autism as a mental illness. There are also thousands of people around the world who have autism and have never been diagnosed. Many like myself over fifty who had to fit it, and learn to live in the neurotypical world without aid or government help of any kind.
Take your diagnosis and shove it, I've had enough of Aspie supremacy.
True, I spent hundreds of dollars for my son to figure out his issues, I don't need to spend the same on myself. With my son we got our money's worth, myself, wouldn't be economically feasible.I used to be self-diagnosed. I am now professionally diagnosed. The only difference is that I paid a lot of money to obtain confirmation of what I already knew. A professional diagnosis is helpful if wanting to convince others, to get accommodations at work, or to obtain benefits.
I was just as autistic prior to the professional diagnosis as after.
People who have a professional diagnosis should respect those who don't think they need one or can't afford one. The last thing anyone on the spectrum needs is someone invalidating them.
I wish these topics would be closed as soon as they are started.
Seeing how it's nearly impossible for a 50 plus adult male to get a diagnosis because they have spent their entire lives learning how to adapt to an NT world, sometimes self diagnosis is the only option.
Not true. I am in that age range and had my diagnosis in just the last couple years..
Sounds like you got lucky. Trying to find a specialist for me has been a choir. The ad, website, whatever says that they are a specialist, usually means for children, going in as an adult they don't know where to proceed. I had one psychiatrist who asked me about my interests and suggested that I join a car club to meet people and become more socially active. I have no desire to be any more socially active. I don't want to share my interests, I was in a car club at one time, didn't do anything for me. He basically came up with a half dozen things that could be symptomatic of Aspergers and decided I was depressed and was suffering from anxiety and I would benefit from doing something that normally causes me even more anxiety. Sigh.Not true. I am in that age range and had my diagnosis in just the last couple years. I did not go to just any psychologist or therapist, I did choose someone who specializes in autism spectrum disorders. Much of the discussions and questions were geared towards ruling out various disorders. An official diagnosis is a process of elimination, where in my opinion, self diagnosis is the opposite.
Sometimes, it's so hard that it takes a trained medical professional to do it. If we allow self-diagnosis, then we've said that just anyone can diagnose any neurological disorder. That's too slippery of a slope to allow. Look at these teachers who are diagnosing kids and putting them into special education without a formal diagnosis. They throw around terms like "Mentally retarded", which isn't even a psychiatric term. There are a lot of people in special education who shouldn't be there because of misdiagnosis by teachers. Racial minorities and boys are especially susceptible to being put into special education.So what? "Hard" does not equal "impossible". Do your research, like I did.
"Autism" in itself is a psychiatric term coined by psychiatrist Leo Kanner. It was first described by psychiatrists. It's a medical condition recognized by the APA. Psychiatrists have a right to diagnose and describe autism. They coined the very word and first described it. There are advantages to having a diagnosis. You can receive certain care and help at school with a diagnosis. There are other programs that can help you that you can't get without a diagnosis.Bellatrix said:Comparing psychiatry with plumbing. Well, no, although there may exist in your mind a superficial resemblance, they actually are not quite the same thing. The approach that I used was to impartially examine the psychological and physical characteristics and attributes that I actually have (ex. sensitivity to sound, inability to tolerate most people - I'm generalising here), examine the various psychological conditions that are now recognised to exist in the country within which I live, examine my personal history, up to and including (for example) the manner in which I was treated by others, my obvious and clear inability to understand nuance, body language... look, I guess you will just have to take my word for it when I say that I have Asperger's Syndrome. God knows I wish I did NOT have it, because I HATE having it!
No, and I never claimed it was. It is being diagnosed more because psychiatrists are learning more about it. We're getting better at identifying it. People who would have just been thought of as weird or quirky forty years ago are now being diagnosed as autistic spectrum because we understand why they're like that.Bellatrix said:I was, and am not, "hung up" on a label. Do you think that the apparent increase in numbers for those who have these conditions is due to it being "trendy"?
I know neurotypicals who are careful and logical as well. That was my point.Bellatrix said:So you know N.T.'s who are deluded and deceptive. So what? I'm not N.T. I'm not a "supremacist" either, just someone who recognises that the way that N.T.'s do things does not work for me. I cannot live in N.T. society, because it is all about greed, duplicity, superficiality, and being competitive. I can't live that way, it's impossible for me.
I said "You and Trump" because you were sounding very arrogant, just like him.Bellatrix said:???????????????????
Sometimes, it's so hard that it takes a trained medical professional to do it. If we allow self-diagnosis, then we've said that just anyone can diagnose any neurological disorder. That's too slippery of a slope to allow. Look at these teachers who are diagnosing kids and putting them into special education without a formal diagnosis. They throw around terms like "Mentally retarded", which isn't even a psychiatric term. There are a lot of people in special education who shouldn't be there because of misdiagnosis by teachers. Racial minorities and boys are especially susceptible to being put into special education.
"Autism" in itself is a psychiatric term coined by psychiatrist Leo Kanner. It was first described by psychiatrists. It's a medical condition recognized by the APA. Psychiatrists have a right to diagnose and describe autism. They coined the very word and first described it. There are advantages to having a diagnosis. You can receive certain care and help at school with a diagnosis. There are other programs that can help you that you can't get without a diagnosis.
No, and I never claimed it was. It is being diagnosed more because psychiatrists are learning more about it. We're getting better at identifying it. People who would have just been thought of as weird or quirky forty years ago are now being diagnosed as autistic spectrum because we understand why they're like that.
I know neurotypicals who are careful and logical as well. That was my point.
I said "You and Trump" because you were sounding very arrogant, just like him.
Please tone down the aggressive tone of the posts in here or the thread will be locked.
I think he means the supremacist tone that some of your posts have followed. You have talked like an aspie supremacist in some of your posts, talking about how NT's are supposedly inferior or something.What aggressive tone? I don't see it. No one has insulted anyone (yet), have they?
There are countries in the world that discriminate against people on the spectrum, where it's better not to be diagnosed. My own province classes autism as a mental illness.
Just shows the differences between Aspies. True to form I've always had an innate distrust of authority. I've met other Aspies who take the word of authority figures as gospel. I don't expect us to reach a consensus here, nor would it be Aspie-like. Very interesting debate.
If we allow self-diagnosis, then we've said that just anyone can diagnose any neurological disorder. That's too slippery of a slope to allow.
"Autism" in itself is a psychiatric term coined by psychiatrist Leo Kanner. It was first described by psychiatrists. It's a medical condition recognized by the APA. Psychiatrists have a right to diagnose and describe autism. They coined the very word and first described it. There are advantages to having a diagnosis. You can receive certain care and help at school with a diagnosis. There are other programs that can help you that you can't get without a diagnosis.