Question for the self-diagnosed.

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What prevents you from getting a diagnosis? I hear cost to get one is a significant barrier for those who find out late and live in the US. There are other costs other than money that may be a factor. Say you have a job or in school but you can't skip out on the job or school to go to the doctor.

Or you may lack the problems that impair that require the diagnosis or the time - or lack the problems that have you seeking professional help. That is, you hold down a job or go to school - maybe it's a special one but you fit perfectly for it - but you may have some relationship/inter-personal problems that may hinder some things but don't pose a risk for your job.

Or you are actively pursuing the diagnosis and the process has you worn down so you stick yourself with the label in the interim. (Been there myself.)

Or you're diagnosed and just want to see the results.

Or there is some reason that I am completely missing here. That's often the case.

Besides cost, there's also the issue of finding a professional qualified to diagnose it. My psychiatrist told me that if I find such a person, I should let her know so she can add them to her referral list!

Also, I'm terrified by the idea of seeing another professional... before finding my current psychiatrist, I saw two who treated me like complete crap, and I've had some other crummy experiences in my past with mental health treatment, so to have to go see somebody else... to make phone calls looking for an autism specialist who sees adults, drive a very long way to see them, with no way to know if they'll be horrible or not.. And it's not like I could continue in treatment with someone that far away even if I could get diagnosed.

But the biggest issue besides cost is that there's nothing on this peninsula, and autism specialists who work with adults are pretty rare anyway.
I had a such a difficult time finding ANY professional at all when I moved down here.. there was quite awhile when I didn't think I'd be able to find a psychiatrist at all.

I already got diagnosed. So mine was like free because my parents did it all for me. I am sure they paid for everything or their insurance covered it. I was a kid then so I didn't have any choice. I didn't know what was going on back then either. I just thought I was seeing my psychiatrist and going to that place because of my pills and to get me back in school. That's what my mom told me back then anyway on why we go see him. I don't remember her saying she was taking me to see if I have a condition.



Lot of aspies don't get diagnosed because they can't afford it or they can't find a doctor nearby who does a adult diagnoses for autism or they can't find a doctor who knows enough about it. Or they don't see the point to it because would anything change after a diagnoses? If they already have a job, a family, have a house and everything, why a diagnoses? Some don't even care to know because they have already had other labels and the last thing they want is having something else wrong with them. I don't care to know if I have auditory processing disorder or executive dysfunction because would it change anything? I don't claim to have them either. I'm guilty of pinning a couple labels on myself in my teens and then finding out I was actually diagnosed with them before AS. I don't do self diagnoses anymore.

I would say money, but frankly, the biggest barrier to me is the lack of a qualified doctor/therapist who knows how to Dx AS in adults anywhere near me.

'Other', for me, can basically be summed up in three words: parents in denial. Cost isn't an issue for me, though, because I go to university in New Zealand, so I get free health care there. NZ may not get Aspie movies in cinemas, or sherbet dib-dabs and spaceships in the sweet shops, but we do have some things going for us! :p

I am officially diagnosed (2007), but I was self-diagnosed for two years (2002-2004) long before my official diagnosis. The reason I didn't pursue an official diagnosis then was the fact that I still lived with my parents and would need their help in order to navigate the system. My beliefs about the reality of undiagnosed autism also contributed; I believed that I was presumably NT until/unless I got officially diagnosed, I didn't want to trivialize the problems of "real" Aspies (note: I don't believe that self-diagnosis is unreal now, but I believed it then), and I eventually took my parents' remark that I was a "hypochondriac" for self-diagnosing. That's why I quit the self-diagnosis. I didn't go back into the land of suspected autism until I was advised to seek an official diagnosis by the professionals at th eplace where I moved after laving my parents' house.

I didn't seek a DX because self-diagnosis was enough for me and I don't have any real impairment but after some encounter for my daughter our psicologist asked me and my wife if we want to get DXed and we accepted so I'll have an offical DX soon.

For me, for the longest time, it was that I couldn't find a qualified professional that took my insurance. I had already had a teacher mention something, the family doctor say something, as well as my own daughter's first and second neurologists.

I've been informally diagnosed, I just need to call the clinic back to make an appointment for an official assessment.

At 59, still working part-time, and headed for SSI at 62, I do not know of anything I would gain by having a professional diagnosis.

I haven't been diagnosed by a doctor. The "Aspie Quiz" did the diagnosing for me. (Aspie score 143, NT score 63, I'm most likely an Aspie.)

What's the point of being diagnosed by a doctor? I'm weird. I'm shy. I have no social skills. Every time I open my mouth something socially incorrect comes out! I don't care about things normal people care about, and I'm fascinated by things normal people don't care about. I don't have a girlfriend and probably no hope of getting one, and if I did get one it would be unfulfilling anyway because I have one of the most unusual sexual fetishes in the world!

Now, how will a doctor change this? What medication is prescribed for being strange?

There's also a practical reason to not get a diagnosis. Do you have a driver's license? Do you have a car? If you get a diagnosis of any kind from a doctor, you may have to kiss your driver's license good bye! Life sucks now, but it will suck a whole lot more without a driver's license!

I've sought resources in my area, but all I have reached either require insurance or specialize in children and are uninterested in seeing me. Since even before my son's diagnosis, I have worked with a psychiatrist and an internist regarding my condition and examined alternatives and options for diagnostic possibilities. Through elimination, we've arrived at the Occam's Diagnosis of Asperger's - though while they concur, there is no 'official' entry in my files as being diagnosed.


M.

Sorry to those who have heard this before, but I was self diagnosed and it took me three years WITH GREAT INSURANCE to find a professional that had heard of Asperger's Syndrome and then they had to find someone that could DX it in adults.

If strange things unrelated to the conversation pop out of your mouth during an evaluation, that would be expected. Part of being an Aspie.
You won't lose your driver's license just because of a dx. Not sure who told you that, but they're wrong.
There aren't any medications, but there are strategies we all learn to use to cope with our difficulties, and if you were getting cognitive behavioral therapy, it may be very helpful.

For me it has taken me 4 months to find a psych I think might do the trick. Im not going for a diagnosis per se, but rather an accurate assessment, Im not really concerned with the outcome but whether I am fully listened to and understood... so in a way I guess what I am asking is a tall order.