why are self-diagnosed aspies considered "posers?"

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My doctor more or less said the same thing. She said I probably have aspergers but as there's no cure and very little help for (old) aspies she couldn't see the point of me spending £1500 on a diagnosis.

My professor in the same course told us that, too, calling it "psychology student syndrome". Interestingly, I never really succumbed. Oh, I did see a few "traits" here and there, but never enough to think I actually had (*insert name of next disorder studied here*).



WTF?!? "Eventually outgrown"?!? Sheesh.

Sounds like the attitude towards autism when I was growing up in the 1980's--"autism" = "mental retardation." The notion that I might be on the spectrum would never have been considered. I went to multiple therapists before I was 10 and none of them even came close.



Amen to that!



This is actually my main reason for not bothering with an official diagnosis. All I need to know is that the elusive "it" that has made me "odd" my entire life has a name. That on its own helps me, a lot.

I am not trying to "join a club." I am not trying to be something I am not. All I know is that AS explains a lot of things about myself that never made sense before. That's it. Very few people even know, and one of the few who do is a professor who guessed it the first day he met me, before the thought even crossed my mind.

All that really matters is that I know it's true. Period. I don't need a "professional" to give me a second opinion.

Me too.

I am self-diagnosed and I don't know if an "official" diagnosis would be beneficial for me. Right now I've already made some significant realizations because of my diagnosis. Whether or not I officially qualify, my life has been improved by recognizing a group of symptoms.

Maybe I would get a diagnosis if I qualified for benefits because of it. I could be a card-carrying Aspie but then all the NTs wouldnt know what to do with me.

I cant figure out why, maybe its down to aspie nature itself, because we like to have things arranged in a logical manner, so we feel as if without a diagnosis, somebody doesnt have aspergers (even though they might)

Basically it may be because we like our labels... Im not sure though. My brother is self DX'ed, and hes very aspie like lol

i do not know exactly what you mean by the word "posers", but i assume you mean "illegitimate".

when i fist joined this site, i was disappointed that there were people who were "self diagnosed" who were so vociferous and they seemed to dominate and influence the flavor of the site.

when i was a child, i was studied extensively as a trial subject for the development of the symptomatology for characterizing asperger syndrome at the psychiatric institution i was resident at. this was 10 years before it appeared in the DSM.

i think i felt special in a way because there was so much attention payed to my responses to questions posed to me during therapy sessions with my psychiatrist and 2 other psychologists at the adolescent unit.

my own situation when i was a child was one of complete isolation from, and disinterest in other people. i did not care to associate with anyone and i was absorbed in my own world, and i did not develop a discernible "personality", and i did not adopt any internalized mechanisms for relating to others. i used only words that i acquired that were adequate to convey a stark portrayal of what i wanted to say to others on the rare occasions i said anything.

i did not use "buzz words" like "dude" or "cool" or "bro" or "freaky" etc, and i did not have any inclination to adapt my approach to accomodate another persons personality.

as a result, i had no friends, and even though i was content and complacent, i thought that my existence was inconsequential to the rest of human life.

i felt that high functioning autism was a rare condition, and i wondered if one day i would ever meet someone like me. i never did.

when i came here, i thought "wow!! (allowed buzz word) this place will be so interesting to involve myself in and to see the thoughts of others like me".

but as i read, i saw threads that seemed like conversations that i had always heard in the world i was disconnected to all my life.

i saw threads like "a little something for the ladies", and when i clicked and read, i saw sentiments that i had always seen in the world of normal people, and i thought "this can not be right. how can someone like me say something like that?".

i saw the level of reciprocation and i thought "this sounds like a 'fluent' typical conversation that is beyond me, and i can not join in because i can only propose my views as i see them". i do not know what i wanted to find, but i found that while the words were not above my head, the sentiments and the social dance was above my head.

then i checked the profiles of various posters, and i saw "self diagnosed", and i thought "well there you go! these people have read a pamphlet about the 10 or so symptoms that are the catchcries of the simple internet representations of AS, and they have self posited in those few dimensions".

then i saw some profiles that said "have AS diagnosed" (or whatever it says), and i thought maybe they were liars.

nevertheless, i continued to post my discursive paragraphs hoping that a "true AS" person would descend from "lurkdom" to say "precisely!", but they never did.

i got quite a few PM's admonishing me for my defiant attitude and my obstinate refusal to avoid dissention with other people's posts, and i slowly started to realize that maybe all these people were actually AS, and i had some other non specified personality deficit that precluded me from integrating here.

i have been officially diagnosed with AS (1994) and also i have been officially diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder (unresolved into adulthood), but these 2 diagnoses do not explain my inability to integrate and "take my place" within this site.

so now i do believe that the majority of people who say they have AS here are genuine, and i realize that i have some unspecified personality deficit that is the source of my inability to integrate with the people here and cultivate a reciprocative dialogue with other memebers.

some times, other members compliment me on my posts, but i seem to not really be able to build upon it. i may say "thanks for your kind words", and that kills the dialogue. i do not know how to keep the machine chugging along, and it stalls as soon as it is started.

whatever, i will say in my closure of my post that i do believe that most people here who say they are AS are AS, and i just have something else that is wrong with my mind that was never isolated by my psychs that is the reason for my inability to integrate.

i hope what i wrote is somewhat relevant because i am not sure.

And here is the crux of the matter. If you just pick a professional at random you, how likely are you to get one that understands the differences between autism and something like schizoid? If you are autistic and they medicate you for something else, you can end up WORSE off. If you cannot afford an expert in the field you must take whatever the system offers you. You can get worked over really good.

As far as I know you cannot get any services afforded to the disabled through things such as the ADA without a formal diagnosis. But a well motivated individual CAN gain insight and improve their lives by self-diagnosing and learning the challenges and coping mechanisms specific to ASDs. In the end, that's all that matters. If quality of life is improved by a self diagnosis then who am I to say that a formal diagnosis is better?

In my own particular situation, I say exactly the same ... and I borrow that thought from my A.A. experience:

"As laymen, our opinion ... may, of course, mean little. But ... [what we have heard] makes good sense. It explains many things for which we cannot otherwise account." (Bill Wilson, 1939)


In my own opinion, your post is one of the most-relevant here. Please do not let how anyone else appears ever cast doubt for you upon yourself. No two of us are identical, and I doubt I am any more integrated here than are you. In reality, I cannot tell the difference between actually being accepted or simply just not being run off ... so here we are together, and that is that.

I can understand your perspective but I have to say, it's not logically sound at all and I think it would be a real shame for others to feel pressured to conform to the irrational requirements of others, or to worry about the "slight chance" that a few here may somehow be suspicious of them, especially when obtaining a diagnosis can often be so difficult and so expensive.

You say you prefer it when people have "an actual diagnosis" but the truth is you never really know when someone has an actual diagnosis, you just believe them when they say they do. You assume it's true. Many people lie on the internet. Why might someone lie about having a diagnosis? Perhaps to avoid the prejudice some have described experiencing here as self-diagnosed Aspies? Or perhaps to do exactly what you said you feared: to "take advantage of people who are diagnosed in some way". You never really know who has a diagnosis or not. In fact, it would seem to me that people who say they have AS but acknowledge that they re so far self diagnosed have already proven their honesty to some degree. They should not be penalized for that.

Further, your position seems to place a degree of weight on - and faith in - an "official" Psych diagnosis which the facts simply don't justify. There are many biased, incompetent or inexperienced Psychs whose opinions are worth considerably less than the well researched conclusions of the people who have lived with their conditions for decades. There are many walking around with an "official" diagnosis of AS who don't have AS and many who were "officially" told they don't have AS, who do have it. Just look at the countless horror stories on this forum regarding peoples experiences with Psychs and the merry-go-round of wildly differing diagnoses.

I just don't think you have a sound logical basis for your position.

i do not let anyone make me feel less of a person than i am. i will close my curtains, and i will turn my lights off, and i will tell the TV to switch off in 90 minutes, and i will be asleep when it switches off, and when i wake up tomorrow, it will be a new day and yesterday will be almost completely forgotten by me. you would make a very good father. i thank you for your words to me. they make me feel more valid in being who i will be tomorrow morning.
but i would feel what i feel tomorrow whether or not anyone was alive on earth to see it.

it is good to know that someone else cares because it traces a silver lining on the edges of my day.






yes we are in the same universe in our different forms, and even if you are on the other side of it , we still are still in the same reality, and whoever is also in this existence cannot either validate us or extinguish us because they did not build us.


thankyou again.

I thought the whole idea of Autism being a spectrum is that there are no exclusive camps but just a gradual shift from one extreme to the other? I've been around people who make me feel incredibly socially inept but also others who make me feel really social and funny and flirty. I hardly ever feel flirty, it takes an autistic person talking to me to make me feel that I'M the flirt for once. I think we should stop being so judgemental of each other, accept people's words as truth because in the end they say what they say for a good reason. I can't think why a person would want to label themselves with a deficiency condition... it's always because they usually want to give others as clear a picture of themselves as possible, so people won't flip out when they go off or do something really Aspylike, or because, like me, they want assistance with living in the world, getting suitable employment (a job that won't send them into suicidal spirals of despair because of difficulties in the workplace that NTs would find minor annoyances unworthy of mention) and moving out alone, which is bloody expensive. Think about what it's like for someone who's living with an abusive family who can't tolerate their eccentricities or special needs and who wants to move out but can't because nobody will give them a job because of being fired from other jobs because of their personality disorder. Who said anything about posers? I think this is about HELP. If I can function well in the world I'm not stupid to go to psychs and getting assessed for a personality disorder that will put a stigma around my neck for the rest of my life. That would be like throwing out the cake just so I can lick the few crumbs off the plate!

Self-diagnosed doesn't always mean they are wrong, but most of the time they are. Why else wouldn't they let themselves get diagnosed by a psychologist?

They are trying to use Asperger's as a tool. "I have Asperger's so I have more rights than you!" But isn't that what some of us do? Maybe unintentionally, but we do enjoy the extra priviledges, because apparently people think we are morons who can't do anything by ourselves, and get annoyed by heavy light, sounds, and everything else.

This analogy or comparison or whatever it is actually raises some interesting thoughts and questions. Setting aside the "Why?" of true homosexuality ...

I have known people who appear to me to have been born homosexual just as surely as I was born alcoholic and Aspie. Yet I have seen others who have simply adopted "gay" as a later-on "choice of lifestyle". Where one person seems "stuck", like it or not (and with nothing more implied there), questionable others seem to just want to go there for some reason ...

We human beings can sure be a strange lot, eh?!

I used to wanna be a biker and I have certainly owned and ridden a few Harleys ... but I just never really had that in me.

Let themselves? Like someone's trying to get them diagnosed, but they are saying "no, we don't want it"? That's just not the case. There's MANY people who have noted here they would like a diagnosis, but they can't afford it, or there's no one who can give them an official diagnosis. Very different from not letting themselves be diagnosed. No, some of the self diagnosed would be happy to let someone diagnose them, if someone was volunteering to do it.

And I think your claim that the self-diagnosed are using their self assessment to ask for special rights is just as off base.

Are there any statistical data to support the notion that self-diagnosed people are 'wrong most of the time'?
Forgive me for sounding like your grandmother, but don't you think that it is just remotely possible that there are people on the WP who were growing up when there was not enough awareness of the prevalence of ASD in the general population?
It's not like people with Asperger's have no idea that there's something that is making them different from most people. For all I know, lack of insight it is not among the diagnostic criteria. So isn't it possible that at least a proportion of autistic person might reliably diagnose themselves, especially if psychology is an area of special interest to them?


Well, let me think - I might go and try every single psychologist in the 2 - million city where I live and I won't get a diagnosis because people here think that autism is seen only in children. I might hit them with the DSM-IV repeatedly on the head, it won't help. It's not like I don't want to be diagnosed, it's actually about being realistic about the chances of getting a diagnosis.

Yes, I think it is as you say. But notice it has been like that since when we have to teach doctors about aspies and all that stuff