Is a Self-Diagnosis Legitimate?

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Such a person is extremely difficult to find.


As far as I know, you can't actually get an official diagnosis from a psychologist who learned about ASDs from you.. My psychiatrist is an hour away, and the therapist I briefly saw was in her office too. Nothing she [the therapist] said made much sense, though. And anything I thought made sense, she later told me she hadn't meant.
There are a few autism specialists in the Washington, DC area, which is about two and a half hours away, but from what I can tell they only work with kids.. and charge thousands of dollars for an evaluation, which really isn't an option.. a diagnosis wouldn't do anything anyway, because nobody actually helps adults with AS anyways. That's exactly why so many people don't get official diagnoses-- there's nothing that can be done for it.

As far as the people being hopelessly subjective about themselves, and pros being objective Zen masters -- that's an idea I see promulgated around society a lot, but haven't seen proven by much. It's always an anecdote or two of "well I once saw a guy who thought he had X, but didn't." And that usually from people who would reject anecdotes as evidence of anything. I think a lot of this is simply an appeal to authority, and people not wanting to feel like their pain & struggle is being infringed upon by those who can't be known to have suffered enough.

Right.. that stuff. As I keep pointing out.. most of the self-diagnosed people have been in loads and loads of therapy, spending years and years pondering what's wrong with them.. And, at the very least, have figured out what ISN'T wrong.. leafing through the entire DSM trying to figure out what it could be, nothing ever properly explaining the issues..
If you're talking about someone who's never had a problem in their life and one day decides that AS sounds like them.. well yea, they're full of crap. But like I said.. hypochondriacs decide they have something new every week. It's not like a consistent thing.

You and some others say all of this so well, Maggie!

Please, never stop.

See, this is what I'm talking about. You've had a bad experience with one therapist, not one hundred.





She didn't learn about them from me at all; I mentioned it, she said give her time to do research, and that was it until later (I should note that the time when I brought it up until the time when she did the dx was about 11 months). She had heard of them before anyway, she simply hadn't had a case where she had a patient who wasn't all ready diagnosed (she had one other, but he was dxed as a child). Last I heard, she had attended classes about it and written a paper as well.



There's a woman in Potomac who works with children and young adults on the autism spectrum. There's a man and two women (separate offices) in Bethesda who diagnosis ASDs. Another woman in Columbia who specifes children and adults. That's one minute on Google, ignoring the list of orginzations (which would expand the list to Baltimore, Rockville, Silver Spring, Frederick, and Westminster, and some of those also specify adults). There are places and people around; you just have to specifically look for them. As for payment, you'd be surprised at what some can do. For what a dx brings, you can get assistance if needed, and it helps focus any therapies that come afterwards.

it sounds so easy that everyone should be able to get a dx by a qualified professional if they only put a minimal amount of energy into it.

I did a google search when I started as well, for my decently large metro area. I found 2 people who would assess adults, after dozens of phone calls. both charged between $1000-1500. after even more phone calls, I eventually found one person who's covered by my insurance. that's right, ONE person, in my entire area, can assess spectrum adults and take my insurance. my insurance is good, too, definitely above average.

by the time I get to the appointment in 2 weeks, it will have taken over three months, and I'd say I'm one of the lucky ones. I know people who need assessments who can't afford them, so won't be able to get a dx. doesn't mean they don't have AS.

I've had bad experiences with a lot more than one therapist. I've had bad experiences with most of the therapists I've seen, and decent experiences with a few. Not stellar, not life-changing, not particularly helpful. Decent experiences with a few.


You're lucky that she actually did. Unfortunatly, most of the time they'll say "let me do some research on that" and in the mean time, let you keep paying them $150 an hour to make you uncomfortable.


Right.. so if I drive 2.5 hours, I may be able to find someone who will make them revoke my driver's license? I've fumbled through some websites, looked at a few places, but just because you find those people listed doesn't mean that they take new patients or charge less than $4000 for a diagnosis. And there's a reason I so rarely drive.. I hate it! You're making it sound like all those people who show up on google are easy options. Maybe it's been easy for you, but my heart jumps into my throat every time the phone rings, because I never manage to successfully talk to on the phone. It's not exactly a matter of just picking up the phone, making a call, and driving two and a half hours to the appointment. Not to mention that if the specialists are two and a half hours away, I'm then stuck driving two and a half hours for every one of those "therapies" that probably don't exist anyway. Not that I'd be able to do that, because they'd have revoked my license for getting the diagnosis in the first place.

Har de har har.

I find that a number of professionals don't know much about AS in adults, and are reluctant to, or refuse to, diagnose people over the age of 15. I was 20 when Asperger's Syndrome made it into the DSM, thus becoming a possible diagnosis. As a child I got all sorts of 'what's wrong with him?' special treatment, including social-skills classes, etc, and a psuedo-diagnosis of 'gifted, but emotionally disturbed.' At eighteen I got an "oh god get him out of here so the college doesn't have to pay for his mental health-care" diagnosis of 'Schizotypal, no wait, nothing wrong with you, you just can't handle the stress. Drop out, that'll cure it.' AS fits a lot better, in my opinion. And that of my shrink, who doesn't diagnose autism. Right now I have a diagnosis of depression and anxiety because that's what I need to get the meds that help me. I am not about to pay $120, or even $50, and go meet a new shrink, for an official diagnosis that won't do squat for me in the practical. And I sure as hell won't do it to avoid 'trivializing' the experiences of some self-righteous little puppy who has the gall to suppose that I identified myself as having AS because I think it's nifty.

You live at least 2 and a half hours away from every city I listed? And I forgot to list one in Chevy Chase; he also works with adults on the autism spectrum.

There is a good possibility that some won't take new patients or will charge a lot. There's also a good possibility that if you can't go to one, they'll refer you to another one. As with many services, they tend to know one another, at least by reputation. I don't actually find phone calls to be easy; in fact, I use the phone only if I have to, and I really only answer for my mother. Every single one I listed has a public email address that they can be contacted through. I do all of my contacting through email; if it doesn't have an email, it's not somewhere I'm willing to go to.

Edit: Oh, and you mentioned yourself that it's unlikely that they'd revoke your driver's license. I strongly suspect that they mean Austistic Disorder anyway, and as you noted, it's for a revoked license or getting a permit, neither of which would apply to you.

Bhetti - it's not all that easy, but it can be done.

If they are talking about autistic disorder, that put me in a very bad situation

Not necessarily. If you have a license or permit all ready, it won't apply unless you get your license revoked. If you don't, it sounds like all you have to do is request and send the asked for information before you go to get your permit. Assuming you're not low functioning, I doubt you'll have to do anything more to be approved. I suspect it's more for people who are too low functioning, much like the bipolar and schizophrenic points.

Lemme make sure I got this right. You're asking only those people who thought it was worth getting a "professional" diagnosis whether they think it's worth getting a "professional" diagnosis. Did I miss something?

Might help if you clarified which "professionals" you're referring to. Are you talking about the professionals who say we memorize bus schedules and we can't understand jokes, or the professionals who say we have extreme male brains, or the professionals who make lots of money by saying we're abusive in relationships?

I know it's not easy, but I wouldn't go as far as assume it "can be done" in every situation, since there are undetermined financial and logistical variables for every case, not to mention availability of qualified professionals. far too much generalizing for my taste.

Bravo CanyonWind.

You seem to think you're listing a bunch of cities that are spread out so that at least some of them are accessible from anywhere in the state. That's not the case; most of the "cities" you've listed aren't cities, they're all on top of each other.
And working with adults on the spectrum and making a diagnosis aren't the same thing. May of them require actually working with the person. Which would, of course, be ideal, but between prices and driving times, it's pretty unrealistic.
(BTW, "Fredrick" is not the same as "Prince Frederick" Prince Frederick is where my psychiatrist is, 45min-1hour away. Frederick is eve farther north and west than Bethesda and all those places.)
Driving around DC is also not pleasant. I manage driving in the middle of nowhere. Driving through the DC beltway is really not an option.
Maybe it was easy for you to find somebody, but it's exceptionally difficult for me, and it seems to me like the chances of finding someone decent are far less than the chances of finding more professionals who I'll have nightmares about.
(Um, I'm not sure if I'm actually allowed to post a map showing where I live, nor am I particularly comfortable with it, but I don't know how else to illustrate that the places you're listing really are not very accessible from where I am. I'll probably modify this post later to take out the map.)

Or maybe you're right. Maybe I'm just a loser with no real problems.

Here's my opinion:

If you were to objectively self-diagnose, list all of your symptoms whatever they are and cross reference them with the various conditions for which they manifest. Do some research. That is, answer the question: "what possible conditions could I have?" You may end of with a list of possible explanations (conditions). Go through each condition and ask further questions: "do I also have these other symptoms (associated with that condition)?" "which ones don't I have?" "why?" - eventually leading to "do I have this condition?" YES or NO? After this exhaustive inquiry do you beyond all reasonable doubt end up with the conclusion "I definitely have Aspergers"? YES or NO. or, MAYBE SO?

If YES or MAYBE SO, conduct another extensive inquiry in order to try and disprove the diagnosis. Be honest.

If a doctor offered you the diagnosis of AS, would you willing to fight him tooth and nail and say "no, you must be wrong, it has to be something else" the way you might if told you had something life threatening?

The problem I see, just my opinion and no offense to those actually diagnosed but just those considering, is that it has an immediate comfort zone effect (to be able to say you have AS), so wishful thinking has to be rooted out. Excuses are not explanations.