Aspies For Freedom

Basically, the only reason to seek an official diagnosis is if you feel the need for counselling or support services. For many people, realising the diagnosis fits them has come long after they have ceased to need these services - for example, parents of autistic children often realise that they are autistic or aspie after finding out that their children are on the spectrum, but by this stage they may be in a relationship, have a steady job, and/or generally happy with their life - so no counselling required. Autism often has positives as well as negatives, and for many people, once their initial adjustment to the world is complete, they do not require anything more.

Also, some people only want the diagnosis as a tool for self-examination, so the effort required for a professional diagnosis is overkill.

There are also some people with real issues that don't seek services that they should, but these people are generally in the minority.

As far as disbelieving diagnoses recieved from professionals, the main issue is the difficulties in being able to see a specialist - quite often, to see a specialist, a referral from a non-specialist is required, but these people often do not have correct information. For example, people have been told they do not have aspergers or autism because they are in a relationship, because they made eye contact, or even because the psychologist "doesn't think the label is helpful".

As far as the autistic community goes, person first terminology implies that one thing can be seperated from the other (i.e. autism from the person). The reason "autistic" and "aspie" are used is that they are identifiers.

For example, I don't "have" aspergers, in the same way that I don't "have" maleness - I am aspie, in the same way that I am male.

The term disorder isn't really appreciated much on the site, as part of the purpose of the site is to state that autism is a natural neurological variation, rather than a disorder.

Glad to hear it - take care!

I agree completely - except to say that for people that don't feel they require counselling, support services, or another form of psychiatric help, an official diagnosis can be "overkill". Many people just look into aspergers or autism as a form of self-understanding, and don't really need anything more than that.

If anyone feels that they need actual psychological or medical help with issues, the official diagnosis road is a much better one to take. Also, I second the above statement that people shouldn't take medical advice over the internet in lieu of actual professional help.

Even if you are only looking to self-diagnose, I wouldn't trust online assessments too much - they're very good tools to start asking yourself questions, but don't rely too much on the "final score" being accurate.

Nah, I don't think you did. I thought we'd scared him off the first time around, but it seems like it's more a case of him only checking in every week or so.

It sounds like he's pretty busy, so he probably read through the thread fairly quickly - I think if he ever gets the chance to sit down and digest it all, he'll understand what we're saying.

Not familiar with the term. Is the Cambridge AAA model Simon Baron-Cohen's Autism Quotient (AQ) test?

10 minutes are pretty standard for med checks. What I do is to always schedule hour appointments. (My initial consultation was 90 minutes.)

The problem is that most younger psychiatrists are poorly trained in doing psychotherapy. My psychiatrist is in his 60s, which I prefer.

He was extremely unhappy in the assisted living facility (including hitting staff who tried to help him), and he was behaving inappropriately toward women (both staff and residents). That is all gone. For the most part, he is back to his old self (such as it is).