Aspies For Freedom

I'm currently self diagnosed but trying to get an official DX.

What are the advantages and disadvantages from your point of view?

If you're self DX, how you deal with your problems in terms of social situations, study, work etc?  If you explain to your employer or place of study, are they happy to just accept what you say?  Or do they want some kind of medical 'proof' like an official letter supporting what you're saying about your diagnosis?

If you're officially diagnosed, how has it helped?  Have any problems arisen from your diagnosis?

I think I was actually diagnosed 20 years ago but I just disgarded it and forgot about it.   I really did not understand any about autism or aspergers.  I did not feel that having a diagnosis for any neurodivisity/mental disorder/whatever could help me.  Since the psychologist told me it could not be "fixed".  

I forgot about my diagnosis until a few months ago.  I was reading in the library a very interesting book about learning disabilities in children.  The chapter on Asperger's was too real.  I started to research on the net.  I found this site and some self diagnosis tests.  I actually remember the psychologist giving me similar tests.  

I can not get an official letter saying I have Asperger's.  The psychologist that diagnosed me has retired.  The head of the clinic told me they only keep records for ten years and then they are destroyed.  They do not give out information about their clients.  

It is just extremely odd that someone seems to be going around and telling people that I have AS.  I have never discussed my diagnosis with anyone except on the internet, not even my husband.  

But I remember a few years ago something odd happened.  I was working at a new "temp" agency.  They had a meeting that I was excluded from.  I could hear "but she has a mental disability".  I did not know who they were talking about.  Afterward a woman can up to be and asked me to multiply a three digit number by a four digit.  I offered her my calculator.  Then she said "I just wanted to see if you could do math in your head.  Someone told me that you were *** like the guy in Rainman movie."   So I suspect that either one of my former employers or my husband is telling people that I have AS without my knowledge and without my permission.  This happened before I came to this board.

I am thinking of disclosing my AS when I apply to certain employers if it is an advantage.  I am not sure if there is some program the government runs that gives money to employers who hire those with disabilities.  I think that self-identifing AS is permitted for that category.  I do not think that I will have to present proof of my AS.  If I do, I will ask them how can I get another diagnosis.   They would have to help me with my areas of difficulty due to my AS.

I can understand people not wanting to get an official diagnosis if they have children.  

I felt somewhat doomed until someone here pointed out that communication and interpersonal skills are "skills" and they can be learned.  So now I am trying to improve my skills so I can get a good job and keep it.

I have self diagnosed over the last 5 years (I'm 46) I'm seeking a diagnosis partly because of the impact of my autism on my relationships, partly because of problems at work and partly for self-validation. Currently I have strong support from a counsellor in my employer's occupational health department, and also I've seen one of her doctor colleagues who thinks I have 'signficant traits'. He has referred me to private psychiatrist, with substantial learning difficulties experience and, I believe good understanding of autism, for an assessment (paid for by my employers) to see wether she recommends a diagnosis. Then it a question of whether my employers will pay for the full diagnosis or I have to do battle with the NHS and my GP...

I'm very iterested in whether psychologists and psychiatrists who understand autism believe that there are many 'false' self diagnoses, its seems to me that the less a professional understands about autism the more they seem to distrust self-diagnosis.

Clearly he's an Aspie!  :lol:

Oi. The era of choosing from Psychoanalysis, ECT, or Lobotomies.

After studying lobotomies and the history of them a bit, I find that despite it  was a more invasive method than ol' Freudy's couch I prefer the idea of it more. Not because it removed small sections of the brains, twisted them around and shoved them back in or went in through the eye socket (ew) but because it did not blame the patient but said everything was due to the brain and malfunctioning.

Now, I am not a proponent of psychosurgery, Prefrontal or Transorbital, don't get me wrong (except for those epileptics who need it of course and some others) but I like the IDEAS that flowed from that type of treatment. No blame. No fridge mothers. And definitely NO FREUD.

"I was pressured into getting an official DX by my boss at work after I told her I probably have AS. I've been working for her for over 10 years so she knew something was different about me. "

Does your work get money for employing people with "disability".  I can see that as the only reason for wanting an official Dx.    

Wow, ten years with the same employer.  At most I have managed 1 1/2 yrs without getting laid off or quitting.  Now, I can't find any work, period.

The place I work at doesn't get money for employing the disabled. After I got my dx and my psychologist wrote a letter to my boss, she sent it to the HR dept.  A few months later a memo was sent out with the subject line: Individuals with Diabilities Policy Statement.  I don't think this was an issue they had much concern with until I got my dx.

I've been working at the same place since I graduated college or uni as people in the UK like to call it, since 1989.  Losing my current job really scares me because I don't think I could work anywhere else.  I couldn't get past the interview.

It's good that you've sort of entrenched yourself in your job.  I was like that but then I started abusing my power.  Now at work they have an outside consultant who does most of the programming.  I still can however do some things quicker and cheaper and that's why I'm still around.  I do all the software upgrades on our main system an IBM i-series (formerly AS/400).

You're familiar with this system? I've haven't met many who are.

I think Amway is a cult.

I think that it does have features of a cult (it does exist in Britain, but not on the scale it does in the states)

people higher up the pyramid build feelings of dependence in people lower down the pyramid,

people who get sucked into it have to give up their lives to it, amway sales people are encouraged to treat every contact as a sales opportunity,  if your have ever had anything to do with people who are involved they only ever talk about amway

sales people have to recruit (convert in religious terms) new salespeople

it is sold, in messianic terms, as a 'life changing' opportunity to become rich, whilst in fact the only way you can become rich is by exploiting people further down the pyramid than you, nobody becomes rich from selling things only from feeding off the sales other people make and in order for a small minority of sales people to become rich there have to be lots of people who work hard for very little money.

I'm happy I got an official diagnosis of Aspergers but wish I could find out exactly how severe it is. It seems to me that some people are still pressuring me to "change" and pretend to be something I'm not.

They can't handle dealing with people who have sensory issues and social communication issues. I wish there had been a diagnosis when I was 18 as a lot of problems could then have been avoided. Mind you, back then, very little was known about anything but classical autism.

What is tricky is that mild autism might indeed not be a disability but in our society with its expectations of competition, sociability, falseness and the like, it operates as a disability. That is why I think having HFA and not being able to keep a job should be grounds for granting an invalid pension.

Continually getting knockbacks and suffering discrimination in the workplace would sooner or later lead to stress related illnesses anyway. Why not save these people this aggravation in the first place? Of course, you would have to have well qualified and experienced people to do the assessments.

Generally if an AS person is able to access the disability pension, it is because of co-morbid conditions such as clinical depression and bipolar disorder.

Sorry, I was mostly referring to Aspergers and High Functioning autism and making the point that it could have been easier years ago to fit into society if you were at the higher end of the spectrum.