Pro: You know what you are: An ND (and damn proud of it!)
Though the labelling is a con, if people do that to me before i get to know them, then i wouldn't like them anyways. So i treat that as a pro. (I was raised with the belief that there is no such thing as difference.)
The one con i may find in getting an official diagnosis in some countries is that goverment officials may try to shift symptomes of other, physical issues onto your Asperger's diagnosis.
con: labelling
pro: you understand yourself better to get direction in life
personal advice would be to keep a dx confidential as much as possible
Having said that, I do want a formal diagnosis because I want to be able to 'come out' as Aspie, and what with the whole 'not lying' trait, I'd feel somewhat of a fraud, because at the moment, the few people I do tell, I feel as though I can't really say it with any conviction.
Also, I'm in the process of trying to get a formal diagnosis somewhat under protest, because I have a problem with medicalising AS, I mean it's like being homosexual in the 1950s and 1960s in England, people were 'diagnosed' as gay.
I just want people to be able to come out Aspie, to being neurologically different.
i can't really answer this question since i was diagonsed at three (high functioning), but with this whole autism registry coming out, i may have it avoided if i have autistic kids so they do not become persucted by the goverment for being themselves. it just despises me that people like can and the like are trying to value autstic people as less of a person than non autistic people, and until these groups are reformed, they will continue to push their adgenda to make sure we lose all our rights and are forced to ethier become normal or be elimated. i sure hope the goverment doesn't get in the bed with these types.
wrong thing on this forum, but did the combating autism act go through? i hope it didn't, becuase that would mean the goverment would be combating it's citizens, the ones they are supposed to protect.
Is a diagnosos a pro or a con? Today I'm very sceptical about the idea that telling one's peers that one has an autism diagnosis will make them more sympathetic. I went down to the school to pick up the kids, and I walked past the kindy and pre-primary playground where kids were playing. My ears pricked up when I heard a little girl mention the word "autistic". This year the school has admitted some kids with autism diagnoses to the early years classes to try to integrate them with the "normals". The next thing I heard was a group of dear little kids chanting in unison a nasty tease "Where are your pants stupid boy, where are your pants stupid boy etc etc". Yep, it was open season on all autistics in the kindy playground today! It reminds me of my own school days. These kids knew this kid was autistic, and that just gave the NT brats another insulting label to throw at the outsider kid; "Autistic!" Every playground has always had one or three outsider kids in it, but nowadays those kids have official labels; AS, ADHD etc. How does this help these kids?
I myself have never sought a diagnosis. In my own particular case I don't see AS as being a mental illness or a disability, so I certainly wouldn't want to get a diagnosis to gain access to services that are a part of the mental health or disability infrastructures, in fact I'd walk a country mile to avoid involvement with these kinds of services.
No way in the world do I need an official diagnosis to confirm what I have known for decades, even before I knew anything about autism; that I am a different kind of person to the vast majority of people, that the differences are to do with body language, level of interest in socializing, level of interest in details and scientific stuff, logical versus emotional thinking style, and length of attention span (mine long, theirs short). I have always known that our type are generally unpopular, but often aren't too concerned. I knew I shared "it" with my husband and we were thrilled to find that we had passed "it" onto our kids. Then one day finally, after years of seeking the answer, realized what "it" is, and I thought "Wow, people want to cure "it"?"
Your sentiments are similar to mines. After a whole youth of feeling out of the loop, I've finally discovered the answer to my uniqueness. Even though, my brother has Autism, I never even considered the possibility that I too am on the Autistic spectrum. I now realize that I have Asperger's Disorder and am so happy to finally achieve some sense of closure on a childhood full of taunting, lack of interest in social cues, and the like.
If the government wants to monitor Aspies, why don't they monitor the psychopaths and sociopaths who have been gaining clout at our expense. Most school bullies fit that profile, and yet they are allowed to flourish.
Why isn't there an organization called "Cure Sociopathy Now"? Why hasn't someone declared war on Antisocial Personality Disorder? Why is everyone getting worked up into a lather about autism, while ignoring the conditions that really cause huge costs and damage to society as a whole?
I have to concede that the schools where I live are starting to take the issue of school bullying seriously, as they should, but the bullies are not stigmatized as having some mental disorder, while autistic kids are. I believe the reason why they are not labelled while we are is that autistics are a minority, while almost every kid acts in a bullying way at least a few times in their life, so bullies are too "normal" to be given a label of abnormality, because they are really the majority not a minority.
Lol, amen to that. There should definitely be a group specifically organized against psychopaths and sociopaths.
However, we must realize that they are not the majority, even though there may be more of them than us. The average person is unfortunately easily swayed by psycho's and socio's. That explains why they always say that they are the most persuasive people that you'll ever meet. So, with that in mind, the average person becomes a pawn in their horrendous schemes whenever they fail to recognize the warning signs. One sign that should be noticed is that people of that diagnosis always choose devisive tactics in order to make a point. So, if you have someone who's always trying to exalt their group while demonizing another, then you know you most likely have a psycho or socio on your hands.
As Aspies, we have to always look out for devisive measures designed to limit our freedoms as human beings. We are human just like everyone else. So, we have to always be wary of those who choose to dehumanize any human being.
Are there warning signs that people can follow? I could really do with knowing what they are, can you list them?
Well, in order to find out about psychopathy and sociopathy, you can google both of those terms, and there are countless resources available that describe what people should look out for.