Self-Diagnosed Asperger's Syndrome

In My Humble Opinion
1

Asperger’s Syndrome is one of several development disorders on the autism spectrum. Because it’s a spectrum disorder, there doesn’t seem to be any ‘stereotypical’ person with Asperger’s, but a wide variety of characteristics, usually including impairment in social interaction.

Before I even begin: I do not doubt Asperger’s Syndrome and autism exist. I do not doubt they can be difficult or challenging conditions to live with. I am not denying the validity of proper medical diagnoses, or suggesting that people with Asperger’s or autism somehow lack human worth.

In the last few years, I have observed that discussion of Asperger’s has become more prevalent, at least on the internet, and indeed, general recognition of autism in general has increased. Coupling with this I’ve seen a number of discussion groups, support networks, and informative websites appear. Searching on just “Asperger’s Syndrome”, I find that Livejournal alone has 52 communities focused on everything from parents with autism, to GLBT autistics, to relationships between “aspies” and “neurotypicals”. A great many of the people identifying as Asperger’s seem to be self-diagnosed. On alt.support.autism, I find a sampling:

Hi, I’m new to this group, a self-diagnosed Aspie.
I am a 31 year old self diagnosed Aspie female. I don’t know if I will ever get an official dx. I don’t like doctors.
I have a 6 yo son with an AS diagnosis and I myself am a self-diagnosed Aspie.
As a recently self-diagnosed Aspie…
I am largely “self-diagnosed”…I haven’t had any luck getting it verified, because I haven’t been to a professional experienced enough with AS yet to see past my “mask of normalcy”. Generally I get told I have phobias or that “you don’t have this problem” even without any review of my family history or past.

And so on. These self-diagnoses worries me. How someone be confident enough to diagnose themselves with an autism disorder, when that person may have little to no medical training, much less psychiatric or autism experience? Surely it would be both more logical and more productive to get an analysis from a medical professional, who can gauge not only the extent of the autism (if any exists in that particular person) but also suggest therapies and methods for coping and interacting with the non-autistic world. I can’t imagine it’s a smart idea to self-diagnose yourself with leukemia, or schizophrenia, or manic-depression, or Acanthocytosis, either.

Possessing one or more stereotypical autistic trait, such as shyness or mathematical ability, does not automatically make someone autistic. Asperger’s and autism are complicated syndromes. It’s not as easy as saying, “I have sympton A, I must have syndrome B.” You may very well have syndrome B, but surely it’s a good idea to get a diagnosis from a medical professional who can accurately and positively identify you.

2

They just want to be able to say,
“I’m not a loser! I have asperger’s! I don’t know how to socially interact with people!”*
“My kid has Apserger’s. That makes him smarter than your kid.”
I taught a kid with Autism two weeks ago. He cried 3 times in an hour. I think that’s a record for me. Suffice to say, I didn’t mean to make him cry. But it is hard to teach an Autistic kid something when he’s in a different room, place, time and with a different tutor than usual.

*Not to say people with Asperger’s are losers.

3

Part of the problem is that many people do not have access to a qualified medical professional to make an accurate diagnosis. That’s a common problem in many places, especially with psychiatric illnesses. Even if cost and medical insurance were not issues, there are nowhere near enough qualified medical professionals to diagnose and treat every person with a problem.

4

Let’s take an example.
Someone looks at the DSM-IV Asperger’s criterion and compares this to their friend.
You need to meet items A, B, C, D, E and F for a positive diagnosis.
You need two traits from item A. The friend has 3, arguably 4 of those.
You need at least one trait from item B. The friend has 1, arguable 3 of those.
The friend inarguably meets items C, D, E and F.

Is there actually any doubt that your friend has Asperger’s?
If you need a mental health professional, you should see one, but there’s no reason to not realize something staring you in the face.

5

Yes. Your friend could have some other condition that looks like Asperger’s but has additional symptoms that are relevant to a diagnosis.

6

A, B, C, D, E, and F are standing in for medical terms that a layman might not have enough experience to accurately apply.

***A layman might think that a temperature of 99 or 100 degrees consisted of a “fever” when looking at a diagnostic checklist, but a trained physician might want something more in order to be satisfied that their patient is suffering from that symptom for the purpose of a diagnosis.

Sure, we all know that such a small rise over normal temperature could be accounted for by other things, and wouldn’t really call that a “fever.” But when it comes to psychological symptoms, there are no thermometers, and unlike with a fever, laymen don’t even have enough homegrown wisdom and experience to self-diagnose the symptoms.

I say this as a hypochondriac who can look at the DSM-IV TR and diagnose myself with almost anything.

***IANAD, so sorry if my analogy is a little messed up.

7

A few years ago I had strep throat. I knew I had strep throat, because my wife and daughter also had strep throat, and I had the same symptoms that arose at the same time. However to get the $5 worth of penicilin that I needed I had to spend $240 at the doctors, because he had to run a culture, and there was the visit fee, and the shot itself was like $45, for $5 worth of penicilin. I understand the doc has overhead, and has to pay for his training and all, but sometimes I just don’t need the opinion of a trained medical to tell me what is going on with me.

My daughter has Asperger’s, diagnosed by a professional. The reasons for the diagnosis are for all the ways she’s like me. Asperger’s didn’t exist when I was a kid, so at that point I was just a geek. Today, I self identify as Asperger’s, mostly, I guess, to be like my daughter. So what? Why should I spend a bunch of cash to get a shrink to professionally confirm this when I’m not even needing $5 worth of penicilin.

I guess I just don’t get why this bothers you.

8

No, it’s a good one. One thing psychiatrists learn during training is how to assess a sign or symptom in terms of its severity in the context of the whole personality. It’s a learned skill.

Somebody could read a DSM-IV and identify enough personality and emotional traits to diagnose themselves with most of the conditions in it. Fortunately, nobody’s messed up enough to have every disorder in the book. :slight_smile:

It’s also true that some conditions are so obvious that anybody can correctly identify them (“Well, Dad was never diagnosed an alcoholic, but I never saw him without a drink in his hand before he keeled over and died of liver failure.”) OK, for history purposes let’s call him an alcoholic. It’s a reasonable assumption.

I’ve known many people who said, “When they told me my son had ADD and he got so much better on treatment, I realized that I was the same way all my life but I just thought I was stupid.” Self-diagnosis, but right on the mark. They weren’t stupid; they actually had the condition that we now have a name for, and they can, if they wish, get treatment that lets them function better.

So, probably most of the self-diagnosed Aspies are correct, some have confused normal traits with pathologic ones, and a few have some other disorder they haven’t looked up yet. Feeling supported by other people who understand can be therapeutic.

If it’s not enough, make an appointment with me and we’ll go through all kinds of interview questions and then I can give a real genuine certified medical diagnosis. :smiley:

Ragiel, M.D.

9

Glad to see a doctor checking in, Ragiel. On the other hand, isn’t it possible that they really are just stupid? I don’t, of course, mean to suggest that everyone who self-identifies as ADD is wrong; no doubt they’re often absolutely correct and can benefit from treatment. But there are also a lot of people who are, to put it in medical terms, simply one taco short of a combo platter.

I think Mississippienne (love that username, btw) is suggesting that a self-diagnosis of Asperger’s, while it can be useful if correct, can also serve to legitimize simple shyness or introversion. Having a seemingly “scientific” excuse to avoid human interaction could, I would think, lead to staying home more, which could reinforce the “terminally unique” self-image, which could lead to staying home even more, etc., etc. That way lies real agoraphobia.

(IANAD. But a buddy of mine dated a nurse once.)

10

Diagnosing oneself with the DSM-IV came up in the Borderline Personality thread, too. Many symptoms of personality disorders bear resemblance to normal personality traits. Who isn’t, for example, sometimes selfish, or sometimes intensely angry? But there is a big difference between normal, healthy expression of negative emotion, and the warped behaviors of the mentally disturbed. I grew up with a schizophrenic brother, and it wasn’t a matter of a bad temper, he was crazy. Between the paranoia, insane rages, and hearing things that weren’t there, my brother didn’t seem to be on this planet. I fully understand why in ancient times people would’ve thought he had a demon in his skull.

Now, I’m not saying that having autism is the same as having a psychotic disorder. But I can’t imagine that it’s any smarter to dub yourself as an Asperger’s when you may be completely wrong, or have another condition that requires different treatment.

11

What all these people seem to miss is that one of the basic rules of diagnosing mental illnesses like Asbergers is that all the symptoms must be observed by somoene else.

I don’t like how Asberger’s has become the trendy mental disorder du jour, I’ve known two people with it and they were frickin’ WEIRD. As in, it’s pretty unmistakable once you know what to look for and it’s not something that everyone who can’t make friends easily has.

12

Personality disorders are really hard for medical students to get a handle on because the character traits are the same they see in healthy folks. I’ve explained it like this:

[professor hat on] Most people have a repertoire of coping styles. We can be very picky when we think it’s very important to get something right. We get all suspicious and paranoid when something just feels wrong. We can believe in horoscopes and lucky charms. We can be very black/white when it’s important to put things in categories. We can completely depend on somebody who’s better equipped to do something.

Personality-disordered people have only one or two ways to handle problems, and they use those ways for everything, whether it helps or not. Nine times out of ten, it’s the wrong approach, doesn’t work, annoys people, and leaves the person with no alternatives feeling helpless, frustrated and angry. But they can’t learn to be more flexible because the capability just isn’t there.

Just to make things harder, severe depression can hamper the ability to switch modes. And people with personality disorders are depressed a lot because they get treated like major pains in the butt by everyone they encounter. [/professor]
(Student suddenly develops strong interest in surgical specialty.)

Jackelope, I wish “Stupid” was a listed diagnosis. It would have all the same diagnostic problems, but it would just feel so right at times. :wink:

Ragiel, M.D.

13

Concur.

As far as self-diagnosis: depends on what you do with the info.

If you read the criteria and say “hey, that sounds like me. So that’s why I feel so weird” then get on with your life, cool. Or if you seek appropriate professional confirmation / help, to help you get on with your life, also cool.

if you read the criteria and say “hey, that sounds like me” and try to use it as a “get out of obligations free” card, not cool. :dubious:

Papa Zappa and I can make pretty good cases for being Aspies ourselves. At least borderline so. Based on our reading when Dweezil was diagnosed, we both had those “aha!” moments about our own lives. No real benefit to our pursuing expert opinions on the matter, it’s just something that helps us understand ourselves. Meanwhile, we get on with our lives.

14

I agree with what several others have said: if self-diagnosis is used for the purpose of excuse making, it sucks. Over the years, there have been many “fad” illnesses that people have hung their troubles on. In the '70s, there was a big wave of self-diagnosed hypoglycemia. In the '80s, there was an upsurge of self-diagnosed learning disorders. In the '90s, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome were the self-diagnosed conditions du jour. It angers me that people who have diagnosed themselves with these illnesses are sometimes taken as seriously as those who have sought medical attention, and who are receiving treatment. If everybody and his dog has Asperger’s (just because they, like damn near everyone on earth, have a few of the symptoms), that trivializes the very real problem of this condition.

15

Dunno about that there, Pinkfreud.
When I discovered I had a gob of traits for Asperger’s, I used that knowledge to begin working on minimalizing the impact of the negative traits.
I also ran the idea past my therapists. Every one of them seems to ignore the idea, and most of them appear to reach for the DSM-IV. I’d say 2 out of 3 are a whee bit ignorant of the topic.
While Asperger’s doesn’t respond to any medication, some of the negative issues can be positively affected by education.
“Geez… I should observe people’s faces while they’re talking in order to get a clue as to how they feel about what they’re talking about? Never knew that.”
“Wow! I mess up friendships by talking non-stop about PC motherboards circa 1997-2000 and computer operating system architecture? Didn’t know that!”
In the end, I don’t really care if I have it or not. I have some tools to help me live my life in a fashion that helps me more and hurts others less, and that’s a big help to me and those around me.

16

I apologize if I sounded snarky. I have grappled with mental illness all my life, and I don’t mean to brush off the seriousness of mental and neurological problems. You obviously are not using your self-diagnosis for the purpose of making excuses. You aren’t one of the folks who has seized upon a convenient set of symptoms in order to explain away various personal and social shortcomings. But hooboy, have I run into a lot of those folks lately. Between Asperger’s and Indigo Children, it sometimes seems as if few people are responsible for their behavior anymore. :rolleyes:

17

Because when you say, “I’m self-diagnosed.” for a psychological disorder it lessens the social validity of the disorder. Why should the public believe Asperger’s is a true problem when anyone can say they have Aspergers, because they say they do?

whistlepig

18

I take responsibility for my actions. I discovered about a decade ago that society will hold me responsible for them, whether or not I think I’m responsible or not.
I make my own luck.
One question…
Indigo Children? WTF?

19

As far as I can tell, it’s the new-agey spin on brattiness. Indigo children don’t go along with authority, and they’re creative. Like, you know, children.

Personally, I simply don’t understand why people have so much confidence in their ability to objectively observe and analyze their own behavior, simply because you can’t view your own actions with the perspective of an outsider. It puzzles me that so many people think they’re able to make those determinations without a professional’s help.

20

Pretty much.

Imagine you observe that certain children (in fact, the vast majority of kids today) are hyperactive, overly assertive, creative, and with a sense of entitlement.

Imagine that instead of talking about parenting trends, disorders such as ADD, or even just saying “kids will be kids”, you instead say that these children are space aliens come to elevate humanity to the next level.

The “Indigo” comes from their auras. :smack:

So, yeah, bullcrap of the highest order.