Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello,
I'm new here because I am self-diagnosed. I wonder if that's okay? Is self-diagnosis valid?
Where I personally struggle is if those who self identify are using different criteria to those who are clinically diagnosed.
The RAADS-R formed part of my assessment.
So, if a person has completed that test and scored as probably autistic, I'd say that's a good starting point.
However, if a person is thinking they are because they have certain 'autistic' type qualities but it doesn't affect their life very deeply, I'd suggest look into it more.
For example, my husband is NT but hates change and is very disorientated when, lets say, rooms are moved around or plans are changed. That doesn't mean he is autistic.
If we have 2 sets of people using 2 different sets of criteria, which one is correct.
Not all roads lead to Rome (that's an old expression, in case anyone is confused).
Here is a link to some tests:
https://embrace-autism.com/autism-tests/
This is what Autism Hampshire calls the Triad of Impairment:
'Language and communication: difficulties in recognising and understanding verbal and non-verbal language, such as gestures, facial expressions and tone of voice.
Social Emotion: difficulties with recognising and understanding other people's feelings and managing their own.
Sensory Perception: Many autistic people experience some form of sensory sensitivity (hyper) or under-sensitivity (hypo). There are 7 senses - auditory, visual, touch, taste, smell, proprioception and vestibular.'
These 3 aspects of autism have greatly affected my life, detrimentally.
That said, I don't see why it's not OK to be here joining in even if a person wouldn't be clinically diagnosed, but identifies and shares aspects of autism.
I'm sticking my neck out here, and I'm sorry if I upset anyone, but I'm just being honest about my own personal viewpoint.
The terms 'valid' and 'perception' and 'identification' are used a lot nowadays and I'm probably 'old school' and think that something either is or isn't.
There probably is no right or wrong but it just bothers me (and you asked).
I am however just one member of a whole community, each of whom will have their own personal viewpoint.
I wish you well and hope you stay here.
Hi Debbie
I understand what you mean about people who have a couple of Autistic traits thinking they might be autistic, as it's a spectrum and many NT people will have some traits that are often listed as ND ones, such as a good long term memory, being observant, or disliking sudden change (like your husband)
I am self diagnosed - although a GP agreed with me, I haven't been referred for a formal diagnosis - but I thought you might be interested to know my test scores, which were: RAADS-R = 152 total and AQ50 = 46. Although I'm not worried about having a formal assessment, I wouldn't have felt comfortable to self-diagnose without those test scores to support my own assessment (although perhaps that's autistic black & white thinking? )
But as you say, there is nothing stopping anyone joining in on this forum who is interested in autism - NT, ND or not sure - the more people who learn about it the better
Pixiefox said:RAADS-R = 152 total and AQ50 = 46.
Thank you.
That's interesting - high scores.
I made a thread about the RAADS test once, which you might be interesting in:
https://community.autism.org.uk/f/adults-on-the-autistic-spectrum/28699/raads-r-diagnostic-scale
It's nice to meet you