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People who self-diagnose gaining access to services

Shek

A major autism organisation is giving access to groups/services for adults with Asperger's and high functioning autism to adults who self-diagnose.

Those who self-diagnose are highly motivated, unlike many adults with autism where motivation can be an issue.  They are more likely to attend groups than those with significant problems. These self-diagnosed adults as service users have a say in how services are run.  In this organisation, they want groups set up that exclude those with Asperger's and high functioning autism who have more problems than they do.

This mirrors what has happened in some online groups for people with Asperger's that have been dominated by those desperately seeking a diagnosis.

What other condition allows those that self-diagnose to be given access to services?  It could be argued that everyone as some autisitic traits i.e. is on the autism spectrum.  But surely the point of diagnosis is to identify those that are in need of support services.  To be given a diagnosis, there must be 'significant impairment'.  Many of those desperate for a diagnosis do not meet the criterea.  For many 'Asperger's Syndrome' seems a trendy diagnosis - it doesn't have the baggage of many conditions linked to the mind/brain.  They have little awarenees of the many difficulties faced by those living with Asperger's/high functioning autism.

I believe allowing people who self-diagnose access to services makes diagnosis meaningless.  In the long term, it is likely to have a negative affect on funding for services for adults.

What are your thoughts?

 

Parents

  • Reading through this considerable number of replies has left me quite agitated.  Personally I am not diagnosed by the NHS with autism.  My recollection is that they have me diagnosed with something far more bizarre and harmful which I am certain is an inappropriate diagnosis.  I don't have the time to be going to the doctor to finesse every detail of my diagnosis though.  As it is I go to a doctor that I have to walk four miles to reach unless I want to take several buses and take the extremely cicuitous road route.  I don't think I have seen the same doctor twice in the last two years.  The closest they have come to making any kind of successful diagnosis on me is when they almost killed me with statins 6 months ago.

    I spent most of my life in bedsits and squats, eating out of bins when I didn't have any money until I was forced to start taking medication when things got too bad.  Since then I have got a first class law degree and unlike most people my age I seem to be finding it easier and easier to learn.  I am not highly paid but I am doing work that I enjoy.  I am able to communicate fairly well with people and some of my symptoms are the polar opposite of what are considered to be normal Asperger's syndrome symptoms.  However, I have the internet at my fingertips and I have the evidence all around me.  I know that the issue I have is a high functioning autism issue.  I also know that the majority of doctors are no more intelligent than anyone else.  In fact due to being general practitioners their knowledge of specific conditions is necessarily as a consequence limited.

    I don't want to waste the time to go through series of tests to prove that I have one specific condition rather than others.  I have an intellectual understanding of all the issues surrounding my ability to interract with the rest of the world.  What I do not have is the strength to leave my house to do anything other than work and obtain food.  

    I know I am not alone in this.  All across the country/world there are incredibly intelligent people who are able to research and understand intricate psychological and neurophysiological conditions and huge numbers of them are trapped in dingy houses feeling incredibly lonely because the only people they meet when they do go outside are nothing like them.  I am sure a lot of them feel like they are the only person in the world that is the way they are. If people like this have a flag under which they can gather their strength and find other people out there in the world who they can relate to and understand then they should be allowed to do that without having to jump through hoops for some overworked doctor who has got far more important things to be doing with his time, such as stopping people from dying.

Reply

  • Reading through this considerable number of replies has left me quite agitated.  Personally I am not diagnosed by the NHS with autism.  My recollection is that they have me diagnosed with something far more bizarre and harmful which I am certain is an inappropriate diagnosis.  I don't have the time to be going to the doctor to finesse every detail of my diagnosis though.  As it is I go to a doctor that I have to walk four miles to reach unless I want to take several buses and take the extremely cicuitous road route.  I don't think I have seen the same doctor twice in the last two years.  The closest they have come to making any kind of successful diagnosis on me is when they almost killed me with statins 6 months ago.

    I spent most of my life in bedsits and squats, eating out of bins when I didn't have any money until I was forced to start taking medication when things got too bad.  Since then I have got a first class law degree and unlike most people my age I seem to be finding it easier and easier to learn.  I am not highly paid but I am doing work that I enjoy.  I am able to communicate fairly well with people and some of my symptoms are the polar opposite of what are considered to be normal Asperger's syndrome symptoms.  However, I have the internet at my fingertips and I have the evidence all around me.  I know that the issue I have is a high functioning autism issue.  I also know that the majority of doctors are no more intelligent than anyone else.  In fact due to being general practitioners their knowledge of specific conditions is necessarily as a consequence limited.

    I don't want to waste the time to go through series of tests to prove that I have one specific condition rather than others.  I have an intellectual understanding of all the issues surrounding my ability to interract with the rest of the world.  What I do not have is the strength to leave my house to do anything other than work and obtain food.  

    I know I am not alone in this.  All across the country/world there are incredibly intelligent people who are able to research and understand intricate psychological and neurophysiological conditions and huge numbers of them are trapped in dingy houses feeling incredibly lonely because the only people they meet when they do go outside are nothing like them.  I am sure a lot of them feel like they are the only person in the world that is the way they are. If people like this have a flag under which they can gather their strength and find other people out there in the world who they can relate to and understand then they should be allowed to do that without having to jump through hoops for some overworked doctor who has got far more important things to be doing with his time, such as stopping people from dying.

Children
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