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How do I get undiagnosed with Asperger's?

NAS78513

Hi, I'm a 24 YO man. I was diagnosed as a child and would like to get undiagnosed for a couple of reasons, firstly job prospects (I've always wanted to join the Army, which you can't do if you've got Asperger's, but you can if you can get yourself undiagnosed). Also, and I don't want to offend anyone, but I don't want the stigma of having it, I'd rather officially not have it, even if I do really, which I'm not sure about. They were saying at one point that I might not have it. Again, not trying to offend anyone, but I'm not one of these people who is proud of it, I respect other people's opinions, but to be honest I personally find having it embarrassing, even though I don't tell people, and I'd like to be "normal", at least officially. Anyway, how would I go about doing this, and how easy/difficult would it be? Thanks in advance.

Parents

  • To be honest,. This is comical,. You’re autistic or have autism and even on the ASD scale. So you say. Having a autistic diagnosis is not effecting your life. You’re clearly just blaming it.  I have my opinions regarding this post but I’m holding back. This isn’t stopping you joining the army, if it is, it’s the ASD it’s self, not the army, you’ve not tried.

  • in reply to Stephen

    Share them. I'm asking how to get undiagnosed, not just because I want to join the Army, but because I don't think I've got it. Even if I didn't want to join the Army, I'd want to get undiagnosed.

  • in reply to NAS78513

    There are only two possibilities here:

    1) You had some other issue as a kid and were misdiagnosed ASD. You've out grown whatever the initial issue was and it isn't doing you any good to have a misdiagnosis following you around. Any misdiagnosis about anything, if left uncorrected can be harmful to you. I get that and going through that in respect of something else myself.

    2) They got it right in the first place but you have a lot of coping strategies, have learned to do things differently in way in which you may not even recognise, and have 'masked' so well you appear not to be hindered socially any more as a result. I also absolutely see how that happens. I didn't play with other kids when small and was bullied in school, but in adulthood have had good friends. You have to dig to see the subtleties in my social difference now; the not getting jokes or losing the thread when a couple of conversations are going on at once, disinterest in dress codes etc The strategies can work so well it can make ASD appear invisible even to yourself. Had anyone said I was autistic a couple of years back, in my ignorance, I'd have said: 'don't be daft, I have a good many friends'.

    Either way, it sounds like you need a really thorough re-assessment and you need to be really brutally honest with the assessors and with yourself.

    At the end of the day it will ultimately be equally as harmful to you too leave the ASD diagnosis there, if you are not autistic, as to remove it if you are. You need the truth. Trying to deny the truth about yourself, whichever way this swings will in the end hurt you. The truth may not be what you initially want to hear, but will be in your interest.

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  • in reply to NAS78513

    There are only two possibilities here:

    1) You had some other issue as a kid and were misdiagnosed ASD. You've out grown whatever the initial issue was and it isn't doing you any good to have a misdiagnosis following you around. Any misdiagnosis about anything, if left uncorrected can be harmful to you. I get that and going through that in respect of something else myself.

    2) They got it right in the first place but you have a lot of coping strategies, have learned to do things differently in way in which you may not even recognise, and have 'masked' so well you appear not to be hindered socially any more as a result. I also absolutely see how that happens. I didn't play with other kids when small and was bullied in school, but in adulthood have had good friends. You have to dig to see the subtleties in my social difference now; the not getting jokes or losing the thread when a couple of conversations are going on at once, disinterest in dress codes etc The strategies can work so well it can make ASD appear invisible even to yourself. Had anyone said I was autistic a couple of years back, in my ignorance, I'd have said: 'don't be daft, I have a good many friends'.

    Either way, it sounds like you need a really thorough re-assessment and you need to be really brutally honest with the assessors and with yourself.

    At the end of the day it will ultimately be equally as harmful to you too leave the ASD diagnosis there, if you are not autistic, as to remove it if you are. You need the truth. Trying to deny the truth about yourself, whichever way this swings will in the end hurt you. The truth may not be what you initially want to hear, but will be in your interest.

Children
  • in reply to Dawn

    Well put.  Sorry you have had to go through misdiagnosis, I've read a few stories online and in social media about this.  Its difficult for professionals to look into us and work out what is going on, sometimes its the wrong questions, and people with autism may not convey enough about what is happening for them to realise that it might be autism, but sometimes its just bad professionals, and perhaps ablism is involved.