Are you able to diagnose yourself?

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Hi everyone, how you're doing? I hope you don't mind me bringing this up.
Well, you see... I wasn't sure if I had Asperger's or not in the past, so I opened some article written by a professional on an advice related site. I started reading, the symptoms and everything, etc. And I realized a lot of the symptoms and information, matches the things I have.
Anyone else here have done the same kind of thing?

You know yourself and your problems best and you can have suspicions. Diagnose it can some psychiatrist or psychologist.

No one can diagnose themselves.

Like with any condition though you can suspect symptoms enough to warrant an appointment with a professional to discuss it further

I was able to figure out that I was Autistic and misophonic myself through research. But I had to be told initially by someone else because I had no idea what Autism was. Once he told me, I then started to research what Autism was and I recognized the cause my struggles as well as of the good parts of Autism in my life. But it was not until I got my official diagnosis that I had any idea of the severity of my Autism and that I learned that I had issues that I never knew I actually had. Once I got my official diagnosis, I was able to see a much more accurate picture of my Autism with real evidence to back it up. I also learned that I am actually much more severely Autistic than I had understood before I was diagnosed. So yes, many people are self aware and intelligent enough to figure out that they are Autistic through their own research but some people might not get a complete picture of how they are affected until they are officially diagnosed.

It depends perhaps upon what you mean. In a strict sense, if the question means "is it possible for me to truthfully assert "I have been diagnosed with Asperger's,"" based solely on a self-evaluation, then clearly not. On that basis, I answered the poll with "no."

On the other hand, if you are really asking whether it is possible to reach a sufficient degree of confidence, by means such as screening tests and comparing one's traits in the various relevant areas with those characteristic of Asperger's, to be able to say that Asperger's is a significant probability, then I would say yes.

And when it comes down to it, one is really only ever dealing with probabilities. Even an official diagnosis (or not) inevitably carries uncertainties, especially in view of some of the somewhat subjective criteria associated with a diagnosis. I have never seen any studies where individuals were independently diagnosed by multiple clinicians, to test the degree of repeatability of the diagnosis; it would be very interesting if such studies were carried out. (Of course, if one has received an official diagnosis one can state with certainty "I have a diagnosis," but one cannot state with certainty that that diagnosis is correct.)

So practically speaking, I think it is perfectly possible that an individual might have sufficiently strong indications from such things as screening tests and "ticking the boxes" of the Asperger's traits that their suspicions of having the condition are very likely to be correct. It would only be an indicator of a probability, but it might be quite a strong one.

Wouldn't this be true for most diagnoses, not just Autism, but even medical conditions as well?

Absolutely, to some extent. I presume there is less uncertainty in many medical diagnoses (I'm sure there are exceptions to that, too!), since in many cases there are presumably reasonably objective diagnostic tests. Also, I imagine that in many cases, there will have been studies to establish the repeatability and reliability of the diagnostic tests.

But something like an ASD diagnosis would, I imagine, be more susceptible to unreliability, precisely because it inherently depends in part upon subjective criteria; estimation by the clinician of the degree to which the person's well-being is affected by the symptoms; recollections, accurate or otherwise, by third parties; and so on.

Speaking as one with a background in science it would seem very natural to me for studies to be carried out to test how reliable the ASD diagnoses are, by having different clinicians carry out independent assessments of the same set of people. Almost certainly there will not be total agreement between the clinicians, and a given person who is diagnosed by one clinician as having ASD might be diagnosed by another clinician as not having ASD. But how great would the disagreement in diagnosis be, I wonder? It would be really interesting if there were studies that attempted to measure the reliability (in the sense of reproducibility) of ASD diagnoses.

I'm currently in the process of getting a diagnosis at 30+yo.
Filling in a lot of papers at home etc. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality lnventory being one of them.

I feel like certain parts of the test are bound to set me up for a false negative on certain disorders that I have,
because they ask about the present mostly...

But over the years I have learned from many failures, which allowed me to cope with/escape from several things on a superficial level, but deep down I am still the same overstressed/overstimulated/underdeveloped person.

Another sketchy thing about these tests is that I can answer many of these questions in many different ways depending on how I interprete the question and depending on the mood I am in when I fill in the test.

I don't trust doctors blindly at all, whether it's for mental or physical illness diagnosis/treatment.

But self-diagnosis and treatment can also be tricky.
I think certain people can self-diagnose, but it depends on the information they base their diagnosis on; the intention that drives them to a self-diagnosis; their level of self-awareness; perhaps even age (because for some people the years help to increase self-awareness); and several different other factors.

Last edited by Absolute on 04 Jul 2018, 9:05 am, edited 4 times in total.

I think the types of studies you are mentioning could be extremely interesting and helpful. Is that something that even you could initiate in your field of science?

You can suspect yourself, but not diagnose yourself. Not to mean it isn't legitimate in reason, most people know themselves rather well, but they still can be wrong.

I'd like to make clear what I mean by diagnosing yourselves...
What I mean is not a formal diagnosis. (or diagnosal? I don't know what the correct word is in English.)
What I mean is, an informal research on the matter which you have done by yourself, through books, the internet, media, videos, etc. And concluded, after checking these things, that you probably have some kind of Autism or an Asperger.
For me atleast, it was somewhat easy to understand that I have a form of Asperger, but based on the limited knowledge I have, and the fact that I am not a Psychiatrist, I couldn't really confirm anything.
But, I could still more or less understand that I have it, or a type of it.

When answering these questions that you can answer in many ways, try to figure out what the root question is, like what the question is actually asking. And if in doubt answer if in the way that you are either most affected by the situation it is asking about or by the way you are most severely affected by the situation it is asking about if you are affected severely a lot of the times but now all the time.

I think most adults who are self aware can do a pretty decent self diagnosis but it won't be as accurate and complete as a really thorough official diagnosis. The correct English word is diagnosis.

Thanks, I learned a new word.
Pray tell, where'd people receive an official diagnosis?
With a Psychiatrist, etc.? Or where?
I never tried to be diagnosed, never gave it thought or opportunity, to be honest.

Of course you can, this is 2018, not 1980 and Dr. God doesn't have a monopoly over information thanks to Google. Given enough time, reading and self reflection you certainly can as it isn't as if you require any diagnostic tests like blood tests or MRIs to diagnose ASD.

I'm pro self diagnosis, but only if it is well-researched and the individual cannot for some reason access a quality professional easily. Some professionals are not educated on the higher functioning and typically female autism traits, so in this case I could see why someone would self diagnose. Additionally, getting a formal diagnosis is very hard in some countries, especially as an adult.