I recently saw a psychiatrist to see what I would need to do to get an official Asperger's diagnosis. She said that she would be pretty confident in placing me somewhere in the high-functioning end of the "Asperger's spectrum" within the larger autism spectrum (whatever Aspie traits I have are pretty subtle and not really noticeable to anyone not really trained to notice them) and that it would be possible to go see someone else to go through more evaluation to get a more thorough diagnosis but that that probably wouldn't be very useful at this point (I think any problems that Asperger's causes me at this stage in my life are fairly minor ones, and the problems in my life are only partially due to Asperger's, so I have a feeling that the diagnosis I have right now is probably "good enough," and I feel sort of like I was seeing this psychiatrist less for a diagnosis and more for "permission" to identify myself as an Aspie). She told me that the Asperger's diagnosis is something I could "take or leave." In other words, I can embrace it if it's useful and throw it out if it isn't. That wasn't quite what I expected to hear, but I considered good news. Did anyone else here get a diagnosis that they could "take or leave" in that way?
I'm still trying out the "Aspie identity," and even though I'm labeling myself as an "officially diagnosed" Aspie for the time being, I'm not certain I'm going to identify myself that way forever. I do feel like I'll probably stick with that label until something else comes along that does a better job of explaining the question "why am I a little different from most people?" I'm still trying to figure out exactly how the "aspie" label can be useful beyond providing some answers to that question. Right now, I feel like if it can somehow get me some help with the whole tricky job search/career thing, it will be worth embracing to at least some extent. If it helped me to make some more friends and put me in touch with people who are like me, that would be nice too since that's something I find a little difficult without the social "framework" of college.
Right now, my "Aspie identity" is something I want to keep relatively private and only disclose to people I know well and am comfortable with (I think at this point, telling people I didn't know well about it would fall into the category of "oversharing" a little). It's not something I'm ashamed of but it's not really something I want to advertise either, especially since I'm a little worried about how some people would react. Did anyone here who didn't get a diagnosis until well into their adult years go through a similar phase?
I'm still trying out the "Aspie identity," and even though I'm labeling myself as an "officially diagnosed" Aspie for the time being, I'm not certain I'm going to identify myself that way forever. I do feel like I'll probably stick with that label until something else comes along that does a better job of explaining the question "why am I a little different from most people?" I'm still trying to figure out exactly how the "aspie" label can be useful beyond providing some answers to that question. Right now, I feel like if it can somehow get me some help with the whole tricky job search/career thing, it will be worth embracing to at least some extent. If it helped me to make some more friends and put me in touch with people who are like me, that would be nice too since that's something I find a little difficult without the social "framework" of college.
Right now, my "Aspie identity" is something I want to keep relatively private and only disclose to people I know well and am comfortable with (I think at this point, telling people I didn't know well about it would fall into the category of "oversharing" a little). It's not something I'm ashamed of but it's not really something I want to advertise either, especially since I'm a little worried about how some people would react. Did anyone here who didn't get a diagnosis until well into their adult years go through a similar phase?
