Removing Autism label?

Hi. I have been diagnosed with Autism at the age of 11. I have never liked being labeled with such a diagnosis and it has done me only harm, and my mother only benefits with her welfare pays because of it. The diagnosis is harmful to me, because I feel it would be a reason for me to be locked up in a mental institution because of the autistic school shootings. Or used against me in a court case.

How do I get the diagnosis removed or amended so I don't risk the above?... I honestly know I do have autism deep down but a diagnosis does me no good since I do not seek help or benefits. Thanks.

Medical history should be confidential so nobody should know about it except people you tell. You can go in and get a second opinion from a different doctor if you want. If you're capable of holding down a job and taking care of yourself, I don't personally feel it's a big deal either way, though I understand where you're coming from with concerns about prejudice from some of the news that's out there.

If your mother receives support from you having a diagnosis, is she supporting you? A thought is to test yourself out working if you aren't already to see if you might need those benefits in the future.

Hiya..

Unfortunately you can't be undiagnosed or have the label of autism removed from you.

The label really is a wash care label rather than a ''dangerous'' label.. it's supposed to help you out by giving you or your parents, teachers/employers a good idea of how to accommodate your needs in a way than enables you to fit into the world of NTs a little more comfortably.

Unfortunately people with autism/aspergers are very very much picked apart by the news and media when someone with autism/aspergers commits a crime.

Unfortunately you can't stop people holding weird views of what we're like.. the amount of times I've heard/read that people with aspergers/autism have no empathy is truly ridiculous..

To be very very clear here.. the school shootings were not committed by someone who only had autism.. if the person involved did indeed have autism at all.. he also had a co-existing mental health condition and his life experiences of being bullied and ostracised led him to act like that.


If you aren't violent and if you don't commit any crimes, if you don't place yourself or anyone else at immediate risk of harm.. you can neither be placed in a mental institution or put in prison.

Do you know for a fact I can't get it undiagnosed or removed?

You could get someone to do another assessment on you but the re-assessment would be placed on top of your autism diagnosis.. kind of smothering it rather than replacing it.

More or less the same thing but.. not quite.

The issue here though is that you have autism and you say that you know you do.. no decent/half decent/self respecting psych will ever state you don't if you do.
The re-assessment would simply reinforce the original autism diagnosis.

can I ask.. do you live somewhere that is particularly anti-autistic/bigoted..?
it's just that where I live, there are a lot of changes happening with regards to public perception.. people I speak to about my daughter are starting to understand that autism/aspergers is very very different to what they thought it was.
I hope your area starts to improve soon if it isn't already.

Dear hashbrown,

Interesting you should ask this. I like books, and I just was reading a book called, "Back To Normal," by Enrico Gnaulati, PhD. Now that 's not to say we people with autism/Asperger's are not normal, and I'm not sure if there is such a thing or who decides.

Anyway, in the book, the psychologist talks about his experiences with children who were incorrectly diagnosed with autism and other disorders when they clearly did not have them. He said it is often attributed to a variety of reasons. Sometimes it is simply difficult to tell what a child has, the clinician must come up with a diagnosis code for billing purposes, so she or he chooses one. It could also be that it seems very much like autism, so they will give a provisional diagnosis or just go ahead and say the child has autism, so the child can get the services he she needs. And, of course, oftentimes, it simply is what it is -- autism. After reading this particular book, I could clearly see bias on the part of the author, and he is very opinionated, sometimes to the point of being amusing. For example, a child will have all of the symptoms of autism and behave like a child with autism, but the author will say, it doesn't mean he has autism. Well, from my point of view, if he doesn't have autism, he sure does a good imitation. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's a duck.

Now getting back to your concern of not wanting to be labelled autistic. Who says you have to? Who decides? Who defines you? Even if you have symptoms and characteristics of a person with autism, it doesn't mean you have to identify with it, especially if it bothers you that much. I'm not sure how old you are, but one day when you are older, you may have a different perspective. You may not care one way or another. I don't know how old you are, but sometimes when we are very young, we are used to being told what to do, how to act and, who we are supposed to be. I once had a psychologist who said he wasn't into labelling people; the important thing was treating symptoms. The only problem with that was, at the time, I had been misdiagnosed, so I wasn't getting the care I needed. So, in this case a diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome was critical for me. Going through life with a disorder and not knowing you have it, is far worse than going through life with a disorder and not having a clue why your life is the way it is based on my own personal experience.

I was talking to a doctor once, and I said "I don't like my (then diagnosis), can you change it to something else?" He said sure, and he changed it to something similar but less unflattering to me. It made me feel better about myself. I didn't have to be reassessed. He just changed the code.

Now if you're a child in school who needs services, it may not be that simple, but like the other person said, the only people who will know are the ones you tell. And if you don't want to be called autistic or a person with autism, there's no law that states you have to.

In that book I mentioned, the author also said that sometimes children who show symptoms of autism at very young ages do not show signs of autism later in life. They are no longer considered autistic. It doesn't mean they can't relapse, but it certainly is possible to no longer show symptoms. I'm not sure how rare this is because I know some children will always show symptoms of autism, but there are people who become older and can say, "I have autism, and I can tell you about it."

It's all about self-determination. You have the power to decide what is right for you, participate in the decisions that concern you, and decide what defines you. Your age might be a factor at least for now depending on how old you are, but you do have some control over your life, I hope.

You can't be undiagnosed. A diagnosis is confidential, so if you go to court, it will only come out if you give doctors permission to share infomation with the police or if someone you know tells the police. You can't be locked up for having autism.

Hi,

wow I am almost 2 years late to this thread, but I want to let you know that "autistic people have no empathy" is yes, a very generalising statement, but NO, not ridiculous! There are 2 types of empathy; affective (being able to feel what others feel emotionally) and cognitive (being able to recognise people's emotions in their faces, e.g telling when someone is angry or sad).

MANY (not all) autistic people struggle with cognitive empathy. Not many, but SOME, do also struggle with affective empathy. It is ableist and harmful to pretend that lacking empathy makes you a bad person, and often tells more about the person who thinks that. Many mental illnesses may cause a person to not experience empathy, such as in schizophrenia in some cases (not all people with schizophrenia lack empathy though!) There is a massive difference between empathy and SYMPATHY. I personally, do not experience ANY form of empathy, but I am hypersympathetic.

I do not get happy just because my friends are happy. I do not start crying and become sad just because my friend's dad passed away. I do recognise that it's very sad that the father passed away (sympathy), but it does not make me sad inside too. It is of course sad that my friend is sad, and I wish my friend wasn't sad, because I know "happy" is a nicer emotion. This does not make me a bad person, this is just a symptom of my autism personally. It's ok if you're autistic and DO experience empathy, but please do not erase us who don't!

I am told I am a horrible person for not experiencing empathy enough already, and having to hear such things from the autism community TOO isn't very nice.

hashbrownhero wrote:The diagnosis is harmful to me, because I feel it would be a reason for me to be locked up in a mental institution because of the autistic school shootings. Or used against me in a court case.

I have it too, when growing up it might have came in handy for learning support, and as you say welfare, but besides this I agree label is stigmatizing and is only harmful to you as an adult. As the other posters have said, it's unlikely they will use it against you, although then again it does depend on where you live... I know with certain diagnosis (PPD, STPD, ASPD, BPD etc.) it can be used against you, but not so much with Autism.

innocent21 wrote:You can't be locked up for having autism.

For the most part I agree.