While I agree with you in principle, you don't need a medical degree to diagnose a broken leg if the bone is sticking out.

When it comes to developmental disorders (and also, for similar reasons, mental illness), I'm not sure that analogy holds.

Mental disorders are tend to be more of a spectrum than a binary affair (unlike a bone, which is generally broken or not), and even mental health professionals may have difficulty in diagnosing them (i.e. antisocial personality disorder, which actively attempts to avoid diagnosis)...

I'm offended! *jumps on the offended bandwagon of not-happiness*

People don't know it exists. This is the problem

No, not really.
There is no reason to know it exists or acknowledge it in any way for most of the general public. Even for those who have it it is often better not to know about it. Of the 4 people I have “met” who claim to have it, all 4 were online-only (3 from this site).
2 of them used it as an excuse for their situations in life (which is a completely normal situation for younger folk) and will continue to do so for the remainder of their lives rather than just overcoming all the difficulties they face as people with Aspergers do who are unaware they have it.
1 of them was the total opposite side of the nut-case spectrum and used it in some kind of superiority trip, pretending it makes his mind more like that of a computer’s and he is some hotshot who “gets” things more easily than us mere mortals (you can read his reply in this thread, but don’t do so while drinking milk unless you have a rag handy).
That makes 1 out of 4 of them even remotely normal.

And not because they have Aspergers, but because they have been told they have Aspergers.

As a member of the general public I feel no obligation to know about this. I frankly don’t care, because I judge people one way and one way only: How they make me judge them with their actions, words, ideas, intentions, etc. The normal way all normal people judge others.

I don’t care about anyone’s diagnosis and I am not going to waste my time learning every mental condition out there.

Well it means I 'm veeery bad in English
I gave you my answer, as I am concerned so don't be offended

??????????????
He was making a joke. Your English is fine.

L. Spiro

1 of them was the total opposite side of the nut-case spectrum and used it in some kind of superiority trip, pretending it makes his mind more like that of a computer’s and he is some hotshot who “gets” things more easily than us mere mortals (you can read his reply in this thread, but don’t do so while drinking milk unless you have a rag handy).

Hahahahahaha, too sad I can't +1 on the Lounge :D

While I agree with you in principle, you don't need a medical degree to diagnose a broken leg if the bone is sticking out.

When it comes to developmental disorders (and also, for similar reasons, mental illness), I'm not sure that analogy holds.

Mental disorders are tend to be more of a spectrum than a binary affair (unlike a bone, which is generally broken or not), and even mental health professionals may have difficulty in diagnosing them (i.e. antisocial personality disorder, which actively attempts to avoid diagnosis)...

Exactly, and they're not quite as simple as "oh i haz seen this buncha symtoms and i have sum!". Sure anyone can diagnose a broken bone, not everyone knows wether it's just broken or if blood is streaming inside causing necrosis, anyone can diagnose that you're shy / a little associal etc, not everyone can put all of them together, interrogate you on your past to separate between physical and past experience as the cause, and make a correct diagnosis on psychiatric issues.

For all of those who are in the "i've been told i have asperger", i'd be surprised if even a single one of you has it among those who weren't told straight from a doctor or at least medical staff, it's not a cold, it's not something you see on every corner of the street, your anxiety fears asociality and other things that may lead you to self diagnose as who knows what are most likely the cause of a much more common sickness in the general population, it's called being human and is perfectly normal unless it's strongly impairing your life (blocking you from work / social life / causing suicidal thoughts etc), in the former case, get over it, in the later case, seek help as in most case you can get major help from a psychiatrist and get back to a normal life. For those who are genuinely autistic i perfectly understand this is very different, but those are usually found our early, by their parents and through the medical path, not as soon as they hit a roadblock in adulthood and get told by a forum or a friend.

As above, comparing an actual physical injury to a syndrome is apples and oranges.

A syndrome by itself doesn't exist, it's just a category name given to a condition where several signs and symptoms are observed together. Only someone who is properly trained in the exact definition of this category and the recognition of these signs/symptoms is able to confirm whether a particular patient fits into that category or not. And then this diagnosis is of most importance to other professionals who are properly trained in understanding what it means...