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Hi, I am Jennifer. I have Asperger's, but haven't been diagnosed yet. My son has, he is 5. I am trying to get my Psychiatrist to give me the stupid tests for it. I have just about every diagnosis that if they just lumped them all together, it would be Asperger's, but for some reason, they keep trying to talk me out of it. Wierdo's. Here's what I have so far: Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Attacks, Chronic Depression, IBS, overfocused ADD, flat affect, and sensory issues. But I think that because I can "talk" to them, that they think I'm ok, or something. However, if they were to put me in a room with two or three of them, they would be able to see my problems very obviously. I can seem to be normal when talking one on one, but any more and I get lost very easily. I can also only handle "acting normal" for short periods of time, during which I experience increasing levels of anxiety. I haven't been able to keep a job longer than 3 months. Things that I consider to be my stims are: minesweeper, bejeweled, logic puzzles, sudoku, and I am always wiggling some part of myself or digging my fingernails into my hands, roll my eyes around, and pick at stuff. I do these during times of high stress, and tune out everything else. My grandpa (whom I highly suspect has it too) plays the piano. He will just get up in the middle of a conversation and go in the front room and start playing his electric piano very loudly. If you try to get his attention, he smiles at you, then closes his eyes again. You have to keep yelling until he stops playing, because I think he can't listen. It sounds like circus music sometimes and sometimes irish folk and polka. My son has the head rocking and shaking thing (looks kind of like Stevie Wonder.) I don't know how much I need to put on here for an intro, but I think I'm done for now. I was wondering, though, if anyone else has had problems with Psych's not wanting to give a diagnosis.

Hello Jennifer

hello and welcome to wrongplanet.

Nice to meet you, Jennifer.

hi jennifer, welcome to WP

i think for an intro this will do very nicely indeed, thank you very much -
AND she's polling us already ...

problems with diagnosis? no - no problem at all -

but there's a bit of a story there which should have found its way into my blog here, but i keep procrastinating -

first, mid-ish december last, i started assuming 'it' was not 'self-evaluated'
a-typical Borderline Personality Disorder, and i went to my gp for a referral
for diagnosis on the basis of hypothesized Schizoid (or Schyzotypal) PD -
he certainly agreed i was in some kind of trouble;
we/i soon received an invite from a general hospital for a first consultation - but not before another month

then, just before xmess, i found myself surfing around pervasive disorders, tumbled onto AS, self-diagnosed at least hypothetically,
then stumbled upon WP where i instantly self-identified, i simply knew

i read stories of problematic diagnosis, and got worried over what exactly
the general hospital, psychiatry department had in store for me...
their site termed it 'integral diagnostics'
which could mean almost anything, which therefore means nothing

with growing doubt as to the referral, i then more or less lucked into non-
official confirmation from an acquainted orhtopaedic professional specializing
in autism and not unaccustomed to late-life-diagnosis
she, emelie, immediately got social work involved in what was now 'case'
and would arranged for me to see a private practice psychiatrist -
who i knew from her to be quite up to date with lldx

while he however took his time to be contacted, there was no way i was going to cancel the one appointment i was sure of -
two days before which i finally saw the ppp, who apparantly had had no input from emelie, and couldn't believe i suggested AS or autism
he would take two or three appointments to preliminarily estasblish that i had
adhd, bipolar disorder, and/or simply high iq
i was started on ritalin and we would continue next week

especially the latter had me seriously worried - could hiq possibly be a stand-
alone diagnosis??? however, earlier that day i had miserably, one could even
say autistically failed to cancel my superfluous other appointment -

i received a letter the next day not only telling me i had not been removed from the list, but if i also would be so kind as to show up an hour earlier

who was i to refuse an instant second opinion, even pending the first?

i was immediately taken off ritalin, started on lithium, and would i be willing to
consider a fourtnight's stay for observation and diagnotic purposes
would i - of course i would

like you i assume, jennifer, i am a different person one-to-one than in any other situation, and different again when simply left to myself -
so yes of course mewouldst

clearly, they suspected bipolar, but they were aware of my opinion, and i felt
on a personal level i trusted the detached scientific attitude of the supervisory psychiatrist
i was put on top of the waiting list and taken in just over a week later -
it all went so expeditiously that had i still been on the schizoid fence,
it would certainly have fallen over to the schizotypal side -
i had visions of white suits and straightjackets
and public relief from having another clear&present danger off the streets

i was admitted by the end of january, after two weeks i felt they were starting to shift towards my position (with no insistence from my part) and after three weeks they caved in: AS, however atypically

thanks (sem1) precious pennyjenny for luring me out of procratination ville

Welcome to WP!

We didn't have any difficulties getting an Asperger's diagnosis for one of my sons (the other is still being assessed), but I did want to mention that at one point during the process she said something to the effect of, "Although I was thinking that Asperger's is a good fit for your son, I am just not sure because he is exhibiting some good social skills in our sessions together." So we asked for specific examples, and quickly realized that he is doing well at the things that we have been coaching him on since he was four (yay!). Once we explained some of the things we have been doing to teach him social skills (i.e. role playing, reading children's books on making friends, manners etc.), she realized that these are learned behaviours for him. We also emphasized the fact that spending time in a quiet, pleasant office, one on one with an adult that he likes very much, is a completely different ball game than say being in a classroom, at a store or even at home on a busy day. She would see those socially appropriate behaviours that we have been carefully teaching him quickly disintegrate with an activity he dislikes, more people or noise in the room etc.

So what I'm trying to say is maybe it would help if you explained what you are specifically doing to cope during your sessions. What is the process that you have to go through to "act normal"? When did you learn these behaviours in the first place? How do you feel after maintaining "normal" for awhile? etc. It really helped our therapist to understand why my son can do so well (for finite periods of time, if he wants to and isn't under any stress).

Good luck and welcome to WP!

Welcome sem1precious!

Thank you all so much for such a nice welcome.

Hello and welcome to WP.

Hope you have a lot of fun posting on here.