Female Aspies misdiagnosed with Bipolar Disorder?

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I have read somewhere that there are less women than men diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder due to being falsely diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder is this true? http://www.rightdiagnosis.com/a/autism/ ... sdiagnosed

ADHD is a common misdiagnosis for ASD among females. And my psychologist suggested that borderline personality disorder was another misdiagnosis for some females who really have ASD.

The field is pretty wide actually: OCD, social phobia, schizoid personality disorder, NVLD, dyslexia ... just about any common co-morbid condition could become a misdiagnosis if the psychologist or psychiatrist misses the ASD symptoms that are present. And ASD overlaps with, or looks a bit like, some of these conditions (e.g. ADHD and ASD share executive function problems).

I was never diagnosed with autism until a year ago.

But when I was a teenager, a shrink wanted to say I had schizophrenia. He also wanted to blame my problems on puberty and female hormones. Puberty and hormones, those are such cop outs. I have had the same problem (anxiety and autism, the anxiety being caused by the stressful problems of living with autism in an NT world) all my life and it has nothing to do with puberty and female hormones. I read up on what schizophrenia was, and it didn't seem at all like my problem. I don't hallucinate or 'hear voices'. I stopped seeing shrinks for about twenty years after that crap.

Yes, I think girls with autism are more likely to be misdiagnosed for something else.

I was diagnosed with a lot of things before I got this one and when I was it was done highly unprofessionally. What can I say, the system really sucks, especially if you just tend to keep to yourself, you'll get diagnosed only when you're almost at your limit. Also as you say many things are comorbid with AS. I think many people still think that autism and intelligence dont go hand in hand, and also people do adapt to some extent, because hey you have to live.

People say that there are less females with AS so they are diagnosed less (for instance "male brain theory"). But I think we fail to note, that thanks to our society, I believe that differences in a way we perceive genders might have greater effect than some men would like to think. For instance, in some cultures females are taught to be obedient and quiet, and the "autistic" behavior might even look "cute". Also females are expected to be dependent. As opposed to men, who are expected to be more active, with good orientation and have multiple skills. (Although probably you could easily reverse this, for instance females are required to be excellent communicators and so you would spot anyone who is not. However in my case, no one really cared that I didnt communicate well, or at all). I don't know much about the gender differences in autism, but it's surely interesting. Looks like there are some good biological arguments why there should be more males with it.

One thing I can say for certain is that system really sucks, people are prone to stereotyping and generally nobody cares. You have to be one step away in order to be taken seriously. All the doctors I have encountered in my life were really ... not good, even though some of them very well regarded.

I think that because the past and current regular mindset of a lot of people of authority in the psych field is that autism is primarily a male 'disease' and so they often wouldn't even think a girl with autistic symptoms has autism, but likely instead another disorder that has maybe a few similar symptoms is considered instead.

Also the criteria often used for diagnosing autism is limited, and mainly focuses on certain stereotypes that were identified many decades ago and not well updated, and it leaves out a lot of features that many autistic people have, which are maybe the ones that many females with autism have. I noticed a lot of websites describing autism that I have seen leave out things like sensory processing issues, and they focus on the visual brained people with "the extreme male brain" and can leave out the people who think more wordy and like reading and writing. I have noticed on WP and other online places I meet autistic people that among them there are also a lot of autistic people (female and male) who like reading and writing and have other skills and interests that are not at all the classic stereotypes. My guess is that a lot of females with autism are among those who are less of the classic familiar stereotype and instead have other skills not on the old stereotype model.

And yes, some autistic people (male and female) have other mental of behavior issues along side autism, that might make discovering the autism more difficult.

I was mis-diagnosed with bipolar and only recently got it changed to mild Asperger's plus recurrent depression.

My original diagnosis was bipolar,but the therapist said he thought that may not be all,that he thought maybe something else was going on.He mentioned Autism ,but I was as ignorant as most and thought they autistic people couldn't talk and watched spinning things.I should have listened to him,he did work with autistics.This was about nine yeast ago.
Then other therapists thought personality disorder,ruled that out,than RAD,because I'm adopted.Ruled out.The shrink and therapist now think it is Autism.I've never had the tests,but my therapist's son is autistic,so in a way he's qualified to diagnosis.I don't suppose I really need the testing,if I was younger it would have been helpful to have known.Now it would just be a bill for the taxpayer with not really any benefit to me,but closure.
I don't take mood stabilizers anymore,they all made me sick.I have mild cycles,stress makes them worse.

i was diagnosed as bipolar type II (thankfully i lack the full-blown potentially psychotic manias) at 16 and not diagnosed with AS until many years later (30), but in my case i believe both diagnoses are accurate. there is an extensive history of bipolar disorder in my father's side of the family (3/6 of his siblings were diagnosed in life, plus another who drank himself to death before he could be diagnosed), as well as a history of anxiety, OCD, and spectrum traits on my mother's side of the family. i have always known that i was not normal, and that emotional and mood instability were a part of that abnormal-ness, not the just the unique way i looked at the world. my feelings often felt....too BIG for me as a child and teenager, so the diagnosis was not at all a surprise and i've never seriously doubted it, and (unusually for a manic-depressive) i have never gone off my meds (not unless switching to a new drug/cocktail). i saw enough of my aunts/uncles trials when they went off their meds, and how scary that could be, to know better for myself.

I have a elderly cousin that I'm sure is on the spectrum,all the traits plus echolalia.He has never driven a car in his life,he's about eighty.Others with depression,some suicides and anxiety.My grandpa was an engineer and never visited anyone,a real recluse.He was brilliant and worked all over the world,even on the Golden Gate Bridge.

I've attended a number of different groups that are autism related. I have noticed a high coincidence of OCD, bipolar, and schizophernia among autistic women. I can tell you, I think everyone should have a full workup and complete diagnostics prior to medication. I've seen some real disasters from physicians who take an experimental approach, where they do their final diagnosis by seeing what medication works. Even though I'm very high-funtioning autistic with no other apparent issues, I wouldn't take any medical treatment until I had a full evaluation for anything that might be coincident or latent. Pharmaceutically treating someone for the wrong disorder or non-disorder can turn out terribly.

I was diagnosed as having bipolar disorder at a young age (may be 13 or so?) and just a couple weeks ago got my diagnoses changed to autism spectrum and ADHD

I'm happy about knowing whats actually going on, but have some resentment with originally being misdiagnosed, I could have gone without being put on lithum and then getting lithium toxicity.