Has anybody here failed to get a diagnosis?

Post Reply New Topic

I hear a lot about people who thought they were autistic, then eventually went through the diagnostic process and their suspicions were confirmed. But surely not everybody that thinks they're on the spectrum actually is. Has anybody gone for an assessment and found out they weren't actually autistic after all? (Although, they probably wouldn't still be on WP if that were the case.)

You cannot fail to get a diagnosis. You can only get a diagnosis that does not confirm your self assessment.

Before you think I'm just being pedantic, you need to consider what is important. Is it important to find good answers to personal difficulties? If you agree with this, then you should be seeking the CORRECT diagnosis, not necessarily a particular one that you have predetermined.

No but i've had multiple diagnoses for different symptoms of autism that doctors can treat over the course of my life. For instance, when I was little a doctor diagnosed me with autism bc i talked late. Then I was doing relatively fine in high school and everything was going good until I locked myself up in college and psychiatrist was recommended again who did brain scans and treated the SYMPTOMS of autism with medication which can be anything from depression, sensitivities, social anxiety, ocd, bipolar, add, ticks, etc. Some can even apparently develop schizophrenic like symptoms. They cannot cure you of language and perception difficulties, sensitivities overall, or autism specifically so the diagnosis itself is often very irrelevant in the medical field currently (due to the range of those woh are apparently diagnosed these days)......however, there are common threads and perhaps it is still beneficial for you to know. For me, I personally just want the medicine that is best suited to helping me to feel better and do not care about what a doctor says opinion(subjective)-wise (ie the state of autism treatement today). Therefore, I typically don't eevn take the time to read my doctors appointment notes. However, I would say if you did not talk late then I don't see how you could have autism as it's part of the diagnosis. Hope this helps.

Well, speech delay CAN be part of a diagnosis of autistic disorder... but so can other things, like delay in self-help skills, cognitive delay, or lack of curiosity about the environment. Any one of those traits precludes a diagnosis of Asperger's... so a child can develop speech on time (like I did) but have severe communication deficits and other delays that lead to a diagnosis of autistic disorder.

I've had this. My shrink told me on our next to last session that she "suspected" asperger from our first session. On our next to last session she still did. On our last session, she told me that she could not diagnose me. Reason: I made it through school.
Right...

This is an entirely different problem. Uninformed or willfully ignorant therapists are a pox on the land.

Ye, I know it's BS. I have two educations, and I slept through both of them. And add on top of that that I am a physically big/strong person, I have not been bullied ever.

Your shrink sucks. Making it through school does not preclude any kind of ASD.

I love direct honesty. No sarcasm intended

And: I know.

On the other hand, I don't see what it will give me if I had the "paper on it". Come tio think of it - anyone else knows?

I was thinking if you needed to get work accomodations at any point. But maybe that is not even an issue for you.

Sounds like a therapist who doesn't know much about AS. I made it through school only because I got the help I needed. I would have dropped out if I didn't get help.

Ah, okay. I don't know much about these matters. I live in Finland, and I don't know if they even have stuff like that here. I have a job that is well beneath me, considering I am a programmer by profession and I maintain an archive now.

Honestly, I think they had a morning meeting and discussed what to do about their cases. Because I can't really think that my shrink personally would do this. But she was young, and met with a couple colleagues with many years experience who thought differently, she would change it. That's what I believe.
Mostly because I didn't think she believed what she said when she told me.

I raised a debate on just that, on the job/career forum. Feel free to join it, guys!

that being said it's obviously not good to have a diagnosis of ANY mental illness or disability. And there is no value in people knowing in real life, I can tell you from experience particularly in America. If you have it and they know and they have any reason to not like you then that will only fuel their fire and confirm to them (NT) that their suspicions about you are correct (you are diagnosed). Further, my doctor sent in paperwork to my university and they provided no accomodation, but the couple people I did tell treated me like a disease afterward. And unless you want to go down in record for suing a large institution, there's really no protection for that behavior. However, the only potential benefit I could see would be for getting your doctor to get you disability in the states which is hardly a reasonable amount of money to live on, particularly for one with sensitivities and special needs. Therefore, really in combination with the mideval diagnosis methods at this time (apart from late talking) and psychiatrists only able to treat some of symptoms (as there is no cure currently), to be honest I do not see the concern, that is unless you are trying to get someone to tell you who you are for you or to confirm something that you are already apprehensive about (which means you don't think you have it you might not)....anyway hope this makes some sort of sense.

Only way to fail to get a diagnoses is to not go get one or lie to the doctor by pretending you don't have this or that issue and try and act NT as much as possible and you have to be very good for the doctor to not see it and also if you don't include your friends or family or husband or anyone who knows you when you are going for an assessment. But then again who would want to waste their money for that? Just don't go unless they went just to tell everyone "Ha, see I told you I didn't have autism."