Question concerning the diagnosis process...

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Hi,

I went to the first part of my assessment today, and just wondered if anyone else has experienced anything similar to myself. I think I was so stressed before the appointment, it was an hour, and by the time I left I felt very muddled. Now as the hours pass I am forgetting a lot of what he said but a few things are niggling away at me.
He focused a lot on my mother, who was abusive and said he couldn't give a diagnosis then as he could not rule out the social issues being caused by an abusive upbringing. Fair enough, and while I agreed with him I also pointed out that I have successfully addressed these issues and no longer feel it relevant. He also suggested couples therapy for the intimacy issues but again I explained this has been done (three times!) He asked me if I hugged my children and if I felt anything when I did this... basically I guess I wasn't anticipating these kinds of questions. He also said that I probably had no social life because I was so busy. Sorry this is a ramble, I just wonder if anyone else has left their initial assessment feeling a little bowled over and misunderstood? I felt like I couldn't be honest about my anxiety as he would just link it to the past.... Anyway, he is scheduling an ADOS now as I do tick the boxes in other areas (social as well but questioned if this was due to my upbringing). Feedback very appreciated.

Welcome to WrongPlanet

Getting diagnosed is a stressful, and it is natural to get muddled when stressed and to be stressed by the unexpected

Thank you for the welcome and reply! I realised this morning that I said quite a few silly things... like when he asked if I felt anything when I was hugged, I said no, but I was just thinking in the context of the last few days where I have been very occupied with other feelings that hugs didn't elicit much, but usually I do feel something!! ! I am now starting to think I presented an inaccurate view! Wishing I could email updates... it threw me a bit when he focused so much on my mother. Anyway, thanks again.

thanks Lukecash12...

Well, I already know the psychologist who administers the ADOS is female, which hopefully means she is current on the topic of ASD and women! Also, it is a structured test (I think, from what I understand).

Toward the end of the session, I did remind him that I was very aware that one has a lot to sift through when the history is complicated. But surely that doesn't mean that a person who comes from such complications cannot possibly be on the spectrum as well. He agreed, "of course, of course" So maybe he was just ensuring that all other avenues had been exhausted, which is fair enough. He could have just asked at the start though, or bothered to read the many forms I had filled in prior to the appointment. Then there would have been more time to look at things that I would have thought would be more relevant.

There I go again. Apologies.

Aspergers got ruled out when I was tested for various reasons. The guy thought I communicated too well verbally & seemed too intelligent to have anything on the spectrum which is just wrong sense Aspies are thought to be smarter generally. He thought my social issues were due to being bulled alot as a kid due to my physical disabilities but my social issues is the 1st reason I was bullied. He pined lots of other things on my physical disabilities & seemed to ignore lots of my Aspie issues like being very direct & blunt, being very picky & routine oriented, & not expressing emotions correctly. I also had to do test & I'm dyslexic on top of being an Aspie & I think my dyslexia threw a curve-ball with the test because I tested low in some areas Aspies are supposed to be high in.

Thanks for communicating nick007 I too experienced comments in the same vein, although he didn't discount being on the spectrum, just HFA as my vocabulary was very good and I didn't have delayed speech.
I don't know what to expect or even what I want at the end of this process, perhaps a framework to make sense of my self.

I am in the process myself an really nervous about the whole thing, I don't want to be brushed off!

I have been through the process once before when I very narrowly wasn't diagnosed in the end but I thought the outcome was wrong. The autism specialist in the disability centre at my uni agreed with me and wrote to my GP to request a second opinion outlining the reasons why. As a result I'm going to have an initial screening in a few days time with the specialist in my area (I've been waiting for this appointment since April!).

The screening is only going to be 30 minutes long and my partner is coming with me. Although I've already been through the process I still feel ill-prepared because 30 minutes long is such a short period of time. How can they make the decision whether to do the full assessment on me after only knowing me for that long?

@Mirror21, I hope you are in good hands and your assessment goes well.

@maddycakes_I can only imagine that knowing the appointment is only 30 minutes just adds to the stress of it all after waiting so long for the appointment! On the other hand though, if I think about my recent hour long assessment, he probably spent less than half an hour on actual ASD behaviours; his focus was very much on my past and relationships with my family. He then decided to refer me for further assessment with the psychologist (for ADOS screening) My memory of the whole event is so cloudy now, I feel like I am going between thinking I pushed him to further assess me and him saying he would actually like to do further assessments. I know in reality I didn't push him for further assessment, he only just asked if that is what I would prefer.

So, I guess where I am going with this is that there are a few things I would have done differently if I could go back and do it again.

1. When asked which 3 things I bother me the most, I would not have said "intimacy" as number one (this is my partners biggest "bother")
2. I would have wrapped up "The Mother" succinctly; assuring him that I was on the straight and narrow with it all
3. Had read him my lists of example instead of trying to not refer to the lists and acting "more natural"

I believe they can definitely decide that further assessment is needed, but I also think you have to ensure they get all those details within the half hour. Sorry if this doesn't make sense!

Best, jg

Just an update to my Diagnosis Process thus far.

It wasn't great, the ADOS test was fine, but having little faith in the Psychiatrist and not a great feeling of confidence that the Psychologist knew what she was doing when administering the test, my results surprised me because I scored above the threshold for communication but below for social (both 3) giving me an overall score of 6. I then had one follow up appointment with the Psychiatrist who said quite a few things to me that made me feel I could not validate or trust his diagnoses. A few gems were:

"You are very stylish" pointing out (my all black clothing) was well presented and put together
"You have had a haircut and it looks very nice" Uh. Okay. I have one haircut a year, and do not style it, I let it dry naturally and tuck it behind my ear, happy to hear that he thinks this is fashionable though)
"Your eyebrows and make up compliment your clothes" He pointed to the area above my eyes, they are red, as in my skin there is always red, he thought I put on make-up to accent and compliment the red sole on my boots. I don't wear makeup. None, ever, at all. My eyebrows are well, my eyebrows. How does ASD effect them or not???
"You have a very nice Coat" It was a gift from my partner. Why is this relevant?

He then went on to say that the issues I have with intimacy can sometimes be resolved by having an affair. He said this!

Those were the highlights to why he wouldn't diagnose ASD. He drew a circle with two lines coming off, one represented genetic factors the other environmental and told me all my "quirks" and issues with social situations and anxiety were due to environmental factors, because it was his belief that I never developed "attachment" to my mother as a baby.

Wow. For all the ills of my upbringing, my mum loved me. I am not a stupid person. I am also not delusional, therefore I can look at myself with a level of objectivity and can honestly say I don't believe this to be the case. I spent less than two hours with this person, how he can diagnose an attachment disorder without knowing more about me is bizarre.

I am still on the waiting list for my local NHS; but funding is being cut quite severely and the adult assessment centre has been "in between clinicians" for 6 months now... so who knows when I will get another assessment. But that is okay, once i recovered from this initial experience I am quite happy to try and help myself where I can.

Apologies for the quick summary; there is so much more I want to talk about but I have little time at the moment.

Thanks for reading.

Run, Run from this person. He is is trying to have an affair with YOU.

My partner said the same thing!

How gross. And unbelievable, he is a professional!

It left me feeling pretty s**t.

Double Post

Wow. Your eyebrows and coat make you neurotypical? It's times like these that make me think that psychiatrists often have worse mental issues than I do. I insist that my mental health professionals are at least slightly more sane than I am. You definitely should get a second opinion if you can.

Regarding your upbringing or environment being the sole cause of your condition, I think that's a faulty conclusion on the psychiatrist's part. Having an abusive parent or being bullied as a child does not exclude one from being on the spectrum. Unfortunately, disabled kids can be very vulnerable to abuse by family or peers, and perhaps less able to make the connections to reach out for help. My dad told me if i told anybody about how he was abusing me, he'd tell the authorities my mom was a Lesbian (homosexuality was a felony in Virginia when i was a child), she'd lose custody and maybe go to jail too, I'd be put in a foster home, and my brothers would hate me for breaking up the family. I figured I'd rather put up with the pain i knew rather than risk something worse. It might seem like an obvious lie now, but I really didn't know it at the time, and i never imagined that i might be taken in by another relative.

My point is, I couldn't tell I was being lied to, and wasn't used to asking for help. I don't have an AS diagnosis yet (just got word that my regular psychiatrist found someone to do the testing), but I think Asperger's contributed to my not knowing how to get helped.