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Got DX but don't feel like I was tested properly

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anomie
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21 Feb 2015, 4:36 pm

Adamantium wrote:
... moments of realization that something I did, or do, is an example of behavior that would be expected with the diagnosis...


What like wandering around the town centre for hours today getting more and more stressed and confused by the noise and lights and desperately wishing I was at home doing some programming (which I was fully aware would be more use) and unable to think clearly about what floor of the department store was street level or what "bathroom" meant as opposed to "health and beauty" but frantically persueing the fixed idea that I must purchase a wooden roller massage thingummy to get that exact sort of deep pressure that I imagined it would provide but knowing it wouldn't in reality and would be cheaper on the internet ... but going into the next shop anyway?

Aspie? Moi?



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22 Feb 2015, 6:43 pm

I think that just talking and observing (no tests, questionnaires or childhood history at all) is a very poor basis on which to make a decision (positive or negative), unless it is undertaken for multiple sessions over the course of several weeks. There is no way for a clinician to know if the client generally exhibits the same behavior, or if there is something special about the one day on which they interact.

I thought that it was standard practice to use multiple data sources to make clinical decisions like this. These psychologists who are diagnosing people after a conversation or two are unprofessional.



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22 Feb 2015, 9:25 pm

starkid wrote:
I think that just talking and observing (no tests, questionnaires or childhood history at all) is a very poor basis on which to make a decision (positive or negative), unless it is undertaken for multiple sessions over the course of several weeks. There is no way for a clinician to know if the client generally exhibits the same behavior, or if there is something special about the one day on which they interact.

I thought that it was standard practice to use multiple data sources to make clinical decisions like this. These psychologists who are diagnosing people after a conversation or two are unprofessional.


In my own case, mine wasn't merely "a conversation." That's very trivializing of you. And my childhood history was part of the process.



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22 Feb 2015, 10:39 pm

BirdInFlight wrote:
In my own case, mine wasn't merely "a conversation." That's very trivializing of you. And my childhood history was part of the process.

I believe starkid's remarks were directed towards the OP and not you.

One of the challenges on WP is that it is not always clear, when someone posts are reply, who specifically they are responding to. Which is why I try to quote others directly.



androbot01
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22 Feb 2015, 11:20 pm

Rocket123 wrote:
BirdInFlight wrote:
In my own case, mine wasn't merely "a conversation." That's very trivializing of you. And my childhood history was part of the process.

I believe starkid's remarks were directed towards the OP and not you.

One of the challenges on WP is that it is not always clear, when someone posts are reply, who specifically they are responding to. Which is why I try to quote others directly.

Does it matter who they are directed to? I always thought it was open to everyone to respond.



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22 Feb 2015, 11:29 pm

androbot01 wrote:
Does it matter who they are directed to?

Only when someone is offended by something someone else writes which is directed to another person.
androbot01 wrote:
I always thought it was open to everyone to respond.

It is.



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23 Feb 2015, 3:33 am

I don't believe the OP said there was no childhood history asked about, though may have missed that. And a skilled interviewer can learn enough about childhood history from a verbal adult to make a diagnosis.

More tests may provide more reassurance what is going on, but that is an extremely expensive process and at some point it's necessary, like it or not, to trust someone's professional judgment.



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23 Feb 2015, 3:34 am

Waterfalls wrote:
I don't see myself as weird, other people do. So I often feel like I don't really have AS, I'm just confused by people, and they by me, at times.

But a diagnosis is a subjective judgment about the quality of eye contact, social interest and communication and about what may be contributing, the ADOS that's the gold standard is someone observing and making a judgment how normal or atypical one is. To pretend that diagnosis isn't subjective on someone's part isn't valid, no matter how much people say it's objective. It's simply the best we can do to make the judgment. That 2 hours that was spent is what we have. There are questions you answer, questions others answer, and observations, no one can do better. Sometimes you have to move on from the label to where you want to go with your life.


Those are VERY wise words.


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starkid
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23 Feb 2015, 9:13 pm

Rocket123 wrote:
BirdInFlight wrote:
In my own case, mine wasn't merely "a conversation." That's very trivializing of you. And my childhood history was part of the process.

I believe starkid's remarks were directed towards the OP and not you.

One of the challenges on WP is that it is not always clear, when someone posts are reply, who specifically they are responding to. Which is why I try to quote others directly.


I thought it was understood that posts that didn't quote anyone and didn't mention someone's username or specific detail from their post were directed to the original poster. Otherwise, everyone who wants to respond to the OP has to quote the OP, and we'd all have to scroll past the OP's quoted post over and over again.



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24 Feb 2015, 8:37 am

starkid wrote:
I thought it was understood that posts that didn't quote anyone and didn't mention someone's username or specific detail from their post were directed to the original poster. Otherwise, everyone who wants to respond to the OP has to quote the OP, and we'd all have to scroll past the OP's quoted post over and over again.

I don't think it matters who the post is directed to. It's a public forum, anyone can jump in.



gamerdad
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24 Feb 2015, 9:16 am

androbot01 wrote:
starkid wrote:
I thought it was understood that posts that didn't quote anyone and didn't mention someone's username or specific detail from their post were directed to the original poster. Otherwise, everyone who wants to respond to the OP has to quote the OP, and we'd all have to scroll past the OP's quoted post over and over again.

I don't think it matters who the post is directed to. It's a public forum, anyone can jump in.

I think you're misunderstanding what androbot01 is saying. They're not anyone can't join the discussion. They're just saying that there are some unspoken rules around here to help people understand which comments are directed at which person in the thread. Within any given thread there are often multiple different conversations happening at once. It's just good practice to quote the person you're replying to so that it's clear who you're addressing if they're not the OP, and to assume anyone not quoting another poster is directing their comment to the OP.

If someone gets offended by a comment, whether it was directed to them or not, that's certainly their right. However, if someone gets offended simply because they thought a comment was directed to them, when it was actually directed to someone else in the thread (as was the case here), that's simply a miss communication, one that's easily cleared up by having people stick to and understand certain protocols about how to address different people within a thread.



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24 Feb 2015, 1:19 pm

gamerdad wrote:
androbot01 wrote:
starkid wrote:
I thought it was understood that posts that didn't quote anyone and didn't mention someone's username or specific detail from their post were directed to the original poster. Otherwise, everyone who wants to respond to the OP has to quote the OP, and we'd all have to scroll past the OP's quoted post over and over again.

I don't think it matters who the post is directed to. It's a public forum, anyone can jump in.

I think you're misunderstanding what androbot01 is saying. They're not anyone can't join the discussion. They're just saying that there are some unspoken rules around here to help people understand which comments are directed at which person in the thread. Within any given thread there are often multiple different conversations happening at once. It's just good practice to quote the person you're replying to so that it's clear who you're addressing if they're not the OP, and to assume anyone not quoting another poster is directing their comment to the OP.

If someone gets offended by a comment, whether it was directed to them or not, that's certainly their right. However, if someone gets offended simply because they thought a comment was directed to them, when it was actually directed to someone else in the thread (as was the case here), that's simply a miss communication, one that's easily cleared up by having people stick to and understand certain protocols about how to address different people within a thread.


Unspoken rules on an Autism forum is just not a good idea


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anomie
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25 Feb 2015, 2:32 pm

Waterfalls wrote:
I don't believe the OP said there was no childhood history asked about, though may have missed that. And a skilled interviewer can learn enough about childhood history from a verbal adult to make a diagnosis.

More tests may provide more reassurance what is going on, but that is an extremely expensive process and at some point it's necessary, like it or not, to trust someone's professional judgment.


She did ask about my childhood, but I don't feel confident that I answered her correctly - for these reasons:

1. It was a long time ago.

2. As a child I was not good at thinking about myself, other people or what was going on at all really. I was very simplistic and I fixated on specific things. So my memories are not to be trusted. Which, ironically, is exactly what you'd expect from someone with ASD; but many other neurological and psychological problems could have the same effect.

3. I have been thinking about ASD for years, mulling over the theory that I may have it. I've looked into my childhood again and again trying to find evidence for it. So it is almost certain that I will have built up an exaggerated notion of Aspie traits that I had, and discounted NT traits.

I'm a fan of Ben Goldacre. I believe in randomised double blind trials and so on. Asking me about myself seemed about as unscientific a method as I can possibly imagine!

That said, I do feel like an Aspie. But some people feel like they are a cat, and although it is certainly true that such a person has a mental disorder, it is NOT true that they are a cat.



androbot01
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25 Feb 2015, 2:42 pm

I'm not sure exactly what your concern is. Frankly, you are lucky to have gotten a diagnosis. It would be nice to have some kinda definitive brain scan test or something, but that's just not the way it is.