Intellegent female vs. female aspie

Post Reply New Topic

A member of my current mental health team says "we do not feel that you are on the autism spectrum at all" but others in the past have said I am.

I think because I'm an intelligent female its making it hard to definitively determine that, with females less severe and the AS symptoms could look like part of the high IQ.

I wish I could be evaluated, but I know my medicaid might not justify the testing if my mental health team thinks I am not impaired socially (I think I am)

Suggestions for this situation?

Do you have the option of going to an expert in diagnosis of Autism Spectrum disorders in adults? Usually when people have other medical issues, they are advised to look for second, third, even fourth opinions.

One woman I worked with had to go to 4 doctors before she found one who correctly diagnosed her stage IV cervical cancer, and saved her life. A guy I worked with went to 1 doctor in July, with stomach problems, and was sent home and told to take aspirin. He went back to the doctor a few months later and was diagnosed, correctly this time, with advanced stomach cancer. He died a few months later. Going for a second opinion might have given him 2-5 more years of life, which all of the people who loved him would have appreciated, but he believed the first guy and followed the directions given.

Point is, doctors aren't always right, and even experienced ones can get it wrong if they're not used to seeing a given problem (because they often don't know what they don't know).

Angnix, I don't know what contrary opinions and assessment you have had in the past?

A lot of different disorders can result in social difficulties. What do your current mental health team think you have?

I've had a therapist give me the aq test and raads and she believed I had it. My current team has me down as schizoaffective, anxiety nos and borderline personality disorder.

Some people are threatened by intelligence; even if they have plenty of their own they might prefer earning their living off the intelligence of others. Some of those people might even have medical degrees. They debased your existing sense of self so they'd have the chance to try & dazzle you with an intricate construct of 'disorder', when in fact the way you address your personal struggles has less to do with diagnoses and more to do with how you actually handle life.

Good luck getting an autism diagnosis if you're an adult woman on the spectrum. Best just to let them diagnose you with whatever makes them happy and hope they prescribe helpful drugs. Therapy is just CBT, which is the kindergarten of mental health assistance.

I agree. It's like their diagnostics cannot discern the difference between "not-Aspie" and "Aspie but intelligent enough to have an exhausting number of workarounds and ways to fake it". Because from their point of view, why in the world would you do that???

Save up money and get proper testing.

I plan on doing this if my next visits seen fruitless.

Intelligence makes everyone think you're fine.

I'd like to address several remarks that I consider inaccurate.

First, a "therapist" cannot diagnose ASD off a couple of tests. It's a complex diagnosis based on a battery of factors. Currently the only practitioners, in the US anyway, able to diagnose this are clinical psychologists (doctorate level) and psychiatrists (MD). Anybody else, just consider it a screening.

Second, although there is currently no accepted "treatment" for adult autism, there are a wide range of things that can help adult autistics, from appropriate job supports to assistance with the anxiety and depressions that often are co-morbid with ASD. Therapy can also identify and treat cognitive errors common in autism, such as inaccurate beliefs about others or black-and-white thinking, and teach social skills.

Finally, CBT is NOT the kindergarten of mental health assistance. It has been demonstrated empirically to be as effective as antidepressants in treating clinical depression, and may have even a greater preventive effect against future episodes. It also has demonstrated efficacy for treating anxiety disorders. What are you comparing it with in the mental health field that is 8th grade, to extend the metaphor?

Returning to the OP, it seems you have some diagnostic uncertainty, which is unsettling. But perhaps you can focus with your mental health team on treating your symptom profile. It's all right to ask them to tell you what they will be doing with you and explain the rationale. What is it you are wanting out of treatment that you are not getting now?

I have been diagnosed with borderline for emotional outbursts, but I had these severely as a child too. And it's documented that I went through social skills therapy as a child and stuff. But they refuse to read my childhood stuff or they say I had childhood mental illness (actually I also had characteristics of Bipolar or ADHD)

Emotional outbursts - like how? Borderline usually involves some self-harm and splitting, doesn't it? (I'm not fluent in DSM V, I guess any of us can google wikipedia)

Why do you have to stay with this team? When I was on Medicaid, I didn't stay with my doctor because he told me adults didn't have ADHD (which is a "sidecar" to my ASD), that it was a disorder in children, and I thought he was NUTS!! I saw another doctor who said he thought I had ADHD; I then went and had the tests, and got my diagnosis; then, went to a Psychiatrist, to get meds. There's nothing, that-I-know-of, that says you have to stay with a doctor, that you don't like!

The other posters are correct----most people are stumped, when someone is intelligent. Part of my own personal "campaign" is getting people to understand that "stupid" and "smart" can, and DO, reside in the same body. The Medical field hasn't caught-on to this enigma, yet----and besides, I'm sorry, but doctors don't know every damn thing (even though, they'd like us to believe they do, and worship them).

Bottom line: I think you should search-out doctors with whom you are comfortable. When you get one(s) that have experience with ASD, Medicaid will pay for testing, I'm SURE of it!

In my county I can only get another doctor in the same office, other places don't take medicaid.

I think the downplaying of schizotypal autism has been largely erroneous. I have two schizotypal friends and find them much easier to talk to than most other people. For a while I've considered Mendelsohn's syndrome to possibly be the best diagnosis for me although I haven't sought an official confirmation. Seems to me the intense visually-patterned thinking I rely on could fit those criteria quite well, I notice it when I'm thinking about calendars, programming or sometimes just in looking at a machine or something as everyday as a game of chess. It fits me quite well but the stateside medical establishment just hates being questioned - they think their resources automatically make their institutions the best in the world.

Are you absolutely POSITIVE? Medicaid is a FEDERAL benefit----I don't see how "county" would have anything to do with it! Don't you get a provider book in the mail, every-so-often? Look in it, to see who you can see. I'm 99.9 percent sure people can't tell you you can only get another doctor in that office.

It must be worth traveling a bit to find at least some answers you need. That's what I'll be needing to do eventually. On paper I'm insured until a few years from now when I'm 25 but the coverage hasn't saved me anything - much the opposite, it's all I can do to make the smallest co-pay (whatever those are for ) and be it insurance or medicaid, there always seems to be a giant ball of wax ahead of all my more pressing medical questions. For instance I'm supposed to get a consult I know I can't afford about wisdom tooth surgery and when my wisdom teeth hurt, I barely even notice but of course I must be blowing smoke when I bring up cardiac risks associated with my plainly obvious expression of broad autism phenotype. Gonna have to find a specialist about that and there's no way it'll really be covered. Just "discounted"...

I hope you can find some second opinions & free consults. For that matter I hope this thread stays active because it brings up a very big, very crazy compromise borne by people with no say in its' application.