3 diff doctors told me i dont have autism

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A variety of groups. Let's draw the lessons primarily from the Civil Rights movement and from LGBT equality, and also other movements for social change. And it's okay to be different. And different doesn't mean worse and it doesn't mean better, it just means different.

I do like the idea of face-to-face meetups. It needs to be very respectful. We don't need to all be the same nor believe the same.

Last edited by AardvarkGoodSwimmer on 03 Jun 2011, 1:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Hi Panic,

Sorry to hear you are having trouble getting a DX. Have you taken any of the online tests? I've seen 3 psychologists plus a psychiatrist in the past 4 years or so, & none of them think I have AS. However, none of them would agree to testing either. So all is not lost. Perhaps these doctors are not listening to you?

If I were you I would ask to be tested. Keep repeating it if necessary. I have another appointment coming up later this month with a 4th shrink. There's no guarantee this one will be any different than the last ones have been. I know my quirks/oddities. I also know what I know about me due to my life experiences. Even though these people may have a degree in psychology, they still do not know all there is to know about the human brain.

Good luck!

Tomboy

I haveta agree that alot of it does sound like you do have Asperger's. Don't be surprised by the slow-wittedness of these doctors. It took 4 years for my high school counselor getting to know me and my emotional/social distress to realize that I might have it.

Do you do any obsessive hand-flapping, pacing, unusual repetitive motions or the like?

I just wanted to say that must be incredibly fustrating. It's not my place to say whether you're autistic or not, but you at least have the right to a decent explanation!! !

I want to go into the medical proffession and am on my way to do doing so, it's things like this that make me determined to at least try to do it well.

Among average mental health professionals, there really is a big element of this . . .

A person says, I think I'm on the autism spectrum. The 'professional' says, "No, you're bipolar."

A person says, I think I'm bipolar. The professional says, "No, you're on the autism spectrum." (or something else)

That is, the mental health professional wants to be "right," often at the client's expense. And obviously, there has to be a better way. (I really think this happens more often than is commonly believed.)

I am not sure the medical profession knows all that much about AS in adults. My sons doctor doesn't think I have aspergers. Yet he says my son does. Now if he could compare my behavior at the age seven to my sons. He would see my son is actually doing substanially better then me at that age. The Doctor doesn't have a clue.

This is so true. I think they feel threatened. If you can figure it out without them, they are afraid you won't need to buy their services.

And I'm also thinking in terms of a more 'soft' diagnosis for human differences, even for Asperger's / Autism Spectrum. That being Aspie explains some aspects of a person, not all, for each of us remain full-fledged human beings with many traits, qualities, and life experiences.

It could be that you have a bad case of anxiety which makes you every subconscious of yourself. And once you think so strongly that you have autism, you believe it. On the otherhand, what types of doctors are they. Are they autism specialists? If they arent, then you should try to see an autism specialist.

I can't help but comment, is this in America? I am just starting on the way to get a diagnosis in Australia (for personal reasons). I have been seeing a psychologist at my university for some time but he will definitely not make a diagnosis for it. In fact as an adult I have to go to a psychiatrist and psychologist, and both have to agree that I have AS or no deal. To get the appointments I have to get a referral to the psychiatrist and psychologist. Furthermore the psychiatrist and psychologist both have to be experienced with ASD's, it can't be just any doctor. I mean I could try seeing any doctor but most would probably refuse because they don't have the experience. Again my uni psychologist will not do a diagnosis at all.

So I am confused- do you not need a referral? Is any old psychiatrist able to do a diagnosis even without experience? I guess as a question to the OP- did any of those three doctors you visit have any real experience with AS or was it something they did every now and then? If not I would try to see someone who specialises in ASD's.

If they were experienced with AS then I would consider the opinions of the three doctors. However they would definitely have given you reasons why they cannot give you the diagnosis (I really hope so anyway). They would also probably suggest other causes for your problems, which can give you leads to a diagnosis that might be more helpful. It could be that you only have really bad social anxiety. At the very least anxiety seems to be a problem for you and getting some help for that couldn't hurt.

Gah the more I hear about the US medical system the luckier I feel to not be American.

I am sorry you are feeling so frustrated. This is one of the reasons I am hesitant to try and get assessed because it must make you feel in limbo. Were the doctors completely independent or could they have influenced each others opinions? Like others have already said they should have given you some kind of diagnosis or explained reasons for the absence of one.

You could have something else like SPD. SPD and autism share the same characteristics and watching things spin can be part of both. There is also OCD that causes repetitive thoughts. You could just be socially inept. You could just have aspie traits and not enough to be autistic.

Underweight has nothing to do with autism.


I am not qualified to say if you are or not but there was one member here who suspected she had AS bit every doctor kept telling her she just had to try harder and she was just selfish and just didn't care. Then finally she found the right doctor and got her AS diagnoses.

All those doctors could have been quacks and unqualified for diagnosing autism. I would recommend you find someone who specializes in it and knows a lot about it.

For what it's worth I was told by a few doctors that they didn't think I had Asperger's syndrome (although one suggested aspects of schizoid personality). It wasn't until I was assessed by two people trained specifically in identifying autism that I received a diagnosis. Of course you could argue that because they were actually assessing me for autism they were more likely to produce a false positive, I'm not sure. But the diagnosis has helped irrespective of whether I actually have aspergers (I have the same difficulties, regardless of cause, it's nice to explain it with something outside my control) so I don't think about it too much.

In the civilised world, they just do it 'cause they're incompetent and grouchy at being dragged away from the Death Panels™.

I was told by three doctors I didn't have autism. All three doctors' knowledge of autism was the tiny little paragraph about it in the DSM IV. I was later diagnosed officially by a professor who specialised in ASDs, A psychologist and his entire team who also all specialised in ASDs. So just because three doctors have said you don't have it doesn't make them right necessarily, however I don't know you and you haven't mentioned your past history, so it would be impossible to make a judgement based upon what you have written as those symptoms might indicate other disorders too.

One problem with diagnosis by observed behaviour is that behaviour changes as people learn. I can do things now which I would have found much harder 20 years ago and my behaviour now is much less autistic than it was when I was a child. I suspect I might not be diagnosed by something like ADOS, but if I answer the questions in RDOS honestly I come out as strongly autistic.