Is this clinical psychologist acting professionally?
my sister forwarded my case to him and he already made some “preliminary assessments” about me
Your case may have been all wrong, or, the quack has no idea of ASD.
Either way, his written assessment sounds extremely incompetent, to the point of unbelievably so.
Surely they cant be quite that bad?
This was doomed no matter what he said. It is unprofessional to make a preliminary assessment based just on reading medical records your sister sent, without even meeting you, and then mail that assessment back to your sister (or to you). Even if he said, "yes, I think this person has autism" it would still be unprofessional to do that without meeting you.
Well Luska, don't be too surprised about this, many so-called professionals have not got a clue what they're doing. People cheat their way through university sometimes, or some of them learn what's being taught just to pass the test, they decided to compartmentalize it and ignore it before they even started studying. They come in with their own (usually juvenile) ideas, and leave with them as well. You will run into these people from time to time, especially in professions that are more subjective (I imagine these sort of people cannot exist in fields like physics or chemistry, where you either know what you're doing or you don't and it's really obvious either way).
As an example, I had to go to a sleep clinic a couple of years ago. My doctor referred me there for apnea. They had these forms about your sleep habits that you have to fill out, and I seem to have a disorder called Non-24, where my sleep doesn't go by a 24 hour clock, it shifts around as if my body runs on a 26 hour clock. This wasn't what I went to the sleep clinic for and I have it under control (I just make an adjustment in my schedule every now and then by getting a very short sleep and being a bit tired through one day, such that I can't stay up the whole day). But I had to fill out these forms where they asked lots of questions about your sleep habits and schedules, and, since I was unemployed at that time, I wasn't doing any corrections, so I had no regular schedule - I was just letting it run its course, since there was no particular reason to deprive myself of sleep to correct it.
At the time, I myself had never heard of this disorder. I answered the forms as honestly as possible and the intake person looks at them and says "I don't understand your schedule," so I explained it. It's not complicated and I was brief and to the point but the intake lady says, "I don't understand - what time do you usually go to bed and get up?" and I said "It shifts around - imagine I'm on a 26 hour clock, that's how it works." She just looks at me with a raised eyebrow, I let it pass, but I was thinking - what is there to not understand? Is she stupid? This persisted with the *doctor* who ran the sleep clinic. He proceeded to give me this big lecture about a secret that "few people understand", and I'm sitting there waiting through all his pompous pontificating for him to come out with this amazing revelation, which turns out to be - "It's not when you go to bed, it's when you get up. You have to force yourself to get up in the morning rather than force yourself to go to bed at a certain time. What time was it you went to bed last night, and when did you get up?"
Well, I'd had to do a correction to make the appointment, so I'd gone to bed at noon and got up at 2 pm rather than the 8pm or so I would probably have got up. I knew his "big secret" already, it was old news, and he didn't at all understand Non-24 and never gave any indication he was even familiar with it. I only learned about it later - but it's long been classified in official medical diagnostics. That a "sleep doctor" never heard of it, is amazing, but he apparently hadn't. So anyway, after I answered his question, because it made him wrong on a couple of counts, he got snarky and rude with me. I told him I was there for my apnea, so let's just move on, and he goes on about how they could be related (actually, they can't, as the real doctor at the next sleep lab informed me) and eventually I just got tired of this imbecile. I got up and said "I don't believe this will be helpful" and I left. Got a new referral from my doctor who sent me to another sleep clinic that knew what the hell they were doing. The doctor at the next place took one look at my form and says, "It looks like you're describing Non-24" so I asked him what it was, he explained it, I said it sounds right but not a problem, and there was no problem.
Long story short, there are lots of professionals out there who are no good at their work and not at all professional, but, most of the time, you can just dump them and find a different one. Just be sure you aren't shopping around to get the diagnosis you want. If they don't want to try anything to help you, they're probably no good, if they want to try some treatment but it isn't what you figured, just keep an open mind and try it out. While there are a few who are really bad at what they do, there are also some who really are good at what they do.
There's an old joke about that.
What do you call somebody who graduated last at the bottom of his class in medical school?
You call him doctor.
Here and there will be the people who came pretty close to flunking out of medical school but somehow scraped by. They still get to practice medicine. You never find out about them until you actually encounter them.
“Nothing’s wrong with him. He should have already been diagnosed as a child.”( Asperger’s Syndrome only became an official diagnosis in 1994 years after I was born and it probably hasn't been recognized in many countries even until today!! ! Many adults are diagnosed later in life! It only became better known only a few years ago. Even in 2001 the condition was not very well known and many documents from the year 2001 still stated that 80 % of autists were mentally ret*d. Compare that to Simon Baron Cohen’s recent findings in autism:)
This is absurd. My mother refused to seek out a diagnosis even though my teachers told her early on there was something amiss, I am 22 and still seeking a diagnosis. I have to go against her just to get treatment and she didn't accept it until I regressed to the point where I started beating myself senseless. Also telling her I felt out of control of the homicidal suicidal, thoughts/intentions got her attention. To add to this I was born in 89' so I also slipped through the cracks.
I was born in 1975 so it wasn't even an official diagnosis until I was out of school for three years. I quit at 16.
I still don't see how they never diagnosed me with anything with all the special classes and schools I was in and even had to do a 30 day evaluation in a mental hospital.
That's not professional--saying that someone is "just 20 years old" is ageist! Sounds like he is ignoring you and has no concern for you.
_________________
Letting go is not a skill--it's the lazy way out. The real skill is having the courage to stand up for yourself and demand justice.
I'm not mentally ill--the world is!
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