Diagnosis Horror Stories

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My last boyfriend was reading about Aspergers and he tyold me things like "I don't see how you can be diagnosed with it" Just because he thought my IQ wasn't above average. Hello, my psychiatrist said it was above average when he diagnosed me, I have scored above average on IQ tests and I had to show the boyfriend it's says aspies have average to above average intelligence and had to show him the words on the WP homepage. He also told me i can't possibly have it just because I tied my shoes at age 6 and I should have learned it when I was younger. Hello no one taught it to me hen I was little, it wasn't until I was 6 when a teacher decided it was time I learned how and my special ed teacher agreed so she called my mother and told her and she agreed too so she started teaching me and it took me about three weeks but that is just a guess, I don't know how long it took me and what did he say instead "Maybe they did tried to teach you and you just couldn't comprehend it." So judgmental he is. How would he know, he didn't have proof. Also told me I can't possibly have it because I'm not good with math. I suck at algebra, I don't get it, I never learned how because it was too abstract but no he says it's all concrete. If it is concrete, then I'd be able to do it then. Told me I can't possible have it just because I didn't mind the mess in his apartment, it wasn't my place so I didn't care, and I wasn't organized enough for him even though I had each items in boxes I took from each shelf. He said it was all thrown in. Yeah right.
"I'm pretty disorganized when I don't have my own place because it's hard to be organized so therefore I couldn't have AS according to him. I should have told him "Who died and made you the doctor" or "Does it matter what label I have?"
Maybe that's what my mother meant by he doesn't know anything about Aspergers. You can still read about it and still not know what it is. I think it means you still don't understand it even though you have read about it and know some about it and know what the traits are, etc. but don't know enough to know it's just a label and each person with it is different and it doesn't define them.

I was told by the grad student who tested me I was superior intelligence. I said I dont know what that means, whats YOUR intellegence level. She said Uh. . above average. I said whats that in relation to superior?

Also after the intial meeting she tried to get me switched over to someone else because she wanted to date me. That REALLY messed the testing up.

I'll never forget EVERY time I took an IQ test I would soar along untill "if two apples are 31 cents how much are a dozen?" Click. Timer runs out. They ask if I need more time I say No, I have no idea or any idea how to figure it out.

I was the last kid to learn to ride a bike ( but the only guy who still rides one for fun, uh I mean exercise) I took forever to be toilet trained and I was so old when I learned how to tie my shoes it s embarrassing to admit( if I cared) Took me forever to learn how to read a clock yet Im the only one with an actual pocketwatch wthats not digital.

Always knew how to read and draw though. Too bad I didnt have folks that encouraged that or had me tested for my deficencies. I was thrown out of the advanced classes in grade 6 because I had as except for math, thats a signal theres a problem.

Everybody thought I was got good grades but I didnt. I barely passed high school. If they had the same rules in 1990 as they do today where you have to be proficient in everything I woulndnt have passed. I even managed to get a college BFA without taking math.

Just FYI and all, one only needs an "average" IQ to have AS; below and above both reside here, there's some with mental retardation who have AS too (clearly autistic but have no problems with verbal communication for example, they'd probably fit PDD-NOS better, but the doctors know more than I do).

I heard someone on hear make the comment that they were once told they didn't have AS because they were married. Goes hand in hand with that "you let your foods touch each other so you can't have AS" comment. That kind of stuff makes my blood boil. It just seems that so many doctors aren't interested in actually trying their hardest to get a proper diagnosis. It's all about throwing around the trendiest diagnosis of the decade and the popular meds.

I even got told I couldn't possibly have Asperger's because I got good marks in school and had a job. They didn't take into account how many social deficitis I had or how long it took to find the job. Then there is the prejudice against women having Asperger's which makes it harder for us to get diagnosed.

Apparently top psych: " You can't possibly have AS. It's just another fad. I went to one of Lorna Wing's lectures years ago. She only got into it because her sons are autistic"

Dr Wing has a daughter who is Aspergers. General conclusion: 'top' psych a total tosser. Wouldn't trust him with my pet bunny.

I am overtly (high-functioning) autistic, yet unobtrusive and can be subtle. This translates to AS due to my enhanced cognitive abilities, but still 100% autistic.

That being said, let me tell you my horror story. Kind-of sounds funny now - NOT at the time. I was in the ER after I had hurt myself. I was not speaking and very withdrawn. The admitting doctor asked me, "Are you hearing voices in your head?"

I interpet literally. So, I answered, "Yes." Because I in fact DO hear voices in my head, all the time when another is talking to me. Like I heard the doctor's voice in my head since my eardrums happen to be located in my head. I honestly did NOT know the implications of that answer. Oh no.

What he meant was, "Do you hear scary/threatening voices from an imaginary source in your head and are they directing you to do things against your will, or that are bad/frightening/violent? If he had asked that, which is what he really meant, my answer would be 'no.' Really wish others would clarify their word choice. What a mess......

Please do not laugh at me. Diagnostic nightmare.

I have never met anyone who is misdiagnosed as ASD, but have met plenty of people who are ASD who were diagnosed with something completely different.

Perfect example....my son who will be 16 in a week...we were told when he was little that we were looking at PDD. Autism is even noted in the file. However, some brilliant doctor (because he's in that weird age group when AS was first coming to the US) said well, would be autism, but he's verbal. Must be something else. So, now, I've got a kid who for most of his life swooped through the realms of sensory integration and severe ADD and ended up being diagnosed at 15 with AS. I on the other hand, have been up and down the spectrum of depression, and finally said, oh, duh, I'm just autistic. At 38.

Now, I've got an ex who was never around and didn't care about all of the early intervention strategies and therapies and ignored them for my kid's whole life. Now, he wants to say I'm crazy, because I got the kid diagnosed with the right thing. I got me diagnosed with the right thing. So, I'm crazy. I have Munchausen's. I think they are all f**ked.

I heard a litany of reasons why I couldn't be Autistic.

Here goes:

"You're too smart"

"You're just trying to cover up the fact that you're a bit goofy and uncoordinated"

"You date too much to be Autistic"

"You make good eye contact" (That's not what my employers say)

*Gah*

Well, I have a story like this to share too.

I went to see the head psychiatrist of our local clinic for my very first appointment with anything other than a normal doctor at age 18. When the woman and I started talking, I got a really bad feeling about her, because she kept using phrases like 'are you sure it's like that?' and 'maybe it was rather like this...' every few minutes or so. In short, I had a growing feeling she didn't take me serious at all since I explained that I had come here because I strongly suspected I had an autism spectrum disorder. She didn't ask me questions about anything autism related, but rather plunged right into my (not so medical) history. I started talking about my life, but she kept asking questions about things I considered small and unimportant points - she made a drama about it, asking thousands of questions about the divorce of my parents when I was two, about how I wanted to jump out of the window at age eleven and what I felt about it, whether I wanted to kill myself right now... I was shocked, although to say that is an understatement. To most of her questions my answer was a simple 'no'. Not depressed, no, absolutely not, not suicidal, no, I like my parents, yes, though they tend to be as idiotic as the rest of the world (I meant to say they're neurotypical). It went on like this.

She never once asked something about autism, never said something about autism, didn't consider autism at all. Instead she asked me things like when my menses had started. ??

She drove me insane, but I wasn't sure what to do, because I never had such an appointment before. After a 45 minute trip into my past that was all about what happened, but never about WHY it happened I was finally free to go. I returned for a second appointment, but never thereafter. I was later told, since there was another person involved that had contact to that psychiatrist that the women suspected a borderline-personality-disorder right away. To me it was told as if she was sure that I must have this, because of my (actually autistic!) symptoms.

Urgh, that's a pretty bad almost-misdiagnosis, because I have a very dear friend who had a borderline personality disorder and we're as different as day and night!

I plan on never accidentally meeting this women ever ever ever.

I lacked a diagnosis throughout childhood and was routinely mistreated, punished and abused for things that I had no concept of why I was being treated that way for.