Had my evaluation... Total nightmare

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this man is so incompetent, uneducated and pathetically cliche it makes my head hurt. his idiocy is so monumental, i cant even logically discuss his statements.

but get a second opinion. please. i had an experience similar to yours. it left me so despondent, i nearly gave up - though had i given up, i wouldnt have sought out the highly qualified professional i receive therapy and support from now.

i am, yes.

i have a healthy dose of cynicism about psychiatry. i am an lmsw, and as an lmsw, i able able to establish diagnoses based on the dsm iv-tr (soon to be dsm v). if you use it as it is designed to be used, it is a pretty helpful tool; the only way you can screw it up is by ignoring it (i.e. not following the diagnostic criteria, allowing personal bias to enter into a diagnosis, etc.). sounds like this fellow is using rainman as his frame of reference; what a loser.

This is true. There are many people who think they have an ASD but in reality have something completely different.

But still, what the doctor said is very untrue.

Are you saying that I'm not and that what the doctor said is true?

Whose comment? Are you talking about what the doctor said? If he's right, why is everyone else here disagreeing with you?

Are you diagnosed as autistic? Could you have assembled the blocks in a matter of seconds? Do you not recognize that other people have feelings too?

Sethno,

No one can diagnose you here. People are just giving their opinions about various possibilities.

Really: take the online tests I sent you the links for, and use those as a starting point. Some people think those are inaccurate, but they may at least point you in the right direction, if nothing else.

I think Sethno is aware that no-one can diagnose him here. He appears to be questioning two members who made spurious/implicatory comments, particularly as those comments are the opposite of what the vast majority of others have advised him.

Whirlingmind is right.

I didn't ask for a diagnosis.

I asked if there was agreement with the doctor's statements. That's all.

Both people were a little unclear in what they were saying.

Haven't had a chance to take the online tests yet. (Still a little traumatized after the four hour series.)

Have taken online tests before, and results were unclear. I was said to have both NT and Aspie responses.

Sounds like an absolute nightmare, Sethno, and I'm sorry to hear you've got to go through all this. Interestingly, I used copious amounts of humor during my professional assessment and made the psychologist laugh frequently. It's kind of how I cope with stressful situations and most of my jokes/quips are just rehashed from things I've heard or seen. Anyway, it didn't affect their diagnosis at all, so you can completely debunk all of that.

This is the most strange thing i have ever read. Weed has never hurt anyone, go look it up. The only negative thing you'll find is reference to it being a gateway drug.

Weed isn't strong enough to make you crazy.
So what were you really on? LSD, PCP, Shrooms, DXM, Meth, something i maybe?

Your comment sounds trolling. Weed is legalized in many states, about to be fully legalized.

And no, i don't smoke. I can't anymore as i don't get enough oxygen to my brain. (not sure why or how yet this is the case) so getting "High" off weed is useless to me. Although i respect others' rights to smoke.

The doctor's.



-People equal to objects and don't have their own feelings; lack of empathy, perspective taking, the social and emotional disconnect, makes this
-Interact and converse; the lack of social and emotional reciprocation makes this (one sided lecturing in the highest functioning cases isn't social interaction)
-"Sense of humor"; depends on what he means. People with ASDs can be funny, but it's often unique and not normal (hence, lots wouldn't find it funny)

Just because people disagree doesn't make it so.

Check out Callista's post on the first page of this thread for a nuanced, accurate response. The doctor's criteria are faulty.

I would disagree:

http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mentalhealthin ... nabis.aspx

Mental health problems

There is growing evidence that people with serious mental illness, including depression and psychosis, are more likely to use cannabis or have used it for long periods of time in the past. Regular use of the drug has appeared to double the risk of developing a psychotic episode or long-term schizophrenia. However, does cannabis cause depression and schizophrenia or do people with these disorders use it as a medication?

Over the past few years, research has strongly suggested that there is a clear link between early cannabis use and later mental health problems in those with a genetic vulnerability - and that there is a particular issue with the use of cannabis by adolescents.

Depression
A study following 1600 Australian school-children, aged 14 to 15 for seven years, found that while children who use cannabis regularly have a significantly higher risk of depression, the opposite was not the case - children who already suffered from depression were not more likely than anyone else to use cannabis. However, adolescents who used cannabis daily were five times more likely to develop depression and anxiety in later life.
Schizophrenia
Three major studies followed large numbers of people over several years, and showed that those people who use cannabis have a higher than average risk of developing schizophrenia. If you start smoking it before the age of 15, you are 4 times more likely to develop a psychotic disorder by the time you are 26. They found no evidence of self-medication. It seemed that, the more cannabis someone used, the more likely they were to develop symptoms.

Why should teenagers be particularly vulnerable to the use of cannabis? No one knows for certain, but it may be something to do with brain development. The brain is still developing in the teenage years – up to the age of around 20, in fact. A massive process of ‘neural pruning’ is going on. This is rather like streamlining a tangled jumble of circuits so they can work more effectively. Any experience, or substance, that affects this process has the potential to produce long-term psychological effects.

Recent research in Europe, and in the UK, has suggested that people who have a family background of mental illness – and so probably have a genetic vulnerability anyway - are more likely to develop schizophrenia if they use cannabis as well.

Physical health problems

The main risk to physical health from cannabis is probably from the tobacco that is is often smoked with.

Is there such a thing as ‘cannabis psychosis’?

Recent research in Denmark suggests that yes, there is. It is a short-lived psychotic disorder that seems to be brought on by cannabis use but which subsides fairly quickly once the individual has stopped using it. It's quite unusual though – in the whole of Denmark they found only around 100 new cases per year.
However, they also found that:
Three quarters had a different psychotic disorder diagnosed within the next year.
Nearly half still had a psychotic disorder 3 years later.
So, it also seems probable that nearly half of those diagnosed as having cannabis psychosis are actually showing the first signs of a more long-lasting psychotic disorder, such as schizophrenia. It may be this group of people who are particularly vulnerable to the effects of cannabis, and so should probably avoid it in the future.

Is cannabis addictive?

It has some of the features of addictive drugs such as:
tolerance – having to take more and more to get the same effect
withdrawal symptoms. These have been shown in heavy users and include:
craving
decreased appetite
sleep difficulty
weight loss
aggression and/or anger
irritability
restlessness
strange dreams. .
These symptoms of withdrawal produce about the same amount of discomfort as withdrawing from tobacco.

For regular, long-term users:

3 out of 4 experience cravings;
half become irritable;
7 out of 10 switch to tobacco in an attempt to stay off cannabis.
The irritability, anxiety and problems with sleeping usually appear 10 hours after the last joint, and peak at around one week after the last use of the drug.

Compulsive use
The user feels they have to have it and spends much of their life seeking, buying and using it. They cannot stop even when other important parts of their life (family, school, work) suffer.
You are most likely to become dependent on cannabis if you use it every day.

well i know for a fact that i do NOT relate to people at all, i sympathize with them by imagining them as animals like if a mother loses a child, i imagine it as a polar bear loosing one of her babies. its just how my brain works

why are you so attached to a autism diagnosis?

Whether or not he is autistic, he has a right to having a competent and thorough evaluation - something he did not receive from the person he saw.