Psychologist says he doesn't think I have Asperger's

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"My daughter had trouble finding someone to diagnose her sons. She found a second pediatrician because the first one was obstructive. These experts do not realise the harm they do to people such as yourself and the angst they create."

A pediatrician does not qualify as an expert or specialist for PDD's. They are in the physical not psychological field, and thus not fully qualified to issue a diagnosis of autism (or any psychological disorder for that matter), and are supposed to refer such cases to a psychologis/psychiatrist/neurologist for diagnosing. Pediatricians are not trained in psychological diagnosis, or plain psychology in many cases. Some places will even refuse to provide the services if the child wasn't diagnosised by a "professional" even if a pediatrician signs off on it. HMO's are also less likely to cover treatments (more so than with those deemed "properly" diagnosed, which many insurence companies look for ways not to cover as well). There are all kinds of legal loop-holes blocking appropriate services, so I'd be careful about going to a pediatrician for a diagnosis.

I am sorry to hear it has happened to you and I hope you'll find a way to get around it, maybe another psychologist that actually listens to you and considers what you tell him. Don't stop trying if you feel that it is very important to get a diagnosis/help. The very thing happened to me, I told this to the psychiatrist and she told me after 45 minutes that it couldn't possibly be autism. But the next psychologist then really listened to me and even diagnosed me after concluding that I indeed am autistic. And it took a lot more than 45 minutes...

You need to find someone who already has experience with asperger's. Then at least you can trust the results more.

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my psychologist asked me, when I told him I expected no 'therapy, nor cure' from his involvement 'then why are you here?'

I said I wanted to get DXed so I could wear a little medic alert bracelet and instead of it saying "diabetic" or "asthmatic" it could say "mild Autism" and then I could have a fighting chance to get my mental feet under me if I were in some law enforcement or other emergency situation. He had never thought of anything like that and could see the importance it would have in immediately establishing my being a responsible person for communicating the information in such a concrete way (rather than flailing around being thought I was TRYING to be a knob) and for myself to retain some dignity in my own self esteem. He thought it was quite appropriate, and asked me to research that for him, as others could probably benefit from that as well. just an idea that anyone can implement.

SAMPLE MEDIC ALERT BRACELET

BASIC BRACELET DESIGN/STAINLESS STEEL

Merle

Last edited by sinsboldly on 12 Jan 2008, 7:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

You're absolutely right. A person cannot diagnose themselves because they do not have the perspective required. However, if you walk, swim, and quack like a duck and you find that a site like this helps you walk, swim, and quack properly, the diagnosis doesn't matter. I think it comes down to, who cares about the diagnosis? What would you get out of it, really? Categorized as a disabled person, as I've heard the courts considering? That doesn't help -- we're not disabled, we're differently abled (in fact, I find myself far more abled than most normal people I know) and completely able to live a normal life, even if others want to deny it to us, which is the real problem. Or is the "we" the problem -- is it a means to exclude others, socially, from the group? Since NT's cannot understand AS, however, because THEY lack the perspective required, really, there is nothing to be gained by trying to get a diagnosis, IMHO, but instead, trying to get them to STOP thinking it is a problem in the first place. They all assume was must be missing something and then they realize, "Oh look, their delicious brains have everything there, it just works differently. Genes? Maybe it is the genes? Oh, there MUST be something wrong with them, because THEY'RE NOT LIKE EVERYONE ELSE and non-conformity is wrong. It's gotta be vaccines. Yes, vaccines; it must have destroyed something in them. It just can't be a normal occurrence in nature -- we don't like them, they can't be normal!" Do we really think explaining to an adult how a person thinks is going to make them accept them? Really? Social things are not rational. Definitely, no children will accept; they haven't the capacity to reason about social things, their minds are basing themselves off of too much instinct.

Actually, what is it going to take, anyway? Now, I hear it is 1 in 100. It was one in 1,500 not too long ago. What is the number that makes us normal, anyway?

And, in my darker thoughts, I think perhaps they will add the "autistic" tag to people who do not socially align with politically correct thinking. But that's just crazy. We don't live in a world that would possibly do that... do we?

You might not be a duck, but I would love to check out those webbed toes!

Merle

If you were a chick, I'd let you check out anything you wanted to.

I find it funny that someone would actually want to be diagnosed an impairment.
I, myself, dread the day some shrink decides to give me a f*****g label like this.
People need to admit AS is a sketchy concept - even more so as people try to re-define it and exploit it - and therefore not put much hopes into understanding and gauging their own identity from that perspective.
It doesn't seem like any of this will ever consolidate into anything serious so it'll probably fade into the background with the emergence of the next dx fad and so on. . .

militarybrat, for the most part, there's going to be a single overruling/overriding interest that one spends an inordinate amount of time on that excludes other things. One can have many interests; it's just that one with AS will usually fixate on one at a time.

Is AS the inverse of ADD, in a way? This focusing applies to everything, including social skills. Amazing focus to the point where all else shuts-down. This could be the ultimate strength of the aspie and why aspies often have exaggerated skills -- they simply focused on them more over time.

If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, then many diagnosticians would diagnosis it as a pigmy elephant with feathers and a speech impediment.

In other words, many diagnosticians are still reluctant to use the autism labels. They'd much rather label the person with ADHD, OCD, dyspraxia, Executive Dysfunction, Social Phobia, and Giftedness rather than Aspergers. BUT it is taught in diagnostics to LUMP (one encompassing diagnosis) rather than SPLIT (a label for each trait), but because of the nature of these labels and the history of autism, diagnosticians are less willing to lump as they are actually trained.

The psychologist who diagnosed me first said she thought it was very unlikely that I had it to. But all the reasons she gave for her belief on that were things that I had only started doing once I decided I had asperger's and looked up the things that aspies have to learn to do - ie make eye contact when speaking to someone

What about people who have both AS and ADD, though? I've been diagnosed with both, as have many other people on these boards I believe. While I can't say for sure if I actually have both, I certainly see strong elements of both conditions in me. The results can be interesting, though somewhat tempered since I've been on ADD meds. The AS/ADD connection is a bit confusing to me because I've even heard that some ADDers "hyperfocus." ADD doesn't always mean an inability to concentrate; in some cases it might just mean scattered or inappropriate attention. I suspect that a lot of diagnosed ADDers may actually be on the spectrum, though, so it's difficult to figure all of this out when the diagnostic waters are so muddy. Maybe in the future, when professionals are more aware of the different conditions (and the diagnostic criteria is more precise) all of this will be clear.

Is Giftedness really a diagnosis? What does it mean?

This is a false argument. It's technically impossible to focus on two things at once. And nonautistics have interests as well and also cannot focus on more than one thing at a time.

The DIFFERENCE between autistics and nonautistics isn't a definable line, it is a general trend. GENERALLY we become more strongly obsessed in particular interests. Sometimes, these interests can be unusual. Some autistics have had just a few obsessions over their lifetimes. Other autistics have a range of interests and these change and shift frequently. But we become MORE obsessed usually than nonautistics. That is the definable variable: the severity.

However, our interests can wax and wane due to stress, ADHD traits, depression, medication use, and other variables.

You are generalizing far too much, daniel.

Nothing official. It's more often used in educational settings. And some practitioners may also use it, even though it's not a DSM/ICD label.

you're in luck! I have been a chick all my life.


Merle