Page 1 of 1 [ 4 posts ] 

alexptrans
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 31 May 2010
Age: 182
Gender: Male
Posts: 878

07 Jun 2010, 7:59 am

I'm having my official diagnosis in a couple of weeks, and I was wondering whether it's a good idea to send the psychiatrist a letter beforehand explaining why I believe I have AS. I'm having a little trouble articulating my thoughts in a real conversation, so I thought the letter might be used as a starting point. Has anyone here done that? If so, was the letter helpful to the psychiatrist?



Ambivalence
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 8 Nov 2008
Age: 47
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,613
Location: Peterlee (for Industry)

07 Jun 2010, 9:09 am

Yes. It's a good idea, and you should show it to people who knew you when you were younger; they can offer you a different perspective on your life, and may remember things you don't.


_________________
No one has gone missing or died.

The year is still young.


Kiley
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 26 Apr 2010
Age: 60
Gender: Female
Posts: 879

07 Jun 2010, 9:50 am

When my kids were diagnosed I was given two sets of the questionairs. One set was for a teacher and I chose teachers who I felt connected best with my children, and a form for me to fill out. The psychologist also spent some time making her own observations, interviewing the children, and going through questions out loud with me. She used more than one ASD scale and tested intelligence using more than one high quality tests because different tests tend to show different kinds of strengths and weaknesses.

My eldest two came out in the high 90percentiles on all Aspie scales, and my little guy did not come even close but had several extremely unusual test results with unique patterns. We don't have a label for him but we know that his brain works in highly unique ways.

We found it all extremely helpful. The IQ tests for Aspies will show a big point spread unless they have some problem being able to take the test, which some people do. These tests can be useful but they don't show all kinds of intelligences. They predict certain things pretty accurately most off the time, but there are all sorts of abilities that they are completely blind to. You may find you have some strengths you can capitalize on and some weaknesses that you can work around, which is useful to know, but only just a glimmer of your true self. Of my three sons the one who scores the lowest on the IQ test is the most academically gifted and capable. On other tests he comes out in the top three percentiles (depending on the subset) of the top one percentile, but his IQ is just a nice high/avg, no glimmer of the abilities he actually has.

Enjoy your testing, it's a great chance to learn about yourself and discover some good things.



alexptrans
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 31 May 2010
Age: 182
Gender: Male
Posts: 878

07 Jun 2010, 3:16 pm

Thanks for the encouragement! I'll start working on the letter, then.