What the hell am I?

Post Reply New Topic

I was thinking today and I came to the conclusion that no psychiatrist diagnosed me. I didn't pay for it. From the 2th grade to the 5th grade, I've been tested by people at the school. In the 8th grade, they told me I had AS. I read my IEP and in the 5th grade, someone wrote "highly likely to have Aspergers Syndrome".

I have an IEP and I am in Special Ed. I do not know if that is official enough. I didn't self-diagnose myself either. If you told me I had Aspergers two years ago, I would have freaked out and said I did not. I am so confused.

I don't really understand what you're asking. "Do I have Aspergers?" From the sounds of what they have concluded from testing you and what they told you in 8th grade, it seems like you are indeed Aspergers. I'm not really... understanding what your asking?

No, no. I am sure I have Aspergers. I just want to know if the diagnosis was official or not.

For the longest time, i refused to accept that i have AS. this came from seeing several different doctors who could not agree on a dx. i was schizophrenic, then ADD then ADHD, then aspergers, then PDD-NOS, then ADHD again, then schizo-affective disorder(what the hell is that?), then social anxiety disorder, then depression, and finally back to aspergers.

its funny, my fourth grade teacher in 1997(3 years after AS became official) was the first to suspect something amiss about me, and she mentioned aspergers, but nobody listened to her, i went through years of tests and misunderstandings, when she knew it all along.

Well. A school's evaluation is "official" enough for an IEP.. I'm not certain but for disability benefits I think you need a medical evaluation. I've been evaluated by 2 school psychologists and 2 private psychiatrists and the results have been consistent. I believe them

And here is another issue I have with those who are so quick to discount those who are self diagnosed. What IS an official diagnosis?

"You likely have AS"?
"It's my professional opinion that you have AS"?
"You meet all the criteria for AS"?
"I think you have AS"?

Does the person have to write it down? What if they write

"Suspect AS"?
"Probable AS"?
"Social issues in accordance with AS"?
Or do they have to write
"dx AS"
"I officially diagnose this person of having Asperger's Syndrome"?

Does it have to be written on special paper specially designated for declaring a diagnosis?

What if it's just imbedded in the notes of a file?

What if it was declared but never written down?

In my experience the only people who ever write down in the mental health field "dx (whatever)" on official looking paper are psychiatrists, and most people who specialize in AS aren't psychiatrists because you can't medicate it specifically.

Before my DX, I was told that I likely had AS by 3 different counsellors who worked or had worked professionally with autistic children in adults. they all said things like "Yes I can see you have the traits. You are mild though." This was good enough for me.

I was never in any doubt that I was on the spectrum and when I then met people on the spectrum I even had people to compare myself to so i could see how AS I was.

I think if a psychiatrist said that I would diagnose them with "Pretentious Buttwipe Syndrome" ... PBS...public broadcasting service?

So the way I was diagnosed which wasn't until adulthood was through official questionairres that have been validated by research and various tests that have strict protocols and training for people to do and interpret results based on results of such. I went through an interview/behavioral/observational protocol called the ADOS. These type of things give you results that get you to the official diagnosis. The criteria is spelled out in the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistics Manual) that psychologists and counselors must be trained to use.

If you've gone through this type of testing and someone used the DSM-IV who was <i>trained</i> to use it to come up with a diagnosis, than it is official.

Concerns from friends that cannot officially diagnose you can bring issues to your attention to inform a decision to seek an official diagnosis.

I hope this helps

LOL !

Ehh... you're probably autistic. If it's on your IEP and nobody has questioned it, and your special ed arrangements are working for you, then there's no good reason to think you're not autistic.

Why would you freak out and say you didn't have it? I mean, I get the "say you didn't have it", if you thought you didn't match the symptoms; but the freaking out thing, I don't understand. There's nothing wrong with having autism. You're the same person you've been all along; you learn differently and think differently... but you knew that already.

Being autistic doesn't change your worth as a person; doesn't stop you from learning; doesn't stop you from pursuing your dreams. Even the prejudice is getting to be less and less severe as people are speaking up about it.

I was only diagnosed by observation and history myself, Ferdinand, but I embraced it after 17 years of incorrect diagnoses. It was a matter of "Wohoo! No more medications! No more being labelled 'mentally ill'! No more self-doubt and lack of confidence!"

But it was also kind of a cakewalk for my psych doc. As an adult with AS, I'm practically a poster child.

What happened specifically, was that I had been scheduled with a new psychiatrist who actually sat and talked with me for a hour, instead of just being a pill dispenser. After we talked about my childhood weirdness, then my adult weirdness, including my "wrong planet" perception, he said, "Have you ever thought that you may have Asperger's syndrome?"

And I said, "It's been suggested by a friend."

Doctor said, "I would say definitely."

Last edited by dyingofpoetry on 15 Jul 2010, 1:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I don't know how it shows up, that probably depends on who diagnosed you at your school. If they were *just* a counselor, I don't think they can give you an official diagnosis (not 100% on that). A psychologist or psychiatrist can diagnose you for sure though...I was diagnosed by neuropsych. I didn't actually understand that I was officially diagnosed at first, I said something about it and my mom told me he had said that in our session, I just didn't understand by the way he worded it apparently. I do know that if you have an IEP/are in special ed it can follow you to college, though. (It doesn't matter if you graduate with the average high school diploma though.)

Does AS feel like YOU? Do you feel that the criteria overall matches your experience? Do you understand the difficulties and experiences of other Aspergians? And if the previous three answers are "yes," does that give you a degree or contentment or satisfaction?

If the answer to the final answer is "yes," then it was official, no matter what from the diagnosis took. So, now just get it in writing for your own records, if you have not already.

(This series of questions came form my beloved Drs. Neal and Abel. I didn't just make it up... for those who think THAT would be "unofficial.")

Last edited by dyingofpoetry on 15 Jul 2010, 1:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I got a hold of my psych assessments from school. On those papers, it was ADHD, but they wrote all over the place I had no social skills and part of my IEP included training me for social skills in several different ways and even a college student followed me around to teach me how to interact and to advert meltdowns. Asperger's didn't exist when I was a kid, but also reading the reports it seems I had ADHD too. They did the best they could.

Before I was diagnosed with PDD-NOS, I went through a period where I said I had borderline autism, then went through another period adamantly denying it, telling people that I had been tested for it, and failed to get a diagnosis. Mom later told me that she told people to not diagnose me with autism, since it wouldn't get us any additional services. Go figure.

As to why kids and teenagers (and adults!) freak out when people suggest that there is a possibility of autism in them, I think it has to do with fitting in. I'm kind of confused, too.