Diagnosis: Are doctors full of crap?

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Hi,

Since I was young I've been to doctor after doctor and not once has the concept of autism ever been brought up. Ever. My dad read about Asperger's from a magazine and noticed that I showed all of the symptoms. I looked at it too, and indeed, I show the symptoms.

So... be it "high-functioning" and "complex" as it may be, it seems pretty clear that doctors don't generally hold a concern for their patients and most-likely have an incentive to just prescribe random depression medications and see if anything works out.

My parents spent thousands of dollars to send me to a hospital for "inpatient treatment." Not a word about Asperger's. I guess it's all just a coincidence that I'm more mature than the rest of my peers, hold more mature attitudes, have highly specialized and obsessive interests, basically no friends, keep to myself, and suffer from severe anxiety and depression?

We just recently gave the symptom list to our general pediatrician and he referenced us to a pediatric neurologist. He suggested a pediatric neurologist because he thinks that they would have more expertise dealing with problems of an autistic nature rather than a general neurologist who would probably be more accustomed to tumors and physical abnormalities. Whether this is a load of garbage or not, I don't know.

I've been on a lot of medication and I'm currently on a huge amount of prescriptions so I would like it if someone was competent and mature enough to tell me what's really going on instead of handing me more pills. My family is fed up with it as well.

I don't go to a doctor to hear about how debatable these conditions are. I go to a doctor to fix this chronic problem that obviously is not being fixed. What, do I have to debate the symptoms with the doctor now? Do we have take a flight out to New York to see a good neurologist?

Thoughts? Is life supposed to be a commercialized sham?

-Colin

There is no blood test for aspergers. So a doctor may not recognize it unless they are doing a comprehensive psychological work-up. Many doctors will stop after recognizing depression or anxiety or ADD/ADHD because they understand more about those conditions, and know things to prescribe for them.

Okay, there's no blood test and it's difficult to diagnose... specialized, complicated, usually diagnosed when you're young... fair enough. I do have something to say, however.

These people are doctors. They went through years of medical school. After medical school, they should still be trying to learn everything they can from as varied sources as possible. The United States has severe emotional problems hence the drug use and crime rates. I went through public school. People are depressed, using marijuana to try to help, and selling their ridiculous amounts of pills for money. I used to be pretty verbally against this, but I can't really blame them anymore. Their parents are clueless hacks who always get divorced after their children are well on their way to becoming troubled adults (as they punish their children for having emotional problems, talk about ignorant and stupid), and doctors apparently are doing trial and error in order to "correct" problems that need treatment.

I don't know what world these doctors are living in, but it's not helping. There is a problem. It needs to be fixed. I'm fed up with the runaround. Get me and everyone else the treatment they need so that suicide rates can go down and people can finally live their lives without constant emotional upheavals and all the problems associated with that. You want your capitalist state to run without a hitch? Great, but you need to take care of your slaves too.

-Colin

Well, when I was a kid the docs never bother to diagnose beyond a pervasive development disorder. Probably because they were looking for a muscle disease or something and did not find one and the symptoms were not really clear at that age.

It was not until recently I began to look at the symptoms, combined with some medical records from that time.

I hold myself to a personal saying I've made for myself, "Titles mean little".

I don't mean to be rude or inconsiderate to doctors and therapists, they are good people and they are trying to help. But throughout my life I've been very cautious of them and their advice.

Why? Their own prescriptions and advice was completely inaccurate for me. Even my own relatives who would only see me once a year would be able to tell their advice was completely incorrect to what I was like. And diagnosises and advice would flip flop back and forth.

My thoughts? I think Asperger's syndrome in general, because it's still so young in society and among doctors and other professionals that odd and even totally incorrect advice would be quite common, as I had to face some of it.

All I, and anyone else can do, is hope that we gain more ground in spreading understanding in who we are. Until then, the best person who can diagnose you is you.

Bullcrap or regular crap?

Basically heres how it goes if you can look people in the eye and you can and answer basic question's they will not label anyone autistic/aspergers especially when your like me an try to cover up all your bad traits and appear to be the typical NT for fear of being rejected or labeled something other then normal.

the ones who don't think I have it is doctors because guess what they DO not see my 8 hour a day obessions, they don't see how I have no friends outside there office, they do not see how I CANNOT do small talk BECAUSE I can function 100% with answering questions to a doctor they think my problem is "depression" "anxiety" "ADHD" etc...

They put me on everythin from xannax to zoloft to all that crap nothing worked NOTHING ever worked an the side effects were unbearable an i just dropped off them like flies telling them no you aren't right

I am not anxious like a NT gets anxious I AM anxious because I CANNOT socialize at the same level as a NT

I am depressed BECAUSE I am not able to fit in with my peer groups and apear normal to my parents, family an peers. AND NOBody is able to give me an answer and thye just skim right over aspergers

you wanna know why they skim it out?? well first off they don't know as much about the spectrum as they should for PHD's...they don't know the scale goes deeper then not looking people in the eyes an having horrible motor skills, when there is much more to it then that, my motor skills were slow but not on asperger levels when i was a kid so my parents did not think i have it and WHEN a doctor tells them i dont have it that reinforces them that i dont have it and parents themselves don't 3want to believe anytthing is wron gwith there kid so again its just a vicious loop of tryin to rule out aspergers all together from both sides.

Parents don't want there kid to have aspergers, doctors have no way to fix it even an only dx as a last resort

There needs to be BIGGER asperger spectrum where it is not dismissed so easily and quickly, the ones who know somethin is wrong is peers/parents a doctor has very little interaction with a patient compared to them

Therapists also don't know anything about what autism is they aren't doctors but they sure are good at lying and acting like they can fix any problem for your $$$

They could fix cancer if yuou tell them thats ur problem its just a bunch of sudo science with them as they talk away

all my conversations with people are one sided them talking me answering Yes/No's I know i have aspergers an I DX'd myself and thats all the reinsurance i need to know I have it and I've told my parents who are now finally coming around to the idea that i might.

Reason they give loads of drugs out is basically they don't really have a clue what they do, other than what it says on a sheet of paper that the drug companies, research companies say it is... Allot of other meds have been withdrawn for not really working & also been more worse than good.. If they knew what the drugs are for & what they do they would not target allot of areas in 1 drug, they is about 150 known neurotransmitters & only 60 are known, & really they hardly know what the 60 do, they go on what people tell them the drug does to them, that is why they start small...

Soon as the doc said multi drugs I said no, as I don’t see why I need drugs, & I been on loads already.

So if you want to know how they use them it's simple that’s all they know what to do with mental health, even though most break practice rules of not offering alternative medicine that has the same effects, & has been used for a long time... Most doc's these days are fixed to hes what you got, there is the door, heres your meds. But that is more down to meeting targets...

It depends on the doctor really. Yeah, psychiatrists and GP docs are going to be more about prescribing medications. GPs are not trained to know much about neurological or mental conditions, so probably a neurologist would be better, or someone who is trained about the autism spectrum.

It is a business, then the customers die.

The only question is how much money can a Doctor make.

Being as their Union owns the entire rights to the business, and provides medical care to lawyers and politicians, they can get away with anything.

Let's put it this way - if you walked into a doctor's office in Odessa, Russia or Lhasa, Tibet - and told the doctor - *hey, I think I have Aspeger's!* they'd probably look at you like you were a martian or worse. They'd prolly call security. AS - outside of the Western world is virtually unheard of, and even if doctors in those parts of the world are aware of the *syndrome* via the net and peer publications from the West, it's considered a *luxury* syndrome of the *overfed, neurotic, hypochrondriac, spoiled Western* - and not something to even consider in other parts of the world. Which makes one think - why is that? Why is this just a syndrome of the Western world and is virtually unheard of in other parts of the world?

People wonder why I am satisfied as self dx. Oh my, ought I see a doctor?

Thankfully I am also an anarchist!

The thing is, they don't teach that much about autism in medical school. Most doctors were taught only the most basic characteristics and that may have been 10, 20 or more years ago. Recognizing something like Asperger syndrome is not something you can do just by picking up a book and reading the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria. It takes a great deal of practical experience and that's why most medical doctors just aren't knowledgeable enough to recognize Asperger syndrome.

I still remember talking to my son's pediatrician about it. I suggested the he may be on the autism spectrum and she just looked at me with a puzzled look on her face. When we were having this conversation, my son was lying on the floor with his eyes literally 2 inches away from my wife's shoelaces, and he was flicking them back and forth while repeating a well known line from a TV show over and over again. I pointed to what he was doing and said "that's why I think he is on the autism spectrum" and she still didn't know what I was talking about.

I've come to realize that doctors are very very good at diagnosing and treating physical disorders but most know little about psychology. When I took my son to a developmental psychologist, she recognized it immediately.

The main problem is Asperger's work was lost for 50 years after World War II unlike Kanner, and didn't make it to the DSM until 1994. When most doctors hear autism they immediately think of Kanner and the LFA end of the spectrum. So unless you are like Rain Man you can't possibly have it. I've always mistrusted doctors as all they want to do is hand you a script. The one time I tried Prozak it was horrible and didn't do a thing to help my AS.