roadwarrior wrote:
So what did you go through for the diagnosis? What do you think to different doctors giving different diagnoses? Were you clearly AS? I've only ever done the online tests. It seems I'm a bit borderline at the moment.
I initially was researching a diagnosis for being bi-polar because of mood swings ("flash anger") and stumbled upon AS information. The more I read the more I thought I might have it, although I would say I'm at a high functioning end of AS. I cut and pasted information about AS that I identified with and printed it out to show my psychiatrist and asked his opinion. He referred me to a specialist who, after reading what I printed out and talking to me, agreed with my suspicions that I had AS. In addition to the information I had printed, I also included specific examples of why I identified with some of the things in my print outs.
As for different doctors, it couldn't hurt. Some doctors don't know their ass from a hole in the ground especially when it comes to a "new" disorder like AS. There aren't a whole lot of knowledgable doctors out there that know about it so going to multiple doctors might turn out to be a necessity. The most important thing is to really research things yourself so you can know whether or not a second opinion is warranted. It will improve your odds of receving a correct dx in the first place. I had to print out the information to show the doctors because I can be terrible at expressing myself verbally. The specialist was very happy with me over doing this because it made her job of assesing me a lot easier.
I wouldn't call myself clearly AS. Not by a long shot. To most people I appear normal for the most part.
When I first found info about AS I passed over it because I didn't think that described me. Some of the symptom lists I've seen don't do a good job at describing what it's like to have AS. When I found the article below, bells went off! This was among the information I printed out for my dx. Before printing it, I deleted the (few) things I didn't identify with.
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What is Asperger's Syndrome?
By Jerod Poore
What is it? Do I have it?
Asperger's Syndrome is a form of high-functioning autism, first identified in 1944 by Dr. Hans Asperger in Vienna and later refined in1981 by UK psychologist Lorna Wing. Asperger's is part of the autistic spectrum, and is in itself a spectrum syndrome. As such the effects range from severe to mild, although in autistic terms severe Asperger's is relatively benign. You may not fit into society very well, but you can still take care of your basic needs, more or less. Mild Asperger's is just seen as eccentric, except when those rages strike, then you're a first-class jerk with no self-control. Anyway, here are some of the characteristics found in Asperger's:
We just can't accept criticism or correction.
Yet when we offer criticism it invariably comes across as harsh and pedantic.
We just don't get the unwritten social rules, subtext and the unspoken communication such as stance, posture and facial expressions.
We often fail to distinguish between private and public personal care habits: e.g. nose picking, teeth picking, ear canal cleaning.
We often have a naïve trust in others.
We're painfully shy.
We have constant anxiety about performance and acceptance, despite frequent recognition and commendation.
We're brutally honest.
We're blunt in emotional expression.
We have the infamous flat affect.
We have either no apparent sense of humor or a bizarre sense of humor that stems from complex references that would be far too annoying to explain.
We have great difficulty with reciprocal displays of pleasantries, greetings and small talk.
We have a lot of problems expressing empathy, such as condolence or congratulations.
We can't obscure real feelings, moods, and reactions. It's either nothing or overwhelming, there is no emotional middle ground.
We will abruptly and strongly express our likes and dislikes.
In an attempt to deal with all that small talk, empathy, jokes and the like we will adopt rigid adherence to rules and social conventions per Miss Manners. Ooops.
We'll often fixate on and excessively talk about one, or a limited number of interests.
We have a flash temper & occasional tantrums.
We have incredible difficulty forming friendships and intimate relationships. Yet being desperate for emotional intimacy we have problems in distinguishing between acquaintance and friendship. We suffer from "one real friend at a time" syndrome, but can't really tell if the other person is reciprocating, and don't understand why they don't feel the same way.
We're socially isolated and often have an intense concern for privacy, despite not being able to understand "personal space" all that well.
We have limited clothing preference and will wear the same clothes for days at a time. We'll cut off all the tags on the inside of clothes and cannot wear certain fabrics.
Which goes along with various sensory sensitivities. Certain sensations, such as particular sounds, colors, tastes, smells, will just set us off.
We are the uberklutzen. We are clumsy. We have problems with balance and judging distances, height and depth. We have gross or fine motor coordination problems. And we frequently have an unusual gait, stance, and/or posture.
We have great difficulty in recognizing others’ faces (prosopagnosia) and the emotional expressions that play across your faces.
We have difficulty initiating or maintaining eye contact.
During periods of stress and frustration we'll raise our voices all right. But it won't be yelling. Call it "yelling" and you'll hear yelling. Then you'll know the difference.
We have some strong and unusual food preferences and aversions, and equally unusual and rigid eating behaviors.
Our personal hygiene is sometimes odd or leaves much to be desired.
We will just shutdown in response to conflicting demands or high stress.
We have a low understanding of the reciprocal rules of conversation. From person-to-person, day-to-day or conversation-to-conversation you'll find us interrupting and dominating, or not participating at all. We often have difficulty with shifting topics and will keep trying to steer things back on subject. It's just painful that we don't know how or when to start or stop a conversation.
We take literalism to new frontiers.
Our rage, tantrum, shutdown, and self-isolating reactions may appear "out of nowhere" but they really do have meaningful triggers. First there's a lot of self-anger, anger towards others and the world in general, and basic resentment. But where normal people are picking up non-verbal cues, we're picking up precise meanings and shades of meanings of the words that were chosen and how they relate to what may have been said months or years ago. Some clever turn of phrase may carry a lot of personal meaning that you just couldn't possibly understand.
We have extreme reaction to changes in routine, surroundings and people. This, like some of the others, is a general autistic trait. It's summed up by the autistic credo, "All change is bad."
Our conversational style is pedantic, as if we learned to speak English from watching Masterpiece Theatre. Which, in a way, a lot of us did.
Needless to say, we don't play well with others. To quote the Aspies' TV role model, Daria Morgendorfer, "The team is the last refuge of the mediocre individual."
We're often perceived as "being in our own world."
22 Jul 2006, 2:22 am
