Bringing up AS to a psychiatrist

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I used to live in a different county. There, my therapist after talking to me for 3 years came to the conclusion I had AS. But the psychiatrist treating me for mental illness said I did not, he said I had traits, but didn't have it and it was overdiagnosed. They even talked to each other and the psychiatrist didn't agree.

Now I am in a new city. My new therapist very quickly told me I had symptoms of AS. I haven't brought it up with my psychiatrist yet however. My therapist isn't working for the same office as my psychiatrist so it would be hard for them to talk.

Anyway, I see my psychiatrist on Wednesday. It is bothering me again and I want to bring it up. I think the AS stuff could have been in my file because my psychiatrist said on a different occasion that I seemed "social enough" to him. I have my childhood records to back me up, but mental health people never seem to want to read those.

I guess I could talk to a friend of mine over the phone tomorrow to see what she thinks. She doesn't have AS, but works with little kids that do, she's not sure I have it or not.

I heard through the grapevine one of the other psychiatrists there sees lots of children and adults with autism. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll get to talk to him or something?

What I did with my therapist was mention it during our first appointment, and by my third appointment she was convinced.

It may be good to bring it up at the start and let him guide it from there? And of course he should be able to get records from your therapist.

Only when liver dysfunction reaches 50% are you said to have a dysfunction of the liver. 48% and your liver is 'fine', 51% and your 'in need of help'....

Same sort of thing with AS. Traits are not enough to be aspergian, according to those that define what a disability is.

In the USA, diagnostic criteria is stricter than most other countries, probably to save on welfare payments

It is quite possible that your psychiatrist was unable to officially diagnose you because you don't mean all of the criteria. As someone said, having traits does not make you an Aspie. You have to have ALL the criteria, and it those symptoms have to cause you dysfunction in your everyday life. You can always get a second opinion, of course, but I am jus saying that that could be the reason. Some traits of AS can be found under other diagnoses, but with different reasons. Sometimes people identify the trait itself rather than the reason, and the reason, IMO, is more important.

I hope you manage to get it resolved.

I am going to bring up asperger's when I go for my therapy session and ask for an assessment, if they will give me one. I am presently reading The Complete Guide to Asperger's and it is almost like reading my own biography in many ways...

Whilst the diagnoses that I presently have explain some of my symptoms Asperger's is the only one (so far) that explains them all, including ones I have never been able to explain before. However, I have never been able to go into great detail about my problems with the psychiatrists and therapists in the past as not only can I have problems formulating what I want to say unless I practice a rehearsed script before I go but when they seem to be overly focused on the depression and insist that curing that will cure everything else (ie resolve my social problems) it is hard to get them to focus on something else. I have long disagreed with them as I believe the depression is a reaction to, and not the main cause, of my problems.

When I was in my teens I would phrase my social problems as "I can't mix with people". That was completely ignored by therapists and doctors so I went home and researched possible causes of my social problems. In those days I had never heard of Asperger's but did come across Social Anxiety so assumed that my anxiety was just manifesting in strange ways (as I don't get the shaking or flushing or sweating etc that is usually thought to go along with it..I do have trouble getting my words out, have trouble with making eye contact, find socialising exhausting as it is a lot of head work and not intuitive, feel annoyed when someone interrupts or disturbs me when I am off in my own world or thoughts, have trouble making small talk and keeping conversations going and am unable to make friends. I also either say very little at all in social situations or run off into monologues, constantly bring the conversation back to the same topics and so on). I just thought it was a bizarre manifestation of Anxiety as I am a bit wary of people these days due to history of being bullied and ostracised despite my repeated attempts to make friends.

I have tried to overcome my problems many times but seem to prone to continually making the same mistakes over and over again...

As far as I can tell a socially anxious person should still be able to form friendships if they over ride their anxiety and socialise in spite of it. That has not worked for me either. I don't seem to know how to make friends and the process does not come naturally to me. I have tried relentlessly and nothing has helped.

Anyway, when I started rephrasing it as Social Anxiety they listened more and at least acknowledged the problem. However they still remain fixated on the damned depression as being the main cause of everything. Had I have known about Asperger's all those years ago though, I would never have chosen to use Social Anxiety as a way to describe anything and would have asked for an assessment back then.

I disagree with them and if they won't give me an assessment for an ASD I will eventually find someone who will!

Edited for typos!