Saw the neuro re: speech

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...conversion disorder (all in my head). Unrelated to ASD.

Oh yeah, and she did not list autism in my list of diagnoses (but included type I diabetes, diabetic neuropathy, communication problem, and conversion disorder), meaning she doesn't even think I HAVE ASD. Not a month ago I received a label of "moderate autism" from specialists.

Can I say it, or do you want to say it? K I'll say it first: Idiots.

Wants an MRI "to put your mind at ease" and wants me to get speech therapy.

I CAN mouth the words! And I can sing! And sign, and type. I just can't speak.

I don't care if it IS conversion disorder. My best friend (who has ASD) has a conversion d/o and lost the ability to walk. Her legs swell and get lumps on them. I've seen them. It's VERY real... but it's a response to stress.

I don't like that she said I don't have ASD. That, in turn, makes me doubt her dx of conversion disorder.

Oh, no, your were fine. Sorry if I made it seem like you weren't. Oy vey, double of social skills x 2 really does double the issues at times, doesn't it? Lol.

Those people really need to get their heads checked out.

Oh, yeah, conversion disorder is definitely real. I mean, the loss of function is real; the symptoms are real. It's not pretending; it's a real impairment. They just originate with psychological factors.

That the neuropsych didn't take into account that you are autistic does make me wonder, though. At the very, very least, autism would give you a vulnerability to losing speech under stress, which would predispose you to things like selective mutism and this kind of conversion disorder. Sure, you can diagnose those things in someone who's autistic; but you need to take the autism into account and ask yourself, "Okay, so this person is autistic--how does that affect the development and expression of this other disorder in their life?" And it doesn't look like they did this.

Let's hope that speech therapist is sensible enough not to worry about diagnostic labels and just help you figure out a way around the speech loss. In my experience, the more practical a person's work is, the more common sense they tend to have--if this ST is like that, then hopefully you'll actually get some useful help instead of just more labels.

That sounds like selective mutism.

Callista, that's what I'm hoping for, that the ST will be... sane.

I'm going to school to be a ST and honestly just go to the ST and see what they can do to help you. Most ST are just going to treat and not label.

Here's an article on mutism/SM/ASD that I found recently with comments from people on why they can't or don't talk. I've wondered if I also almost had selective mutism, I can usually respond with short sentences or, a word or two though, but I could also feel paralyzed at times in a way. I worry if my routine/environment changes it would get worse again but I talk a lot more these last few years. It doesn't help that it can sometimes be hard to get out sentences properly sometimes even when relaxed.
http://insideperspectives.wordpress.com ... on/mutism/