No diagnosis? WTH?

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I've only been a member of the forums since I *thought* I had AS after visiting my local mental health team a couple of weeks ago. During the assessment I was asked a lot of questions about my past, I explained about being diagnosed with hyperactivity as a child (im 30 now) and other things that lead me to believe I have AS. But there is only so much you can explain in 15 minutes. I didn't get a chance to explain the things like the 2 years if hell taking my stepdaughter to school when my partner was ill. None of the other parents would talk to me they made rumors etc it was effing aweful. There was so much I wanted to explain but I find opening up to people I know hard enough let alone opening up to some random doctor. No tests of any type were done either.

At the end of my 15 minute assessment one of the two doctors said to me basically that he thought I was on the "spectrum" but that I was very aware of my condition and that it would be more a case of self help rather than medical intervention. I was fine with this assessment as I'm not really the type of person that accepts help from others anyway.

Anyway, this morning I got a letter stating that I have no mental disorder. It stated that in the interview I made eye contact, expressed some humor (wtf) and was well presented. Now I know eyecontact is a big factor in the diagnosis of AS, its something that doesn't come naturally to me but I know now its something I need to do. Especially when discussing important issues as I was. As for the other reasons, people with AS can express humor, right? And I didn't know that scruffyness was a requirement of AS.

Sorry for all this crap but in my life I have no-one who understands this. On my Droid so its probably full of grammatical errors lol.

What is your issue? Is it that the mental health team doesn't think you have a mental problem? Do you think you have one? I wouldn't say AS is a mental health problem, but mental health issues can arise because of it. Maybe this doctor didn't percieve you to be suffering mentally because of being on the spectrum. Also 15 mins is not long enough to assess I don't think. Get a second opinion if you can for a fuller assessment.

Are you depressed? or anxious etc? What brought you to the doctor in the first place?

It sounds like pretty bad methodology. The eye contact thing could be learned behaviour. I think the lack of humour is completely ridiculous. I've found most Aspies to be fairly funny. Just in a different way. And scruffy appearance doesn't really seem like a good reason either.

It might just be that the doctors didn't want to give you the diagnosis because they don't see the need for medical intervention. No medical intervention means a diagnosis would be irrelevant.

15 minutes was the extent of their assessment?

That is absurd. My assessment took 6 visits over a period of three months. Any competent assessments take hours.

If possible, go somewhere else - some place where they aren't treating patients like cattle to be branded and sorted.

Seconding this:

They may not have spotted it if they have little experience. I had an initial assessment by a psychologist who wasn't sure but referred me onto a specialist centre. My AS was initially picked up during therapy and the therapist made a written letter with me as I may not be able to express all the points we came up with in an interview situation. My Mum and husband were interviewed.

Was it an AS assessment specifically, or more of a general assessment? I wonder as they said "mental health." In a medical letter they write these sort of things as standard they are just observations.

The other poster was right about eye contact an humour. If you are older then you may have the ability to mask traits.

Tom,

My hypothesis is that the letter is using the term disability in its legalsense.

'Disability' is a defined term in UK law under the Equality Act, 2010 (2010 c. 15) - it's defined as follows at c.1 p. 2, s. 6:

(1)A person (P) has a disability if—.
(a)P has a physical or mental impairment, and.

(b)the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on P's ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities..

So you are only legally 'disabled' if you have a mental or physical impairment and it has a substantial and long term adverse effect on your ability to carry out normal day to day activities. It would seem the doctors are telling you that you do have a mental impairment, but it doesn't affect you so as to make you legally 'disabled'.