Does this mean I have autism?

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After going to a psychiatrist and talking to him about my problems, he told me that based on what I've told me, he thinks that I have a "developmental disorder", and that most people with this "developmental disorder" don't even learn how to talk, and that I was able to learn how because my "high intelligence" (lol) allowed me to.

Do you think the "developmental disorder" in question is autism?


And on top of that, I was prescribed an anti-psychotic to "get me more engaged in the real world", as I was told. I asked my mother (since he would be more likely to disclose all the diagnoses to her, not to hurt me emotionally) to call the psychiatrist and ask him whether I have schizophrenia or bipolar disorder (which are the two main psychotic disorders), to which he responded with a no.

I asked him why he prescribed it once again, to which he responded that I'm not delusional, but he thinks that there's a persecutive element in the fact that when I spotted my old teacher on another sidewalk, and she smiled, I crossed the road and walked to another street.

I told him that I did that because I didn't know how to react in that situation - what to say and how to behave.

He replied with "Of course you know. You know when to say hello, how are you, and so on... come on"

To which I replied with a no.

He didn't say anything and told me that I should still take the medicine.


I'm temporary living in France (I'm from another European country), and I went to a French psychiatrist. I've heard that there are some problems with autism and autistic spectrum disorders in France, that they aren't treated properly, and such. Do you think there's such a problem with this psychiatrist as well? And to restate the first question: Do you think the "developmental disorder" in question is autism?

you might want to check out the stickey thread on France on this board

Well, the fact that you avoided a "routine" social situation because you did not know what to do would be consistent with an autism spectrum disorder.

Perhaps you can tell us more things you have noticed about yourself? What kind of problems did you tell the psychiatrist about?

ditch the psychiatrist. he's too free with dispensing drugs. sounds like you don't need an antipsychotic at all and when you explained why you don't need it, he ignored you. a doctor first and foremost should be a good listener.

"Perhaps you can tell us more things you have noticed about yourself?"

Well, to begin with, I have no friends. I also don't know what to say in various types of conversations, especially in the type of conversations which 'involve talking about nothing', and usually start with 'hey, how are you?'.

I'm good at socializing when there's a common topic of interest that I'm talking about with another person. Or when there's a common activity we participate in, in the moment of socialization. However, the rest of the time, I have no idea what to say or how to act. It's hard to describe all of these problems - they're all dependent on the situation in question.

Also, as of now, I spend 17 hours a day in front of my computer on average. I can virtually never get myself to do anything else, other than sit at that table, and either use the computer or do something else at it. I don't watch TV, go to cinemas, or anything like that.

There are many small problems here and there excluding all that, though.


"What kind of problems did you tell the psychiatrist about?"

Well, at first I visited a psychologist, who redirected me to a psychiatrist because my mom asked him to. The psychologist visits mostly consisted of his asking questions about my life, my interests, and so on. And I told the psychiatrist that I feel very uncomfortable in public educational facilities, etc, as well as other loaded and/or social places. Then, I told him other things as well, as that I often cut off from the real world, and become completely unaware of my surroundings, and that that was a problem since my early childhood. I also told him about my mild speech delay - no speech by 2/2.5 years of age. I also told him other things, which I don't remember.

Autism is what he refers to. Sounds like it too.

Antipsychotic medication can make people with ASDs more socially engaged, though it's mainly to help with anxiety and being overwhelmed when prescribed in the doses for those with an ASD (sometimes high doses if the person gets very agitated and other challenging behavior for carers).

That is clearer.

Do you think you have autism?

I'm not entirely sure.

OP, no one here can tell you for certain if you have autism. We don't know you, we're not doctors, etc.

Plus, it's against forum regulations if it even appears a poster might be trying to diagnose someone, so most responses will fail to give you anything near a direct answer. You can see already how they're tiptoeing around it.

But I'll try my best to give you some sort of reply, rather than asking you the same question you're asking of us.

While I can't say for sure, you're description of feeling socially out-of-step with others seems to be the one thing all of us here have in common. While it may not be autism in your case, the description is very much dead on with what it means to be autistic, specifically in relation to neurotypicals (the "normal" people). Socialization comes easy and naturally to them; to us it seems like they're all in on some big secret and that we were never taught the rules. That is pretty much the central component of Asperger's. So if you can identify with what you read here, you may be in the right place.

Your story about avoiding a social encounter because you didn't know what to do sounds very familiar to me. And I think the doctor is wrong about it coming from "persecutory" anything. You're not delusional; you're socially awkward. You don't need to be brought into the real world, and you don't need an antipsychotic. Sometimes people with autism take antipsychotics if they are extremely anxious or they have problems with "meltdowns" (an out-of-control state during which you might cry, scream, hurt yourself, or just shut down) that can't be handled another way. But you don't mention any of those problems. And even if you had them, there would be other things you could try first, rather than taking medications that are as risky to take as antipsychotics.

If your doctor's reasoning was something along the lines of "This will help you with this symptom [anxiety, meltdowns, whatever]," then I might say give it a chance. But your doctor's basing this prescription on the idea that your not knowing what to say to your teachers means you're paranoid. Well, if you're autistic, or heck, even if you're simply shy, that wouldn't be a sign of any sort of delusion.

Your doctor is also wrong about people with autism usually not learning to talk. Most of us do, nearly nine out of ten, in fact.

If in fact you have autism, you should have been told. And if you do have autism, then your doctor is incompetent. I know that is putting it bluntly, but it really doesn't reassure me if a doctor refuses to tell you the name of your diagnosis, immediately prescribes antipsychotics, doesn't believe you when you say that you don't know what to do when you meet your teacher on the street (this is a very typical situation for someone with autism), and doesn't know that people with autism (including people with autism who are also intellectually disabled) usually learn to talk, despite the problems we will always have communicating.

You need to have a serious talk with your parents. You could bring your parents here. Let them ask us questions. There are thousands of people here at WP, both people with autism and people raising autistic children. We have a lot of experience with everything from finding comfortable clothing to finding a good university. Many of us have unfortunately had to deal with incompetent or even abusive medical professionals; thankfully, many of us have also found very good doctors who helped us change our lives for the better.

Whatever you do, get your parents on your side. They might not believe you when you say that you think the doctor is wrong, but maybe if you were to get them to do some proper research, talk to some people on the spectrum and some parents of spectrum kids, they might start to realize that your doctor doesn't know what he's talking about.

What else could a "developmental disorder", with which "most people don't learn how to talk", and with which you could still have a normal level of intelligence be? I don't think there are any such developmental disorders, other than autism. And besides, what he has said is pretty much synonymous to PDD-NOS - an autistic spectrum disorder.

However, I'm still skeptical, for the following reasons:

When I was a child, I could socialize whenever there were shared activities with other children (ex: riding a bicycle, etc), or as long as I talked about a topic of common interest with other children. As at that age most children based their socializing on shared activities (ex: riding a bicycle, doing something on the playground, etc), I could still fit in.

However, I've heard that the vast majority of people with autism/Asperger's don't manage to fit in at all when they're children.

There were abnormalities in the way I socialized when I was a child - for example, when I was brought to my first social environment (kindergarten), I played by myself and didn't play with other children, even though they played together.

However, when there are no shared activities, I find myself completely alienated. For example, if someone asks me random questions, or other topic-less stuff, I will find myself unable to socialize.

For example, whenever someone asks me a question to start a conversation, I find myself unable to keep the conversation going, or to have a reciprocal conversation. It will end up with the other person constantly asking me questions and me responding, and him/her then giving up entirely.


Also, I'm not sure if it's related, but I've noticed another 'abnormality' about myself. When I'm at home, I usually do stuff like make random noises, say random phrases, etc, because I find it to be energizing. I also make random facial expressions and do other stuff like jump on my bed and roll around randomly, while making various noises. I'm not sure whether that's related or not, but I would guess it's 'abnormal'.

The idea that autistic children are unable to socialize is not accurate. What you describe is exactly the way my kids are. They are able to socialize, they just do so in an abnormal or unusual way. They both have friends and have found a place to "fit in" but they are still not like typical kids their age. They each have things that are not usual for their age and my son is now getting to the age where kids start to just "hang out" but he is more comfortable getting together to do a particular activity.

And, like your description, reciprocal communication is impaired for both of them, moreso for my daughter than my son. My son's main issue is that he often cannot tell when others are bored with his tendency to stick to one topic and talk about it extensively. My daughter's issue is harder for me to explain....she understands the concept of back and forth conversation, but she has a hard time figuring out how to do it. So what she ends up doing is asking a string of questions that are all basically variations on a theme, but don't really count as "having a conversation" and leave the conversational partner repeatedly saying yes or no. "You like that flower, Mommy?" "That flower is red and you like red so you like that flower?" "You like red things?" "You think red is a pretty color?" "You think flowers that are red are pretty?" "You like flowers?" I do have to say that now that her tendency to do this was pointed out to her by her brother, she tries not to do it, but it is leaving her having problems figuring out what to say. Other kids pick this stuff up naturally over time. I am finding that I have to teach it to my children like any other learned skill.

Your last paragraph sounds like you might be describing "self-stimulating behavior" also known as "stimming." It is common among people on the spectrum.

It's often adolescence that AS is identified, the main reason is exactly what you've described. You can appear to be fully functional in an activity led, play or group setting. In adolescence these activities tend to diminish to be replaced by hanging out, chatting, dating etc. which are purely social activities.

For younger kids the play dates are arranged by the parents, when your under 7 your friends are dictated by your parents, extended family or who's available in your street. You could be a social disaster, but it doesn't matter at that age, all kids are still learning the social ropes and it's all about play.

Have you tried any of the online tests? e.g. the AQ test? e.g: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html

Jason.

I've taken the AQ test, and as far as I know the results ranged from 38 to 42.

Self-diagnosing is irrelevant, though. I mean, the doctor said that he thinks that I have a "developmental disorder", most people with which don't even learn how to talk, and that I learned how to talk because of my "high intelligence".

As far as I know, an unspecified "developmental disorder" is synonymous to PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified), which is on the autism spectrum.

The problem with this is that I am not sure there is such a disorder as he is describing. I do not think there is any evidence to support the notion that "most" people with autism or pdd-nos do not learn to talk. Some do not learn to talk, but I think most do. And not all the verbal auties I have come across necessarily have "high intelligence."

That, coupled with the fact that he has you on antipsychotics for his wrongly concluded belief that you have persecutory thoughts makes me question his overall fitness to be diagnosing you at all.

Your childhood description is fairly similar to my own. Now I am not diagnosed with an ASD, but was diagnosed with ADHD when i was younger. I suspect an ASD in my case because of the childhood awkwardness. Someone who is mildly autistic is not necessarily antisocial. There is another possibility typically referred to as "active but odd". These children are socially active but unable to fit in with the group due to their lack of cognitive empathy. They try and try but end up rejected and/or bullied due to their poor social approach. Eventually, many of them develop "Social Anxiety Disorder" as a co-morbid issue due to the hateful way they were responded to by others. This may be the way you were.

As far as it goes, I would not try to get diagnosed with autism in France due to the known issues in that country. It is not officially recognized there and treatment may be bizarre and unsuitable for someone on the spectrum.