When your Psych thinks you have Social Anxiety Disorder...

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So you haven't been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, but you have your suspicions. You have been referred to a Psychologist or Psychiatrist who does not specialise in Autism Spectrum Disorders, and they tell you they think you have Social Anxiety Disorder / Social Phobia.

That doesn't quite fit, you think. It doesn't quite tell the whole story.

So you try to explain that yes, you can get anxious in social situations, but you feel that there's an underlying reason, that your anxiety isn't unjustified. You feel that if you could resolve the other issue that is going on, the anxiety would go away. And you might not even be really all that anxious anyway, not enough to be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. This isn't necessarily the MAIN thing you wanted to talk to your Psych about. There's a bunch of other traits and quirks you have that Social Anxiety doesn't explain. But your Psych doesn't want to hear about those. They seem to be asking a lot of leading questions and ignoring your arguments.

If you feel this way, I just want to strongly recommend that you get a second opinion (if it matters to you). Seek diagnosis from an ASD specialist - chances are your inklings are right. If you've been reading through the threads on this forum - or doing a lot of reading and research elsewhere - and feel like AS fits a lot better than Social Anxiety for you, it probably does.

Cheers
yt

Hi,

If you don't mind, I would like to pursue this very interesting and good advice.
As you know, ASD is not only social anxiety, of course. This is much more complicated than that. So, the advice of yellowtamarin is the best one: SEE an ASD SPECIALIST.

Moreover, if you live in a country with a very deep "freudian psych culture", any psych you would see will look for any "mother-related" causes to a disorder they do not know AT ALL. I'm from France, I refer to the documentary "shameful" and you probably understand what I mean. As yellowtamarin said: They seem to be asking a lot of leading questions and ignoring your arguments. To be honest, they really don't care about your arguments.
If you have Social Anxiety Disorder, just think about other things that could "characterize" you and that could not, may I say, be "common". You would be certainly surprised...

Fortunately, in these "austim-culture" backward countries, there are some Center dedicated to ASD and Autism! But you have to look for them... Nobody else is able to give you any information. But all of "this" is only based on my own experience.

If I had to give an important advice: do not try auto-diagnosis and make conclusions by yourself. Auto-diagnosis could help but that's all. I've read a lot of topics in other forums with shortcuts like: "I'm shy, I like videogames, I think I have ASD" or "I'm 20, I never had a date, I think I'm an aspie" and so on... That's unfortunately true.
I think you will be agree with me: that's obviously ridiculous, but these people exist!
Once, I even thought that having ASD was "fashionable"! !! Crazy world!

Well, I hope I have not spoiled the advice of yellowtamarin, it was not my goal.
If I did, I apologize. If it helps, that's okay.

Take care,
A.R.

That description reminds me exactly of my psychiatrist. "Oh it's just you anxiety" "You might have OCPD and mild AS but there's nothing you can do about it anyway, it all stems from anxiety."

YT - you answered this post to my post before and I just wanted to reiterate - thank you! I am set up to see a specialist in AS and I feel like I am going to have my answer finally - he was not the least bit surprised by what I told him - I am not the only one with my story - obvious by what you posted, too - we're not alone! I think you are giving some excellent guidance here - thank you, again and again - LM Oh - and AR and Lost Girl, too - very empowering - I know it helps me to read these posts and I am sure so many others. I could well have tucked up into fetal and not trusted myself and been embarrassed and disappointed by asking a doctor again - but I speak for at least one here - thank you for your shared wisdom and experience - I will post my results - and I will hopefully be able to help others, too. I am sorry not everyone has opportunity and resources - but where possible - find someone with appropriate experience. Sometimes I have trouble picking up the phone to ask - but that's the beauty of email - you can learn by email query as well. Just a thought.

My city actually has a nonprofit organization dedicated to ASD, and there are a lot of good docs & hospitals here. I suppose I owe it to myself to use it.

Bottom line is, social anxiety is an EASY byproduct of AS. Your lack of ability to process everything that's going on in your life will likely only be further agitated by spontaneous or unpredictable social environments, and you could boil over and react in ways you never imagined.

I found myself unexpectedly becoming distant, short of breath, an nauseated to the point of vomiting being in new social settings, and at one point these attacks would come on during times of attempted intimacy (which was extremely humiliating). At one point, I actually thought that using an inhaler or taking an antacid would help. Pretty funny, huh?

I had a psychiatrist in a mental hospital think I had social anxiety because I didn't eat in the cafeteria (which was full of people, noisy people).

He thought my explanation of it being too loud to eat meant I am obviously just caring about whether I think people are judging me or not.

He let down the psychiatric god that day.

Eh. It's such a shame when they do that, becasue a lot of people who want to go into psychiatry (at least from what I've seen) are actually pretty decent people. They just become used to pattern-recognition, I suppose.

From this forum I've learned that psychiatrists are certainly not the first port-of-call for an AS diagnosis. Although my own psychiatrist (for ADHD) completely agrees with my psychologist's diagnosis of AS. Woot! They're not all ignorant! Although he couldn't help tacking on 'schizoid traits'...probably just to get the last word. lol.

Don't ignore the possibility that you may have social phobia AND an ASD. People with autism spectrum disorders often suffer from untreated social phobia (and I do mean "suffer"--it is not pleasant in the least). Just because you are socially clumsy doesn't mean you are automatically going to feel horribly scared every time you get into a social situation. That is solvable. In many cases, treating the social phobia will reduce the impact of the ASD to the point that you need less support. Don't deny yourself the help you need just because you have an ASD in addition to social anxiety disorder.