Neuropsych says I don't have Aspergers?

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I am a 22 year old female and about three weeks ago I had a neuropsych to test for Aspergers. I got the results today and the doctor says I don't have it. She thinks I have ADHD and social anxiety. I disagree with her though. I still think I have Aspergers. Less then a year ago, my psychologist, whom I have been going to for at least 10 years, told me she suspects I have Aspergers. I don't know why it took her 10 years to figure it out, but I guess that doesn't matter. Anyway, I did a lot of research on it, and I read the book Aspergirls. Reading that book changed my life. I felt like it was written about me. I had been struggling my whole life, trying to figure out why I wasn't normal, and that book seemed to answer all of my questions.

So my question is, is it possible to still have Aspergers even though the neuropsych says you don't? Should I get a second opinion?

There's a difference between having the disorder or an autistic personality. It depends on how severe your symptoms are. Especially symptoms like hypersensitivity or obsessions are indicative of aspergers rather than symptoms like anxiety.

Hi:

I think my first question would be is: what kind of experience does the neuropsych have diagnosing adult females with AS? If possible, I would seek the opinion of someone well experienced with diagnosing AS in people who are both female and adult. I would choose my 'tie-breaker' opinion as carefully as possible for this crucial experience. You have one psych leaning to the possibility of AS who has the benefit of following you for a decade and that gives a lot of weight, and then you have seen someone more specialized but with whom I am wondering about the 'experience' piece of this assessment. Regardless, and just in my opinion, I think this is still up in the air for you. I think more importantly is that you are not settled with the diagnosis. I guess it is up to the resources you have available now, and whether you want to proceed.

Best wishes - LM

Yes, neuropsychologists can be wrong and misdiagnose you with disorders that you don't have while not diagnosing you with what you do have. You can get a second opinion.

Before you do that though, consider whether the psych may be right. Perhaps you do have ADHD and social anxiety. Did they write a diagnostic report for you or tell you why they think you have ADHD and social anxiety? Did they say why they don't think you have AS? See if their justifications for your diagnoses make sense and were based on facts that were not twisted in their minds.

It's actually not all that easy to diagnose ASDs in adults, especially if the person has milder symptoms. The most important thing for them to know is your childhood history as it would show how you were before you had any significant social adaptation. In the end though, doctors are just human beings (with a lot of education) and they can and do make mistakes all the time. The important thing for you is learning how to cope with life from now on. If your problems are primarily social and your experiences rhyme with those of people who are on the autistic spectrum, then learning the coping skills used by autistic spectrum people would be beneficial to you. The label is nice to have but a well adjusted and fulfilling life is even nicer.

It sounds like the neuropsychologist *was* the second opinion, the first being the psychologist you were seeing for over ten years.

If you have been seeing a psychologist for over ten years and that person believes that you do have AS but you were referred to a neuropsychologist who does not believe that you do it seems reasonable to get another evaluation, but first I would be interested to know what kind of tests the neuropsychologist did in order to make her determination.

People 20 years ago didn't even know what AS was. What makes you think all of a sudden they know exactly what it is

Aspergers in adult women, even in girls, can be really difficult to recognize and there are a lot of professionals out there who don't know what to look for. I was once told by a psych at my university that I had anxiety and depression and not AS, but neither of those disorders covered the broad range of symptoms I experience, such as sensory issues or repetitive behaviors, or takes into consideration the fact that I've experience them my entire life. I got a second opinion from a team of professionals who specialized in diagnosing AS in adults and women and they confirmed that I had AS. So I would say yes to getting a second opinion, however, don't go to just anyone find someone who specializes in diagnosing AS in ADULTS and ideally, women.

they said I didn't have aspergers for years upon years most of them aren't trained that well in anything other than general psychietry.

they still think I have schizoaffective disorder despite it being a hereditary condition and me having no family history of it

I got a second opinion and that was a brilliant decision I made.

All doctors are human (medical, psych or otherwise). Therefore all doctors are fallible and are capable of making mistakes.

I would get her to explain precisely why she thinks ADHD and Social Anxiety---which could very well manifest itself as Aspergers even if you don't have Aspergers. Anyone can just keep doctor-shopping until they get the answer they want. The best thing to do is to first understand why this particular doc has given you that diagnosis.

ADHD/Social Anxiety is close to autism. ADHD is related to autism; social anxiety is a common comorbid. So, whether you are autistic or whether ADHD/social anxiety is a better description, you will still have so much in common with autistics that many of the same things that work for autistic people will work for you; and you may find that you share more experiences with autistics than not.

Even if this doctor is right, you're a spectrum cousin at the very least--certainly not neurotypical, and probably with strong autistic traits.

I wouldn't worry about the specific diagnosis, so long as this label gets you what you need. Autism itself is not exactly a single entity--there are so many possible expressions of it, caused by so many different combinations of genes. So "Am I autistic" isn't quite the right question to ask... more, "How autistic am I?" For some people, not very; for others, like you, quite a lot. Only when autism is the best possible explanation do they diagnose it; but plenty of other disorders are related, share traits, and generally overlap.

They may have diagnosed you ADHD/social anxiety because all of your autistic traits could also be explained by that combination, and they prefer to diagnose those because they're more common and less global than a pervasive developmental disorder. If there's a strong anxiety component, you'd have gotten the social anxiety diagnosis on top of any PDD label anyway.

Whatever your diagnosis, you're still welcome here. There are plenty of people who aren't quite on the spectrum, but still have lots in common with people who are--people with NVLD, learning disabilities, schizoid personality, social phobia, selective mutism, ADHD, or speech/language disorders. No reason to exclude them. As a community, we don't have to police who gets to participate--we don't have to define ourselves along diagnostic boundaries.