Advice After Diagnosis of Aspergers (AutismSpectrumDisorder)
Hello,
I was recently diagnosed with Aspergers or Autism Spectrum Disorder and I feel relieved but also very conflicted at the same time. Before I get into what I am looking for in advice I feel the need to explain how I made my way to this specific point where I am requesting advice. This information is as follows;
After talking to my PCP about issues I've had all my life and never talked to anyone about he suggested I look into being tested. I contacted an autism organization in my state and they referred me to a place where they focus in adult diagnoses for Autism Spectrum Disorder. On my first visit I wrote up a 7 page document on the issues which i have noticed have always made me different from most people and ones which my friends and life partner (GF but I feel weird saying that at 30) point out. During my visit with the Psychologist I explained a lot of things while she asked questions. At one point she pointed out that a box for testing and said I wouldn't need it. She then gave myself and life partner anxiety tests and autism tests. There were 5 tests for anxiety and 2 for autism. Based on the 5 to 2 ratio and the fact that she stated I didn't need the box I felt like she was saying I just have anxiety and I personally knew that wasn't the case.
Later on in the month I went back and passed in all of my tests and paperwork and had a very long session (4 hours). While in this session I tried my hardest to express my concern (practiced with my life partner beforehand) about how I felt like they were misinterpreting my anxiety as social anxiety when i only get anxious when things deviate from my set routine or plans. I explained how I came to this conclusion by the ratio of tests and how I was informed there was no need to use the box on me. That's when the Psychologist explained that she stated I didn't need the box because it was clear to her that I have Aspergers and am very high functioning. She explained how I'm very well spoken and clearly have very specific classic symptoms (stimming, bitting my fingers when stressed, avoid eye contact, stacking and organizing, lack of social interest, constant obsession with consuming information and repeating it to others, massive sensory issues to light, sounds, touch and so forth) and she said I would have an official diagnosed with paperwork next time we meet. I cannot recall the exact diagnosis she explained me but it was along the lines of high functioning with no mental impairment and a generalized anxiety caused by my autistic characteristics.
This is the issue that is causing me issues and consuming my thoughts like most things often do (repetition of an idea or process). during our meetings I explained how as a child I underwent years speech therapy by a doctor along with my parents assisting at home, how I struggled in school (F's, D's and mostly C's) until college (when I could focus on what I wanted to for a degree), how I was held back a grade in elementary school, and how I had to teach myself to learn things through relation. I even told them how until I went into my field of work I didn't even fully know the entire sequence of the months of the years. I knew them all but 3 years ago I wouldn't be able to tell you the order in which they go. Pretty much, if I don't care to learn, listen, or understand something then I do not. To me this feels like a learning impairment and its something I have struggled with my entire life but I feel as if they don't see that. As I am now they talked about how well spoken I am, how smart I seem, and how I should take an IQ test and some other test to see how I learn. I know I am well spoken because I have spent my entire life teaching myself how to not ramble, repeat, and how to be what others perceive as normal in a public setting due to intense bullying as a child. Does anyone have any advice with my concern? How do I go about getting my point across? Are they correct and I don't have a learning impairment? I have always felt like I do. I'm at my ends with this and I just don't know how to explain it to them I guess.
Any advice or suggestions is welcomed.
btbnnyr
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You could take an IQ test (did they offer this to you as part of diagnosis?) to see if you have an IQ profile characteristic of a specific learning impairment. Do you know what are your worst academic areas, the hardest types of things for you to learn or hardest ways for you to think? That could give some clues and make it easier to tell them for further testing.
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Drain and plane and grain and blain your brain, and then again,
Propane and butane out of the gas main, your blain shall sustain!
They want me to take an IQ test. Next time we meet we are discussing future stuff for moving forward. I'm very reluctant and scared of taking an IQ test. This stems from the fact that during my entire childhood I believed I was stupid because the education system did not work for me. It wasn't until I was in my 20s and earning a degree in a field I wanted that I learned how to relate information and retain it. So I've gathered from what you state that I'm probably going to have to take an IQ test to really learn where and how I struggle? Well, I already know but explaining it isn't always the easiest. This is something I've been dreading for the longest time.
very nice to meet you, you and i are very much alike, i spent my entire life teaching myself complex language, behaviours and communication skills. i too have had a lot of trouble in school, i was always a month behind and couldn't keep up, simply because i wasn't interested in the teacher and she was moving too fast for me. No one helped me because they thought i was lazy. i very much recommend the I.Q test, your month recognition and memory could be a sign of low memory functioning I.Q which luckily i do not have, but i had trouble with it when i was younger, i couldn't tell the difference between a month and a year, and just recently learned the month "may'. i cannot tie my shoes properly or do a step by step activity very well. i also have a very low verbal I.Q and a slow Information Processing speed if my teachers knew that when i was younger, school would've been a lot easier for my life but i'm glad i was able to find ways for myself to adapt.
_________________
Obsessing over Sonic the Hedgehog since 2009
Diagnosed with Aspergers' syndrome in 2012.
Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder Level 1 severity without intellectual disability and without language impairment in 2015.
DA: http://mephilesdark123.deviantart.com
I struggle with tying my shoes too. People including my parents thought I was lazy as well! It was so frustrating being told to just repeat something to memorize it and since I couldn't everyone would think I was lazy. I'm fine with the months now because in my career I had to know them and thus I applied a method for remembering them. I just never cared to learn them before. Much like I don't care to remember important dates or peoples names. I identify and remember people based on personality and body characteristics and very early on learned not to call people by these characteristics lol. So when you take an I.Q. test there are different strength and weaknesses? I noticed you have listed different IQ things such as, "memory functioning IQ" and "Verbal IQ" so I'm basing my assumptions off that. I've always been really afraid of them because much like with school if I can't understand or relate something then I just do not learn it or attempt to learn it. It just causes frustration for me. If there are different areas where you can be strong and weak in then that doesn't sound as bad. I always thought it was just one score and I know if I hit a snag on something while taking it I just will ignore that part and move on. Yeah, I'm afraid of that.
I, too, am in late process of getting an official diagnosis. Not really sure where to go myself. Part of me just wants to quit the whole process after I get the diagnosis (and the ADHD-PI diagnosis, which I'm less sure of but still pretty sure of) and start moving on with my life. I'm thinking about getting an IQ test, honestly, just to help explain some of the academic problems I've had in my life (I don't believe in then numbers, honestly, other than a loose indicator of ability or lack of ability). Granted, I'm largely academically successful (in spite of a lot of problems) and turning it into a career, but it'd be nice to have an explanation.
Yeah, I dealt with that, too.
I relate very strongly to this point, in fact the turn around point in me "passing" and learning to get along in society was WANTING to. If I want to do something people are impressed with my obsessive drive to get it, if I don't they can't believe someone who can do the things I can could also be so non-functional.
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